Trying to cancel Setanta?!

bijgouder

I called Setanta on the 12th June and told them I wanted to cancel. I was told the account would be cancelled, but that I had to write a letter to confirm. I did this within a day or two, but they later told me they cleared the letter eventually on the 24th of June (Further than I thought to Sunderland!).
I left it to them and heard nothing more. Having read about them on this forum, I cancelled my direct debit a week back, only for them to swiftly follow with a "TAKE ACTION NOW" letter. This started the alarm bells ringing, which led to me finding out about another of their disreputable practices. It would appear that if you give them 30 days' notice (they now tell me it's 60 DAYS!!!!- getting a bit Royston Vaysey, no?) you're not quite finished there. They now tell me that the service will continue until a month after my last DD payment, which will be 3rd August (they were wrong about that- the payment goes out on the 11th), and that I HAVE to keep the service until then. This despite their own acceptance that I had given the required notice. All I got from their moronic staff was repetition that I had the service until 3rd August. When I spoke to a 'Team Leader', I was told that they don't do pro-rata refunds, and that I NEEDED to write to Customer Services for one. No, I DON'T NEED TO DO ANYTHING THEY TELL ME!
This is clearly about principle rather thasn the small amount of money. I feel that they set up systems and practice to make things difficult for you to leave them, and they have the ethics of a backstreet company, not the people who should be given one of the Premier League concessions.
I will NEVER, EVER do business with them again, and I advise you all to think seriously about joining (or staying with, for that matter) them. If you are thinking about signing up, bear in mind they have a pretty second-rate set-up with the football presentation (but at least I now know that the Crossroads crew got other jobs). Also note how they sneaked in a 40% price hike as well.
If you do want to cancel, just stop your payment if you can, let them have notice, and pay any money owing to them when they provide you with an accurate invoice. Thus you will avoid the situation thrust upon me by their
dishonourable ways.
Lastly, don't let them make even more money by ringing their expensive advertised phone numbers- there are plenty in this thread or www.saynoto0870.com

t-elle

Just phoned 0191 501 3601 (use 18185) to make sure that the viewing is suppose to stop today 1 August. Yes, he said, and there will be no more payments taken, it is all cancelled. :j I know it's early-ish but it is still on, don't care as long as they don't charge anymore!!!

jamapo

I too have had a nightmare with Setanta. On 17th June I phoned and cancelled my yearly subscription. I was told to confirm this in writing, which I did. I was also told that my annual subscription ended on 29th June. So I would no longer recieve Setanta after that date. This was no problem, as I now have Virgin TV which gives me Setanta anyway. To compound matters, when I contacted Setanta at the beginning of the year to tell them I had now got Virgin and no longer wanted Setanta through sky, I was told that as I had already paid for it I may as well just keep it and notify them when my yearly subscription was due and they would cancel it then. Oh.... if only!!
On 1st July I was charged £180 for my yearly subscription. I phoned and was assured that I had indeed cancelled on 17th June and my letter was recieved on 26th June. (even though I posted it on the 17th!!)I was then told that I shouldn't have been charged, but that I had to write to the refunds dept at Kircaldy. This I did, (By recorded delivery) and.... nothing!! I telephoned again and was assured that a supervisor would phone me back ... and....nothing.!! I phoned again today and was told that I should have sent the letter to Newry, Co Down as this is where they now deal with refunds!!!When I asked if the people at Kircaldy should have passed my letter onto Co. Down I was told that "I don't think they can do that"!!!! Oh and I was also told that I should have given 60 days notice!!! Considering the letter for renewal only came in 14 days before the due date, I could hardly do that.I have now sent a registered letter - costing £4.60 - to Co.Down. I again phoned to tell customer services I have done this and they have assured me that I will get a phone call from someone next week. I really hope so, but I fully intend to contact my credit card company to take this matter up and I am even considering contacting watchdog and the press. I have been mislead and blatantly lied to, as well as being charged £180 for something I neither want or need.

hansi

Why not visit http://www.bbc.co.uk/consumer/tv_and_radio/get_dom/beontheshow.shtml

If everyone contacted the BBC, you might get something done!

shirlthegirlx

hansi wrote: »

Why not visit http://www.bbc.co.uk/consumer/tv_and_radio/get_dom/beontheshow.shtml

If everyone contacted the BBC, you might get something done!

Thanks for that link Hansi.
I have just emailed them as I have already mailed Watchdog and wrote to Sunday Post and Sunday Mail.
As u say, if everyone bombards the press or programmes with their complaints, then surely they cant ignore all of us?

