'Sky wouldn't let me leave until I had discussed my account for 90 minutes'

bazster

NorthernMonkey1 wrote: »

When Mrs NM came to live with me, I called sky and said she is leaving as the is moving with me, and I already had sky. They disconnected her with minimal fuss.

I then called back and said that I needed to cancel my sky, as I was going to live with Mrs NM. 2 x sky cancelled, £80 per month saved in about 5 minutes

:T Very ingenious!

Moneymaker

I just asked if they would send an "engineer" to move my dish to my new home in Saudi Arabia. Curiously, they insisted on cancelling, even though I said I didn't want to!

d70cw6

bazster wrote: »

Read the articles. That's exactly what this guy did: he was there for 1 1/2 hours and they still refused to cancel it.

they cant refuse to cancel it if you write:


"I am cancelling my contract"


and then go afk for 6 hours.

pen1

It's easy to say they can't, d70cw6, but the reason that Sky's cancellation processes have come under scrutiny, in my view, is because of the volume of incidents where cancellation notices were not processed, regardless of customers meeting reasonable obligations to inform Sky.

Indeed, even some customers who complied exactly with Sky's (then) terms & conditions, did not have their cancellations observed by Sky, because they were adding an additional "verification by phone" requirement that didn't feature in their terms & conditions.

In respect of "Live Chat", Sky/their agents commonly add a statement like the one in the transcript published by the Telegraph, that states:

If for any reason, this chat ends before we finish our conversation today, any changes we discuss that have not been confirmed will not be updated on your account. ...

Thus, if the customer ends the conversation before the agent confirms cancellation, or the connection is "lost", the cancellation hasn't happened according to Sky's records, and the onus is transferred to the customer to try again.

hieveryone

I tried to cancel on the Live Chat and was also told I couldn't.

pen1

"Live Chat" was added as an option last year, "hieveryone", at the same time that Sky changed their t&c's to insist that other methods of cancellation- letter or email via "My Sky"- required subsequent telephone verification (I've bolded the relevant part):

13 (c) Any notice you give us to end this Contract where you have a right to do so (other than where you are exercising your right to cancel during your cooling-off period for which see ‘Your Rights to Cancel Your Order’ section below) must be given by phone 03442 41 44 14 or by using our webchat service on Sky.com. Notice given by these means will be processed immediately. You can also write to us (Sky Subscribers Services Limited, PO Box 43, Livingston, West Lothian, EH54 7DD) or e-mail us via your My Sky account on http://contactus.sky.com. Notice given by these means will not be effective until we have spoken to you and verified your account. We will acknowledge written requests by return letter or email and will contact you by phone to verify you as the account holder and process your cancellation. More information on how to cancel can be found at: http://help.sky.com/my-account/billing-and-subscription/remove-a-package-or-cancel-your-subscription .

http://www.sky.com/shop/__PDF/Sky_TV_Contract.pdf

alleycat`

I notice they don't mention the 10p a minute +16p connection charge on their "i want to cancel" number.

It took me 12 minutes to get someone to pick up the call and a further 8 minutes to get the man on the phone to stop telling me what a great deal i had, how other people were paying more for what i had, etc.

Since i left (only 48 hours ago) I've had 2 e-mails telling me it's not too late to come back and 2 calls asking me why i left and if I'd like to come back.

I suspect their latest price rise hasn't gone over very well.

gibby9

I recently took 1 hour 50 minutes to cancel on live chat. Though I was playing along as looking for a deal so time included haggling before I confirmed to definitely cancel.

Ifi had simply wanted to cancel I'd have made sure the conversation was much shorter.

Advantage of live chat is you can go back and forwards to the keyboard while doing something else.

brewerdave

gibby9 wrote: »

I recently took 1 hour 50 minutes to cancel on live chat. Though I was playing along as looking for a deal so time included haggling before I confirmed to definitely cancel.

Ifi had simply wanted to cancel I'd have made sure the conversation was much shorter.

Advantage of live chat is you can go back and forwards to the keyboard while doing something else.

Exactly !! ....and you aren't having to pay for a call - my cancellation took ~ 75 minutes I think and then another 45 minutes when I negotiated the "return to Sky" 32 days later !!- did lots of useful things whilst waiting for some further fatuous comment from the online CSA - hung out washing,loaded dishwasher, made coffee,answered emails -even made a couple of phone calls:)

VisionMan

As an aside, if anyone cancels Sky and wants to still use their dish, go for a Freesat Freetime box. If anyone is switching to Freeview, go for YouView. They are both no-brainers.