g-t wrote on Aug 18^th, 2010 at 2:24pm:


Great move.  Especially when you will find a lot of smaller channels on your Sky box are still available box without a subscription.  Main way they have possibly got you though is if you use Sky+ or Sky HD as that won't go on recording without paying a £10 per month recording charge.  This charge is of course waived if you take any channel package from them.

Quote:


I don't wish to sound rude but this sounds a bit like an alcoholic or junkie who has firmly reserved to go Cold Turkey but then has their mind changed when their supplier offers them a 25% short term discount.

Sky are obviously relying on the fact that when you get to the end of this 12 months contract you will be busy with other things and that it will be at least another 2 or 3 years before you review whether you aren't paying them too much money.

I doubt they will give you the 25% off for any further channel package additions now that they have already managed to hook you back in for 12 months.  Note that at the full price you could have left on one months notice at any time..............

Dave wrote on Aug 27^th, 2010 at 11:49am:


Yes this was a new dodge they came up with when they came out with Sky+ to stop people from unsubscribing.  I'm sure they would have found a way to send a kill signal to an original basic non recording Sky box to stop it working if you unsubscribed or alternatively collected your equipment if you unsubscribed had the regulatory regime imposed on them not prevented them from doing so.

However I have here a PVR device called a Tivo that works quite happily with my standard Sky box recording programs off all its FTA channel with advanced features like Season Passes and Wishlists.  Also there is of course www.freesat.co.uk/index.php?page=products.Products&type_id=3 for those who want to watch and record tv transmitted in HD by satellite without paying a subscription whilst the HD Freeview service has also now been launched in the London Crystal Palace transmitter area and will be available nationwide by 2012.  See www.freeview.co.uk/HD

g-t wrote on Aug 27^th, 2010 at 3:29pm:


I agree that if you use the Sky+ service and also watch a fair bit of Premier League football, rugby or test cricket then Sky do somewhat have you have over a barrel, especially if you don't live in a Virgin cable area.  The Sky+ recording charge issue can be resolved by switching to a Freesat HD PVR or a Freeview PVR box but then you have make do without Sky Sports, Sky One, Eurosport 1+2 and National Geographic if you watch any of those.  Most of the other multi channel stations on Sky just show repeats of BBC, ITV, C4 and Five stuff so I don't really see the point of those.  So far as movies are concerned there are lots of online alternatives to the Sky Movie channels and also DVDs and Blu-Ray discs.

However Sky is convenient and the other options are generally more technically fiddly which is of course how they manage to retain so many customers....

kungpo wrote on Sep 7^th, 2010 at 9:00pm:


Surely half price for 6 months gives you the same total pounds value discount as 25% off for 12months while you only have to pay Sky half the amount of money you would pay them in 12 months.

Unless I am missing something two lots of 6 months at half price would surely therefore also be a 50% discount.  Even if Sky won't give you another 6 months at half price in 6 months time you are still left with the option to cancel with them instead which you don't have with the 12 months at 25% discount deal.

There is surely something rather wrong somewhere in their commercial logic here...............................

Just used 0800 0512597 - didn't mess around chose the option to leave was answered within a matter of minutes - I began by apologising for probably being in the wrong department but the guy was really helpful and when I explained that I couldn't afford a new box or an engineer they offerred to replace it for free... AND I didn't have to pay for an expensive phone call either!

0800 051 2597 worked today, many thanks

Just called 08000466436 (12:30 15/10/10) and was answered instantly (less than 10 seconds) by an operator who politely and swiftly took off my SkySports package, without even attempting to talk me out of it.