Sky Q temporary suspension ripoff

Neighsayer

I've been a Sky Q customer for a few years now. I work abroad a fair bit and don't always get full value from it so I cancelled the sport and movies package last year but continued with variety and multi-room. I've now been posted abroad for around 6/8 months so I decided its better to cancel the whole thing while I'm away. I called Sky and explained my situation. They told me if I cancel while I'm away I need to return the Q box and mini-boxes which I actually paid for when I took it out first and if I want to sign up again when I come back I'll have to pay for new boxes. The guy tried to convince me I'd be better continuing to pay while I'm away and offered zero flexibility. Complete ripoff.

Captain Flaps

Devil's advocate: never been a sky subscriber but with virgin you pay to install the equipment, if you cancel you're supposed to send it back to them. Sky are probably the same - if you check your contract you'll find that you don't own the box, and if you're no longer a customer they'll want their equipment back. If you rejoin in the future they'll send you out whatever the current box is and you'll pay to have the service installed etc, depending on the fee for that you might end up cheaper just paying your monthly rate rather than disconnecting/reconnecting but for 6-8 months that seems unlikely.

JDxtra

You don't own the Sky Q boxes, they must be returned if the subscription is cancelled. They have no guarantee you'll subscribe again when you return.

You're probably better off with a DIY install of Saorview and Freesat if you're not bothering with movies and sports. Sky is indeed a rip off.

Neighsayer

JDxtra wrote: »

You don't own the Sky Q boxes, they must be returned if the subscription is cancelled. They have no guarantee you'll subscribe again when you return.

You're probably better off with a DIY install of Saorview and Freesat if you're not bothering with movies and sports. Sky is indeed a rip off.

True indeed but wouldn't you imagine they could say "Thanks for your custom, best of luck on the overseas posting, contact us when you want to resume service and we won't charge you for the boxes when you're reconnecting". You're right saorview/freesat is the way to go. I stuck with Sky to have the convenience of having sports switched on for a month now and then and to get Attheraces for Irish racing but that's gone now as well. They really are shysters charging extra for HD as well.

swoofer

and they charge extra for UHD!!!

Johnboy1951

They used to have a means of getting a temporary 'stay' on the contract for such eventualities.

Say you are 6 months into a contract and need a 6 month break, then they would put the contract on hold until the 6 months were up, when your contract would resume for the rest of the period.

Of course if you are not within a contracted term that could not be done.

FTA is the way to go, and if you set it up right you could even stream from it while abroad.

SteM

Neighsayer wrote: »

I.....They told me if I cancel while I'm away I need to return the Q box and mini-boxes which I actually paid for when I took it out first......

I'm pretty sure you didn't. Sky Q equipment remains the property of Sky.

Tigerandahalf

You would be better off with a freesat system.
You could also use Now tv (streaming version of Sky) for sports when you need them, if you have decent broadband.

A now tv stick is about €20 I think depending on what tv passes come on it. Ideal for someone who watches on and off.

Neighsayer

SteM wrote: »

I'm pretty sure you didn't. Sky Q equipment remains the property of Sky.

I find it hard to understand why some posters feel the need to stick their oar in without knowing their facts. I never said they weren't the property of Sky but I did pay for them. Check it out on Sky the cost of a 2tb box and 2 x mini.

mightybashful

Neighsayer wrote: »

I find it hard to understand why some posters feel the need to stick their oar in without knowing their facts. I never said they weren't the property of Sky but I did pay for them. Check it out on Sky the cost of a 2tb box and 2 x mini.

Why post if you don't want want peoples' opinions. And you are contradicting yourself here......

SteM

Neighsayer wrote: »

I find it hard to understand why some posters feel the need to stick their oar in without knowing their facts. I never said they weren't the property of Sky but I did pay for them. Check it out on Sky the cost of a 2tb box and 2 x mini.

So you say that you know that they are property of Sky but complain that you have to give them back. OK.

winston_1

Neighsayer wrote: »

I find it hard to understand why some posters feel the need to stick their oar in without knowing their facts. I never said they weren't the property of Sky but I did pay for them. Check it out on Sky the cost of a 2tb box and 2 x mini.

What you paid for was the cost of installing them. You can't pay for something you don't own.

