Sky cancellation - does not follow sky's T&c's

urbanlegend11

McKneff wrote: »

Hang on a minute and I will give you a Freephone number which I used tonight,

Here you go.

0800 096 3624

Just used this number tonight to cancel. Thank you !

pen1

For anybody who'd like to see an example of how the Sky cancellations "loop" operates if you attempt to exercise the right to cancel via the "Contact Us" section of their website (option 4 of the terms & conditions), here's my summary of how I tried to downgrade services in the last 9 days:

Downgrade Notice 1:
Sky agent replied:

....Unfortunately we are missing some security information that we need in order to action this request for you. ...Please could you give us a call on 08442 410 973 ....Your services remain active, so if you have changed your mind and no longer wish to cancel then you need take no further action.....

Downgrade Notice 2:
Sky agent replied:

.... Unfortunately we don’t have all the security information we require to be able to process the request. We need you to contact us on 08442 410 973 ....If we do not hear from you then we will take no action on your account ....

So, I sent a third message:

Unfortunately, it appears that you haven’t accepted my downgrade notice although I believe I included all the information that your terms & conditions state I need to provide.

I need to establish therefore, what information you believe me to have omitted, so that I can provide this information to you by my chosen downgrade route, which was option 4 of the terms & conditions- “Send us an email by visiting the "Contact Us" section at sky.com.

Please advise what security information is missing from my downgrade notice? ....

Sky agent replied:

....Unfortunately we don’t have all the security information we require to be able to process the request. ....We need you to contact us on 08442 410 973 .....If we do not hear from you then we will take no action on your account ....

So, I sent a fourth message:

.... I have received your responses and note that you would like me to talk to you regarding some missing “security information”. However, all information required according to the Sky TV terms & conditions has already been provided. Please complete the downgrade without any further delay ..... If you are unwilling to do so, then please treat this message as a complaint.....

Sky agent replied:

..... Unfortunately we are missing some security information that we need in order to action this request for you. .....Please could you give us a call on 08442 410 973 ....Your services remain active, so if you have changed your mind and no longer wish to cancel then you need take no further action. .....

In summary:

• the downgrade wasn't completed (4 times!)
• the enquiry about the missing "security information" wasn't answered.
• the request for escalation to complaint was ignored.

There's a standard reply which essentially informs/demonstrates that irrespective of the content of the correspondence sent to Sky, the downgrade/cancellation hasn't been completed and it isn't going to happen unless Sky gets what it wants- telephone contact- rather than what the customer is obliged by the terms & conditions and/or consumer cancellation rights to do.

[Deleted User]

pen1 wrote: »

[*]the downgrade wasn't completed (4 times!)
[*]the enquiry about the missing "security information" wasn't answered.
[*]the request for escalation to complaint was ignored.
[/LIST]
There's a standard reply which essentially informs/demonstrates that irrespective of the content of the correspondence sent to Sky, the downgrade/cancellation hasn't been completed and it isn't going to happen unless Sky gets what it wants- telephone contact- rather than what the customer is obliged by the terms & conditions and/or consumer cancellation rights to do.

Yes, it's obviously an automated reply to anything sent to that E-Mail address, no one can be actually reading the content. It would be interesting to see the response to your experience from the Sky Community Managers who promised swift action to end this problem. Clearly, no action has been taken yet and Sky can hardly blame staff for "misunderstanding" if automated replies are being employed!

pen1

As far as I can understand, Moneyineptitude, the replies are not automated in the sense of fully computer-generated, as named individuals have entered my account and left notes in "Help Requests", such as "NAR" (No Action Required?) or "n/a".

Also, several agents made an outgoing telephone call and left a scripted message on my answerphone stating that they'd emailed me to advise "what steps you need to take to ensure that your request is carried out"- the point that is ignored being that I’ve already done what is legally necessary by following Sky’s terms & conditions/consumer cancellation rights.

But if the reply isn’t automated, then as demonstrated in my example, it is nevertheless almost inevitably the response of the agent, irrespective of the content of the message sent to them.

I’ve no reasonable cause to doubt either that it’s systemic rather than isolated, as I’ve personally experienced multiple agents doing it over a period of more than 2 years and it is a cause of many of the substantial volume of cancellation complaints that Sky has been attracting on social media.

[Deleted User]

pen1 wrote: »

I’ve personally experienced multiple agents doing it over a period of more than 2 years

You can't really have been trying (and failing) to cancel for two years?

pen1

Rest assured I didn't fail! 4 completed; 1 complaint in progress!

