Ret. wrote:
Brian wrote:
Derek G. wrote:
On Mon, 9 May 2011 10:53:44 +0100, "dennis@home"
wrote:


Its a marketing ploy..

It may very well be but AFAIAC it's costing them sales.

They want you to use all their services so they can make more cash.
The phone service is actually a cheap thing to supply and people
pay quite a bit to use it so profits are high.

I don't know how you decided VM was cheaper than sky though, it
isn't for me.


I pay £71 to Sky for the full bag of mashings inc. 1 HD box plus 1
sky+ box. + £9.00 /month for maintenance of the kit (free with
Virgin)

What's this £9/month for maintenance? I've never heard of that and
we've been with Sky for over 10 years (IIRC). If anything goes wrong
badly enough to need an engineer we just call Sky who, for a one-off
charge of £65, do whatever is necessary to get it working again,
whether that be a new dish, new cabling, new (refurb) box or
whatever.

You've not been pestered with these sales calls (often from firms
purporting to be connected to Sky - but not actually) offering
insurance against your Sky box failing? I always send them packing.
Like most such warranties they are hopelessly uneconomical unless
your equipment is failing several times a year.

Yes, I have, but (a) I've never taken them up on it as Sky give the service
I mentioned above and (b) the way I read it it sounded as though he pays
£9/month to Sky, not a third party.

Last time my Thomson HD box failed, I paid the £65 and was provided
with a brand-new Amstrad box and also had the LNB replaced the dish
realigned. I understand that if you threaten to leave Sky they will
come and sort things out foc rather than risk losing a customer.

--
Kev