Dear Sky,
We’ve been in a relationship now for 10 years. I give you money, you give me TV.
But lately, I’ve just not felt as satisfied as I once did. Maybe we got too comfortable with one another?
I used to feel like we spent such a lot of time together. But now there are new relationships, and some of them are getting quite serious. I’ve been seeing Netflix for a while now, and I’ve developed some quite strong feelings for Apple TV. Basically, we’ve drifted apart and I feel like I want to see other people.
Last week I called you to see what we could work out. I wanted us to reconnect. I explained that it felt like I was giving you so much – £43 a month to be exact – and not really getting enough in return. I needed more.
Sadly, though, you didn’t feel able to take our relationship to the next level. You said we could see each other less… if we stopped watching movies together. That would save me £10 a month, you said. It felt like such an empty gesture.
Then you said that if I wanted the same sort of quality time as I get with the other TV providers I’ve been seeing, I’d have to pay you £200 for an HD box. You told me how much you wanted us to be together, how much you appreciate my loyalty and commitment, how the £200 was a small price to pay for all the documentaries we’d be able to enjoy together. I hate documentaries.
But here’s the thing. I’m sort of sick of being taken for granted. You’ve been happy to take and take from me, every month, for years on end, while you offer people you just met a better package than you do me, who’s given you around five thousand pounds over the last decade.
Actually, if we’d just met, then you’d offer me my current package for £15 a month less than I’m spending now. Not only that, but you’d give me a month’s service free and a free HD viewing box. You’d even give me a free Samsung Galaxy Tab. As a new customer, I’d save £380 over 12 months on what you expect me to pay, as your much *cough* “valued” loyal customer.
But it’s not just you, Sky. It’s my car insurance company, which this month offered me a renewal price that was around £350 more than a dozen other providers. And when I called the company to cancel the policy, I was immediately offered a “loyalty bonus” worth around £80 – still not enough to make it worth my while not to cancel the policy, but my question was – why is the loyalty bonus ONLY available to me when I complain? Why don’t you value me simply because I give you money every month and ask so little in return?
So I’m drawing a line. I’m cancelling my TV service and sticking with companies that value my time and money.
Oh and now I think about it? It’s not me. It’s you.
Love Sally
x
Pic: Shutterstock
Haha I love it! We went through the same thing with our house insurance.
Depressing, isn’t it?
Only what you’d expect from SKY. When you called back did you ask for ‘Retentions’. this is a special team given more powers than the usual sycophants in the call centre. They can ‘usually’do you a better deal.
LIke Lindy above says about her Home Insurance – I did the same and pressed the option ‘ are you thinking of leaving us’ and they cut my HI in half for the same cover!
I wish my insurance was cut in half, the discount I was offered was pathetic!
I think that it stinks that companies don’t reward people for loyalty and will do anything to grab new customers.
Especially because the cost of acquiring new customers is so much higher than the cost of retaining an existing customer, it just makes no sense!
I always try to get money off things like insurance. I don’t have a TV so there’s no money spent there. I just didn’t even see the point of having a licence fee as there is nothing that I want to watch. If I got an internet connection at home maybe I’d consider Netflix or something, but I’m only usually at home one evening per week, so I don’t think that’s worth it either.
Surely if you go back to them in the future, you’d be a new customer so they’d offer you the HD thing for free anyway?
Nice logic, I like it!
Had the same with the AA – no-one values loyalty nowadays.
That’s interesting, I hadn’t thought about the AA doing the same.
We recently cancelled Sky too, it just wasn’t worth the massive amounts we were paying every month. But ooh, how I hate the whole treating new customers better than loyal, existing ones. Grrrrr!
It’s just like they think you’re stupid, isn’t it? Ha ha, look at those suckers, spending all that money.
Grrr indeed.
I have had one or two run ins with Sky for similar reasons. Couldn’t believe it when after ten years of the same box they wanted me to pay for a HD one, surely you should get on every ten years at least! However I’ve stuck with them because I’m basically not very good at goodbyes, glad to hear you are, well done.
Same for me – we’d had our regular box at least seven years and they wanted £200 for a new one. Good news though – after this, I did get a free HD box, so perhaps sometimes you just need to ask again, or complain!
Well said. I couldn’t agree more. It seems the only way to manage your services is to change providers every year and that’s a full time job in itself.
It’s such a time suck, though, isn’t it?
We left in May and have lost count of the letters emails and phone calls begging us to come back (offering a new hd box!)
Really? they must miss you! Hope they’re offering you something good!
Haha I was just thinking about getting Sky, maybe I won’t now! I do have my internet with them and when I had a problem they told me I needed to buy a new router for £80. I phoned up and threatened to leave and they gave it to me for free and halved my bill so I agreed to stay. Usually the cancellations team do anything to keep you!
Good for you!