Free Sky + box and installation query

Taco Chips

So I got one of those flyers in the door about the latest offer from Sky. Free Sky + box and standard installation plus a €27 per month channel package for new customers. Great deal, except I've been a customer with sky for 15 years already, paying about €35 per month (which has risen lately, incidentally).

The box we have is the same one that we got at the time so it's quite old and it is only standard, no sky plus or HD. So I rang Sky anyway to inquire about the deal and was told flat out that the offer was only for new customers. The best they could do was offer the sky + box to us for €109 at the same monthly rate we are already paying. The girl on the end of the phone wouldn't put me through to the manager when I asked either. Seems a bit ridiculous to me that after 15 years of loyal custom they can't match their new offer to me. Anyone else experienced something similar to this? Any suggestions on how to get a more reasonable deal?

michaelduignan

I contacted Sky for the exact same reason the other day. Was offered Sky plus HD for an extra 10 euro a month and this would include a new set top box for free. Or else if i wanted to keep the same monthly price the box/installation would cost €199. Absolute madness. And i told them that.

So they said that the best thing to do then was to buy a second hand box on eBay, buy a quad LNB for the dish, install a second cable from the dish to the set top box. Then ring sky to get your card paired with the new set top box.
Or a local installer will do all of above for around 100 euro, or 150 euro if you want a new set top box.

soundsham

Or cancel your sky
Then get your partner or someone to sign up as a new customer
Did that myself

Sky installer came out and handed me a brand new dish and set top box
He was happy he didn't have any work to do as every thing was already there

He dropped an extra cable into my attic to be connected wherever I want to run it in the future

michaelduignan

But if you sign up as a new customer you won't be able to keep loyalty discount from monthly bill. Currently getting entertainment extra and sky sports for 52 a month. it's 70 a month for a new customer.

Taco Chips

soundsham wrote: »

Or cancel your sky
Then get your partner or someone to sign up as a new customer
Did that myself

Sky installer came out and handed me a brand new dish and set top box
He was happy he didn't have any work to do as every thing was already there

He dropped an extra cable into my attic to be connected wherever I want to run it in the future

We considered that but don't they take your account by address rather than name? I.e, it wouldn't work because we're at the same house?

michaelduignan wrote: »

But if you sign up as a new customer you won't be able to keep loyalty discount from monthly bill. Currently getting entertainment extra and sky sports for 52 a month. it's 70 a month for a new customer.

The offer for the basic package we're looking at is on €27 per month.

michaelduignan

I think you are better off cancelling and starting off from scratch under a new name then.

Taco Chips

So the account will only be tied to the name and not to the address?

Thanks for all of ye're help by the way

R.F.

michaelduignan wrote: »

But if you sign up as a new customer you won't be able to keep loyalty discount from monthly bill. Currently getting entertainment extra and sky sports for 52 a month. it's 70 a month for a new customer.

Loyalty discount? I am a long time subscriber and I get no loyalty discount

Cantona's Collars

R.F. wrote: »

Loyalty discount? I am a long time subscriber and I get no loyalty discount

No such thing as loyalty discount,with Sky it's a case of "if you don't ask,you won't get",usually threatening to leave them for fta or UPC get's results.

soundsham

Ya. I rejoined under the missus €70 gone up to €72
Multiroom all channels incl sports in hd bar movies on a rolling monthly contract
€5 for movies if I wanted them
Sky plus on one box
Hd and multiroom are costing €15 or €20 a month of this

There's probably better deals out there and if there is ill rejoin as myself soon
i.e. a returning customer ..... Flyers coming in the door ad nauseum

winston_1

Taco Chips wrote: »

So I got one of those flyers in the door about the latest offer from Sky. Free Sky + box and standard installation plus a €27 per month channel package for new customers. Great deal, except I've been a customer with sky for 15 years already, paying about €35 per month (which has risen lately, incidentally).

