Leaving Sky Broadband

David333

I signed up with Sky Broadband almost two years ago and my contract comes to an end on 31st October. I want to leave and go elsewhere. How do I ensure that a) Sky don't charge me an exit fee? and b) I don't lose internet access? Should I speak to, say, Vodafone and ask them to transfer me on 1st November? Will they not contact Sky until then?

Woodstok2000

Are your dates correct? If your contract is up at the end of October, you cant leave before that without incurring early termination charges....certainly not on 1st September.

TadleyBaggie

Strictly speaking your contract doesn't come to an end, you merely reach the minimum term. You will find that you still need to give Sky 28 days notice even after reaching the minimum term.

I was able to avoid any internet outage by switching to a full fibre supplier and ensuring an overlap on the services.

iniltous

With OTS (one touch switching) the 30 day notice becomes a little irrelevant, but your minimum term still exists, TBH striving to get an exact date switch makes little difference price wise , if a switch is done a few days earlier than ideal ,a few days ETC won’t amount too much, similarly a few days later than ideal, a few days of paying an ‘out of contract’ price won’t amount to much either , you only pay for the number of days supplied, if Sky send out a bill for the full month after you have left , they refund the days paid for after the changeover when the new provider was supplying service, you don’t pay twice for any day , this way of paying the full month and then be refunded the appropriate number of days , happens even if the switch is on the exact date you want , it’s just a part if the invoicing delay .

You can ask for a date when you contact the new provider , typically a switch takes 10-14 days to arrange, so if you called Vodafone (or inline application) around the 17th-21th October , the dates on offer will be around 31st October, they use OTS ,which effectively serves notice on your behalf to Sky (so you don’t contact Sky yourself) , there is no 30 day notice with OTS , if they offer a date around 31st October (which is likely ) you accept , Sky send you (as part of the OTS process) an impact statement indicating any extra ETC charges if any are applicable because you are to leave a few days before the minimum term expires , the changeover then takes place , you pay Sky only upto the changeover date , and Vodafone charge from after the changeover date , and as stated , a day or two before or after 31st October will be relatively inconsequential sum , probably of the order 50p extra per day early or late .

David333

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82093507#Comment_82093507

Thanks! Yeah, I meant November. They're made-up dates (the contract ends sometime in a few months and I couldn't be bothered to look it up) and I messed it up as I failed to decide on which dates to say! Thank you

David333

Thanks. I think my concern is Sky charging a fee for leaving, so as long as I have a changeover date that is after my two years minimum term it doesn't really matter. I'm just concerned about telling Sky I'm leaving within my two years, but it seems Vodafone won't inform them until the changeover date

Woodstok2000

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82093574#Comment_82093574

Yep, so if your contract ends 31 October, get your new provider to start on 01 November, and tell Sky on 3rd October so you know they've had 28 days notice.

GrubbyGirl_2

You don't have to tell Sky anything, your new provider does all that, in fact you might muddy the water if you do contact Sky. All you need to do is start the process with your new provider, they will contact Sky and Sky will let you know that they have received the request, they organise change over which only took just over an hour on the day. Did it 18 months ago when I moved to BT and it went smoothly and pretty quickly

iniltous

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82093574#Comment_82093574

As stated you don’t tell Sky anything yourself, the new provider via OTS does that , they inform Sky when you agree the new deal , they don’t wait until the actual date of changeover , that’s essential though , Sky need to work out if there is any contractual obligations , like ETC , but these are based on the date of the switchover not the date Vodafone contact Sky , the 30 day notice requirement doesn’t apply , with OTS it can be much less, this is all automated, VF don’t ‘call’ Sky , Sky don’t concern themselves that 30 days notice wasn’t given when using OTS , but they do consider if you have served the minimum term or not

your minimum term expires 31 October , a reasonable time frame is ,

21st October , you call or go online with Vodafone and agree to join , they offer 30th October as a changeover date , you accept, it’s only day off your ideal date, this is less than 30 days notice but it doesn’t matter and makes no difference to your final Sky bill .

21st October VF via OTS advise Sky you are joining VF , Sky start their goodbye and probably a retention process.

22nd -25th October Sky send you an email or letter saying to the effect ‘sorry you are leaving on the 30th , this is one day before your minimum term expires so your final bill will include ETC for 1 day , this 1 day of ETC probably means an extra charge of £1 added to your bill (this is inline with their ETC policy , check Sky website for the exact terms ) this is the impact statement they are obliged to send out , it also probably adds an offer to stay and how to cancel VF if you do decide to stay, clearly someone with months or years left on the minimum term may see this ETC figure and change their mind about migration and cancel the switch at this point , you having very few days remaining it will be insignificant but check Sky website for ETC charges so you know in advance.

If your normal bill from Sky arrives between 22nd -30th , you get a bill including days in November, this was already in the system , for arguments sake it’s upto 15th November, you pay it

30th October (Your new VF router has already arrived and assuming Openreach are the supplier for your old Sky service and VF ), Sky stops working just after midnight so no service when you wake up, you connect VF and lunchtime it starts to work , you possibly need to send back the Sky kit .

15th November, you get another Sky bill , it’s a final invoice, it shows charges for 16th October -30th October and a refund for 31st October to 15th November and 1 day ETC for quiting early ,after credits and debits worked out , this is shows a credit balance, you are due a refund approximately half what you paid in October for the October -November bill.

1st to 30th November, you get your first VF bill , showing the start date from 31st October

Your ETC was tiny , you never paid twice for a single day , you got a refund for they days you paid Sky for but were connected to Vodafone

This us how it’s supposed to work .

JSmithy45AD

@David333 Absolutely spot on advice from @iniltous in both posts.

Just to be clear, do not try and sign up for anyone else until you're around a fortnight from the end of minimum term.

David333

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82093689#Comment_82093689

This is all really helpful, thank you. The one thing that I don't understand is why you've suggested the 30th as a changeover date. Would 3rd November work equally well or have I missed something?