As Sky provide multiple products/services these days "Cancellations" incorporates customers who are cancelling individual services, customers who are cancelling all services with Sky, and package downgrades etc.

My first experience of this, for example, was when I sought to cancel Sky TV for the summer (2011) at the end of the football season, whilst retaining Sky Talk/Broadband.

More recently, when cancelling a Sky Multiroom subscription but retaining Sky TV- on which occasion Sky dropped the demand for telephone contact with no further "security information" requested or offered at the complaints stage, when I pointed them to their terms & conditions and asserted that they had a legal obligation to process the notice they'd already received.

Sky also applied a similar approach to several package downgrades.

There are various potential means of escalation- e.g. formal complaints route to Sky, ombudsman, "offline team" if you gain attention on social media (e,g, Sky's forum, Twitter feed).

However, customers shouldn't have to use those routes or concede to Sky's telephone demands to exercise rights of cancellation, so as the original poster explained, several customers have been trying to get Sky to stop the underlying practice.

Kite2010

CC in the CEO Office in your replies.

Also mention you are unable to call a 0844 number due to network restrictions

Might get a faster response or a ring back

pen1

A development today- Sky banned me from their forum after I ("fwiw" on the Sky forum) made a post at http://helpforum.sky.com/t5/Billing-Payments/Remove-a-package-or-cancel-your-subscription/td-p/763558/page/8, pointing to the fact that breaches of their cancellation terms & conditions had been raised almost 1 year ago, and were ongoing despite the undertaking of their Community Managers to resolve them.

It seems that "putting down" my dissent was of higher priority today than actually addressing the point, made here and on their forum, that I have personally contacted them 4 times in respect of a legally-binding downgrade notice and they haven't completed it.

I've been a Sky customer for over 20 years and work on the simple principle that I pay what is due when it is due, but I expect Sky to honour their part of the contract.

I can at least concentrate on the complaint that I am currently raising with the Information Commissioner's Office (regulator of the Data Protection Act), concerning how my personal data has been handled by Sky whilst their agents repeatedly failed to comply with Sky's terms & conditions.

pen1

A further development- an agent has responded to my formal complaint as follows:

Sky_complaints_agent wrote:

.... I am sorry if you feel unhappy with the Sky cancellation process and I have requested a member of an expert team to call you regarding this. I understand that you feel a telephone call is not required however the account can not be cancelled until we have full verification that this request has been made by the account holder and this can only be completed by verbal confirmation of security details held on your account ...

There it is again- a Sky agent reasserting that Sky won't complete downgrades/cancellations that comply with their terms & conditions, unless they get what they want- telephone contact.

pen1

Moneyineptitude wrote: »

Yes, it's obviously an automated reply to anything sent to that E-Mail address, no one can be actually reading the content......

Since I posted on Saturday, it’s become apparent that Sky may have answered my complaint oblivious to the information in the previous 4 messages I sent them via the online email form, which were key to the complaint.

The question that is now arising, therefore, is not only whether any of the emails I sent via Sky’s online cancellation form were read, but where did they go?

Having investigated my complaint, Sky have answered it to the effect that I have requested the account be cancelled (whilst also asserting again, that they have a right to telephone contact) and a cancellation agent has sent me a similarly worded message.

Had they read the previous 4 messages whilst investigating the complaint, they would know that it was a downgrade rather than a cancellation.

However, because I’d already given the specific downgrade details within 2 of the previous 4 messages, I didn’t repeat them again in my complaint. Sky would afterall, read the earlier messages to which I referred them, before answering a complaint, wouldn’t they?

As the agents persist with their efforts to enforce their will- telephone contact- irrespective of the terms & conditions, but for “data protection” reasons as the explanation goes , it seems that they have an alternative reason for needing to talk to me, as they apparently need me to tell them what was in the first 4 messages.

Thus, in their quest for “ full verification that this request has been made by the account holder” as they put it, they have apparently reached the position, that they don’t know what I requested in the first instance!

YOUR RIGHTS TO CANCEL
..... you must do one of the following:
1. Call us on 08442 414 414; or
2. Write to us at: Sky Subscribers Services Limited, PO Box 43, Livingston, West Lothian EH54 7DD.
3. Fax us on: 01506 484343
4. Send us an email by visiting the "Contact Us" section at sky.com
• 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/