CANCELLING SKY (before I lose my ****)

tom23

Ok, the last week my OAP father in law has been trying to cancel Sky TV and Broadband. Happy enough just to use saorvew and a new deal of Vodafone will get him the same broadband for 35 euros.

Sky have made it impossible to cancel. Long wait times on their customer service. Go through WhatsApp and all you get is their Indian or what ever the **** it is call centre with their bullshit passive aggressive sales. They have waiting for Horus back and forth and won't cancel the account.

Can anyone advise what number can be called or who I can call on to get away from this pox of a service. Apologies for the tone of the post I am livid that they would treat and OAP like this. Just livid.

KildareP

For the broadband - tell Vodafone that you want to switch your Sky broadband to them, they'll do the cancelling down bit.

For the TV - unfortunately, you have no choice but to wait to talk to retentions. If you call first thing in the morning when they open that seems to be your best bet at getting through without sitting on hold for 30+ minutes.

tom23

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121658705#Comment_121658705

cheers - I back and forth on whatsapps with a rep for the last 70 minutes. I can't make it any clearer to them that I want to cancel my account. They keep throwing unnecessary bulshit at me... it's actually crazy. It's like they want to wear you down and into submission.

KildareP

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121658762#Comment_121658762

That's pretty much what they're hoping for - that you'll give up.

tom23

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121658775#Comment_121658775

Absoulertly mental tactic that they have. Farm it all out to an Indian Cal Centre and its colour by number replies. They can't understand why he was to switch to Vodafone for 35 rather than pay them 60 for the same Siro Broadband. Now I am in the WhatsApp text message and it's trying to connect after 75 minutes back and forth. It looks like he has disconnected me.

RGARDINR

There v painful to deal with but like person above said maybe ring at 9 I did before and was only 5 mins.

tom23

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121658837#Comment_121658837

Cheers for sharing that. Ive been disconnected from the WhatsApp Chat. So I'll try ringing again. It's disgraceful carry on from Sky.

RGARDINR

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121658884#Comment_121658884

Yup there a nightmare to deal with and they don't really advertise their phone numbers to ring.

kenn0

Sky freephone number

1800 92 74 76

as others said ring first thing in the morning

apache

I've been dreading to make that call to them for those very reasons. I have no patience. It's a freephone no right? Can someone put it up?

Edit - I see it was put up, thanks

tbh I never had trouble but I was always fairly straight out.

Cancelling, not interested in any deals, just cancelling.

If they try to offer one I will immediately stop them and remind them I am not interested.

I will do this on repeat as necessary. Eventually they get tired of not being able to get a word in edge ways and either the call “drops” or they cancel it.

overpronator

Tweet them with a Sky customer service hashtag and use complaining language. Mention Comreg (broadband)

Apothic_Red

I was you OP, continually on hold or being switched between call holders.

So, I emailed them my 31 day notice.

Covered my final bill then cancelled my DD.

Emailed them again to confirm, both times I received automated replies.

Anyway, the bills kept coming, I emailed them the previous correspondence, same automated reply.

Service eventually cancelled due to non-payment plus fines added.

Next thing I started receiving emails from a debt collection agency based in Scotland, Interim Justia.

I forwarded them the previous correspondence & they emailed me back to say the debt had reverted to Sky.

That whole pantomime took about 6 months but was worth it.

waywill1966

Best thing i did was cancelling Sky! While you are with them they are constantly ringing you trying to upgrade! I told them I had no interest in sport or movies but they persisted in calling me! I cancelled after a back and forth with them on a whatsapp call which took almost four hours! Got a freesat recorder box in NI and havent looked back,great to have the ITVs and Ch5s available to series link and record which are not on Sky here in Ireland.

Reversal

Just to add their website would take years off your life. Every step you take you're being redirected to your upgrade options.

squonk

So really the minions on the ad are actually their staff!

tom23

i got it cancelled took my father in a law a week of trying. And myself a couple of days. the offer they had for him was just crap. a they lost him now to vodafone. They will ring next and then make offer no doubht. Crazy business model. glad he got rid of them.

Poochie05

Feel your pain, OP, I went through the same. They say you have to give them 31 days written notice but when I sent an email stating this was the written notice, they then reply to saying you need to call them 🤷‍♀️ but you could only call them Monday to Friday between 9-5.

I ended up calling and got through fairly quickly but it still took me 25 minutes of going through the motions of offers and me saying every time i just want to cancel, then they started to do a survey of why I was cancelling and who I was moving to which I responded none of your business! They insisted the notice period started on the date of the call, but I sent a follow-up email contesting this saying their limited hours for being contactable were unreasonable for anyone who had a full time job and that as it was I was being reasonable giving notice since they hadn’t been providing a service or 2 weeks. They replied that they would cancel the next bill and I have been blissfully happy since!

Apothic_Red

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121661469#Comment_121661469

I received an automated email to do an Exit Survey upon leaving.

