Sky cancellation issue

GBX

Hi,

I got rid of Sky in September after rubbish signal issues - went almost 2 months without any at one point. I had contacted there customer support about the signal issues and they said they would send somebody out but it would cost £65 for the priveledge. I said id see if the signal got better and wait it out. After a few more days it came back for an hour and then went for another few weeks again. That was enough for me so I called to cancel.
I called there CS and told them I wanted to cancel, I had to repeat the story to the agent and then he got an Irish guy on the phone. I had to explain it again about the signal issues. I told him I wanted to cancel and he offered a "half price" call out charge to see if that would work, I said no, I just wanted to cancel. He then offered me a complimentary call out charge and I said no, I just wanted to cancel. He then asked if I wanted to keep the account open at a small fee in case I wanted to return at any point! He also pointed out that there is a 30 day cancellation period, meaning id have to pay another months subs for something I was unable to watch anyways :rolleyes:

The following day I dropped in a letter to my bank to cancel the DD, which they did right in time before the next DD date.
I got a letter from them saying the DD had been returned. I wasnt going to pay for the extra month without being able to watch sky!
I got a letter a few weeks later from there collection agent saying I had to pay. Ive gotten another 2. I called Sky again and explained I wasnt going to pay on the basis I went 2 months without service for which I had paid in advance and that they offered me a free call out charge which the value could more than cover the months fee they wanted. They said to put this in writing to there CS dept, which I did and also sent this to their collections agent. I got a respsonse from them saying its up to the customer to pay for faulty goods etc.

What are my options on this? I paid for a service I didnt/couldnt recieve over 2 months and they want me to pay for an extra month I didnt want/couldnt watch even if I wanted to???

Any help is appreciated, GBX

mamamia79

Out of curiosity, how long had you been a customer for when you lost the signal? I just posted a thread on getting the runaround from chorus and can't help but wonder if sky is pulling a similar stunt with your tv signal. At any point from when you signed on, did you get a signal? Were you on any kind of promotional deal when this happened? Let me know.

Paulw

Demand a refund for the period you were without service. But, you will still have to pay for the cancellation period. They will probably just agree then to close the issue.

humanji

I'm no expert, but aren't Sky in breach of contract then? They were to provide you with a product/service, but failed to live up to this.

jor el

humanji wrote: »

I'm no expert, but aren't Sky in breach of contract then? They were to provide you with a product/service, but failed to live up to this.

Sounds like that to me. Sky broke the contract by not providing a service that had been pre-paid for. They also wanted to charge to send someone to look into it. The OP shouldn't have to pay to get out of a contract that was broken by the other party first.

National Consumer Agency might have some info, www.nca.ie or www.consumerconnect.ie

TheDriver

Sky provide you with a card to decrypt your signal. Unless you are less than one year from install whereby the equipment is under warranty, then its your issue to get what is now your equipment to be fixed. Exact same way that if you hit your dish or the box gives up, its your problem after the one year. They are simply charging you for the ability to watch unencrypted tv. I would say you are stuck as its your equipment is at fault, not the signal! (i.e. your dish is misaligned or something). Could be simply give the dish a slight move and align it up again

GBX

I had been with sky for about 6-7 years. I never really had as bad signal issues before this. I got the odd "no signal" and was able to get it back by restarting the box, or scanning through the channels.
The dish wasnt moved or hit. On certain days the signal was perfect, then out of nowwhere I got a "no signal" message with "28" in the corner, I found this to be a bad signal issue - that it wouldnt come back even with a box reset or channel hopping: the blue/white channel info wouldnt even appear when this happened. Same with "29" in the corner. The initial drop in signal lasted about 2 weeks, then it came back for about 2 hours and went again for a few weeks. The sky CS told me a "reset" would fix it, which it didnt.
I removed the dish after I cancelled the account, didnt want to deal with them anymore.

I agree I thought sky might be in breach of contract too. I hear what your saying as well about the equipment being my responsiblity after the 1 yearcontract, but there was never a problem with the box or dish and all of a sudden it just went bad.
I called the NCA today and they told me once its been forwarded to a collection agent, I have to contact a solicitor which Im in the process of doing.

I will let you guys know how it goes.
GB

TheDriver

I would think your best bet is to pay and be done with it. Your box is your equipment and not skys responsibility and the fact they offered a free call out to see what the problem is could be seen as generous. Also, if your box gave up, its you that has to pay for it. The dish can go out of allignment (talking about 2-3 degrees!) due to wind loading over the years and this would cause bad signal or a faulty lnb.
After it all, the signal to your home is perfect from the satellite in the sky.