The box we have is the same one that we got at the time so it's quite old and it is only standard, no sky plus or HD. So I rang Sky anyway to inquire about the deal and was told flat out that the offer was only for new customers. The best they could do was offer the sky + box to us for €109 at the same monthly rate we are already paying. The girl on the end of the phone wouldn't put me through to the manager when I asked either. Seems a bit ridiculous to me that after 15 years of loyal custom they can't match their new offer to me. Anyone else experienced something similar to this? Any suggestions on how to get a more reasonable deal?

The free box and installation offer is a once only offer for new customers. Frankly you are taking the *iss expecting it again. How often do you expect to be given equipment costing several hundred euros for free?

Bit like expecting your garage to give you a new car because you bought petrol from them for 15 years!

mgbgt1978

It is not a "free" box. It is yours after you have paid your subscription for a minimum period, 1 year in Sky's case.
The OP has owned his sky box for the last 14 years.
He is perfectly entitled to cancel his sub and then start a new contract with his wife as the subscriber.
If Sky are offering certain inducements to new subscribers then anyone who is "out of contract" would be stupid not to consider cancelling and re-signing with a different subscriber .

edit; BTW how do you know what Sky pay for their boxes ???

winston_1

mgbgt1978 wrote: »

edit; BTW how do you know what Sky pay for their boxes ???

I don't. But if you want to buy a non subsidised box it costs a 3 figure sum.

mgbgt1978

winston_1 wrote: »

Bit like expecting your garage to give you a new car because you bought petrol from them for 15 years!

But the OP is not expecting to be given a new box for free. They are willing to pay for it over a 12 month period the same as everybody else.
As I already stated they have paid for the original box, it is their's. If they want to cancel their contract and start a new contract with a different person as the subscriber they are more than entitled to do so.
They would also enjoy the benefit of Sky+ and HD which a 15 year old box does not provide.

As you obviously don't know how much Sky pay for these boxes then any mention of retail cost (without knowing Sky's mark-up) is meaningless.

By your logic then anyone who signed up with sky, paid their sub for 12 months, and then cancelled so they could use their box and dish for Freesat would also be taking the P!ss because they stopped paying money to Sky.

winston_1

mgbgt1978 wrote: »

But the OP is not expecting to be given a new box for free. They are willing to pay for it over a 12 month period the same as everybody else.

Yes he is. Nobody pays for a Sky box over a 12 month period. If that was the case the subs would reduce after 12 months. Payments to Sky are subscriptions for the programmes. The box is given free (once only) by Sky as a loss leader. There is a minimum 12 month contract and if you break that contract one of the penalties is having to pay back Sky the cost of the free box.

I don't know what Sky pay for the box or their markup, but for all intents and purposes the retail price of the box is what it is worth.

mgbgt1978

I think you will find that in a multitude of cases Sky have reduced the sub when the subscriber attempts to cancel.
Just because Sky say that the box is free does not make that true, the box is only your's when you have completed a 12 month contract.....over the 1st 12 months an irish customer will have paid Sky a minimum of €324. This more than covers the wholesale cost of the box.

As regards your garage analogy, if my local garage was offering a new car and all I had to do was buy a certain amount of fuel from them for 12 months, then I would certainly be changing my car every 12 months even if I had to change my name by deed poll.;)

At current prices the OP has paid Sky (without any extras such as sports or movies) a total of €4860....I think they are probably due an upgraded box by now.

Kristopherus

winston_1 wrote: »

Yes he is. Nobody pays for a Sky box over a 12 month period. If that was the case the subs would reduce after 12 months. Payments to Sky are subscriptions for the programmes. The box is given free (once only) by Sky as a loss leader. There is a minimum 12 month contract and if you break that contract one of the penalties is having to pay back Sky the cost of the free box.

I don't know what Sky pay for the box or their markup, but for all intents and purposes the retail price of the box is what it is worth.

Payments to Sky are for their service & that includes the box. You don't know how much the box cost Sky and neither do I. Neither of us know the make-up of Sky's monthly sub, but I'm certain that Sky have more than covered themselves for any eventuality.

winston_1

mgbgt1978 wrote: »

I think you will find that in a multitude of cases Sky have reduced the sub when the subscriber attempts to cancel.
Just because Sky say that the box is free does not make that true, the box is only your's when you have completed a 12 month contract.....over the 1st 12 months an irish customer will have paid Sky a minimum of €324. This more than covers the wholesale cost of the box.

