Bereavement policy and porting landline numbers

[SG308]

My father has recently passed away and I would like to port the landline number into my mothers name (they've had this number for 25+ years). I have been advised that I can only do this if my mum takes over the entirety of the contract, which would lose her any new joiner benefits in regards to the package. We currently pay £170 per month (tv, internet and broadband) and they have been customers for 20 years. If we set my mum up as a new joiner, the contract would be £65 per month, but we can only do this if if we give up our landline phone number. The bereavement process is pressuring my mum to take on a contract so she doesn't lose the landline number which seems unfair!

[caesarome]

@SG308 

Sorry for your loss.

Have you spoken to the specialist team at Sky who might be able to help with this:

https://www.sky.com/help/articles/deceased-sky-account-holder

Select the options at the bottom of this page, although you might have to do this tomorrow.

[Mark39]

@SG308 I think it's an unavoidable consequence of Sky's processes.

If your mum takes over the contract, everything remains as is so there's no impact on the telephone number.

If your mum subscribes as a new customer, your dad's contract will be cancelled and his previously subscribed services will be terminated. That will result in the phone number being returned to the pool of unused numbers. I don't think Sky have a way of retrieving the same number to assign to a new subscription in your mum's name, hence a new number has to be assigned.

From the price you're currently paying, I do wonder if your dad's subscription is 'out of contract'. If so, you may be able to negotiate a lower price I your mum takes over the contract.