Saving a few bob from Sky & O2

I've been a Sky customer a long time. 21 years to be precise. 

Originally I took the plunge because cricket, especially test cricket had moved to Sky from terrestrial TV and Mrs H got fed up of me moaning that I couldn't watch my favourite sport on TV.  And football, and golf and Formula 1.... and we use use Sky for our internet provider.

Anyhow to cut a long story short(er), although the offerings from Sky are great, they cost a lot of money. And somehow even when you take out or renew a contract, they still manage to put up prices "in-contract" (it's in their T&C).

It's always worth giving them a call periodically though to see if they can lop off a few quid here or there, and some say threatening to cancel has reaped dividends, but it's not always the case. But there's nothing to lose by asking is there?

So with my monthly Sky bill rocketing, and due to go up again in a couple of months I rang them up to see what they could do.

Well on my first call we managed to sort out a significant saving, although that was dependent on me getting some reassurance that cancelling one of the services (multi-screen - where I have a second box to watch TV in another room) didn't affect our ability to stream sky programmes via the Sky Go app to our iOS devices. You dogged the ability to do this concurrently to 2 devices, but you can use up to 4 devices concurrently when subscribed to Sky multiroom. Handy when we're away from the TV on holiday etc.

However, despite getting confirmation of this from the agent, on checking my future bills online later, it appeared that Multiscreen hadn't in fact been cancelled.

Cue a second call to Sky. The second agent told me the service indeed had not been cancelled, apologised but then confirmed that I did need to continue that to keep watching via Sky Go on more than 2 concurrent devices as set out above.

So, I agreed that I'd keep Multiscreen....

...until I checked online for my future bills and found that the agent had in fact cancelled it!

Much gnashing of teeth ensued and a third call to Sky was made this morning, where a very nice and apparently much better informed agent sorted me out, managed to shave another tenner off in the process and waived a previous admin charge.

All in all I've been able to shave about £15 a month off my monthly bill without any reduction in services, so it's worth a call.

UPDATE:

You can probably scrub a lot of the above. Following further gnashing of teeth (I've barely any left now), it turns out that you DO need a Sky Multiscreen subscription to access content (including your recordings) via the Sky Go app, and Sky Go Extra alone will not allow this. However, the nice lady in the Tech Support team did at least offer me an 18 month subscription at £8pm rather than the usual £15pm. 

So the long and short of it is that I've managed to shave off barely a fiver from my monthly Sky outgoings and had three frustrating and one successful call to Sky along the way.

Now I was on a roll (I'm a poor pensioner after all 😄) so I contacted O2 to see if I could get a cheaper phone tariff, because the only ones they were offering me online appeared to be more expensive ones.

The long and the short of it after a bit of faffing, is that instead of paying just over £23 a month on a rolling monthly contract, I'm getting the same service (10GB data, unlimited calls and texts) on a 12 month contract for £10, so almost 60% cheaper for the same service.

So today I've managed to knock £28 a month of my monthly bills. The moral of this post is I guess that it pays to at least ask the question of these companies...

Happy saving folks.....

Twitter: @Statto1927 

Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/people/simon_hiscocks/ 

Instagram: simon_hiscocks

Cardiff City Arcades Tour

Morgan Arcade

Twitter (I stubbornly refuse to call it "X") gets a bad wrap, often rightly, both because of the bananas management of the platform by its owner, and the toxicity amongst certain of it's user base. However, follow the right people and it's a trove of information and news. Recently I saw a tweet from @ILovesTheDiff an account that tweets all things Cardiff about a chap that runs free walking tours of Cardiff variously taking in the City, it's arcades, Cardiff Bay, Dr Who locations and more. This is Fogos Free Tours, and interest piqued I promptly booked me and Mrs H onto an Arcade Tour.

Eugene "Fogo" Fogarty, our tour guide at the John Batchelor statue

There's no cost, although I think it's entirely reasonable that tips are given at the end of the tour and very much appreciated if you've enjoyed the experience. Online booking confirmation and a 24 reminder were promptly received by email along with instructions of where to meet up for this roughly 2 hour tour.

On the appointed date we gathered by the John Batchelor statue in the Hays at 2pm as requested, along with about 10 others. Eugene, or Fogo, was ready and waiting in his trademark green t shirt and green umbrella (although it wasn't raining, but always prepared!)

After waiting a few minutes for 3 no shows we set off. Fogo an experienced walking guide from his time in other cities led us on an up and down journey of the Victorian arcades. Despite having lived in (or very near) to Cardiff since 1980 and my wife who is Cardiff born and bred both agreed that we often taken the architecture and history for granted as we listened as Fogo gave us some known but lots of unknown information about the existing arcades, and some that are no longer around, having been built over, or demolished. For example, have you ever heard of Dickens Arcade? It's more commonly known now as Revolution! Or that there's a street of houses behind one of the arcades, hidden from view that housed hundreds of people back in the early days of Cardiff's massive growth as a city.

Wyndham arcade

There was some nostalgia involved too, as Fogo talked about the shops and in the arcades that have moved around, and clubs and businesses long, or in the case of Howell, more recently gone by the wayside. We learnt about the history of the famous Wally's delicatessen and how the famous Bear Shop in Wyndham arcade that's been around (although not at its current location) since 1870. Indeed my wife can remember when the big stuffed bear used to be stood outside the shop in a previous location.

We stopped outside Howells for a quick chat and view of the Bethany Chapel, recently visible after some of Howells facade has been knocked down. I suspect many people in Cardiff didn't even know the chapel was there.

Bethany Chapel, behind the old Howells building

We had a quick 10 minute break in the Market, before learning that the market was also the site of the old Cardiff gaol, and the site of the last public execution (Dic Penderyn) in August 1831. The gaol was eventually moved to its current site in Adamsdown as the population of both Cardiff, and the gaol grew in the latter years of that century.

Cardiff Market - one big arcade

I also didn't know that the Old Arcade pub got it's name, because alongside it ran probably one of the very first arcades in Cardiff, now just a place that provides some side access to the Market, and an open air alleyway along the side of the pub festooned with a large dragon and Yawl Goch mural. A bit obvious know I know, but something I hadn't given much thought to before.

Outside Queens Arcade, the newest arcade and not worthy of as much interest Fogo told us that a big yellow and ornate building looking like it had some Venetian influence, was probably built that way as it was adjacent to a canal which has long since disappeared, but was probably intended to reflect the buildings and canals of Venice. 

A Venetian influenced building on Queen St?

Castle arcade has a long tunnel underneath it, used primarily as storage for the business in the arcade, but apparently it's not very interesting - just a concrete like bunker.

Perhaps one of the prettiest arcades, is Duke St Arcade, which to my mind at least has some echoes of Harry Potter's Dragon Alley.

Duke St Arcade

We finished the tour, slightly later than planned - running about 15 minutes late, outside High St Arcade which perhaps has the prettiest entrance facade. It was a fascinating way to spend a couple of hours, and a great way to learn a little bit more about the city we live in. I'd certainly recommend this tour, and hopefully, will be looking to try one of Fogo's other offerings soon.

Don't forget to tip!

Fogo winds up the tour outside High St Arcade

There is a more complete set of photos on my Flickr pages, links below.

Twitter: @Statto1927 

Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/people/simon_hiscocks/ 

Instagram: simon_hiscocks