At current prices the OP has paid Sky (without any extras such as sports or movies) a total of €4860....I think they are probably due an upgraded box by now.

Reducing the sub when attempting to cancel is a completely different issue.

The box belongs to the subscriber as soon as he signs the contract, given free by Sky as a loss leader, as I have already explained. If the subscriber breaks that contract one penalty is to have to pay the full price of the box, also explained. The minimum €324 is a subscription for the programmes, not a payment for the box.

No one sells the end user equipment at the wholesale price, even Sky.

The €4860 you quote is once again payment for 15 years of programmes. If Sky want to give an upgraded box it is up to them but the OP has no right to demand one.

fasttalkerchat

Call up and ask to be put through to cancellations. Ask that they beat the offer to new customers or you will cancel. Say that you are pissed off that you have been ripped off for years.

If they don't give you a better offer, go ahead and cancel. Sign up as a new customer.

Taco Chips

winston_1 wrote: »

Reducing the sub when attempting to cancel is a completely different issue.

The box belongs to the subscriber as soon as he signs the contract, given free by Sky as a loss leader, as I have already explained. If the subscriber breaks that contract one penalty is to have to pay the full price of the box, also explained. The minimum €324 is a subscription for the programmes, not a payment for the box.

No one sells the end user equipment at the wholesale price, even Sky.

The €4860 you quote is once again payment for 15 years of programmes. If Sky want to give an upgraded box it is up to them but the OP has no right to demand one.

Don't really know why you are getting so shirty on Sky's behalf, it's not like they need you to stick up for them or that they're going broke because of these 'free' (as you describe them) sky boxes that they are giving out. I was just asking a simple question, as it doesn't appear to be good value or customer service that I've given Sky 15 years of business and they can't do the courtesy of offering me the same deal as their new customers. I will take others advice however and cancel and resign to a new account. Thanks everyone!

fasttalkerchat

winston_1 wrote: »

Reducing the sub when attempting to cancel is a completely different issue.

The box belongs to the subscriber as soon as he signs the contract, given free by Sky as a loss leader, as I have already explained. If the subscriber breaks that contract one penalty is to have to pay the full price of the box, also explained. The minimum €324 is a subscription for the programmes, not a payment for the box.

No one sells the end user equipment at the wholesale price, even Sky.

The €4860 you quote is once again payment for 15 years of programmes. If Sky want to give an upgraded box it is up to them but the OP has no right to demand one.

He is no longer in a contract and given that they had him paying over the going rate for all these years I think it would be in their interests to offer one and not him having to go asking!

MBSnr

fasttalkerchat wrote: »

Call up and ask to be put through to cancellations. Ask that they beat the offer to new customers or you will cancel. Say that you are pissed off that you have been ripped off for years.

If they don't give you a better offer, go ahead and cancel. Sign up as a new customer.

Yeap - Exactly what we did. Told them we were sick of all these flyers in the post offering new customers great deals, that we'd been with them 8 yrs and had no offers (I know we wouldn't anyhow but it's all talk to the Sky rep) so we wanted to cancel. They came back with a deal but we said still wanted to cancel - then they offered another better one without the 12 month tie in. We said great would love to take it but the box is faulty, so still would like to cancel. Managed to get the box replaced with a refurb one for a tenner service/call out charge.

Just be prepared to accept they will call your bluff and cancel you. Esp if you appear to be just trying it on. By all accounts they will ring you before the 30 days are up and get you back. Else just sign up again. I've been told by a few people in the business that customers are dropping Sky subs and extras quite a lot. Even if only a few % of Skys ROI customer base do reduce their monthly payments, it's a big hit for Sky and they want to keep you on paying something rather than nothing.

Of course if you are still in the 12 month period, your options are more limited.....

Flushdraw

Quick question along these lines. A friend of mine got her Sky cancelled but still has her Sky+HD box. Id she gives me her box and i connect it up to my Sky, will i be able to access all her recorded programs?

mgbgt1978

winston_1 wrote: »

Reducing the sub when attempting to cancel is a completely different issue.

