Reversing a sky cancellation

Augustus_Haynes

Does anyone have any experience of cancelling a sky cancellation?

Basically I cancelled my sky TV and broadband last month and waited for them to contact me, hopefully with a price reduction.

Anyway this didn't happen and the phone line and TV is being stopped on the 21st of this month.


My wife called up today and was told this can't be reversed as we've left it too late....

Is that really the case?

It was also mentioned we could be without broadband for 2 weeks. Due to my business this would cause huge problems?

I know very little about telecoms but surely they can just reverse this and keep us as customers?

The account is in my wife's name so I'll have to wait until this evening to call so she can speak first.


Any help would be appreciated.

Kurtis_Blue

What a strange way to run a business.
Maybe get a 3g / 4g dongle to tide you over until a you get a new permanent provider?

penrhyn

High risk strategy, plus Sky bb is for domestic, not business use.

As above, plus OP can expect a broadband cancellation fee of around £30.

Tropez

Obviously, it is too late now but for the future if you're cancelling a broadband subscription and hoping to haggle a better deal, request your MAC (Migration Authorisation Code). The MAC is a code that your ISP gives you and then you can pass on to a new ISP so that they can take over your service without causing interruptions to that service (so no 2 weeks without broadband).

Importantly, it doesn't automatically cancel your subscription so if you decide not to leave then everything carries on as normal. Normally, it also encourages your ISP to make you an offer; generally they'll ask you to which ISP you're moving and what deal they're offering and try and offer you something a bit more tempting to stay with them.

Obviously, that doesn't really help now but as I say, hopefully it will serve you in the future.

As for the here and now, you can keep trying Sky but they may not be wrong here because some of the work required to cancel a broadband line is carried out by third parties and once the ball starts rolling they may not be able to stop it. Admittedly, with so long left I would expect that they could but I don't know the ins and outs of it.

A 3g dongle, as suggested above, may help. If you have a smartphone with a large data allowance you could also use USB tethering to connect your phone and PC together to use the phone's 3g connection.

Augustus_Haynes

thanks for the help.

If I ask for a MAC code today will I be able to switch before the 21st with no down time?

Tropez

Augustus_Haynes wrote: »

thanks for the help.

If I ask for a MAC code today will I be able to switch before the 21st with no down time?

I couldn't tell you because I've no experience of that but what I would say is that it couldn't hurt to ask.

From experience, it takes about two weeks for an ISP to take over a line from another provider so it is a possibility that you'd be able to do it that way but as I say, I can't say for certain so I won't guarantee it.

[Deleted User]

I wouldn't make any mention to Sky that you are using their Broadband for business purposes.

Augustus_Haynes

I literally meant that I need the internet so I can access emails etc from home and not be cut off from the office the moment I leave.

Of course I won't be mentioning it but I just wanted to point out that I'm not running a small business from home or whatever.

superbigal36

2 things to note on this.
You DONT have to cancel your BB to get an offer on your telly.
Next time just cancel the telly. Very often as a sweetener they will even give you a BB offer at the same time as the winback team sweeten you on getting the telly back on.

You should 100% be able to reverse the cancelation on the telly part. Max discount probably 35% but not set in stone.

Augustus_Haynes

Quite a surprising end to this one.


Called last night and spoke to a lovely girl who was very helpful. Explained the situation and she seems shocked and said that it was reversible. Within 5 minutes she had reverse the broadband and phone cancellation.


When then had a conversation about my tv package. I ended up getting a 33% reduction on the total package for 12 months.


So basically I got what I wanted out of it (a better deal) and also won't be without broadband for 2 weeks as I first though.


I should also mention - when I explained to her that the previous guy had offer a 10% discount and wasn't very helpful she said that it's very much a guess of pot luck with who you get to speak to and she understood my situation etc.

I guess the key thing is that if people want a cheap deal from sky and they say no then just call back a few days later and have the same discussion.

I was very positive on the phone and tried to be as chatty as possible. That definitely helps the process.

penrhyn

Many thanks for the feedback, very often threads are left unresolved and hanging.
Good to know you got a result.