Going crazy trying to cancel Sky

Bradfield

Bradfield wrote: »

I have just written to their postal address in Livingstone cancelling my subscription (letter posted Saturday) so I await with much interest what will happen now.

I will not cancel the DD as I know this caused me problems last time I moved.

Just to update:

I wrote to Livingston last Saturday cancelling my Sky TV subscription. Come Thursday morning I had heard nothing so decided to ring up the Number they give for cancellations (03442 4144 14)

Spoke to a nice lady who took me through the I.D. check. Was asked why I wanted to cancel and said I was moving to a new address where the LL did not allow a sky dish. This was accepted and no attempt made to keep me with Sky After a further pre-amble the deal was done and my subscription cancelled. Took about nine minutes in all.

I formed the opinion that they did not activate the cancellation procedure on receiving my letter; and the clock did not start ticking (31 days notice) until after I had phoned them.

What-ever the morality or legalities of their cancellation policy, the customer has only one goal and that is cancellation. My advice, to anyone who definitely wants to cancel is to phone the cancellations number and tell them you are moving abroad or something. If you give any other reason like affordability or dissatisfaction with the service, they will almost certainly unleash the retentions team on to you.

Cancelling can be quite painless if you play them at their own game.

[Deleted User]

Bradfield wrote: »

My advice, to anyone who definitely wants to cancel is to phone the cancellations number and tell them you are moving abroad or something. If you give any other reason like affordability or dissatisfaction with the service, they will almost certainly unleash the retentions team on to you.

I've seen others suggesting lying about going abroad etc in the past, but the best (and most effective) suggestion I've seen is to respond to every attempt the Sky operator makes to "retain" you with the simple statement "I don't wish to discuss that, I just want to cancel". Any "discussion" is thereby ended before it's begun.

I do agree calling them is the simplest way to cancel, though I understand many begrudge the cost of the call.

Bradfield

Moneyineptitude wrote: »

I've seen others suggesting lying about going abroad etc in the past, but the best (and most effective) suggestion I've seen is to respond to every attempt the Sky operator makes to "retain" you with the simple statement "I don't wish to discuss that, I just want to cancel". Any "discussion" is thereby ended before it's begun.

I do agree calling them is the simplest way to cancel, though I understand many begrudge the cost of the call.

I well understand people who want to stand firm on principle and in my own case, if I wasn't actually moving, I might have done things differently. But of course, I have a hundred and one things to do over the next couple of weeks, and the last thing I want is hassle from any of my utility companies.

When I sent them my letter I just said that I wanted to cancel the TV service. On reflection I think I should have stated explicitly the start day of the notice period and the termination date. I would advise anyone writing, to do this.

I used to get pestered by an insurance company trying to sell me life insurance. Eventually, I posted the letter back stating "deceased". I never heard from them again.

It is very wrong for Sky to make it so difficult for people to cancel. People on these forums are pretty clued up after reading threads like these. It is the unwary ones you feel sorry for.