Sky Or Virgin Media??

[Mumof21985]

Firsty sorry if this is in the wrong place, I am just exploring at the moment and keep finding more things on here

 

Currently we are with Virgin Media.

 

*Phone

*Net

*XL tv (sports, kids, movies)

 

We are paying £86!!! I am 99% sure it keeps going up as we were told £62 when agreeing.

 

Anyway, is Sky much cheaper?

 

We have to have kids and sports. Also the whole package.

 

Thanks in advance

[flyingdoc]

I have the full package for sky - sky + multiroom also (2 rooms) and I pay less than £60 - however I do not have phone or bb with them

[freakyleaky]

You can get

Sky talk (Unlimited)

Sky Broadband Max. 16MB unlimmited usage

Sky plus HD box

Sky sports 1

Kids channels

All for £53.25 per month.

 

 

You can create your own package and have as little or as much as you want and check out the prices here Sky Packages - Digital TV, Broadband and Phone - Buy Now

[callumsgran]

I think sky is £42 for all the channels you mention

What package are you on for phone and net?

How long have you been with Virgin?

Have you asked for a breakdown of the costs?

 

 

 

 

 

P.S given the choice i'd stay with Virgin its far more reliable than sky

[Mumof21985]

phone is talk evenings and weekend. broadband is £17 (no idea what MB that is though)

 

I like the idea of the HD box with sky....

 

Another thing keeping us with virgin is setanta for free and virgin on demand. Do sky do any kind of service where you can watch music videos,films,programmes as and when you want to?

 

Thanks for the replies

[flyingdoc]

Sky do have a kind of on demand service called ANYTIME.

 

Certain programs are available via it.

[IdaInFife]

sky have sky anytime where there is radom programmes saved to view. they do not have VOD at the moment.

 

with sky phoneline and evenings and weekends is £10

bb max is now £15 (£10 til jan 2010 if u have skytalk)

full package is £46

 

= £66

 

if you take hd then £9.75 for hd channels

 

Ida x

[scuzziemoo]

I have virgin media and I get:

 

Talk Unlimited (to landlines, also love the saynoto0870.com)

Broadband 10mb

and TV XL

 

for £40

 

I've done a bit of bartering in my time, and last year I threatened to move to sky (paid for the installation and everything) they then gave me a offer I couldn't refuse (upgrade to XL tv for free)

 

I also spotted that when I went to upgrade my broadband that the website said £20 a month, when it's actually billed at £25. I did this whole false advertising speech, and now I get £5 chopped off my bill every month. Ring up the sales people and really threaten to leave, it's amazing what a bit of bargaining can do.

 

Goodluck x

[scouemonk]

Sky

[Yellow160]

Sky HD all the way

[lauricha]

I'd think carefully about Sky. They're very good with getting you to sign up but their customer care is awful, and don't even get me started on cancellations.

 

I'd personally call up Sky, get an accurate quote for everything you have with Virgin at the moment. Then call Virgin and say you're thinking of cancelling and going with Sky as your bills are too high, and ask if they can beat the quote Sky have given you.

 

If they can, great. If not, then you can search around for better deals.

 

x

[sequenci]

If you have been with Virgin and are now out of contract why not see what they can do for you to keep you as a customer?

 

I had them reduce my package by £30 if I signed a new 12 month term.

[Conniff]

You can also look here to see if you're being overcharged

 

Build your own - TV, Broadband & Phone Bundles - Virgin Media

[skonk]

Be wary though, as I believe with Virgin, if you add or change any of your services, they automatically put you on a brand new 12 month contract. I done this in January, and was quite pleased with the deal i got, then recently found I'm paying £25 a month for 10mb broadband, when new customers can get 20mb for £20.

 

A friend of mine works for Virgin, and he said don't bother emailing them, as they just got rid of the department who deals with email queries, so best go straight to the phone.

 

I'm gonna get in touch with sky and tell them my contract is up in January, and what smart little deals can they do for me! They've called me about 5 times this years as it is, so hopefully I'll get something decent.

[buzby]

No - you can change your package without restarting your commitment. Only when you negotiate a new deal or add a service is this added, for the new service only.

 

IF TV choice is important, then there's no question Sky provides the best choice. HOWEVER, they require to use BT's lines for Internet, and ADSL is pretty awful as a delivery mechanism.

 

IF Internet is important, then there's no question VM will offer a more robust connection, with or without a Phone connection - something you cannot do with Sky.

[patdavies]

You should be aware that Sky's much-touted HD channels are not full HD.

 

They are transmitted as 720p not 1080p.

