topic Re: Call Centres no longer in UK ? in Account & Billing

Call Centres no longer in UK ?

diane.s — Wed, 01 Apr 2026 11:31:10 GMT

It appears to me that when you call Sky with an issue calls are being answered abroad, and when recieving a call from Sky, as I just have, the caller is from abroad ? Now, I am not a racist, I don't care who answers my call, but, the language barrier can be a serious problem. Add to that the fact that many scam callers are also based in India/Pakistan so the assumption is that the caller is a scammer ( which is what I immediately thought)

I just received a call, the lady on the other end had a VERY strong Indian/Pakistani accent, she struggled to understand me ( I'm Scottish but do my best to speak clearly and precisely with no slang words on calls to people who I don't know (office voice lol) ) She was offering me an extra Sky mini box, to begin with I didn't believe the number was a Sky caller, after double checking I agreed to continue the call. I asked the lady if there would be further costs incurred on my bill for the use of the mini box, she replied "No, it's completely free" I then went on to continue to question the costs for the mini box and the use of it on another TV, 5 times I had to ask her what she meant, I could barely understand a word she was saying, bless her, I explained that there was a language barrier,not her fault at all, and that I was struggling to understand what she was saying to me, eventually I got her to understand what I was asking, turns out YES there would be an extra cost on my bill, even though the lady was persistent that there wouldn't be, until she told me how much my upcoming bill would be, BINGO ! there IS a further charge for me accessing Sky TV on another TV ! It took 15 minutes to get that information clarified *sigh* I said to her, is it free for me to watch, she said YES, I asked her if I would be charged, she said NO, this went on and on for 15mins I then explained to her I was struggling to fully understand her, for which she apologised, I told her no need to apologise, not her fault her accent was difficult for me to understand, poor woman.

So, is it the case that we now have ALL our contact centres abroad ? If so, I don't think this is a good idea at all ! The language barrier could cause massive problems, with some liely losing their poop with the call handler due to not being able to understand. Ok, Sky will likely be saving money by using these people ( lower wages?) but, I worry about the grief some of them may take. Anyone else find it difficult chatting to the call handlers and trying to get them to understand why you're calling or for you to understand them ? Please remember though, when you talk to the call handlers, don't be abusive towards them,it's not their fault they've been given the jobs, be respectful, if you do struggle to understand, let them know you are finding it difficult due to the language barrier, be polite

Re: Call Centres no longer in UK ?

Mark39 — Wed, 01 Apr 2026 12:17:01 GMT

@diane.s Sky do still have call centres in the UK. All calls are answered by a central call handling system, and an incoming call is routed to the next available adviser, regardless of where they're located.

Re: Call Centres no longer in UK ?

PandJ2020 — Wed, 01 Apr 2026 12:17:07 GMT

Be careful of incoming calls. There are plenty of scammers pretending to be Sky...

Anyway, I've negotiated via the chat system the last few times and never had any language issues.

Re: Call Centres no longer in UK ?

Daniel0210 — Wed, 01 Apr 2026 12:54:43 GMT

@diane.s

The advice some of us regularly provide is that with any calls from 'Sky' (especially unexpected calls) if the caller asks for your previously agreed telephone password to confirm you're the account holder (which I would expect a genuine Sky agent to do) initially give an INCORRECT one on purpose. If the caller doesn't challenge it then you know it'l be a scam call.

Re: Call Centres no longer in UK ?

mr.tickle — Wed, 01 Apr 2026 13:34:15 GMT

@Daniel0210 wrote:
@diane.s
The advice some of us regularly provide is that with any calls from 'Sky' (especially unexpected calls) if the caller asks for your previously agreed telephone password to confirm you're the account holder (which I would expect a genuine Sky agent to do) initially give an INCORRECT one on purpose. If the caller doesn't challenge it then you know it'l be a scam call.

Well said. Same goes for any incoming call, including banks. If they called YOU, it is they who need to prove who they are, not you. My pet hate is the blatent abuse of the word "confirm", eg "can you confirm your password" when they really mean "can you give me your password"! Sure, I'll confirm it. You say it first, and I'll then afterwards confirm whether it's right or not. That is what the word confirm MEANS. But no, I won't ever say it on this call, because you called ME!

Re: Call Centres no longer in UK ?

TimmyBGood — Wed, 01 Apr 2026 14:42:47 GMT

@diane.s wrote:

So, is it the case that we now have ALL our contact centres abroad ?

No: Sky is expanding its Livingston facility, although it's also closed several others in England.

Sky Group has been owned by the Comcast Corporation since 2018, and everywhere else is 'abroad' when viewed from the top of a skyscraper in Philadelphia.

