Trying to cancel Setanta?!

kong247

They are awful, I signed up on 15th March for 3 months at £5 offer. I tried to cancel to today and was told that although I am cancelling within 30 days of my 3 month offer ending and have just made 3rd payment of £5 that they intend to take another payment on 13th of June (day they will cut me off!) I have told them that they are NOT charging me £9.99 for a months viewing I will never have when I am cancelling within the timeframes specified (even after sending a letter which is a new rule from today!?!?!) I will cancel the direct debit and they can sing for there £9.99.

What a bunch of rip-off merchants, I kept asking how they warranted charging me £9.99 when I am cancelling within 2 months of offer and will not be a customer in 30 days and all they can say is "that's what the system does" or "that's how the billing works"

What a bunch of rip-off merchants!! did i say that already?!

pen1

TheDoctor84 wrote: »

Edit: You're right, in January, it was the Kirkcaldy address. There was notice on the website it changed earlier in the year, which is all Setanta Sports say they need to do, to say it's changed. For those who say they've no access to a computer, and can't see notice of changes, the response from management is: "Every town that has a public library has free public internet access."

Setanta's right to change the terms & conditions via website or newspaper notification only applies to those conditions that are expressly referenced as such in Condition 10 of the contract, in my view.

As that condition adds:

If we give notice that is required under any other Condition of this Contract it must be in writing.

I don't think there's any doubt that notifying a customer that you had changed a correspondence address- from that initially detailed in the contract- would be regarded by a court as a reasonable requirement, should you subsequently wish to enforce it. In my opinion, there is nothing in the contract I have that would excuse Setanta from a requirement to do that in writing.

Personally, I cancelled by recorded delivery letter to the address on my contract (Kirkcaldy), and therefore know it was received on 9th April. Although this doesn't appear to have triggered any response from Setanta, I'm confident that I've done what's required by the contract. I've cancelled the direct debit that would otherwise have become payable on 10th May, and would be confident about my grounds for disputing any further charges that Setanta attempted to impose.

pen1

I disagree.

I cannot see how either party in the contract could reasonably deny that informing the other where they can be contacted is essential to the contract.

The date I gave- 9th April- was the date that my recorded delivery letter was received (and signed for) according to Royal Mail.

My direct debit was only cancelled last week, to prevent a payment being taken for a period after the one month notice period.

Are the legal arguments that you are putting forward, those that are being advised to you in your work on behalf of Setanta? In my opinion, over-reliance on legal arguments could be counter-productive. For those that follow football foremost, there is a natural break in the "need" for Setanta during the summer, and how Setanta handle cancellations in this period may well determine whether some re-subscribe in August.

SickStu

Question for TheDoctor84 I've never received a contract or anything else with my account number on it from Setanta. Will they be able to process my cancellation with just my name, address and Sky viewing card number (which I had to give them when I took out the subscription) ?

pen1

Thanks for your comments, TheDoctor84- it is indeed helpful to know the sort of arguments that are apparently being put forward by/for Setanta.

I've received a letter this morning from Setanta, concerning my cancelled direct debit. I've sent a second letter- again by recorded delivery- this time to the Newry address on the correspondence.

The point is I'm going to enforce my right to cancel, based on the original letter to Kirkcaldy. If Setanta dispute this, then we'll be arguing about a maximum of 2 payments of £9.99, therefore £19.98. If this cannot be satisfactorily resolved by the start of the new football season, then there is little prospect of me re-subscribing.

Frankly, there's little to be gained by Setanta engaging in legal disputes over payments of £9.99 per month. In my case, for example, they stand to gain a maximum of £19.98 after answering any complaint/ legal dispute over the date of cancellation, and to lose a potential customer for the future.

If I find that my account does not have a nil balance recorded at the time of the new football season, then this will be a barrier to me re-subscribing, as I wouldn't wish to offer Setanta a new payment instruction, whilst there is disputed amount on the account.

In the meantime, it's a lovely sunny day, and when the sun stops shining I'll still have Sky!:D

Gadgetnutter

Phoned Setanta this morning to cancel..after a 25 minute wait, finally got answered and got the "you now have to write a letter" spiel.

I argued the toss and asked for a Supervisor, specifically because I had been *assured* when I signed up, that I could cancel over the telephone.

Long story short..nothing could be done..you have to write in

Conversation went like this:

"I was specifically told I could cancel over the telephone"
"Yes Sir, that's what we used to tell people, but the policy has changed as per the T&Cs in the Welcome Pack"
"But the Welcome Pack is not received until *after* you have subscribed"
"Oh..Yes, that's correct"
"How am I meant to know what's in the T&Cs then?"
I'm not sure Sir"
"When does the 30 days notice begin then?"
"I don't know Sir, as I do not work in that department"
"Is there a post backlog?"
"I don't know Sir, as I do not work in that department"
"How will I be advised my letter has been actioned?"
"I don't know Sir, as I do not work in that department"
"Will I receive a pro-rata subscription refund?"
"No Sir, pro-rata refunds are only paid if the amount exceeds £25!!"

And this is from a SUPERVISOR!!

What a bunch of robbing b@st$£ds :mad: :mad: :mad:

pen1

I think people would be well-advised to consider sending cancellation notices recorded delivery ("Recorded Signed For"= £1.08 first class or 99 pence 2nd class), to ensure that they have evidence of its receipt by Setanta.

An electronic proof of delivery can then be obtained/printed a few days later, via the "Track & Trace" facility at www.royalmail.com .

Alternatively, a "certificate of posting" can be obtained at no extra cost to the normal postage, and evidences that a letter entered the Royal Mail network.

Whilst sending mail recorded delivery hasn't yet resolved my cancellation problem with Setanta, it does give me confidence that I can successfully defend any demands and/or legal action that Setanta were to pursue in the future.

sdavi3680

Just wanted to add my hatred for setanta. I phoned up 3 weeks ago to cancel was told I didn't have any outstanding balance and no payments due to cancelled my DD. Have since received 2 letters asking to reinstate DD and then phone call today asking me for my one month outstanding balance. Was no good arguing that their stupid customer services told me I wouldn't be charged again. Another annoyance was the connection fee they sprung on me, it didn't say it anywhere on the website except in small print on a seperate page. Surely they should have how much will be debited in total before confirming bank details?

I have subscribed twice now to Setanta for short periods for big boxing fights, both times have had problems with them. Wont be making the mistake for a third time. It's a shame as they keep buying up the big fights, there is nothing else on there worth watching. I would rather pay the occassional one off sky box office £15 fee than pay for Setanta monthly or try and subscribe for short periods again, even if it is cheaper.

pen1

Some posts have seemingly been deleted from the thread!

I honestly wasn't arguing with myself further up the thread!

SickStu

Yeah what happened to TheDoctor84's last couple of posts saying Setanta was gagging employees in terms of commenting on message boards etc. - very Orwellian.

Anyway I've sent a recorded delivery cancellation letter to the Sunderland address after not being able to get through on the phone. Will dish the dirt if it goes pear shaped.