Neighsayer

[quote="winston_1;110077025" You can't pay for something you don't own.[/quote] Some fairly ridiculous comments on here but you may have won the biscuit.

mightybashful

Neighsayer wrote: »

Some fairly ridiculous comments on here but you may have won the biscuit.

You should quote all of what Winston said. He's actually correct.

icdg

Play the ball, not the man please.

What was said is something 100% true of Sky Q. You do not own the Sky Q STBs (afaik they are happy for you to keep the dish, but it will be your own expense to swap the Sky Q LNB for a normal one). And yet there is pretty hefty installation fees, at least for Sky HD customers who want to convert.

Compare with cable companies, where you never own any of the equipment, and contrast with the traditional situation with Sky where you owned all of the equipment supplied.

Neighsayer

mightybashful wrote: »

You should quote all of what Winston said. He's actually correct.

So have you never paid for something you didn't own? Maybe I shouldn't have given back the hire car I had last week. You pay for the boxes but the T&C's stipulate they remain the property of Sky. AFAIR they do dress the cost of the main box up as an installation charge but since the work involved in installing a 1TB and a 2TB is exactly the same but the installation price is different it's not hard to see through that. Mini box are a straight up price per box. In any event the point of my post was to highlight the rip off if someone needs to suspend their service for a number of months. Anyone who doesn't think it's a ripoff is, of course, entitled to their opinion. If I think they're posting nonsense I'm entitled to my opinion.

pa990

Neighsayer wrote: »

So have you never paid for something you didn't own? Maybe I shouldn't have given back the hire car I had last week. You pay for the boxes but the T&C's stipulate they remain the property of Sky. AFAIR they do dress the cost of the main box up as an installation charge but since the work involved in installing a 1TB and a 2TB is exactly the same but the installation price is different it's not hard to see through that. Mini box are a straight up price per box. In any event the point of my post was to highlight the rip off if someone needs to suspend their service for a number of months. Anyone who doesn't think it's a ripoff is, of course, entitled to their opinion. If I think they're posting nonsense I'm entitled to my opinion.

:pac::pac::pac:

Neighsayer

pa990 wrote: »

:pac::pac::pac:

Sad

spaceHopper

Neighsayer wrote: »

So have you never paid for something you didn't own? Maybe I shouldn't have given back the hire car I had last week. You pay for the boxes but the T&C's stipulate they remain the property of Sky. AFAIR they do dress the cost of the main box up as an installation charge but since the work involved in installing a 1TB and a 2TB is exactly the same but the installation price is different it's not hard to see through that. Mini box are a straight up price per box. In any event the point of my post was to highlight the rip off if someone needs to suspend their service for a number of months. Anyone who doesn't think it's a ripoff is, of course, entitled to their opinion. If I think they're posting nonsense I'm entitled to my opinion.

You aren't being ripped off, you paid for the equipment to be installed, but you don't own it you are leaving them so they want it back. They aren't charging you a break fee or anything like that. Give it back when you are back in the country take up a deal with VM or SKY or get the LNB changed and have free sat, you'll need to add antenna for the Irish channels. If you are handy and DIY you can change the LNB and add an antenna yourself.

icdg

PA990 and Neighseyer, both take warnings. Neither of your posts added anything to the thread

Captain Flaps

Neighsayer wrote: »

So have you never paid for something you didn't own? Maybe I shouldn't have given back the hire car I had last week. You pay for the boxes but the T&C's stipulate they remain the property of Sky. AFAIR they do dress the cost of the main box up as an installation charge but since the work involved in installing a 1TB and a 2TB is exactly the same but the installation price is different it's not hard to see through that. Mini box are a straight up price per box. In any event the point of my post was to highlight the rip off if someone needs to suspend their service for a number of months. Anyone who doesn't think it's a ripoff is, of course, entitled to their opinion. If I think they're posting nonsense I'm entitled to my opinion.

You paid for the services of a car hire company, you didn't pay for the car - you paid for the use of the car.

In this scenario you didn't pay for the SkyQ equipment, you paid for the use of it. You also pay each month for the service of Sky TV. While it's not entirely fair and your query is pretty standard, your original post seems to have been answered and Sky haven't really done anything wrong here.

For what it's worth, you should just send everything back and let the contract die. When you come back you'll have been away long enough that you'll qualify as a new customer and likely benefit from loads of new customer benefits, including possibly free installation. You've nothing to lose other than the minor inconvenience of a disconnect/reconnect.