Sky - Finally it's Bye Bye

Sky - They make it as difficult as possible to cancel

This week Sky is 20 years old. Their half year results show that subscriber numbers are up over the last three months by a net 171,000. But Sky suffers from a 9.9% churn. 'Churn' is the term used to describe the percentage of their customers cancelling.

Almost 1 in 10 Sky customers cancels.

That's why Sky make leaving as difficult as possible.

We cancelled Sky two weeks ago. This week Sky wrote to us to say ''Phew'' 'we were thrilled to hear you'd changed your mind.'

Except of course we hadn't. As you would know if you read my previous post here.

Sky had invented the whole thing, reactivated the account and generated a new bill - which even included advance charges for a Broadband service we had already successfully migrated to o2.

I emailed Jeremy Darroch the CEO of Sky to complain.

This week Jeremy Darroch, SKY CEO said in interview:
"What binds us is focus on the customer, because we are accountable to paying subscribers who have a course of action they can take if they are not happy with the service. That sharpens the mind believe me."

Jeremy Darroch ignored my email.

So did Sky customer service.

That's why Sky has a 9.9% churn. They don't focus on the 1 in 10 customers who are dissatisfied with their service.

So today I had to phone Sky again, despite my pledge never to call them again.

I wasn't disappointed. The first customer services operator 'Darryl' hung up on me. I've read in several Internet forums that Sky operators earn £12,000 a year. They don't consider this enough pay to have to listen to irate customers, so they simply hang up on them. I later discover Darryl hasn't left a 'footprint' on the account' so can't be traced. I think operators avoid disciplinary action by not taking your account number even when you offer it. Instead they ask what you want. If they don't like the sound of your enquiry, or can't be bothered to deal with it they hang up. Other companies avoid this by recording all their incoming calls.

At the second attempt I bypass Sky's front line customer service by asking to speak to a manager. Peter was unable to explain why the account had been reactivated, but he could cancel it - with another 31 days notice.

I pointed out this would be completely unacceptable as Sky had already had 14 days notice.

He suggested crediting the account with £9.70 to cover this.

I was unhappy with this solution, which would extend our relationship with Sky yet again, so I asked how much compensation Sky would pay for my telephone calls. Faced with a demand for an hour worth of telephone calls, 44 minutes two weeks ago and 19 minutes today he agreed to cancel the service with immediate effect. He said we did appear to have had a 'run of bad luck' with Sky.

Do tell me your Sky 'customer service' and 'cancellation' stories. I bet ours isn't that unusual.

So here's how to cancel Sky - ask them to compensate you for their incompetence.
They can't get you off the subscriber base fast enough!