Dropsafe

by Alec Muffett

How to cancel Sky Satellite TV

I cancelled my Sky subscription mid-year. I’ve not regretted it.

It’s not an anti-Murdoch or other political political statement, or anything like that. Truth is, I barely watch TV nowadays and can survive very well on a combination of radio, podcasts, video-podcasts, bittorrent and free-to-air TV channels; the BBC, channel4 and so forth. Saving £30 to £40 each month is welcome, and you can either mentally offset that against your broadband, or consider it a savings fund for your next toy purchase. The only wrench is losing “E4” (not available on Freesat) and that’s not a huge problem.

I read many tales of woe of people getting the runaround in trying to unsubscribe, so I can recommend the method I found outlined on a Christian web page, of all things. To paraphrase and secularise the advice therein, and update the links:

Why Cancel?

Because . .
You keep the system
You’ll still get over 300 free channels
200 TV and 100 Radio channels are free
You’ll just stop getting the Sky subscription channels
Your system will still receive around 300 Free-to-Air TV and Radio channels on Sky – including BBC and ITV channels.

Cancel Online

Go to the Sky General Enquiry Form and enter your details including your email address. In the message box, tell Sky you want to cancel your contract. Be brief. Include your account number (see your viewing card), address, and any other details about the account to ensure a quick and hassle free cancellation.

Very easy to do, if somewhat intimidating to write a request rather than tick an explicit box or something. A letter turned up in the post a few days – perhaps two weeks – later, outlining when the service would stop. No runaround, no problems, no regrets.

Just a mountain of “Please Come Back To Us” junkmail, ever since. But that’s another story…

UPDATE – January 2009 – the new form URL is https://mysky.sky.com/portal/site/skycom/skyhelpcentre/contactus/kana – my inclination would be to pull down “General Enquiry” from the toolbar provided, rather than faffing about with the rest of the dialogues, but there does seem to be a “Cancellation” option there, too…

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Comments

8 responses to “How to cancel Sky Satellite TV”

  1. MR PETER HALES

    [DELETED]

    Reply
  2. Brian Bee

    Have cancelled sky after several years. Paid by D/D on 16th of month- cancelled on 18th, qnd disconnected box on 18th. Final bill is for £2.20 plus £4.00 adin charge. I am furious at this charge. [DELETED]

    Reply
  3. alecm

    @Brian, sorry I have no idea. I just cancelled it and left it at that.

    The savings of 30 quid a month or whatever soon mount up, and they will easily waste their 4 quid admin charge and more, in junk mail over the next year trying to tempt you to come back.

    I recommend a cup of tea, sit back, and enjoy watching them squirm for the next year or two.

    Let them rot. 🙂

    Reply
  4. alecm

    @PETER sorry, I am afraid you must have mistaken this for a Sky website. I am just a computer geek proffering advice.

    Reply
  5. Orrin

    Hey their, as an actual sky agent I think I can explain the £4 charge that you had. By the looks of thing you cancelled your D/D before the final bill itself was issued to the bank meaning that the system would automatically switch to invoice which currently incurs a charge of £3.91 (was £4 back before the VAT price cut).

    To be honest in regards to cancelling, if your out of contract do it over the phone and be sure to take the agents ID! I have heard some horror stories of what some agents do, however with their ID and the date and time of the call you can have the call itself pulled and checked – or even just the date and time as we log all ID’s on the system and leave notes when we access accounts.

    If in contract WRITE in – you can sit their and have a nice lengthy argument over the phone if you want but the simple matter of fact is we cannot cancel in contract accounts over the phone. Ever. Also sky will only ever cancel an in contract account if a good reason is given, unfortunately we dont see cutting finances as a good enough reason – they would just suggest a downgrade. Moving out the country or in to a residence which cannot have a sky dish, divorce, faulty box after 2 complete service calls are but a few of the reasons sky can accept but they will require proof (a photocopy of some item showing what is happening).

    Reply
  6. Mabolsa

    I just emailed sky via the help section whilst logged in. You can cancel via email if phone calls arnt your thing. Heres the email i sent hope its of future use.

    ——————————————————————————————-

    Account number; **************

    I wish to cancel my Sky tv subscription from **/**/** and shall cancel the direct debit from **/**/** If i do not recieve a writen reply by **/**/** (seven days) i will assume that the subscription has been cancled. Please do not call or request a time suitable to be contacted regarding offers on discounts/promotions/packages. I have taken a bundle package deal with virgin and no longer request your services.

    Many thanks, Mr ***********

    Reply
  7. Mr C Snell

    [INAPPLICABLE CONTENT DELETED]

    Reply
  8. yellowman

    Thanks to you and to Orrin for great info. Am in USA & cancelling satellite TV in December 2012.

    Reply

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