Cancelling Sky -only by phone??

Toxteth_OGrady

I logged into my account at Sky.com because I wanted to cancel my ESPN subscription.

I selected the 'Cancel Sky TV' option and simply added to the description, "Please cancel ESPN on my account."

It worked without having to provide any further details or call them. The only annoyance was it took them 4 days to respond and they applied the 31 days notice from the date of their response, not the date of my original contact.

pen1

Hi Toxteth_OGrady,
ESPN ,of course will be a BT-owned channel come 31/7/13, so I imagine there's little incentive for Sky to undertake marketing activity.

I think your experience demonstrates the point though- that Sky accept that sky.com is secure for some downgrade/cancellation transactions to be completed without telephone contact.

For others, as I've experienced with cancellations and downgrades, they seek to initiate telephone contact, and have claimed that this is for "data protection" reasons.

Hence , my advice to anybody who doesn't wish to engage in customer retention-activity on the telephone with Sky- eliminate any subsequent explanation that information is/was required to verify your identity and/or that the downgrade or cancellation must be completed by telephone, by following the terms and conditions exactly as they are stated and add your name, address, post code and customer number in to your message, even if you doubt its necessity given that you are the account-holder and are logging-in to a password-protected area of sky.com .:)

With regards to Sky not backdating downgrade/cancellation notices to the point of receipt, this is an issue that I have previously raised with Sky, but no progress has been made.

madjock1

I am afraid the information from pen1 is inaccurate the reason for the call is to ensure by means of certain DPA checks ( yes the DPA is leagally binding) , and enforcable that the instruction is from the sky account holder-- for example if you and your partner split up and they wnated to cancel your sky account in the exapmle given by pen1 they could technicaly do this or obtain details, by ensuring that the acc holder is calling to cancel wky and other organisations can ensure they are speaking to the acc holder keeping acc holder details secure ( a legal requierment) there is a falasy from 1 company that the letter they give people will cancel sky acc this has been repeatedly shown to be false maybe the issue should be raised with them dirrectly

pen1

madjock1,

I took the advice of both the Information Commissioner's Office (responsible for the Data Protection Act) and Sky.

The Information Commissioner's Office stated that “any organisation will need to set their own policies and procedures, and ensure that these are made clear to their customers in their terms and conditions”.

Sky explained that subsequent telephone or online conversation could occur if information necessary to verify the account holder is missing from correspondence.

“• You must give your name, address, post code and customer number when you are cancelling any product or service you have ordered from Sky”.
http://www.sky.com/shop/terms-conditions/tv/

Therefore, I will personally ensure that any cancellation notice I send to Sky includes exactly the information that they state I must give in the terms & conditions.

If there’s other information Sky require to be included in cancellation notices, then according to the advice I’ve received, Sky need to make it clear in their terms & conditions.

I do not know the impact that reminding people of the information that Sky state must be provided will have, but it can only help Sky to verify that the communication is from the account holder, which is the stated intention of Sky demanding further contact.

Heinz

I wanted to downgrade (knock off the HD pack) last night and, after trying the email and online webmail routes eventually found myself having to phone 'em.

OK, there's the 020 7126 7020 number found on www.saynoto0870.com (which still works) but I decided to call 0844 2 41 41 41 (an expensive number to call for me on my telephone plan) via 18185 (5p connection and 0p/minute) by dialling 0333 543211.

It worked a treat and, despite their attempts to prolong the call at my expense, it cost me 5p in total! Result!

skyinsider

It has been a while since I was at Sky but when I was there the vast majority of cancellations (or XC's) by post were fine. If you got a letter asking to call it was usually for one of the following:
* Some details in your letter differed from your original sign up (eg. spelling of an address or name)
* An element of the letter did not make sense
* You stated you were leaving for another company. They ask you to call as canceling your account with Sky could leave you without service for a period of time on your BB or phone.
* A complaint was made in the letter.
* You are not a Direct Debit customer and there are charges or variations on your bill
* You have an element of your subscription in contract (perhaps a BB upgrade, HD or new box)
* You signed up through an offer (or comet store) which state that you must cancel by phone

Like I say these are only suggestions.

What I recommend is calling - if you don't wish to do this either use the online chat or send a reply stating that prior to calling you wish to know why your cancellation was not accepted and that you still expect the date of your original letter to be the date of your 32 days notice.

pen1

Hi skyinsider,

Incidentally, "Live Chat" has been one of the issues that has been upsetting customers.

Sky have an online Help article- “Remove a package or cancel your subscription” - which directs customers to telephone, "Live Chat" or email via sky.com .
http://help.sky.com/my-account/billing/remove-a-package-or-cancel-your-subscription

Customers have reported choosing "Live Chat", discussing their wishes with an agent, then at the point that they confirm that they wish to downgrade/cancel, being told that downgrades/cancellations cannot be processed by "Live Chat" and that they must ring!

A choice, of course, that they could have made in the first instance, had the article not led them to believe that they could downgrade/cancel by "Live Chat".

Bob_Bridges

zennith wrote: »

Working Sky Free Phone Number Here - 0800 0963624 :money:

Thanks zennith,
And just kept the current package but £10 cheaper.
Mentioned leaving - a real option for us.
Mentioned freeview - ditto.

Cheers, Bob

sharnad

im still trying to sort out when they charged me to much when I cancelled part of my package at the end of november

andydgg

just cancel the dd, tell them you've cancelled it and you'll query every charge they make. Worked for me. well along with about 30 emails and a phone call!