Big Den

WTF

Just contacted SKY TV as I wanted to reduce my subscription. I currently have Skyworld (all channels) but as we seldom watch the Sky specifc sports or movies I wanted to reduce down to what they call the entertainment pack.

So get this:

Skyworld is £42.50 per month
Entertainment pack (6 mixes which is another story) £21 per month

Then the guy says but you will then need to pay £10 per month to be able to use SKY+ as it is only free if you subscribe to at least one premium pack (sports or movies) - this is expalined in your SKY+ T&C's sir.

So, I've left my subscription as is for now but I'm seriously thinking of telling them to shove the whole thing up their ar$e and just get a freeview receiver with a Hard Drive recorder - what will I lose Sky News & Sky 1,2 & 3? Big Deal.

Dodgy money grabbing *****

Grumpy Den

Edited to say: there are no cable operators in my area so not an option

TopBanana

Not sneaky I don't think. They've been giving you Sky+ for free up until now so count yourself lucky!

rik1471

They're rewarding customers who sign up to the more expensive packages with free sky+ subscription. For the rest it's £10.

I don't see what your problem is.

Big Den

Quite simple:

I paid for the sky+ box. When you buy a PC you don't pay HP, IBM or DELL for saving things on your Hard Drive do you?

Same if you by a DVD with a hard drive recorder you don't pay Philips, Amstrad or whoever for recording onto the Hard Drive do you?

FFS

rik1471

I believe the charge is mainly to subsidise the Ad companies. I know that I've never watched an advert since having Sky+ installed. If I do they're at 30x the speed

Plus, you can charge what you want when you have a monopoly.

ewanrw

On Freeview you still get Sky News, Sky Sports News and Sky 3

ozzy

Tell them it's too expensive for now and you want to cancel your subscription. Then wait to see what they offer you to stay.

Sky NEED subscribers. People need to vote with their feet otherwise they can do what they want.

rik1471

That is true. Tell them you're moving to Telewest's TVDrive, it's their version of Sky+ (amongst other features). Ask to speak to Customer Care, not Customer Service, or even better cancellations. I pretty much guarantee you'll receive something to try an entice you.

Big Den

LOL

Just seen the sponsored links at the bottom of this thread - they are all for SKY - wtf

The Knives are out

Whats sneaky about putting it in the T&C's

You mean you didn't read them BEFORE SIGNING

I hate Sky with a vengence but not their fault if you don't read what your signing

and before I get flammed YES I READ EVERYTHING BEFORE I SIGN

oobster

Snap - never seen an Ad since the Sky+ was installed!

I was also WELL aware of the requirement to pay £10 if you didnt have one of their premium packages. Just coz you missed it, dont blame sky!!

kingofturds

iTrader: (1)

Fecking sky Canceled mine earlier this month after nearly 8 years, 3 boxes in 9 months and they still hadn't sorted the problem. A trained monkey could do a better job than some of their incompetent "engineers" that come to sort the problem out

Big Den

Oobster

Who's blaming SKY? I wonder how many people read that part in the T&C's? I to always read T&C's with a vengeance (much to the annoyance of my wife on many an occasion as I double check everything before commiting t oanything)

However, I certainly don't recall seeing this but it was ~18 months ago that I changed to SKY+.

I think some of you guys are missing my point - they would still be getting £21 per month from me to watch a lot of channels that are available via Freeview plus I pay an additional £10 for multiroom.

kingofturds

iTrader: (1)

Buy a tivo had mine nearly 4 years now and still going strong

Stueyb

Well according to an a website written by a prominent tv tech person was saying that Sky is in serious decline because people are realising its just 100 odd channels of crap and collapsing under the weight of their own debt. People are just realising how BAD Sky are. Figures point to thousands a month leaving and they are not getting the same numbers back each month so they are experiencing negative churn.

You can get more than enough telly from Freeview, and the freeview PVRs are good, not as good as Sky+ but still do a great job and no recurring £10 a month. I personally ditched an NTL contract of £60+ a month and can honestly say I see no difference in the programming. Freeview rocks, just get a decent box and aerial ( you can get good boxes for £40 or PVR ones for £100) and thats the only cost you have to pay for a good tv experience with Freeview

oobster

Erm... the title of your thread 'Sneaky Sky' led me to believe that you were blaming sky.
I didnt need to read the £10 subsctription in my T&C's - the lady in the call centre explained it to me when i ordered it.