One of the questions dealt with Kodi boxes & firesticks, didn't feel like incriminating myself so pulled the plug on that

squonk

You’ve gone. They fucked you around before you were able to go, so they owe you nothing and it’s cheek on their part to ask you to do a survey.

I wouldn’t sign up for sky if it meant having no TV and no broadband for the rest of my life. I worked at an ISP at one point and I was discussing with our CEO one day about sky licensing their content to us. From what he told me, they sounded like a bunch of extortionate pricks, to be quite honest, I’ve held a grudge against them ever since because I figure if they are assholes with their content, they aren’t exactly going to be Santa Claus to their customers either

EarWig

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058332813/cancelling-sky-before-i-lose-my-****

As another person wrote, all you have to do is call Vodafone with your order. They will take the UAN and process the switch.

When they talk to you they will advise you to contact Sky anyway. I did that but Sky told me that there was no need as the switch is done automatically.

I was offline for half a day. The engineer said it would go live in 20 minutes but it was close to 5pm and didn't happen until the following morning.

Sky asked for the box back and sent a box for the return.

tom23

yeah I ge that in fairness. I was helping an OAP. They don’t make it easy. I had advised him to do through whatsapp. It was just a. litany of bulshit from them. It’s done now. They don’t need the tv. They would get away with using 50mb connection. They have switched to Vodafone and got it for nearly half the price than they were getting of Sky. I get sky can be a pain in the hole but this is the worse I’ve experienced of them and I’ve been using their services on and off for 20 years. Cheers

gerrykeegan

It took me two days through WhatsApp. I nearly lost the will to live. I just copied and pasted. I'm very happy with the service, I'm very happy with the price, I don't need to tell you why I'm moving and I just want to cancel, nothing you can do or say will change my mind.

Timfy

A simple "I'm leaving the country and need to cancel my service" usually cuts through the BS

You can swap leaving the country for going to prison if you really want to cut the small talk!

whelan2

Wait for the calls now to rejoin. They'd put years on you. Was a sky customer for over 20 years, never again. Was paying 120 per month for just tv. Money better in my pocket than their's

ChicoCannon

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121659188#Comment_121659188

100% don't do that, it is like telling them you will call Joe Duffy, they don't care, they aren't actually breaking any rules/laws, even if they are these companies face minimal fines for offences.

Could be worse you could be dealing with Voda Business team. Weekly calls during the summer to try their 5G router, despite telling them I have poor service where i live it won't work well they kept on ringing so eventually I just gave up tool up the "Free 2 Week Trial" which is basically the cooling off period, I tried it for 2 days, I would have 100mb one minute and have under 1mb the next, most of the time it sat somewhere around 2.3mb if it was getting a signal. Called up after 2 days told them it wasn't suitable, they arranged to have it collected not giving me any sort of number for the return. I went away with my family for a week, came back and then unfortunately had to go to the middle east to see a sick friend for the last time so it was completely at the back of my mind. I've been hit before using my phone in Dubai in the past as at the time DU had no competition so therefore no agreements with any providers from outside of the UAE so even on my roaming allowances i still got hit. So it was only the following month i looked and noticed my bill was €40 more than it should be even though the calls made and received in Dubai were showing as 0.00 closer look at my bill showed that i had now got 2 phone numbers attached to my business account(I used to be attached to a company I used to work fors account, have been asking for years to come off the business account they keep telling me i am but Voda Business keep calling me anyway) so I just gave up trying, just wait till it's time to upgrade, explain the whole situation again. Anyway called them, confirmed i had cancelled the service with them, I didn't have a return number but they still confirmed it had been collected and returned, added a credit on my account for the month of the new sim attached to my account(from the 5G Router). So next month checked again and guess what charged again and an early termination few, called them again, even though it is a business line I call them on took an age to get through so got onto Chat support, again apologies, again a credit and again i was told it had all been cancelled down. Next month low and behold still wasn't cancelled down, this time i actually looked at the usage on the second Sim and it was being used even though I didn't have it anymore, it had been "cancelled" and confirmed they had received it back. On chat support again with the guy I last spoke to on Chat support, explained situation yet again, apologies, credit on account but this time it was finally cancelled. A month after it was all sorted finally got a call from Vodafone Business asking me if i wanted to try out their 5G Router on a free 2 week trial.

ChicoCannon

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121662083#Comment_121662083

Having worked in similar industries in the past, these surveys if a low score will of course show up in department meetings etc... but essentially all it will do is punish the person you are dealing with on the phone, who are only doing what they have been told to do and they will miss out on part of their bonus or worse end up in a performance meeting.

These guys do not get paid enough to put up with what they have to put up with, simply because they are doing the job they have been told. As for the offshore call centres those guys can't look into the grey area they have their scripts and they are afraid to stray from them because if they don't they know there will be someone new sitting at their seat before they even get out of the building. Thank less job, never worked in Retentions/Loyalty etc... anywhere thank god but heard the stories people having not only save targets but sales targets when working on retentions lines and their bonus would be massively impacted by using offers, or not up selling. Fair play to them if they can put up with it but not for me thanks.

elperello

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121663513#Comment_121663513

Thanks for the insight.

