How to cancel Setanta Sports

[Deleted User]

I too have recently had problems with cancelling Setanta... like so many others its seems!

To avoid any problems I sent a registered letter, phoned and emailed customer services all on the same day - 13th August. Although, the letter I sent was to a different address to that Martin has posted. They gave me a different one on the phone.

Anyway, the guy on the phone says it takes two months to cancel. I disagreed, saying when I signed up to their 'no contract' service only 30 days notice was required. The guy on the phone pretty much said well tough... the terms and conditions you signed up to included a clause saying that we can change the terms and conditions anytime we want.... is that legal!!? What if they changed it to say that 3 years notice was required!?

I have now received an email stating that my service will be cancelled on 11th October!

I have told them I will pay for September, but then I am cancelling my direct debit and they can do what they want.

Will my credit rating be affected if they chase me for the last payment that they are trying to steal from me? Is there anything else I can do? It's only £10 or so, but its the principle of the thing. They are openly twisting the rules to steal people's money.

tonecapone

Setanta are awful - it's taken me 3 months to cancel my subscription. I never got the £10 back that they took off me two days before finally switching of my subscription, their customer service is non existant they basicaly said 'tough, its just the way it works'. I will never subscribe to that comany again, even if (god forbid!) they had exclusive rights to all premiership matches! I

I've manged to dissuade at least five people who were going to subscribe for the new season, soon their reputation will catch up with them and they'll have no subscribers.

gjhu18

Avoid SETANTA completely, they are rubbish.

Took ages for us to cancel. Be prepared for a prolonged and persistent "please come back to us" telephone campaign as well, which offers all sorts of discounts and time-scales. I think they are getting pretty desparate.

Never ever again!

barryjon

I think you could very easily argue that the need to cancel in writing is unfair or unreasonable given that you could enter into the contract over the phone. Hardly a balanced contract is it?

innit1234

cancelling setanta has been pathetic!

I'm glad that others are finding it so - just not me.

Firstly - we're able to subscribe to it online or over the phone - yet have to write in to cancel.

Also, once we have written in - there is no written confirmation back to acknowledge any cancellation.

They do some of this by phone.

I've also received an email - just to confirm that they have received my email, and ironically - the bottom of the email has something about "saving paper"!!!

The setanta channels are actually good - I only cancelled cos I'm moving in with my girlfriend who has sky - but am defly not going back to setanta.

They need to sort this out.

smoggie9

:mad: I too have had problems with Setanta. I called to cancel and was offered 6 months for £9.99 and I declined I was then offered "how about £5.99" At this I agreed thinking £5.99 for 6 months then cancel. I then got charged £12.99 and called to complain and was told that I was not down for 6 months at £5.99 and that they could only do this for 3 months at this price. I complained stating I was misled and wanted a refund. I was then notified that I had to write to get a refund. After this I felt that I no longer wanted to deal with a company like this and cancelled in writing.
It looks like I am not the only one to have had a poor experience.
I used to think that Sky having the monopoly on the football was bad and thought that Setanta getting some of the games was a good thing. I now realise that again the supporter is being completely ripped off once again and has to pay through the nose paying Sky and Setanta resulting in near as damn it £60 per month. It is cheaper to get a season ticket and see the footie live!:mad:

unhappy Smoggie

pstanbridge

I saw the 'How to Cancel Setanta Channels' and had to sign up specifically to warn people away from them. I had Setanta for about 1 year and tried to cancel it after upgrading to Sky HD. I had receieved a new viewing card and therefore wasn't currently getting the service. I had already heard the cancellation was a nightmare (unfortunately after I signed up) and wasn't supprised by the notification in writing period of the then 30 days (instead of the 60 days) it is now. Although I don't think a company should be able to take your money instantly and require notification of cancellation I agreed that was ok as I was aware that was what the policy was. That was when the fun started!

The girls on customer services were actually quite helpful and even told me twice that they should be able to take my cancellation over the phone. The cancellation team however were shocking! First of all they were quite rude but worst of all I'm pretty sure they were blatently lying! One guy I spoke to even told me they had a major computer upgrade at lunch time and if I called in the morning he would have cancelled me instantly but now it's impossible so I'd need to send yet another letter in! I work in IT and find it hard to believe that a Computer System upgrade would be done during lunch (working!) hours...evenings would have been fair enough.

After a number of letters eventually including the Complaints Departent I finally got it cancelled. All in all, I think Setanta had about 3-4 months subscriptions out of me. Quite simply, that is their plan. Avoid!

Money Saving Expert: Please report your findings to Watch Dog!

innit1234

The other problem I had - I had my subscription via credit card - so I couldn't cancel the "direct debit" - my learning - these things do by bank account - at least that way you can cancel the DD.

MSE - can you do something about this company - for the sake of sports fans!

I really appreciate the service from SKY now

meehan5455

I too tried to cancel after they gave me a half price viewing period of 3 months. I actually asked them what I had to do to cancel when I agreed to the deal. They told me to ring up towards the end of the period and let them know I wanted to cancel. I wrote this down on the letter and as agreed rang up to cancel. They told me that I had to give 30 days notice and therefore I would be charged the full monthly price for the next month. I objected to this and they said they would cancel it and then try and get the £9.99 request to my bank stopped so that I didn't pay.

Well sure enough the money went out of my bank despite teh fact that I couldn't view the damn channel anyway!! I rang up to complain again and they agreed to refund the full £9.99. It has never been refunded so they I can only assume they just lie to you to get rid of you. I gave up and have decided that I will never use them again. They clearly don't give a damn about their customers do they?

pen1

alanm wrote: »

I had Setanta by Broadband for a month for 7.99 (because there was something specific I wanted to watch), then cancelled it without a problem, then reactivated it for a month again about four months later, then cancelled again.
Hate to say this in the context of this thread, but it was simple, painless and worked.

I think "Setanta by Broadband" may be separately managed by the technology provider, Servecast/Level 3 Communications, rather than Setanta's operations that support satellite & digital terrestrial/"Freeview"?