Switching from Virgin to Sky

ICHICU

A BT Openreach engineer visited my home yesterday to switch my broadband and phone from Virgin to Sky. All went well so following the advice from Sky I called Virgin today to cancel my services.
Virgin let me go easy enough because I had already switched but told me that I won`t be disconnected for 30 days and will have to continue paying for their services until then.
I have carefully followed the advice given by Sky (BT give the same advice when switching from Virgin Media) but now find myself having to pay an extra month to Virgin when I no longer need their services.
I am guessing this must have happened to other people and would like to know if there is anything I can do about it.
Thanks

mije1983

When you say you want to know if there is anything you can do about it, what do you mean? You have to give 30 days notice, so you have to pay for thise 30 days.

The reason they recommend not cancelling with Virgin until your new service is up and running is in case the date changes and you end up with no service at all. You could have disregarded this advice if you'd wanted to and tied up your Virgin cancellation with your new line connection date.

AndyPK

Best advise would be to cancel 14 days ago.

iniltous

ICHICU wrote: »

A BT Openreach engineer visited my home yesterday to switch my broadband and phone from Virgin to Sky. All went well so following the advice from Sky I called Virgin today to cancel my services.
Virgin let me go easy enough because I had already switched but told me that I won`t be disconnected for 30 days and will have to continue paying for their services until then.
I have carefully followed the advice given by Sky (BT give the same advice when switching from Virgin Media) but now find myself having to pay an extra month to Virgin when I no longer need their services.
I am guessing this must have happened to other people and would like to know if there is anything I can do about it.
Thanks

A bit pedantic but the Openreach engineer didn't switch your service from VM to Sky, he installed a 'Sky' line, and this has nothing at all to do with VM, who use a totally separate network.
You could have tried to have the VM service cease on the same day the Sky service was provided,by advising VM 30 days before the Sky install date, but the only connection between the two networks would have been if you ported the VM number to Sky, if you were told by Sky to wait until the Sky service was in before calling VM, perhaps you could call Sky and ask for a credit for the amount you will pay to VM during the notice period.
I guess you were not bothered about the phone number Sky were supplying, so how did you think VM would know you were 'moving' to Sky, if you didn't advise them directly, or indirectly by Sky requesting a number port ?

If you decided ( even if it were Sky's advice) it would be prudent to give VM notice to quit only after the Sky service was up and running, it's not unreasonable for VM to apply the notice period and for you to pay for the 30 days notice , you will have the VM service for this period, even if it's not really required, (it's not like you are paying but not receiving anything,) and VM's T&C's state what the notice period is
Your issue is with the advice Sky gave you, it was always going to result in a 30 day period when you would pay for both VM and Sky

Buzby

I have left Sky's meagre 5Mb service, for 200Mb from Virgin. There's nothing else out there that comes close! You needed to give VM the 30 days notice of cancellation. When you go back from Sky, AFTER your minimum term, they only want 14 days notice!