Clearly Sky have no concern for either staff or customers.

Another reason for avoiding them.

squonk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121663513#Comment_121663513

Agree 100%. I worked another time in a sky competitor here and definitely agree you shouldn’t take anything out of the poor sap on the phone. It’s bit they’re fault and they aren’t being paid enough to deal with the crap most of them have to deal with. It’s management who are at fault for the most out. They make the policies and collect metrics on the call centre staff like there going out of style.

ChicoCannon

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121663592#Comment_121663592

Don't think it is limited to one company to be honest they all have a distain for their customers especially loyal ones. which is why all the new customers get all the deals.

animalinside

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121690560#Comment_121690560

It's not all the new customers, or at least it usedn't be with Sky. If you were trying to cancel they would suddenly slash the price for you for the next few months as long as you remained with them for that time. This led many customers to gain from calling them up pretending they wanted to cancel to get a better deal, meanwhile loyal customers who never threatened to cancel kept paying full price like mugs. It was so crude and secondhand car salesman-y, should be against the law.

Look at this out in the open:

https://www.householdmoneysaving.com/how-to-reduce-your-sky-bill/

This isn't considered highly sneaky and under-the-table behaviour? Should be totally illegal.

elperello

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121690560#Comment_121690560

Not putting you on the spot and leave it if you don't want to say.

Could you nominate the best of a bad lot ?

FobleAsNuck

when I wanted to switch I first signed up with a new provider

then, in few days I got an email from Sky "Sorry you are leaving" so I never bothered to follow up with them

few more days later got the label via email to send the equipment back - done that

that was it, case closed

EarWig

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121691064#Comment_121691064

The small ISPs will give best service, but they generally don't do low ball offers to new users.

Vodafone has broken ranks with their low ball offer to both new and existing customers. A lot of people complain about them, and I'm sure with good reason. You could even Google for a recent court case. I haven't had an issue with them yet.

FobleAsNuck

I switched to Digiweb. Same line as previously with Sky/Vodafone but speeds are better. Plus they don't block the usefull functionality on your router (DNS, VPN, etc) - and it is a Fritzbox which is miles ahead of whatever crap big players are offering.

apache

I'm ringing them up tomorrow to cancel. I hope I can get through without too much hassle.

I'm paying €75 a month for basic and HD and Multiroom. I have Netflix and a Firestick so could do with that. I suppose I'm old fashioned and watch stuff I've recorded on TV mostly. I actually never use Netflix or the Firestick but that would change if I cancelled Sky. I'd miss the record function and Multiroom but if I save €75 a month it would be worth it.

Yeah, going to ring up in the morning to cancel. I've been with them 18 years. It's cost me a fortune.

Galwayguy35

I pay by direct debit, not planning on leaving just yet but when I do I'll just get the bank to cancel it.

irishgeo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121755722#Comment_121755722

That doesn't cancel your account. They will keep charging you and fining you and then it's the the debt collectors.

RockOrBog

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121755754#Comment_121755754

They won't they'll do sweet **** all

Cut the money off

kyote00

Had the same last year. In all it took about three days….. one fucker took his lunch break mid webchat….. another downed tools at 5pm exactly and had to wait till next day….

got there in the end

apache

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121755722#Comment_121755722

That dosen't stop them pestering you until you clear your account.

irishgeo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121755764#Comment_121755764

Until you added to the credit register as a bad debtor and you try to apply for a loan/mortgage.

apache

I tried to get through earlier but got fed up waiting. I'll try again tomorrow but it's very annoying. I might have to go down the cancelling Direct Debit route. I'm not spending ages waiting on the phone.

Rustyman101

Wasn't there supposed to be legislation being brought in to stop this crap ?

Notice to cancel one month in advance should be sufficient. Cancelled VM broadband Jesus what a battle, don't really mind the hassle but I'm imagine if you were timid or elderly it would not be pleasant.

apache

Got through eventually. Bill went from €75 for basic, multiroom and HD to €44 a month. Happy enough to go with that.

Gooser14

Send them a registered letter at the following address:

Sky Ireland, 1 Burlington Plaza, Burlington Road, Dublin 4

bodhrandude

OP maybe you need to got to this thread. 😁

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058311614/clampdown-on-tv-dodgy-boxes

ChicoCannon

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121691064#Comment_121691064

Sorry havent been on in a long time. Really depends what you want to be honest. If it is Broadband and TV then probably Sky they have solid bundles, if it is just Broadband then Virgin, it is their own network so in theory they have the most control over it but their broadband prices are pretty poor at the moment they are very high compared to other suppliers. Eir and Voda have tv packages but neither are great. Sky used to be limited to a dish but not these days they have Glass and the new Puck thing. I've not actually tried either of them in, I am genuinely only interested in Broadband rather than TV.