Re: Call Centres no longer in UK ?

diane.s — Wed, 01 Apr 2026 14:43:29 GMT

@Mark39 Last few times I've had to call Sky t's been answered by operatives in what I assume to be India/Pakistan and their accents can be pretty strong and their English not great making it difficult for the conversations to be understood properly, I worry that these poor people may end up taking abuse from some, racism seems to be on the rise ☹️ These people are only doing the job they are hired to do

Re: Call Centres no longer in UK ?

diane.s — Wed, 01 Apr 2026 14:48:52 GMT

@PandJ2020 Yip, SO many scammers out there, have they no shame !! I did query the call, the lady said to Google the number, which I did and yeah, posts came up about it being a genuine Sky number, she said she could answer a question to further prove, eitehr how long I've been with Sky, when I joined Sky and 1 other question, she answered 1 but said she couldn't answer any more as answerring only 1 was protocol ? I felt so bad for not being able to fully understand her, and for her clearly not ully understanding me, and when I apologised for not understanding she then asked what did I not understand and tried again to explain, though she was still trying to claim the extra mini box was free, when I asked if my bill would go up she said no, then in the next sentence she told me what my existing bill is and what it would be after taking the mini box, even though I explicitly said to her if it mean my bill increasing I wasn't interested.

Re: Call Centres no longer in UK ?

diane.s — Wed, 01 Apr 2026 15:08:55 GMT

@Daniel0210 That's actually really good advice ! The caller advised me to Google the number, wich I did and saw things come up about it being a genuine Sky call and the caller also said they could confirm answer for me from 3, she confirmed how long I've been with Sky . I don't know about you,but, a lot of these scam calls appear to be coming from places like India, they always seem to have an Indian/Pakistani accent, I block the numbers as soon as I hear the first line from them,it's usually car accident insurance 😝 I don't have a car lol not even a provisional licence hahaha I'll remember that advice though !

Re: Call Centres no longer in UK ?

diane.s — Wed, 01 Apr 2026 15:17:49 GMT

@TimmyBGood When I was in high school (many year ago) in Edinburgh, a lot of school leavers went on to work at Sky in Livingston, it's been there for decades ! Always handy when a call is answered and it's Livingston it goes to, can have a good blether with fellow Scots lol Shame they're closing down English centres, the UK needs places like Sky for employment, far too much is shifting abroad these days 😞

Re: Call Centres no longer in UK ?

Reyney — Tue, 14 Jul 2026 08:44:52 GMT

I have had several telephone conversations around my re negotiated contract in Feb 26 - I was promised a deal but when it comes to my future payments, these promises where not activated. I eventually managed to be put through to a Scottish lady (my relief), who said she would listen to the call on 25th Feb and get back to me ........ nothing! this is very unusual from a British Sky customer services call, they always got back to you and almost allways resolved this issues. I called again to check on progress last week (3rd July) and again directed to the first call available which was abroad. I asked him to check on progress of my issue, he said he couldn't do that as he did not have access to my account. I asked him to put me through to a UK Call centre, he told me tha SKY Call Centres had been outscourced and I had less than 5% chance of getting through to a UK Call Centre - any call goes direct to the next available agent wherever they may reside, even though they cannot access your account.

I am now looking to come out of sky at my earliest point - UK Call Centres are essential - what is the point of having customer services where they cannot access your account - and due to Data Protection, I do not want my Account being accessed off-shore. I am about to put in an official UK Complaint

Re: Call Centres no longer in UK ?

Reyney — Tue, 14 Jul 2026 08:51:02 GMT

but off shore cannot access your account to deal with any issues

Re: Call Centres no longer in UK ?

Mark39 — Tue, 14 Jul 2026 09:07:29 GMT

@Reyney wrote:

but off shore cannot access your account to deal with any issues

That's incorrect.

Re: Call Centres no longer in UK ?

Gorn777 — Sat, 01 Aug 2026 11:39:25 GMT

I've had to call back many times to check and tell them what was agreed in the previous calls. They don't always honour what they've agreed with and have to re listen to old calls to get proof. It stinks of incompetence and very bad processes to mislead customers.

Re: Call Centres no longer in UK ?

JWestLondon — Sun, 02 Aug 2026 10:35:58 GMT

And googling the number is NOT an answer to the problem. Telephone numbers are easily spoofed and can lull you into a very expensive sense of security.

Re: Call Centres no longer in UK ?

Nixy82 — Mon, 21 Sep 2026 10:17:41 GMT

I've rang up today 21/09/2026 and the call handler has not understand anything ive said. He's reading from a script and this is frustrating to us both. But also I'm paying for a services surely your customers are worthy of having someone who they can understand? Instead trying to save money. It shouldn't be allowed

Re: Call Centres no longer in UK ?

Daniel0210 — Mon, 21 Sep 2026 10:20:46 GMT

@Nixy82
If you are new to the forum then welcome to the Community, which is predominantly made up of Sky customers helping other Sky customers. You aren’t talking to Sky by posting here.

The calls go through to the next available agent wherever they are based and yes, a lot are based abroad (although to Comcast the UK is abroad too).

Re: Call Centres no longer in UK ?

Luba31 — Wed, 30 Sep 2026 22:01:03 GMT

I had a very similar experience.

My contact with sky was coming to end, so I rang and I thought I renewed my contract and kept the same cost. However, my contract was not renewed and no one can explain why.
I rang customer service, and spoke to customer service advisor who was unbelievably rude. I asked him where he is based and he replied: South Africa. He would twist his answers, would listen to what I was saying, and was extremely rude. I put a complaint in writing and I hope it will be reviewed by uk customer service advisor.
and I hope sky listens to conversations. I am leaving sky based on extremely bad customer service experience, I don't have time to deal with their unprofessional agents, and I don't want to be verbally abused by their team in South Africa.