Virgin to Sky

Dirty Dave · Nov 6, 2013

Have today decided to switch TV, phone and broadband to Sky after about 9 years with Virgin.

I've taken a package which includes the full TV bundle, sports and movies, multi room, sky go, broadband unlimited and talk anytime with 0845 numbers. It's costing £62 pm for the first 6 months which seems a pretty good deal. (Goes up a bit after that but will cancel the sports as will be end of season)

What are other people's experiences with Sky like having switched from Virgin?

Eksman · Nov 6, 2013

My experience is that there is never anything decent on sky, the only channels we watch are 1,2,3,4 so we are wasting our money, at the beginning we got movies, a load on crap that was! One good thing though is on demand tv although I have all that on my playstation. Take the minimal package as soon as you can, the rest is a waste of money ( unless you like watching repeat after repeat of border patrol and motorway cops)

BUT that is just me, other peoples preferences maybe different and could enjoy some other channels sky has to offer

Chicken Runner61 · Nov 6, 2013

Sky Atlantic is worth having - I find all the companies have pros and cons, but Sky suits me and at least they seem to be the ones moving forward with new stuff that Virgin just copies.

Eksman · Nov 6, 2013

By the way, sky broadband..... Fantastic :thumbsup:

Greg Bobkin · Nov 6, 2013

I've just gone in the opposite direction, after Sky wanted up to £500 for two new boxes which were on their last legs. We signed up to a similar-sounding deal to your Sky package - the lure of new customers is obviously a big incentive for these companies to offer that little bit extra. The guy who installed it said it was quite common for people to switch, similar to car insurance, mobile phones that sort of thing. We were with Sky for ages and to be fair they are pretty good. Not had a chance to check out too much of the TV, but there seems to be more On Demand/Catchup TV, more space to record (up to three channels, too) and the broadband is far superior to Sky.

I think all these packages/companies even themselves out and no doubt one day we'll be back to giving Murdoch or someone else some cash. I remember the dark days of NTL, with whom I had a shocking customer experience. I'm hoping for better with Virgin.

Cian · Nov 6, 2013

Russting said:
By the way, sky broadband..... Fantastic

Wait till Virgin upgrade to what their new parent company offers everywhere else. Have Sky (and Eircom, the BT equivalent) rammed in to a corner here. Uncapped 200mbit BB for significantly less than they can offer 70mbit for; 50mbit BB with phone and a call package for less than Eircom line rental. People only go with Sky for the few channels UPC can't offer and only go with them for BB if they can't get cable. Default box now makes the Sky+HD look ten years old in interface and features - e.g. it has 6 tuners (but the HDD can only record 5 HD channels at a time, what a pity), Youtube built in etc.

I can't imagine they'll leave the Virgin network out of this as they're rolling out identical hardware to each country; my box even came set to Holland out of the box.

The 200mbit is just the current package - all the routers are actually syncing at 400 but there's not much point offering that when nobody else goes above 70!

happypig · Nov 7, 2013

Won't have anything from Murdoch in the house.
I don't want anything to do with a company that condones hacking a dead girl's phone.

Rugrat · Nov 7, 2013

I've had Sky for years but recently switched to BT. I guess it depends on the individual experience, much like banks and airlines, but I'm glad to be rid of them. I don't see a whole lot different in the programming, internet, phone etc but the service I've had from Sky has been atrocious

Dirty Dave · Nov 7, 2013

Russting said:
By the way, sky broadband..... Fantastic

The Broadband was my only slight concern as it's Sky Broadband Unlimited rather than Fibre. Is this still okay for speed in terms of general browsing, playing x box online etc?

Eksman · Nov 7, 2013

Dirty Dave said:
The Broadband was my only slight concern as it's Sky Broadband Unlimited rather than Fibre. Is this still okay for speed in terms of general browsing, playing x box online etc?

Yep, never had a problem I'm always running netflix and playing online through my playstation, a lot of my mates on other companies are forever having problems where it have no issues at all

supaseagull · Nov 7, 2013

Went from Virgin to sky about 5 years ago.

