SKY Wont let me cancel.

[richthegill]

At my old place we had SKY and were 3 months into the 12 month contract. When we moved we were advised we were NOT allowed to put up a SKY dish, so were unable to continue the contract. SKY are now saying they want the full years subscription for something we cant have.
When we rang SKY and advised them, we were told by a rep that if we wrote in with a letter confirming we weren't allowed to put a SKY dish up they would cancel, and now they are reneging. Anyone have any ideas hwo I can get out of this??

[Chesterexpress]

In my opinion you are obliged to see out your existing contract. It is not the fault of Sky that you moved house and are unable to have dishes on the property. Have you checked out to see if there actualy is a covenant on the property that prevents you from having a dish, or is there another reason as to why you can't have one?

[jonnythehorse]

put up a dish anyway lots of people i know have done it and when your neighbours see yours they will all do the same. who says you cant put up the dish ? if its a lease on a managed property get everyone in on it and do it

[Chesterexpress]

jonny, most certainly not good advice.

[Surfer01]

We had a similar issue and in the end we got a tripod and attached the dish to the tripod. This was then placed near window facing in the correct direction and we enjoyed Sky until the council relented and allow dishes to be installed.

[Renta Mouth]

I don’t know what contract you have but the standard Sky signatureless contract of 2006 has a clause 11b

It sets out termination rights, and the wording gives Sky TV an unfettered discretion to terminate the contract for any reason they consider fit within the minimum term and under clause 11(d) enables Sky to compensate themselves for its reasonable losses by way of retaining or claiming the subscription for the unexpired time.

There is legislation that protects consumers from contracts like this and it’s called the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999. Under Regulation 5.5 it gives an indicative and non-exhaustive list of terms which may be regarded as unfair, and under 1(e) because they are not supplying you with the TV service and the subscription has become a compensation payment.

Additionally if you have a signatureless contract you can void the contract under Schedule 2(1)(i) because Sky is irrevocably binding you to terms with which you had no real opportunity of becoming acquainted before the conclusion of the contract.

Sky may not accept this and exclude themselves from liability. They could also respond by damaging your credit rating by passing disputed monies as adverse information to a credit agency, there is case law that enables you to recover from Sky's liability insurer for your losses if you obtain a loan and pay a higher interest rate than you would otherwise pay if the lender relies on adverse information obtained from a credit agency that originates from Sky.

[sequenci]

Originally Posted by Chesterexpress

jonny, most certainly not good advice.

i love the irony.

[Chesterexpress]

Originally Posted by sequenci

i love the irony.

sequenci, kindly elaborate!

[sequenci]

i'm just being silly. I think Sky may cancel the agreement. I had a similar thing with Virgin and they did for me. It might take a bit of time to get it sorted but I honestly think it will be in the end!

[IdaInFife]

Hi,

SKy won't cancel it over the phone.

There are two options.

Write a letter to the cancellation department explaining you reasons. Sometimes they will just cancel no frther questions depending on the reason. Or the may ask you too pay for the remaining 12 months AND the price for the original installtion and equipment. You could write the letter and wait for response to see what they are going to do but please remeber to clearly state you want to cancel the contract asap and not just that you think you will have to.

Option 2 : pay the remaing 12 months subs @ £16 per month and call back to canel 30 days before the 12 months is up.


If you write the letter and they cancel the account and are going to charge you. if it would be cheaper paying the remainder you can call up and reinstate the account.


Idax

[IdaInFife]

oops address:

Sky Subscriber Services Ltd
Customer Care Department
po box 99
livingston
west lothian
eh54 7pw


Idax

[Simon7685]

Another fine example of Sky's money grabbing I think!

We are the large corporate company who don't give a dam about our customers who should just shot up and pay up till death us do part!

I personally would fight this. Stand up to them and say NO! If a company as big as Sky can't be a tad lenient over a contractual issue like this, it is a bit of a poor do to be frank.

I would refuse to pay them and fight it through the courts if necessary. I think Renta Mouth has a point about the UTCCR Regulations. I think that you could sucessfully defend any action if Sky persue.

Simon

[Mark_Blackpool]

I can hardly believe I'm siding with Sky here:

You agreed voluntarily to take their services for 12 months.

The fact that you cannot erect their dish at your new property is unfortunately your problem, not theirs. It does not alter the contract. They may perhaps have sympathy for this and 'let you off' the contract, but I don't see why they should be obliged to.

Our situation was not dissimilar - we moved one mile to be able to get cable so as to be able to get broadband. Once we had cable, we had no need for Sky.

We agreed with Sky that we would pay off the contract by changing the package to the lowest priced one, and sent a one-off payment for the remaining term.

Unfortunatelty, five years on, they then decided to chase us for £75 on the basis that because we had moved home, the box was not plugged into the phone line as per the contract for the full 12 months, even though they would have known that was the case.

That was a side-issue as we had modified the contract since that part of the box never did work anyway, and so Sky had no case to pursue us.

I'd suggest: do the same, pay off the contract, and get a Freeview box.

[demon_x_slash]

Have you checked that your flats aren't already cabled up for Sky usage? We were refused a Sky dish by our management company, but the (very helpful - not!) lady on the phone neglected to mention that the flats operate a 'shared-dish' system. We found out later that our flat was one of a few that hadn't had the sockets changed from Radio - TV to Radio - TV - Satellite. We had the socket installed and everything's now fine with our Sky setup (well, apart from the c**p choice ). I'd say to give your management a ring and check that they're not running the shared dish setup before trying to cancel with Sky.

If you do have to cancel with Sky, however, I'm afraid that the recission of the contract is entirely down to their goodwill, and you are still liable to pay for the fixed term. Sorry.

[funhat]

Slightly related, my Sky contract is on notice and being cancelled shortly, but can I sell the skybox on ebay? I'll have no use for it anymore.

[steven4064]

My daughter had a contract with Sky which we let die when she moved to her own house. We still used the dish and box for a couple of years to receieve all the terrestrial channels and quite a lot of others. We have moved over to freeview now.