Former BE account trapped with surcharge, Sky won't remove

Has anyone any ideas how to handle this ?

My parents still have Sky ADSL migrated from the old BE Broadband, and take their phone service from BT. This means that Sky charge a surcharge for broadband as they don't like people not using their phone system.

My parents have seen the great prices offered from Sky for broadband if you take the phone from Sky, and are, at long long last, ready to deal with the loss of having 'British Telecom' no longer do their telephone.

...but Sky told me in chat today, if they migrate their phone to Sky, the broadband price will not and can not change. I complained vigorously, and asked them why they're changing more than the standard website price, never mind any current promotion, but they wouldn't budge. I reminded the Sky advisor about the BE Broadband history in case they'd not been trained on it, but they really wouldn't drop the broadband price a penny, which means it's costing more than fibre, just for ADSL !

Suggestions welcome. I could just switch everything to someone else but I'd persuaded my parents to move from BT to Sky and they've got their mind round to it now. Also they previously had problems with interference on ADSL from their burglar alarm, and the current Sky router seems OK with that, so I'd prefer not to change it.

If still on a legacy Be package, perhaps agreeing to a 12 month contract for broadband and phone and the current Sky pricing may kick in.

Signing up for Sky Talk on its own may not have triggered the 'bundle' options.

Thanks, yes, the Sky automated systems can't handle this. That's why I got in touch with them directly and they personally told me that the broadband price would remain at its current level if my parents signed up to Sky Talk. They quoted over £40 / month for unlimited ADSL + Sky Talk with daytime UK calls bundle, and I'm pretty sure that if that deal was accepted, that's what they would expect to be paid for the next year. There would be less leverage to renegotiate that there is now.

I think my parents will end up staying on the current BT+Sky arrangement as it's familiar to them, which is a big concern for pensioners, which is exactly what Sky are anticipating. I'll try to move them to BT instead and hope the BT router is OK on their line.

The charge is presumably listed as "Charge for not having Sky Talk" which would clearly be a complete contradiction if they charged it after the line was moved to Sky Talk.

Sounds like a misinformed sales agent.

You should be able to contact Sky and ask to be put onto a new offer that includes the phone, at this point sky should then request migration of the phone to there network.

However if they don't budge then it may be worth asking BT what they could offer.

Also the costs for Sky's products is as follows...

Broadband Unlimited (ADSL) £7.50 (Soon increasing to £10)
Sky Talk Weekends + Line Rental £16.40
Non Sky Talk Subscriber Surcharge £5.00

Edited by mlmclaren (Mon 07-Sep-15 14:49:33)

I moved from SKY to TalkTalk after the initial 12 months welcome offer finished and to be Honest the service is faultless I Find support via the forum better than sky's live chat or phone support and is much cheaper.
so a move to a different supplier may be the best option.

I don't know about it being cheaper than Sky, TalkTalk isn't cheap anymore and when you consider Sky is giving away broadband to those paying them line rental theres a significant gap.

Also TalkTalks "basic" router is pants!

Anyway I think the main point of this topic is to get Sky to understand why the prices are different and what the customer wants to do.

migrate from sky to sky?

sign up as a new customer and preserve old number.

Give up on Sky. They are pulling your tail

Get this online offer from BT

http://www.thinkbroadband.com/isp/bt/package/1201.html