Sky price rise, can I now cancel mid contract?

misterbarlow

Been rolling along with Sky for years and not been tied to a contract for a while, last August I made changes to my sky package which reduced it by a small amount like £4pm, and they said doing so would invoke a 12month contract renewal, which I agreed.

Have now had the letter regarding the latest price rise.
I am annoyed at what I see as a £3pm increase in the family bundle, to basically pay towards football that I do not watch.

I am going to cancel Sky anyway in August, but can this price rise mid contract now allow me to end it early?
I would assume when you agree a contract like this the price should be set for the term of it, otherwise you can enter a contract and a month later they can double it, or treble it, etc and you are trapped?
Or is there some clever 'small print' that denies this and allows for price increases during the contract??

Thanks.

JJ_Egan

Sky's terms say:

Quote:
we can only increase the relevant Subscription Payment once during the MinimumTerm. This increase won’t affect you during the first 60 days of your subscription to your chosen service(s) and will not be more than either 10% of the standard price of your subscription or the increase in the UK Retail Price Index over the last 12 months before we tell you about that price increase, whichever is greater.

teddysmum

You are not contracting to a fixed price , but a minimum term for the service. They can increase the price within the limits mentioned in post #2, without being obliged to let you leave penalty free.

macman

As above, no 'clever small print ' is required, because it's not a fixed price contract. Most telcoms contracts are exactly the same. Your price reduction will be billed as a discount off the rack rate, so if they raise the rack rate by £3, your £4 discount remains the same, but the total price you pay increases by £3.

misterbarlow

ok thanks everyone, not long now til mid July when I can give the notice anyway then!!

New2Forum

I've just had the price rise letter through as well.


On the reverse there is also notification of changes to the terms and conditions, to be implemented from 1st July 2015.


Whilst you may not be able to cancel because of the price increase, I would imagine you can cancel because of the change to the T&C can't you?

VisionMan

Query -

How can Sky be allowed to write into their terms and conditions that they may increase prices by no more than 10% within a minimum term of contract and not allow a right of and to cancellation? As this usually does invoke such an option.

Sorry if thats a stupid question.

pathtofreedom

You could always ask if you can cancel sports early or not. They can only say no so you're no worse off than you are now.

Kurtis_Blue

VisionMan wrote: »

Query -

How can Sky be allowed to write into their terms and conditions that they may increase prices by no more than 10% within a minimum term of contract and not allow a right of and to cancellation? As this usually does invoke such an option.

Sorry if thats a stupid question.

Its a contract, they can put in anything they like.

You read it and if you agree then you sign up.

New2Forum

Kurtis_Blue wrote: »

Its a contract, they can put in anything they like.

So long as they don't breach the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999.


Interestingly, the following is classed as an unfair term: "a term which tries to make you pay more than is needed to cover the trader's losses if you cancel the contract" (Quote from CAB)


In addition, the following is an unfair term: "a term giving the trader the right to change the contract to their benefit" (Quote from CAB)

Kurtis_Blue

New2Forum wrote: »

So long as they don't breach the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999.


Interestingly, the following is classed as an unfair term: "a term which tries to make you pay more than is needed to cover the trader's losses if you cancel the contract" (Quote from CAB)


In addition, the following is an unfair term: "a term giving the trader the right to change the contract to their benefit" (Quote from CAB)

The CAB are pretty useless, but reading that list even they say those terms only may be unfair.

Having a mechanism for limited price rises in a variable cost business seems pretty normal to me.

They are very clear terms, simply read and dont sign up if you donot agree.