In reply to a post by JonDav:

In reply to a post by Chrysalis:

In reply to a post by JonDav:

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Sky are getting smarter on retentions deals because they have finally clicked that lots will keep their package without any deal being offered.

In the past Sky gave you a deal (if you were out of contract) as soon as you said you wanted to cancel the TV element at least. Now Sky will let you cancel, and undoubtedly quite a few people buckle at this and backtrack on their supposed desire to cancel and decide they didn't actually want to cancel after all.

However if you call Sky's bluff and actually cancel Sky TV at least, Sky are likely to ring you within a few days of you cancelling and offer a deal.

I keep hearing this rumour yet sky have yet to ring me once since I cancelled my sky tv package years ago.

I was referring to the present day, not years ago.

the same rumour existed years ago.

I see nothing wrong in a company rewarding loyalty. Far better in my opinion than introductory deals aimed at poaching customers, whereby loyal customers are paying more than the advertised prices.
Retention deals are offered by the company not asked for by the customer so where does the "cheapskates/misers" quote come from?
If you were offered a cheaper deal would you refuse it?
If there were no hagglers prices would not fall but in all likelihood go up together with the profits of the ISP's.

In reply to a post by Sceptic:

I see nothing wrong in a company rewarding loyalty.

Typically they only reward loyalty for people who moan, though.

In reply to a post by Sceptic:

Retention deals are offered by the company not asked for by the customer

On the contrary. The vast majority, if not all, of retention deals have to be asked (or moaned) for.

So in reality, they are not rewarding loyalty, rather appeasing people who moan every year about prices.

I can't understand the fuss about this. It's simple. I called them up to discuss the price . It seemed too high so I told them I was leaving. They matched the price of the other mob so I accepted the offer. Isn't this known colloquially these days as "price matching"?

We were just discussing the principle of retention deals in general, rather than your case specifically. I'm pretty sure that the companies cannot afford these generous retention deals for all customers, so it works off the principle of milking loyal "non haggling" customers to subsidise those customers that do haggle.

Out of interest, what was the other company offering £16.50 line rental and free unlimited broadband for a year you price matched with?

Edit: I'm guessing TalkTalk, although their line rental is £16.70. I only got 6 months half price BB from them when I signed up recently, so their introductory deals have got a bit better.

Edited by Oliver341 (Sat 27-Dec-14 23:41:20)

n get that with E/W calls for £15 till the end of the year. Cheaper than line rental with many others. Though only the big boys mentioned here, so must be like the comparison sites that just push suppliers that pay a referral fee.
http://www.fuelbroadband.co.uk/unlimited-broadband?s...

In reply to a post by professor973:

Though only the big boys mentioned here, so must be like the comparison sites that just push suppliers that pay a referral fee.
http://www.fuelbroadband.co.uk/unlimited-broadband?s...

Given that your link has affiliate code in it, maybe you are looking for referral fees too?

In reply to a post by Oliver341:

In reply to a post by professor973:

Though only the big boys mentioned here, so must be like the comparison sites that just push suppliers that pay a referral fee.
http://www.fuelbroadband.co.uk/unlimited-broadband?s...

Given that your link has affiliate code in it, maybe you are looking for referral fees too?

Well I haven't seen a link, though that is just the sort of snotty drivel I would expect for a reply here. The link is direct to their site, with NO referral links that I can see.

Edited by professor973 (Sun 28-Dec-14 02:00:50)

In reply to a post by Oliver341:

Out of interest, what was the other company offering £16.50 line rental and free unlimited broadband for a year you price matched with?

There isn't one as far as I know (and presumably they knew ) but it gave then an excuse to offer me this price......and who cares about non haggling customers? Do you always accept the first price you see for everything you buy or like most people look at the market? Presumably for Sky any customer is better than no customer.

I've two accounts with phone and adsl only - no tv. Both lines were transferred but no phone retention deal, just letters saying 'sorry to see you go'

Think there is not that much money in phone and adsl, just the TV market. At the time Sky were 4th cheapest out of 6 companies I looked at. Fuel was the cheapest (without cashback), but they did not answer my questions on their own bb forum which to me implies lots of bad stuff.