As you know, being the tight git I am, I have been on a half price full package for the past 18 months. I phone up every 6 months and threaten to cancel and they throw me another half price full package for a further 6 months.
Paying £23 a month for everything is what its worth to me and tomorrow is the end of the current 6 month half price deal so I need to phone up tomorrow. I could live without Sky so I will let you know if I get another deal or they just cancel me for taking the piss at long last.
If they accept my threat to cancel then so be it, but if they chuck another 6 month deal at me that will take it up to 2 years at half price...

Anyway on a related issue I have Sky + and the rumour going round is that it will be totally free from tomorrow (not that I have been paying for it anyway). Definitely worth a gander if you are thinking about getting it.

http://www.avforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=474201

Normally Sky + is free with 2 premium channels but if the rumour is true, you will no longer have to pay £10 if you have less than 2 premium channels eg Sky Movies 1 and Sky Sports 1

I also begrudge paying for the phone call on an 0845 number so if you ever want to phone Sky heres the freephone number 0800 051 2595
You never get to pay off your mortgage early by being reckless with money.....

same as you kaka - i've never payed full price for sky. i'm currently on a free sky+ box after cancelling the last time i'm actually subscribing to two premium channels so i'll be picking up that phone and demanding another free one if they remove the charges for the box

I have normal Sky (with Sky Sports) on a £15 per month deal that runs out in about 3 months time... I presume you will still need to buy the box to get the plus service. It's just the extra tenner a month I would save here... ?

you'll also need a dish upgrade as sky+ uses two cables as opposed to the usual one. however, you can haggle all the installation as free - just threaten to cancel as kaka points out (yes it will be an extra £10 to use the sky+ services if you don't get two premium channels... for the time being anyway).

I see...

I thinks that's covered because my landlord already has the right dish and connection. I'm running off that dish anyway so would that mean I could haggle a better deal?

He's actually offered to subscribe to multi-room once my deal runs out... with my flat downstairs being the mutli-ed room (I hope binky never reads this!!!)... all I would need then is a plus box because that's what his being supplied with anyway... ?

confused and slightly tipsy so I may read back tomorrow to chck what I've just typed...

Like the mug that I am I pay around £50 a month for my package (Sky + and multi-room). I rang them up recently to ask if they could offer me a better deal but they said there were none available. So for me it's either £50 or no Sky

Do you reckon if I rang them up again and said right, cancel the lot, they would offer me something, or call my bluff? The thing is I don't want to cancel the contract, even at £50, which is why I'm reluctant to push it.

Martin Lewis, the Money Saving Expert, provides tips on TV cost cutting here:
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/cgi-bi ... 3772,58146,

Also check page on haggling with Sky, where an ex-employee writes on how and when:
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/cgi-bi ... 5689,83738,

Great advice. Cheers. I'm paying about £50 odd quid at the moment. Have multi room and two sky plus boxes though. I assume it's to be made free to push us towards the newer HD box and deals which must be due to come down from their current rip off prices.

Gave Sky the usual 1 months notice to cancel today.
Spent the usual 15 minutes (using freephone number above) listening to them trying to persuade me to take a cheaper package, yah de dah.
Anyway they did accept it this time, which they also did a year ago, what happened then was a week before the months notice was up they plagued me with phone calls getting me to take up another 6 months at half price full package deal. I predict the same will happen again.
Sky is due to revert to freeview 14th March 2007 and should I receive the usual phone call asking me to take up another half price deal a week before, I will let you know.
A gamble I dont mind taking!

I'm in exactly the same boat as you Billy.
Feel like I've been properly mugged off for years now.
Cheers for the advice Kaka et al. Interesting thread. Going to give it a whirl tomorrow.
Any ideas on how NOT to get through to the call centre in Delhi again though.

Not been too happy with SKY recently. They messed up their billing about 6 months ago (tried to back charge me £100 for premium channels I've never subscribed to) and so i've been paying over the phone each month. A pain but less dangerous than letting them take what they want via direct debit.

Anyway - I rang up at the weekend to pay with the wifes card, and they never security checked me, just took the payment. Not good when you consider the fact that £250 was taken from her account recently by some unscrupulous toerag.

So i've cancelled them (after paying only 50% for the past 12 months) and thought it was good ridance, but your thread has made me think again. If they offer 6 further months at 50% with free SKY+ then i'll take it. Cheers

I called to cancel something else (not Sky) this week and was put through to cancellations.

The phone rang

"Customer retention" was the phrase used when the phone was answered!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Tells you all you need to know

Just make sure someone is at home in afternoons the week before the package in due to expire, having given a months notice.
I dont want to have to download 24 and lost or have to watch the Premier League games via the live feeds on the web, but if I have to, I will and Sky have to weigh up the balance as no doubt they are fully aware this happens.
With so much of what they already show on TV being available free to watch on the web , they have to weigh this up along with their 11% churn rate and profits.
They can get nothing from me or they lose 6 months x £23 = £138 (full package at half price).
My gut feeling is that if they were prepared to throw 18 months worth of half price deals at me, then they will do the same deal in just over 3 weeks time.
With technology moving so quickly that allows you to use PMPs now to download programmes straight off the web and play them on your TV without loss of quality using a simple lead, Sky know they are fighting a losing battle.
Power to the people!

Binky will be turning in his Murdoch fuelled 7 day 60 hour pittance shift!

I've just had my free Sky+ box fitted. Did as suggested, cancelled it completely and waited for the phonecall from Sky.

They rang on Wednesday night, offered me SKY+ for less than I was paying, and came and fitted it today... so I'm well happy. Thanks again for the tip.

Cancelled my Sky+ 3 weeks ago, turning down £15 or £18 a month, cant remember. It cuts on 6 March. No phone calls yet.