MarsKy_2

I signed up for a 12 month contract in March 2007, and after 14 months I realised I was still paying £10.99 per month, whilst they had the "£9.99 per month and no contract offer" on. So I called to cancel and I was verbally offered 3 x months at £5 plus £9.99 per month thereafter -which I accepted. I was online checking my bank account today and noticed I only got one month at £5 and they had now started taking £10.99 per month.

So I called today to cancel, only to be told I had to give 60 days notice in writing. I said there was no contract in place for 60 days, that they had reneged on the verbal deal, and I was therefore entitled to make the deal "null and void", and cancel my Direct Debit. They tried to argue the change in price wasn't a "material change" as they put it, and to check the T&Cs which they said they had emailed and posted to me - which they never have.

After arguing for a bit, I realised I was paying for the call, and told them I was cancelling my Direct Debit and that I would follow up with an email and letter of cancellation.

So watch this space...

MarsKy_2

Update to the above post - if I'm supposed to be on the £5 per month deal, and I've just paid £10.99, then I've already covered the subscription for the 60 days cancellation period...

therivierakid

I've gone the robertr route. They received my letter of cancellation on June 30th andI paid my final subscription on July 4th. Towards the end of last month I got a letter asking me to call their 0871 extortion number, this was then followed up by 4 or 5 texts asking the same. So... I emailed them with the following and also posted a copy to Stuart Brodie, Head of Customer (Dis)service:

Dear Mr Brodie


I am writing with regard to your letter dated 17th July 2008, and subsequent SMS messages to my mobile phone.


I will not be phoning you with regard to my account as I have cancelled it. On 28th June 2008 I wrote to you giving 30 days’ notice as per your terms and conditions. The letter was sent Royal Mail Special Delivery and you received it on 30th June 2008. I therefore expected my feed to have been switched off on or around 30th July 2008. This has not yet happened. Please feel free to switch it off at your earliest convenience.


I had previously spoken to one of your customer loyalty agents on 7th June 2008, advising them of my wish to cancel and I was told I needed to give 30 days’ notice in writing. (A letter was sent on 9th June but was unfortunately lost by the post office).


I note that in the meantime you have changed your terms and conditions, saying that customers must now give 60 days’ notice if they wish to cancel. This, however, does not apply to me as you state in your terms and conditions that:


7 a) We will give you at least month’s notice of any changes or additions to these Conditions.


I am aware that changes were made to your T&Cs on June 1st 2008 and hence do not come into effect until July 1st 2008. Given that I was also told 30 days notice was required for cancellations during my phonecall on June 7th 2008 I believe this was still case when you received my letter on June 30th 2008.


Copies of this letter have also been emailed to [EMAIL="customerservices@setanta.com"]customerservices@setanta.com[/EMAIL] and the following addresses: [EMAIL="leonard.ryan@setanta.com"]leonard.ryan@setanta.com[/EMAIL]; [EMAIL="Michael.ORourke@setanta.com"]Michael.ORourke@setanta.com[/EMAIL]; [EMAIL="michael.bucks@setanta.com"]michael.bucks@setanta.com[/EMAIL]; [EMAIL="roger.hall@setanta.com"]roger.hall@setanta.com[/EMAIL]; [EMAIL="matthew.kemp@setanta.com"]matthew.kemp@setanta.com[/EMAIL]


Please do not contact me any more as I will consider this to be harassment and will treat it as such.


I then gave my details and sent the letter and emails on Sunday. I haven't had any more texts or letters since then. I have had phonecalls from 2Touch via their 08004082680 number. See the following thread for details.

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1013601

johnpb78

Guys, I feel your pain, and personally, I think acting as individuals in these cases is simply perpetuating the problem. i'm starting to put together a collection of these complaints and an information site. Please post your complaint to http://www.facebook.com/groups/edit.php?members&saved&gid=26267767023

I promise I will collate these and will send them in bulk as soon as there are an appropriate number to Ofcom, to Michael O'Rourke, and the minister responsible for arts/media and the OFT.

Whilst their practices are legal, they are operating on the margins of the spirit of the law in that they show a complete disregard for replying to letters registered or otherwise, keep you on national rate numbers for excessive lengths of time, only to be told to write in if you wish to cancel. Their most recent one is that when you ring up now and their queue system is full, they give you a message saying too busy ring back, and charge you for this.

They are the shoddiest UK organisation I have ever come across, and they have clearly taken on too much too soon without having the organisation in place to deal with the volume of accounts they are taking on. Howver this is not an excuse for not engaging with their customers.

msampson

hi folks,

hope someone can help as i would like ti know how long the notice is to cancel setanta through freevoew.

i joined on the 3 july 2007 last month.

do you have to subsribe for 2 months before you can give notice to cancel and then it takes 60 days to cancel the service? meaning 4 months in total to cancel?

thansk for any help