The box belongs to the subscriber as soon as he signs the contract, given free by Sky as a loss leader, as I have already explained. If the subscriber breaks that contract one penalty is to have to pay the full price of the box, also explained. The minimum €324 is a subscription for the programmes, not a payment for the box.

No one sells the end user equipment at the wholesale price, even Sky.
The €4860 you quote is once again payment for 15 years of programmes. If Sky want to give an upgraded box it is up to them but the OP has no right to demand one.

That might be your take on it (or even Sky's slightly misleading way of wording it) but the fact is the cost of the box is included in everybody's 1st year's sub.

The Op is not demanding a new box.
They are simply cancelling their subscription and possibly letting a different person in the same household start a new contract.
Not quite the same as demanding anything......

reboot

Flushdraw wrote: »

Quick question along these lines. A friend of mine got her Sky cancelled but still has her Sky+HD box. Id she gives me her box and i connect it up to my Sky, will i be able to access all her recorded programs?

Another quick question along similar lines.
A friend of mine has been given a sky+ box.
What is the minimum he would have to pay Sky to allow him to have the PVR switched on? He is happy to watch BBC /ITV.

muffler

Flushdraw wrote: »

Quick question along these lines. A friend of mine got her Sky cancelled but still has her Sky+HD box. Id she gives me her box and i connect it up to my Sky, will i be able to access all her recorded programs?

I think you can view any stuff recorded from the free to air channels but for the encrypted channels which include RTE etc then no, you wont be able to.

muffler

reboot wrote: »

Another quick question along similar lines.
A friend of mine has been given a sky+ box.
What is the minimum he would have to pay Sky to allow him to have the PVR switched on? He is happy to watch BBC /ITV.

If he wants to use the Sky+ features then he will have to be a subscriber. Min. cost is €27 per month.

If he doesnt want to pay up he will have the free to air channels available for viewing only

mrbrown69

Taco Chips wrote: »

So I got one of those flyers in the door about the latest offer from Sky. Free Sky + box and standard installation plus a €27 per month channel package for new customers. Great deal, except I've been a customer with sky for 15 years already, paying about €35 per month (which has risen lately, incidentally).

The box we have is the same one that we got at the time so it's quite old and it is only standard, no sky plus or HD. So I rang Sky anyway to inquire about the deal and was told flat out that the offer was only for new customers. The best they could do was offer the sky + box to us for €109 at the same monthly rate we are already paying. The girl on the end of the phone wouldn't put me through to the manager when I asked either. Seems a bit ridiculous to me that after 15 years of loyal custom they can't match their new offer to me. Anyone else experienced something similar to this? Any suggestions on how to get a more reasonable deal?

Adverts.ie......usually quite a few knocking about, picked one up for 25 euro works like a charm

reboot

muffler wrote: »

If he wants to use the Sky+ features then he will have to be a subscriber. Min. cost is €27 per month.

If he doesnt want to pay up he will have the free to air channels available for viewing only

Many thanks,that's what I feared.He may be advised as a new customer to get a deal on a new box?

keelanj69

Had a sky rep at the door yesterday asking us to cancel our service and use a different name on new account. Wanted to give us new dish and sky+ for the same price we are paying now.

mgbgt1978

grabs popcorn....awaits Winstons reply.....;)

winston_1

OK. The rep was not following Sky's official policy, he was after his commission on a new subscription sale. I'm sure if Sky found out he would be out of a job.
It is best to be wary of anyone knocking on your door for business whether it be a Sky rep, double glazing salesman, or someone wanting to repair your roof!

muffler

winston_1 wrote: »

OK. The rep was not following Sky's official policy, he was after his commission on a new subscription sale. I'm sure if Sky found out he would be out of a job.
It is best to be wary of anyone knocking on your door for business whether it be a Sky rep, double glazing salesman, or someone wanting to repair your roof!

You'd better get over to this thread and help the man

mgbgt1978

Ah here Muffler, you'll have Winston getting the Sky Sheriff on to this poor guy......