Sky Subscription Question Please.....

[merton69]

Hello AB'ers.

I might have to cancel my long standing subscription with Sky TV.

If I do can I still use my Sky+ box to watch and record the remaining freeview channels on it please?

[-Talbot-]

The freeview ones yes but anything you have recorded that needed a subscription you will not be able to view.

[Togo]

I think you will lose the record facility mert. It comes with the basic sky subscription.

[Togo]

Snap Talbot.

[ToraToraTora]

you can view freeview but all record/sky+ facilities won't work.

[CrapAtCryptics]

yes but there arent that many - a cheap freeview box is possibly a better alternative - maybe you can make a few quid towards it by Ebaying your Sky box.

[ToraToraTora]

most TVs have freeview anyway just use that.

[Prudie]

I know nothing about this but wouldn't they want their box back?

[CrapAtCryptics]

no I`ve sold 2 on when i`ve upgraded - i bought my last box

[Prudie]

Thanks, that surprises me a bit.

[ToraToraTora]

you own the box after a year.

[Islay]

Prudie, you own the box and after a year Sky will not even maintain it.

[Hopkirk]

If you try to cancel they will pass you to the department for stopping people leaving. (I'm not sure what they actually call it, but TalkTalk call theirs the Loyalty department)

They will start offering all sorts of discounts to stay.

It makes you wonder if you are a sucker if you pay full price.

[EDDIE51]

No ,you buy a sky box so it is yours to keep. Virgin media only rent you the boxes so if you stop the subscription they come and collect the box.

[ToraToraTora]

when they start trying to charge me full price I just call them up and say virgin are offering half price for a year so I'm on half price perpetually.

[Hypognosis]

@merton69

I'd been meaning to cancel, ever since my sub reached ~£40/month (average channels package, no special-request channels) but I had a backlog of dozens of hours of unwatched progs and Sky warned me I'd lose access to these. Last year, my subscription was inexplicably increased by 50% and that was the last straw.

*Write* to their HQ, quoting your subscriber number, requesting cancellation and specifying an end date*. Don't bother with any backstory, beyond "I can no longer afford your product", maybe thank them for 10+ years of, otherwise satisfactory, service (to stress that you were a loyal customer).

If you phone them, expect to rack up an hour or more on your phone bill (unless you can persuade them to do a ringback).

* actual end date depends on your direct-debit day plus 1 month, since you pay in advance.

Within days of my end date, they were sending me offers of 12 months at 25% of my previous rate.

I was incensed to think that the increase they'd slapped me with was just subsidising the discount-rate offers for new (or canny) customers.

[merton69]

Thank you for all your replies. Most valuable.

I may just follow up Hypognosis's reply as that sounds fitting for me as I have been a most loyal customer.

Thanks!