Sky don't talk to customers anymore?

[ElaineT2]

I tried to cancel Sky three weeks ago. They told me there was a fault on my account and the cancellation wouldn't go through. I was promised a call back. No one called back. I rang them again a week later. They said the fault was still there. I was promised a call back. No one called back. I cancelled my direct debit because no way am I playing this game forever. Cue endless messages wailing that I haven't paid them. The kicker is, when I try to call them to explain why, whichever number I call my call is intercepted by an electronic message demanding I pay. Sky will not talk to me unless I pay them. If I pay them, they will continue refusing to cancel, because, let's face it, it's a brilliant scam with no downside for them. There is no other way to contact them because they don't do email. 

[Mark39]

Facebook Messenger and their Twitter (X) feed are other contact options.

[caesarome]

You shouldn't have cancelled your direct debit no matter how annoyed you are with the situation as it would also mean that any refund for any overpayment due to you once you have left can not be easily paid back to you.

[Daniel0210]

@ElaineT2 

But, if your services are now restricted, Sky won’t reinstate them until you’ve paid what (Sky believe) is owed in full and set up a new continuous payment method. You'll need to do this before anything can be cancelled. If your payment is already two or more weeks overdue you will have to pay the next bill as well. 

Once your full payment has cleared and is in Sky’s account your services should be reinstated, but this may not be instant. Also, any payment you make over a weekend or on a Bank Holiday won’t be processed until the following week as banks are closed. You'll then be able to contact Sky again. 

[MarkGoldsmith]

The likely correct way to resolve this would have been to raise an offical complaint via the documented complaints process here. Which would have given Sky 8 weeks to find a resolution. In all likelihood if you went down this route they would have backdated your notice period to start when you first contacted Sky so everything would likely have been resolved as expected.

Unfortunately going down the road of cancelling the direct debit is the worse thing you can do, as you have now found out.

As others have mentioned you now need to pay Sky what they believe you owe them, in order to get your account reinstated so that you can then talk to Sky and get all this resolved. You can't cancel a Sky subscription whilst you are in arrears, and the non/late payments will also now affect your credit record.

I'd recommended making the payment, reinstating the direct debit and then following the Sky Complaints process to get all of this sorted out: https://www.sky.com/help/articles/how-to-make-a-complaint

[ElaineT2]

As I said, I have asked them twice to close my account, at a time when I did not owe them any money. They have failed to so twice and promised me manager call backs which did not happen TWICE.  So I pay this month's subscription. And it will be different this time because?

[Mark39]

It's your choice. I don't think there's anything further we customers can add.

[TimmyBGood]

---

@ElaineT2 wrote:

If I pay them, they will continue refusing to cancel, because, let's face it, it's a brilliant scam with no downside for them.  

---

Except Sky are clearly in the wrong and would ultimately be hammered by Ofcom.  On the whole, multi-billion dollar corporations tend to be making enough money not to need to 'scam' anyone, and industry regulators exist to ensure this.