I realise you do have a point about the 'cut-off' point for paying the tenner, but at the end of the day Sky are a business, not a charity! AND they are a business that have a fair chunk of their audience over a barrel, espceially in non-cable areas.
Still, with all things in life, if you dont like it - hop it! Afraid subsribers like me just have to like it until i get offered an alternative.

P.S. I would also agree with 'kingofturds' (interesting user name by the way) about the engineers - not every one is a donkey but Sky seems to have a little more than their fair share!

Big Den

Thank Stueyb

Just the type of info I was hoping for

does anyone know if there are still restrictions in reception of freeview in certain areas?

Den

Jonathan Davies

I'm thinking of canning my Sky subscription too... the improvement in freeview makes me wonder if Sky is really worth it.

hectic

two points.... first point .. Exactly .. they 'choose to reward' the *top-tier* customers by giving the 'service' free.. WHY should others not pay for it?



second point

SOME OF US TRY.... *we* have our hands tied too , to a degree because of *internal politics* with what we can and cant do.. any engineer with a brain will bend the rules as far as they can go, to enable a 'fix' ..their *bonus* depends on 'no call backs ' ie,. no more service calls to that particular customer/box/dish etc within a set period of time...

hectic

yes, still lots of associated problems with 'freeview' in certain area's unforetunately

dtriggs

The reason I have sky is I want the sports channels. If all you want is the free stuff Sky isnt for you. I personally love sky + so am willing to pay. But then with £34 per month for all sports and sky+ free I am happy. Having said that the Sky box broke down yday so engineer coming out tomorrow...so we'll see how happy I am after he comes.

hectic

just as a matter of interest, .. what problem you having with it?

wez_sti

You dont no, but HP, IBM or DELL dont provide what your saving onto the harddrive either do they??

They're providing a service which costs them money and also reduces their attractiveness to potential advertisers, why on earth would they not charge for it???

scoobydooooo

i don't see how this was sneaky !! i know that i get sky+ free because of my subsription , if you did not then tough !! try taking notice when offered these deals !!

wez_sti

Dont beat around the bush mate, say what you feel!

Big Den

SKY are only responsible for actually providing a small minority of the total channels available - BBC, ITV, CH4 (incl. E4 & E4+1), Europsort, UKgold, etc are not provided by SKY.

They got paid for the initial equipment & would still get £21 per month for the Entertainment pack - cheez this is hard work!!!!

Try paying attention to what you are reading m8 - I do have a SKY+ subscription (not sure if a SUBSRIPTION is different?) - the thread is about being expected to pay £10 to be able to record programs on SKY+ if I stop Sky movies & sports.

FFS

Apparition

As they all said. We take the sports channels so we avoid the £10 fee. Knew that was the score from day 1.
Its pretty clear.
Yve

hectic

they(sky) DO 'provide' the channels in as much as the *uplink* facility's.. the streaming of said channels.. the equipment to Decode the signal BACK from a digital one to an analogue one which your tv can understand ( via the dish and sky box).. therefore they ARE in a sense 'providers'...how much do you think it would cost to launch, maintain a satellite these days.. plus all the uplink facilities..overheads, wages etc etc ad infinitum.... ffs as the old addage goes, if ya DONT like , you KNOW where the OFF button is.......

Dracoro

So, how much is your current SKY+ subscription? On top of your £42 SKY subscription yes?

As I understand it, SKY+ costs extra per month over a normal SKY subscription. However, if you take out the package that includes the whole caboodle then they waive the SKY+ charge? If you don't take out the whole caboodle then they don't waive the SKY+ charge? Either way, possibly rotton BUT I don't think they've done anything sneaky or underhand, it seems clear that you've gotta go for the big package to get the SKY+ sub free.

logiclee

You don't need the full package but need to subscribe to two or more premuim channels to get free Sky+

I have Sky+, the even numbered Movie channels and two Sky Sports channels for £34 a month. If I dropped the Movies and Sports channels but wanted Sky+ I would still be paying £31

Cheers
Lee