[sequenci]

You should be aware that Sky's much-touted HD channels are not full HD.

 

They are transmitted as 720p not 1080p.

 

That is very interesting.

 

I'm thinking if switching the TV from Virgin as their HD offering is dire. Do Virgin transmit in 1080 (for the few HD offerings they have?)

[buzby]

Of course, 720 IS HD... just not as good as 1080.

 

As for VM's HD content - a whole raft on channels are launching in August, so at least VoD and BBC HD will have some company at last!

[sequenci]

As for VM's HD content - a whole raft on channels are launching in August, so at least VoD and BBC HD will have some company at last!

 

Thanks for that, I didn't reaslise !

 

I quite like Virgin as their on-demand stuff is excellent; my only real gripe that the the V+ box makes an absolute racket as the glas stand it sits on resonates (i've tried to use some rubber stands to prevent this!)

[buzby]

Here's the full story;

 

Virgin Media : Press Office : Press Release=

[Conniff]

Ofcom have been looking at broadband:

 

Ofcom reveals UK's average broadband speed | Ofcom

 

BBC NEWS | Technology | Broadband rates 'not up to speed'

 

Virgin came out top

 

AOL............. is slower than - O2, Orange, Plusnet, Sky, Talktalk, Virgin Media - and faster than - no one.

BT................. is slower than - O2, Virgin Media - but faster than - Tiscali

O2............. ....is slower than - Virgin Media - but faster than - AOL, BT, Tiscali

Orange..........is slower than - Virgin Media - but faster than - AOL, Tiscali

Plusnet.......... is slower than - Virgin Media - but faster than - AOL, Tiscali

Sky................ is slower than - Virgin Media - but faster than - AOL, Tiscali

Talktalk..........is slower than - Virgin Media - but faster than - AOL, Tiscali

Tiscali........... is slower than - BT, O2, Orange, Plusnet, Sky, Talktalk, Virgin Media - but slower than - no one

Virgin Media is faster than - AOL, BT, O2, Orange, Plusnet, Sky, Talktalk, Tiscali - and slower than - no one.

Of course, speed isn't the only consideration to be made.

[JAN1471]

Stick with Virgin. Sky's customer service is dire. Esp their broadband customer service.

 

We are in the process of moving our broadband with them, in total over 3 days we spent 6hours on the phone trying to get our broadband sorted out, we kept being given the run around doing the same tests for 3 days and we tried to be put through to their customer solutions department for the same 3 days with no sucess. We also tried out the hd service and we saw no change in the picture quality, so we told them to take it back, that was 3 weeks ago and I only got the refund yesterday back to my debit card, because, hubby pays the sky bill, they put it back to the sky account, so we told them that if they did not pay it back to my card, I would have them done for fraud. After having hd removed, we went back to sky + with the same package then 2 nights ago I went to watch tcm movies, only to find that I would have to pay a £1 a month extra for that, but the previous week on hd I was still getting it for free, so I called customer services who told me I could pay the £1 a month, of course I went potty at this, and told them that they could put it back free of charge as they had never sent us notification that they had changed the package that it went with, it was movies it's now gone to life style, so i told them that they had 1 of 2 options either they put it back or I would take them to court for breach of contract, due to that they never told us, it was changing, but what really gets me, is that my mum and dad also get sky pretty much the same packages, bar the movie channel, but they still get TCM where as we don't or should say didn't, we've now got it back for 5 months, but when that time is up, I'll get it back again as they have admitted by putting it back that they had made a mistake.

 

Also don't go for the broadband, they have really dropped the download speed, we were getting 5 or 6meg speed and now it's dropped to 3, now a couple of months ago they wrote and told us that it would be going up, not going down, when we questioned them the other day on speed they told us to pay an extra £5 a month to get a higher speed, needless to say we told them where to go, because the service is crap. Sorry Ida, but it really has gone down hill. if we get Virgin down here we will be off like a shot. And we have been sky customers for 12 years.

[buzby]

Another HD Channel is being added to VM's HD lineup - CH4 HD was announced today:

 

4HD to join Virgin Media channel line-up - Media news - Media Week

[sequenci]

Another HD Channel is being added to VM's HD lineup - CH4 HD was announced today:

 

4HD to join Virgin Media channel line-up - Media news - Media Week

 

Grand Designs HD? FTW!!!!

[sillygirl1]

I've got both Sky and Virginmedia. We couldn't have Sky internet as we don't have a BT line and BT wanted £300 to do the line - there has been one here but I'm not paying to have a new one installed....

 

If you have an 'all in one package' and there is a problem and you get cut off then you are well and truly stuck. That is something worth thinking about....