Poor customer service

[AndrewB19701]

I have been a loyal customer with Sky for 24 years. Yesterday i was completely speechless with an answer given by the Sky customer team.

Sky Glass and stream arrived on Saturday with all channels for £114 per month rising to £144 in three months. (31 month rolling) Two days after this, Sky have a deal for £109 fixed for 18 months for new customers. I have a 31 day cooling off period.

When I have asked for Sky to move me to this, i was told the best they could do is £140 per month. If I wanted the deal, I could send my Sky  Glass back...reorder it and receive a new Sky Glass! Unbelievable 

Can anyone help a 24 year loyal customer 

[GD1]

@AndrewB19701  You signed up to the deal in force at the time of ordering, Sky are under no obligation to now move you to a cheaper deal.  

Thererfore you have 2 options, cancel in the cool off and hope there is a new deal or stay on the current deal.

Your tenure with Sky is irrelevant as you chose the deal at the time.

[Padam_Padam]

@AndrewB19701 

Sky's pricing has always been somewhat fluid. Sky Q in particular is notorious for customers paying wildly different amounts for exactly the same service. 

Sky Glass and Stream are similar but pricing doesn't vary quite so wildly. As @GD1 states - you signed up during a particular promotion period. Such promotions change all the time and some are better than others. 

Brand loyalty doesn't really count for much these days. The Sky 'VIP' status is really only a marketing tool and offers little in the way of overall benefit to the customer, beyond a few extra competition entries, or a month or two free ad-skipping. Sky/Comcast are all about attracting new customers at the moment - hence the best deals are reserved for them. 

[Exiled-in-HH]

You may not have received a new customer deal when you joined Sky but almost all new customers receive a new customer deal... there is no obligation on Sky to give current customers new customer deals🤔

You can cancel Sky and try to negotiate a retention deal if you want Sky at a discount. If you fail to get a reasonable discount, you can complete the cancellation and subscribe to NOWTV for considerably lower cost for Sky's subscription channels. After a couple of years you become eligible for new customer deals again😉

[tweetSP0RT]

From what I can see there isn't much on offer for existing Glass/Stream customers. Granted I'm a 'recent' customer but my 18 months deal is about to end and I've cancelled (currently serving out my notice) my price was increasing by ~35% once the deal ended and even after haggling it was still a ~27% uplift.  I know a few relatives and friends who got better deals in recent months but they had Sky Q and/or broadband and as mentioned Sky Q prices seem to be much more 'negotiable'.

Like @Exiled-in-HH says I'm going back to Now TV and using my BT/EE TV box for TNT and the Freeview channels over IP.  I'll stick the two pucks I own in the loft (the third is going back to Sky) and see if there's any deals in the future.. I simply can't justify the huge additional cost just to have Sky Sports in UHD.  

[Adam+Kade]

I assume that sky have customers that are leaving joining them. My assumption is that if more are leaving then sky will give deeper offers to persuade them to stay. The opposite is also true, perhaps.. if more stay it must be because more poeple are staying. Why? It is surely a balancing act. "Value" is purely subjective. Each customer values a service to a different level. A new customer probuably values sky very little because they have never had the sky experience. Others value it more, thus staying for longer periods, like 25 years. Naturally it is a better strategy to give new customers a better deal because they have no bases to place their value system on. I am speaking broadly because probuably this is the buisness model for many companies. As for price, well the price always fixed, but the offer for tieing in for eighteen months is flexable, according to the business needs. Also, the loyalty discount is for staying with a business in the future, by entering into a contract. If a customer leaves a service provider then how loyal are they? Also, in order to keep growing a business/service you have to develop an always expanding service. All this is conjecture but I felt it was time for a balanced view.

[tweetSP0RT]

Of course they have to balance things but one of the big things for Sky and any pay TV provider is average revenue per user. (ARPU).  Now in my case when it (once my initial deal with Now ends) will end up down about 30% on what it was on my deal. I would have stayed with Sky Stream if my contract had only gone up say 10-15% which would be an even bigger 'delta' in terms of ARPU.

Now sure if they are getting more customers to balance people like me out fine but I'd be interested to see the churn figures of Stream vs Q.

[Padam_Padam]

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@tweetSP0RT wrote:

I'd be interested to see the churn figures of Stream vs Q.

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That kind of info will be reserved for the boardroom... but would be fascinating to know. 

[TimmyBGood]

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@Padam_Padam wrote:

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@tweetSP0RT wrote:

I'd be interested to see the churn figures of Stream vs Q.

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That kind of info will be reserved for the boardroom... but would be fascinating to know. 

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And these days that boardroom is in Philadelphia, with US reporting regulation applying.

"Comcast no longer reports individual numbers for the Sky territories of UK & Ireland, Germany & Austria, and Italy. It declared approximately 23 million Sky customers as of December 31, 2022 and included approximately 5 million customer relationships outside of its Connectivity & Platforms markets."

https://www.broadbandtvnews.com/2023/07/27/comcasts-sky-continuing-to-lose-subscribers/ 

[Adam+Kade]

the only thing that I care about is value for money. 31 pound base package. Gives all the sky channels and free sat channels. Free discovery plus. Free HD, 4.50 off netflix, permanently. Playlist, profiles. No other provider does the content all in one place. 31 pound is fine. Discovery plus is 6.99 and I love that streaming serivice. I haven't got cinema or sports so cannot vouch for that.

[tweetSP0RT]

Of course value all depends what you watch.

I rarely watch anything other than the sport channels and have no interest in 99% of what's Netflix. I came to Sky to get the sports channels in UHD in multiple rooms but even though I can afford it I can't justify paying £85 a month (£80 after haggling) for that when I can get them in full HD for £32 via Now (£41 when the 6 month deal ends). 

I generally liked the Glass interface/experience and the picture quality (both HD and UHD) was excellent and hope they'll be some deals me back down the line. I'm prepared to pay a bit more for that experience but not double.

[Padam_Padam]

Just as an FYI on this subject - I quit Sky Stream about 6 months ago but today received an email offering me a deal to return: Entertainment and Netflix (standard with ads) for 12 months at £15.50pm on a 31 day rolling contract, effectively 50% off for a year.  

To me that's a much more realistic price for the service IMHO, but it still doesn't tempt me back. There is so little Sky-only content that I'm interested in or don't already now get from other services, that it's pointless even considering it, especially when I've had Entertainment via NOW in HD with Boost for £4.99pm for 6 months, and I already get Netflix Premium for £10pm via my EE SIM.  

But it's potentially worth knowing for those considering leaving Sky in the hope they'll get an offer to return... six months seems to be when they'll try and tempt you back. 

[tweetSP0RT]

That's sort of what I'm hoping 6 months takes me to the end of my Now deal and to Black Friday (which is when I took out Sky Stream originally in 2022).  I'll wait and see!