Sky TV Nuisance Calls

Sky TV, stop the nuisance calls to my home!

This happened because I had the cheek to try to get out of a relationship with you.   Now you are making nuisance calls,  inquiring into my relationship with my wife, and then accused me of impersonating myself.   Then you refused to note in the account that we did not wish to receive any more phone calls from you.

When I said I was 100% confident that the account holder (my wife) would not wish to discuss this further with you, you refused to take my word for it.

At about that point you asked about my relationship with the account holder.  To be precise you said "Who are you to Ms Underwood?"

Yes, as a private company with a business relationship, you started asking me personal questions about my relationship with my wife.    (Ok you don't know she's my wife, I've now let that slip.  But it's still none of your business.)

When I said that my wife had empowered me to deal with you on this account, which is all you needed to know, you told me that you didn't know that.  I said you did, because you called our home address, which I knew, and I also knew the account password which you had asked for.

At this point you said that you didn't know who it was you were speaking to.

So yep, you asked about my relationship with my wife, then accused me (after passing all your security checks) of not being me.

All this because I told you I did not want to tell you why I want to stop getting Sky TV.

I will write it simply.

STOP MAKING NUISANCE CALLS TO MY HOME.

For others not in an abusive relationship with Sky, let me go back a few steps in the process so you can understand how this happened.

The other day we cancelled Sky TV.  This was an incredibly painful process, marred for example by the fact that the Sky website said we could cancel by email ...

... then when I finally gave in and phoned to cancel, I was told that not only was it impossible to cancel by email, but that I had to pay for the three days I had spent waiting to hear back.

Incidentally, this is still what the web page says as I write this (25 June 2013).  If the agent is right that cancellation by email is impossible, they are (at the very best) misleading customers by stating this.   I say at the very best, because in fact this results in more money being paid by customers to Sky.  One waits a few days to find out it's impossible - having given clear notice in writing that one wishes to cancel - Sky then tells you the method they themselves provided is invalid and you have to pay for those extra days.  If this is legal, there's something wrong with the law.

Anyway in the end we managed to cancel over the phone.  Not being happy campers, we did not see fit to give our reasons.  Well to be honest, we did say that we were not watching Sky at the minute, which is completely true.  But we kept being probed further - on what should have been a simple phone call.  I.e. the call should go:

Us: We wish to cancel.

Sky: Ooh, sorry to hear that, can we interest you in maybe an offer to keep you?

Us: No, thanks very much.

Sky: Oh well, ok, let me just tap these buttons... well thanks very much for your custom. Oh and sorry for the email thing, we'll backdate the cancellation three days.

But no.  Not only was there abject refusal to backdate the cancellation (I was told her manager couldn't do it and her manager's manager would not come to the phone), but my simple wish to cancel the account and get on with my life was not respected with incessant questions about what other service I was going to use etc.  It's not so much that I mind being asked these questions - they are obviously useful market research for Sky.  But I minded very much indeed when my polite refusal to answer them was not respected.  In the end the phone rep did give me two days money back - not three days because she said they would have had to call back the next day.  That doesn't seem reasonable to me but at that point I gave in.

Oh I haven't mentioned the bit where several times the rep told me things that were not true. E.g.  that I had been informed that cancellation by email would require a phone call and I was told it might take 72 hours to hear back from my email.   Neither is true.

Today I was at home and received several calls asking for my wife.  The last time I asked who it was to be told it was Sky TV.  I said I could speak for the account holder so the guy said it was about our cancellation and some extra details they needed.  The extra details were ... the reasons for cancelling Sky TV.  I told him I wasn't going to tell him, so he said he would call back for the account holder...

So I said that she would not want to give reasons either, and he said he would call back, and I asked him not to.   Which obviously is an unreasonable request, as he refused even to enter into their system that we did not wish to be called on this.

STOP MAKING NUISANCE CALLS TO MY HOME.

Obviously, Sky, if you have a genuine reason you need to call us (maybe the bank refusing to stop the direct debit or something), that's fine.   The fact that your system requires a reason for cancellation when we don't wish to give you one is NOT a good enough reason to call us.  Oh, and by the way, remember that we did give you a reason anyway?  In our email to you, and on the phone the first time, when we said we just weren't watching much Sky TV?

I am posting this online because I complained the other day about not hearing anything from my email request.   I was told I would hear back within 24 hours about my complaint.  So far I have heard nothing.  That was five days ago (three working days.)  

Obviously Sky TV ignores complaints using their online system.  So I have written this blog post.