SKY treating loyal customers with disdain

winston_1

eirman wrote: »

I made a call on behalf of an elderly friend of mine who was not willing to pay anything for a call out.

I cancelled for him (after the usual verification) on the phone .... the sky operative came back to me after having spoken to a supervisor saying that they could not do a €0 charge call out for technical reasons, and that they would do one for the minimum the system would allow (which I think was €5 (or €10 perhaps))

My friend accepted the offer and the call out which involved changing the LNB, went well.

I thing Sky are bonkers to allow themselves to be bullied in this way. The free offers are a once only offer for new customers which I presume your elderly friend was once. Parts wear out and €10 for a new LNB is well below cost not to mention the installers time, petrol, insurance etc. Most people once they have Sky can't do without it and only a small minority will carry out their threat to cancel. No other service industry would accept this bullying.

dubrov

I know UPC offer similar deals and I imagine they are all at it.
They are just trying to sell their product at the highest price they can.

Although they would have made a loss on the installer, they are making a killing on the TV subscription cost with the incremental cost almost zero.

I'd say Sky are more afraid that people will switch over to free-to-air, get used to not paying for TV and never switch back.

ardmacha

Some of these long established people do not make much use of Sky facilities, and might well find the FTA savings of interest, even if the setup is less convenient.

bobbo23

They are somewhat on in years and are not really up for battling it out with SKY. As it stands a technician is coming next week and will be fixing whatever for free.

Onthe3rdDay

winston_1 wrote: »

I thing Sky are bonkers to allow themselves to be bullied in this way. The free offers are a once only offer for new customers which I presume your elderly friend was once. Parts wear out and €10 for a new LNB is well below cost not to mention the installers time, petrol, insurance etc. Most people once they have Sky can't do without it and only a small minority will carry out their threat to cancel. No other service industry would accept this bullying.

I'd assume that SKY put aside money from each subscription for this very purpose. There are plenty of other ways to get TV at this stage. It's not bullying if you say you're going to give up a service for another. There seems to be more and more of this around. In the old days you'd do a deal for a horse or a car. This is no different.

It's actually nuts that small service industries have to give discounts all the time (I know from experience!) but if it's a big company we should accept the terms and conditions that they offer.

Plus Sky don't want the big secret to get out, Most of the stations people watch are free. Older people still think they're going to lose BBC, CH4 and UTV (via other stations) if SKY cut them off. If you're not interested in Sports most people in Ireland are happy with what's available Free to Air on Satellite.

ex_infantry

sky rang me yesterday yet again asking why i cancelled my subscription!! i've told them three times since august at this stage!!!!

radiowaves

ex_infantry wrote: »

sky rang me yesterday yet again asking why i cancelled my subscription!! i've told them three times since august at this stage!!!!

Why did you?!

radiowaves

winston_1 wrote: »

I thing Sky are bonkers to allow themselves to be bullied in this way. The free offers are a once only offer for new customers which I presume your elderly friend was once. Parts wear out and €10 for a new LNB is well below cost not to mention the installers time, petrol, insurance etc. Most people once they have Sky can't do without it and only a small minority will carry out their threat to cancel. No other service industry would accept this bullying.

You've a strange definition of the word bullying :rolleyes:

As an aside, I was in a supermarket earlier and was able to head straight to the toy section and purchase a football.
I wasn't pushed (or bullied if you prefer) into buying a whole load of American cereals; British comedy(-shaped biscuits); or one or two perfumed Soaps before doing so. Although there were some movie DVDs on special offer once I bought the football.

I'm sure the announcement from BT today will have Sky feeling quite a bit more bullied than in the4 the circumstances you're suggesting.

If BT's CL offerings are available in Ireland, even a sizeable increase in their subscription price is nothing compared to the cost of Sky Sports.

Anyway, Sky covering a 100 odd euro callout charge against the loss of even a basic package monthly income from the customer, they'd be crazy not to cover the callout charge, especially as they can probably get them tied down to a new contract? bullied? come on!.

ex_infantry

radiowaves wrote: »

Why did you?!

we moved house two years ago and as part of the rental agreement the landlord who had sky installed already pays for it, but i never actually thought of cancelling my account until i copped i was still paying for it in aug and so cancelled it

radiowaves

ex_infantry wrote: »

we moved house two years ago and as part of the rental agreement the landlord who had sky installed already pays for it, but i never actually thought of cancelling my account until i copped i was still paying for it in aug and so cancelled it

And they haven't accepted that?

They're like a spurned lover really...

ex_infantry

exactly!! i've been paying for a subscription i was'nt even using FFS