Every single day, countless people across the UK (and increasingly, across Europe) sign up to one of Sky’s fantastic services. Be it home phone, broadband, pay TV or Now TV, there are plenty of reasons to join up with the British media giant. Of course, there are just as many reasons to leave the company, and as new customers come through the door, many try to find the exit. Unfortunately, Sky don’t make leaving them as easy as they can do, and getting to the point where they’ll let you go is easier said than done. That’s why we’ve put together this short guide, so you can cancel your subscription and get back on with living.
Before anything else though, it’s worth noting that unless you’ve met the minimum length of your contract with Sky you won’t be able to leave. Cancelling before that date means breaching your contract, and you’ll be liable to pay a hefty cancellation fee or risk being hounded by debt collectors. If you have met your minimum contract length then you’re perfectly within your rights to cancel. It’s also crucial that you tell Sky you’re cancelling your contract, rather than simply ending your direct debit.
The first step should always be to read your consumer rights, or at least have them to hand, should any issues arise through the course of your conversation. With that done, you can begin the process of cancelling your Sky TV, broadband or home phone subscription.
Under pressure for confusing language, Sky have moved to clarify their terms and conditions in order to make it clear how customers can cancel. The only way to do so is to use the telephone number for Sky. The company do claim that you can cancel through their ‘live chat’ service, but you’ll still need to call them to confirm, so we’d recommend just cutting out the middle man. Sky’s phone lines are operated from 8.30am to 8pm, but when you do get through, that’s when the battle really begins.
Like most people who work in customer service, those that work on the Sky customer service number are trained to try their hardest to keep you with the company. Some customers have reported spending up to 96 minutes on the phone line trying to get them to accept the fact that they’re leaving, and so to avoid that, we’d suggest doing one thing: lying.
Of course, it’s not a particularly big lie, but it is one that’ll save you a lot of time. The only circumstance that will stop Sky’s customer service team from quibbling is if you tell them you’re moving country. In those circumstances, there’s nothing Sky can do to keep you with the service and will close your account down quickly. It’s understandable that telling such a lie might make some people uncomfortable, but compared to going through the hell of an endless customer service loop, one little white lie seems well worth it.
