Cancel Sky Within 12 month Contract

SimonRooke86

Hi all I'm new,
I been with Sky with the full package TV,Phone and Broadband for 7 years,
Obviously everytime I need a deal on my account they put you in a 12 month contract,
I just come off phone from Sky saying I cannot cancel as I am in contract,
Why can I not simply Buy out my contract,
Thanks
Simon

tomtontom

You can ...

http://help.sky.com/articles/charges-for-ending-your-sky-contract-early

Quentin

SimonRooke86 wrote: »

Why can I not simply Buy out my contract,
Thanks
Simon

Have they told you that you cannot?


Write in with your cancellation instructions and ask for a final invoice to cover the early termination and take it from their reply:

Sky Subscriber Services Ltd
PO Box 43
Livingston West Lothian
EH54 7PR

SimonRooke86

Thanks Guys, Yeah I asked them and they said I cannot

parttimeskint

Sky won't cancel tv while in contract as that would mean they are breaking the T&C whether or not they should, is a separate argument all together.

If you want out now you only really have 2 options.

Option 1 - Place notice to cancel now for when your contract ends and pay enough money up front to cover any future payments up to that time. In effect you have paid off the contract. Your card and services will still work all the way up to the end of the contract, you will be a sky customer until the contract end, you won't be able to upgrade or downgrade while the cancellation is in place (so if you have an expensive package, downfrade first and then place notice to cancel) sky can place a cancellation on to services up to a year in advance so don't let them tell you otherwise (90 days for phone and broadband). Many advisers will not be forthcoming with the truth about that and tell you to call back 31days in advance and so on. This is only to protect their bonus, not yours or sky's rights.

Option 2 - Cancel the direct debit. The services will get blocked and after a few weeks terminate altogether. Once terminated any early termination charges will be applied and you will be sent a final bill. The termination charges are normally less than a full price subscription. If you pay it when you receive the letter you dont have to worry about debt collectors and thrashed credit files. You can also pay it online as well. If you pay it online make sure not to reinstate the direct debit as that may reinstate your subscription.

You can see the termination charges here http://help.sky.com/articles/charges-for-ending-your-sky-contract-early

mije1983

parttimeskint wrote: »

Sky won't cancel tv while in contract as that would mean they are breaking the T&C whether or not they should, is a separate argument all together.

The link you posted does in fact mention cancelling while in your minimum term

Early termination charges only apply if your subscription ends within the minimum term for reasons other than those permitted under your contract

parttimeskint

mije1983 wrote: »

The link you posted does in fact mention cancelling while in your minimum term

The quote you posted doesn't mention cancelling, it mentions the subscription ending within minimum term. They are not the same thing. If I stop paying my mobile contract and they switch me off, I haven't cancelled, I have defaulted on the contract.

Sky won't cancel the subscription while in minimum term (unless there is a change to pricing or service ) so it's down to the subscriber to force them to terminate the contract by not paying. By not paying the subscriber breaks the contract and not Sky. Thereby allowing Sky to charge you a fee for terminating early. Often called an early termination charge.

Quentin

parttimeskint wrote: »

Sky won't cancel the subscription while in minimum term (unless there is a change to pricing or service ) so it's down to the subscriber to force them to terminate the contract by not paying. By not paying the subscriber breaks the contract and not Sky. Thereby allowing Sky to charge you a fee for terminating early. Often called an early termination charge.

Nonsense.



No-one should follow your advice to simply "terminate by not paying", which could have an impact on your credit rating!

The "contract" does not have to be breached at all in order to terminate it early.


It spells out the early termination fees and how they are calculated in the Skyhelp link you have been given above.

mije1983

parttimeskint wrote: »

The quote you posted doesn't mention cancelling, it mentions the subscription ending within minimum term. They are not the same thing. If I stop paying my mobile contract and they switch me off, I haven't cancelled, I have defaulted on the contract.

Sky won't cancel the subscription while in minimum term (unless there is a change to pricing or service ) so it's down to the subscriber to force them to terminate the contract by not paying. By not paying the subscriber breaks the contract and not Sky. Thereby allowing Sky to charge you a fee for terminating early. Often called an early termination charge.

Your contract doesn't allow you to leave within the minimum term without paying charges, so this is one of the reasons included in the bolded quote below. Not paying would also be one of those reasons.

Early termination charges only apply if your subscription ends within the minimum term for reasons other than those permitted under your contract

You are perfectly able to cancel within your minimum term. One of my friends did just that a couple of years ago before they moved abroad. Sky may tell you that you can't, but I can assure you it is perfectly possible. As an aside, him going abroad was when I finally realised that it was by far the easiest and quickest thing to say to any provider when you wanted to leave. The cancellation calls are so much quicker!

Early termination charges are not just levied when you refuse to pay (not a recommended form of action for ANY contract), but when you don't fulfil the term for any reason whatsover.

parttimeskint

And yet the OP was told he can't cancel within his minimum term.

Cancelling the payment won't effect credit rating until it is passed to a debt collector. Have you ever heard of anyone saying they have a default placed on their credit file by Sky? Debt collectors yes, Sky no. Once Sky terminate the contract they send a bill with ETC included. You pay it, the end. No debt collector, no bad credit rating. And more importantly for the OP no more Sky contract. Which is what they want.

The calculator for the termination fees obviously mentions what the fees are and how they are calculated but mentions nothing about cancelling within minimum term, as far as a TV subscription goes.

if you can show me in the terms and conditions where it says you can cancel when you want and just pay the early termination charges instead, because that's what you are saying, then I will happily change the above.

Normally I wouldn't advise anyone to just cancel payment but, in this case, the OP is happy and wants to pay the early termination charge so that's the easiest way to get to that point.