Went back to virgin 18 months later.

Sky's broadband is woefully poor.

surrey jim · Nov 7, 2013

My only advice is to use topcashback/quidco when you change.

I moved sky->virgin over the summer, got £160 cash back, £60 statement credit after the second payment went through and half price for 6months. Worked out at a total saving of £500 over 6 months vs what I was paying sky.

Like others I tend to change every 18 months to get the best deal I can. There is no reward for loyalty these days.

pasty · Nov 7, 2013

surrey jim said:
My only advice is to use topcashback/quidco when you change.

I moved sky->virgin over the summer, got £160 cash back, £60 statement credit after the second payment went through and half price for 6months. Worked out at a total saving of £500 over 6 months vs what I was paying sky.

Like others I tend to change every 18 months to get the best deal I can. There is no reward for loyalty these days.

We managed to pull off a nice little trick recently. We moved house about 4 months ago but wanted to stay with Virgin as we've always found them pretty good. However, they wouldn't give us any deal at all, and also wanted an extra installation charge as there was no connection into the new house. So, we cancelled our existing service which was in my name, then rang back 5 minutes later and got a "brand new customers only mega deal" in Mrs P's name for the new house :lolol:

Same services as before, no new connection fee, and about 30% less for the first 6 months than we were paying at the old house :thumbsup:

Albion Dan · Nov 7, 2013

Ive got the lot with Sky and the broadband is appalling at times despite an almost monthly call that fixes something for about a week vef I re it all slows down again. The tragedy is that I cant get Virgin where I live or Id be off like a shot.

Tricky Dicky · Nov 7, 2013

Dirty Dave said:
Have today decided to switch TV, phone and broadband to Sky after about 9 years with Virgin.

I've taken a package which includes the full TV bundle, sports and movies, multi room, sky go, broadband unlimited and talk anytime with 0845 numbers. It's costing £62 pm for the first 6 months which seems a pretty good deal. (Goes up a bit after that but will cancel the sports as will be end of season)

What are other people's experiences with Sky like having switched from Virgin?

Never had any technical issues with Sky - I have phone, broadband, 2 TV boxes, full sport & film package. There is never anything worth watching on BBC1 or ITV so I use it all the time. Having the films isn't that good, I don't watch many of them.

No complaints from me, other than Sky turning off their digital text system last week, I used to use it a lot.

Albumen · Nov 7, 2013

I can't give money to Murdoch.

Badger · Nov 7, 2013

If you like scrolling through hundreds of channels and not finding anything decent to watch, Sky is PERFECT.

Puppet Master · Nov 7, 2013

Badger said:
If you like scrolling through hundreds of channels and not finding anything decent to watch, Sky is PERFECT.

This is exactly what I'd end up doing.... for 60 quid a month, too

drew · Nov 7, 2013

Cian said:
Wait till Virgin upgrade to what their new parent company offers everywhere else. Have Sky (and Eircom, the BT equivalent) rammed in to a corner here. Uncapped 200mbit BB for significantly less than they can offer 70mbit for; 50mbit BB with phone and a call package for less than Eircom line rental. People only go with Sky for the few channels UPC can't offer and only go with them for BB if they can't get cable. Default box now makes the Sky+HD look ten years old in interface and features - e.g. it has 6 tuners (but the HDD can only record 5 HD channels at a time, what a pity), Youtube built in etc.

I can't imagine they'll leave the Virgin network out of this as they're rolling out identical hardware to each country; my box even came set to Holland out of the box.

The 200mbit is just the current package - all the routers are actually syncing at 400 but there's not much point offering that when nobody else goes above 70!

Take it you don't get out much then!!!

Nathan · Nov 7, 2013

Those that are saying they will not give money to Murdoch, i take it you don't watch anything on ITV then. I am sure he still owns a stake in them.

The bloke is a bit like Nestle, you just can't avoid his products!

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