Removing Sky Mailer from phone

JuneyHod

We have the combined Sky package for TV, Broadband & Sky Talk.

Months ago, we found our answering machine stopped working. Call us stupid, but we didn’t relate a strange ‘bleep’ on our phone with this problem until I told someone we couldn’t get rid of it and they suggested it was a 1571 answering service. So we dialled 1571, and, yes! It was an answering service that had come out of the ether, certainly not at our request.

I phoned Sky and after great difficulties and hours left waiting being passed from one customer service person to another, the message service was removed…we thought.

Fast forward to October this year (2009). Bleep was back, ansafone again not working.

Several phone calls, all lasting over an hour and we were told we didn’t have an answering service on our phone. I said of course we did, I dial 1571 and get our messages! Did he think I was lying?! He said it was a BT error and they would get it sorted. It wasn’t. I rang BT myself and they said it couldn’t possibly be their problem as we didn’t even pay line rental to them so we couldn’t have their 1571 answer system on our phone. But he could see that we had something called ‘Sky Mailer’.

BT could see this, but Sky couldn’t!

I rang Sky and told them this and a lady said ‘No problem. This service was introduced by default months ago when we changed equipment and I can have it removed for you. It will take 72 hours or longer’. How easy was that?!

However it’s now 100+ hours and it’s still there. No one can tell me how long ‘or longer’ will be. Apparently we have been removed from one system but not from another. I’m not interested in the technical details. I just want a service I never asked for, removed a.s.a.p. I feel like crying every time I ring Sky to complain. My blood pressure goes through the roof each time. What can we do except remove ourselves from Sky. And would Virgin be any better?

Heinz

As my wife keeps telling me, you get what you pay for. I assume Sky's telephone service is cheap (well, the first, penultimate and last letters of that final word are obviously correct).

d3eep

I have the same problem and when I rang sky they also said I didn't have 1571 on my account and I had to explain to them that I did and didn't want it. I was passed through to tech support who logged a fault over two weeks ago and still no response!