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

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  • 23-01-2024 12:22pm
    #1
    Registered Users Posts: 1,381 ✭✭✭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.



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Comments

  • Registered Users Posts: 1,488 ✭✭✭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.



  • Registered Users Posts: 1,381 ✭✭✭tom23


    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.



  • Registered Users Posts: 1,488 ✭✭✭KildareP


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



  • Registered Users Posts: 1,381 ✭✭✭tom23


    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.



  • Registered Users Posts: 2,037 ✭✭✭RGARDINR


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




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  • Registered Users Posts: 1,381 ✭✭✭tom23


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



  • Registered Users Posts: 2,037 ✭✭✭RGARDINR


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



  • Registered Users Posts: 245 ✭✭kenn0


    Sky freephone number


    1800 92 74 76


    as others said ring first thing in the morning



  • Registered Users Posts: 2,420 ✭✭✭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.



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  • Registered Users Posts: 1,616 ✭✭✭overpronator


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



  • Registered Users Posts: 554 ✭✭✭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.



  • Registered Users Posts: 846 ✭✭✭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.



  • Registered Users Posts: 403 ✭✭Reversal


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



  • Registered Users Posts: 9,267 ✭✭✭squonk


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



  • Registered Users Posts: 1,381 ✭✭✭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.



  • Registered Users Posts: 4,247 ✭✭✭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!



  • Registered Users Posts: 554 ✭✭✭Apothic_Red


    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



  • Registered Users Posts: 9,267 ✭✭✭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



  • Registered Users Posts: 534 ✭✭✭EarWig


    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.



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  • Registered Users Posts: 1,381 ✭✭✭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

    Post edited by tom23 on


  • Registered Users Posts: 78 ✭✭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.



  • Registered Users Posts: 736 ✭✭✭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!

    No trees were harmed in the posting of this message, however a large number of electrons were terribly inconvenienced.



  • Registered Users Posts: 29,595 ✭✭✭✭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



  • Registered Users Posts: 36 ChicoCannon


    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.



  • Registered Users Posts: 36 ChicoCannon


    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.



  • Registered Users Posts: 15,094 ✭✭✭✭elperello


    Thanks for the insight.

    Clearly Sky have no concern for either staff or customers.

    Another reason for avoiding them.



  • Registered Users Posts: 9,267 ✭✭✭squonk


    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.



  • Registered Users Posts: 36 ChicoCannon


    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.



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  • Registered Users Posts: 389 ✭✭animalinside


    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:

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



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