Sky won't allow changes without password

lolalou_xxx

My parents split up a number of years ago and although the Sky letters are still addressed to my dad, the payment comes from my mum's personal bank account.

Last year my mum's sky+ hd box kept freezing, she phoned sky and they asked for the password. My mum said she didn't know it and the guy on the phone said it was fine, she paid £60 for an engineer to come and fit a new box.

A few months ago I moved out so she phoned up again to cancel my multiroom subscription at £10 a month. Again they asked for the password and my mum told them she didn't know it. This time they wouldn't let her go any further - probably because she was wanting to take £10 off her direct debit rather than give them £60 for basically nothing. They wouldn't let her go any further without the password. She told them she wasn't in contact with my dad to get it and was told several times they could not help her. She was really annoyed as she has the full Sky+ HD package at a cost of around £75 a month - soon to be £65 hopefully!!!

So we have two options - the first is to get my partner or grandfather to phone and say they are my dad and have forgotten the password, people must forget their passwords all the time. We could confirm all other details. The second option is to cancel the Sky subcription and then take a new one out again via topcashback.co.uk. I know the cashback isn't 100% reliable but if it worked then Sky would be losing out and it would cost them money rather than just not being so stubborn in the first place!

So I was wondering if anyone has ever cancelled and then rejoined immediately? As a new customer I expect she would qualify for a free Sky+ box as well? What are your experiences of it and did it all go smoothly? Did anything go wrong that you think could be because you left?

Sorry for the length of this post!!

macman

You can't just cancel and rejoin immediately, there is a cooling-off period of at least 6m.
She could just cancel her DD and let them chase her ex-husband, since he is the account holder and therefore liable for the bills.
Why did she pay £60 or a call out? If she had gone through to retentions then it would have been free if she requested to cancel.
As to the password, it seems that you have already worked out the solution to that problem.

spike7451

Little thing called the Data Protection Act prevents your mother accessing the account without the password,as the account is in your fathers name,unless she has been added as a secondary AUTHORISED person,Sky won't allow access to the account.
I guess the first gut either didn't know this or couldn't be bothered but we were always told if we allowed access to an account by an unauthorised person,Sky could be heavily fined under the DPA & I do know of one bloke who was sacked for such an error.