to be cross with skytv?

Of course she made inconsequential chat!

They have been judged to be a fit and proper company to keep their franchise, in spite of the fact that their CEO is James Murdoch. Money talks.

Someone told me that the cancellations department is known inhouse as "Reconnections". They are expected to keep you talking until they have persuaded you not to leave. At least, that is true of Virgin Media and I imagine Sky is the same.

Try sending them a letter saying that you wish to terminate your contract as from (give a reasonable end point ) and that you will be cancelling your direct debit and/or instructing your bank not to pay out from that date. Keep a copy of the letter, and even proof of posting, and be prepared to argue - when they phone you, that is.

I have found Sky infuriating. After my ex decamped, 18 months ago, I did manage to cancel and as Elegran suggests, obtained email confirmation and stopped my direct debit. Since then, I have regularly been phoned by Sky, offering me various deals. At first, I was quite polite and explained that I could no longer afford their service and did not want it, as it was my ex who was the big TV watcher, not me. I then regularly repeated this each time they rang. On one occasion, after explaining the situation, which is after all quite personal and upsetting, the young man paused and then asked: So what can we do to tempt you back to Sky? Now, if they ring, I tell them to stop ringing me and leave me alone. I hope I am wrong, but I have the feeling they would be just as insensitive if my husband had died, rather than left.

The thing is Elegran we wanted to change the contract, not completely cancel, so once on the phone I was stuck until I was sure the change had been made or I might have had to start again.

It is strange that one can add as many bits as one likes on line or interactively but not remove them -

I have to say that, when we have had a problem with the system, they have been great.

Greatnan money does talk, which is why we have to have Sky - they bought all the 'good' sports ie football, cricket and formula 1.

There is nothing on the television that is worth the kind of hassle you get from companies like Sky. I have not and would not spend money on sport and film channels. I know of several people, when they learn new offers are out, ring and cancel their subscription and within days are offered a better package.

I don't have sky or any of the packages you pay for. I did consider getting it until I stayed with a friend who had it. I was totally unimpressed so I stick with Freesat - more than 100 channels and still not much worth watching! Is anyone else like me and tend to stick to the same 5 or 6 channels?

Kitty I had just that experience with Virgin Media when my husband died. he had spent a lot of time watching the box, so we had lots of channels, and I hardly watched at all once I was on my own.

When I eventually got through to the right department, I did two things at once - asked to get the name on the account changed and to cut down on the number of channels. I was told it was all happening.

A week later nothing had changed so I went through the rigmarole again. This time the story was that they could only change one thing in any pay period, and the channels would be reduced at the end of the month. When told there were no channels he said he would reboot my box and to look again in ten minutes. Went away and did something else for an hour - still no channels at all so I turned everything off that I could reach and then back on again.

All channels then back so I waited until the month was up and they had taken another DD - still no change of channels, though I was now the proud payer of the DD.

A further trek through the phone jungle and a threat to leave altogether produced a far more helpful young man who worked hard to find a package which suited me and set it up on the spot. Now why could someone not have done that to start with?

The icing on the cake was an email a couple of hours later from their feedback department asking me to rate the service received - addressed to my late husband who was supposed to have been removed from the account.

Elegran, doesn't it make you . It's just bad service. I bet yours was a premium rate number too.

Landline numbers try this link if you want an alternative to premium rate numbers. OH uses it all the time....

We had unbelievable trouble trying to disconnect from Talk-Talk when we moved house. The people who bought our house couldn't connect to their preferred service as Talk Talk were so incompetent. I kept a log of 114 phone calls, 12 letters (3 of the recorded delivery) and numerous emails over the course of six months

They set a debt collection agency onto us in the end, so I sent all that information to the agency and they agreed that we'd no case to answer. No apology from Talk-Talk. I wouldn't touch them again with a disinfected barge pole.

PS I think it's the same with many providers that things go smoothly until to try to downsize or leave. Then you see them in their true colours. We recently moved painlessly to PlusNet, and I have to say BT caused no trouble when we left.

Sorry to go off topic here - and also sorry for those who have lost DHs - but this thread made me think, the person who watches most of the telly in our house is my DH and when I see that "busy" Sky screen when the commentators are on about football - someone is talking (usually rubbish), there are a dozen tabs at the bottom of the screen showing what's up next, rolling mini-screens on the RH side, and 'breaking news' at the bottom of the screen - I feel like screaming sometimes. Gosh did I just write that? Anyway have been on at him for some time now that we need to rationalise because I am sure we are paying a fortune because landline is BT, telly package is Sky, broadband is something else. What a mess .

grannyknot have you never thought of going with BT for the whole package their BT vision is very good and I have never had any problem with internet or phone line,my total package is under £30.00 per month,my pal does pay less with another provider but she does loose her internet sometimes and her customer service leaves a lot to be desired.

glam will look into that, must say been v. happy with BT in the past, but then D(arn)H just had to have Sky for the sports. Watches ENDLESS sport.

grannyknot don't we just love these armchair sports managers

I had the same problem trying to cancel a mobile phone contract with Orange. I watch UK TV on my Humax Freeset box - no monthly charges.

It's the Sports that mean Sky have us trapped and I don't mind that we pay for the sports as my husband watches the football, cricket and formula 1 and both sons have skygo and watch things on our subscription. But, we never manage to catch up on recorded things never mind trying to watch films.

What made me cross was them cynically upping the cost of trying to cancel stuff and then the insult of trying to con you into taking something at a cheap rate for 6 months, presumably on the basis that you'd forget to cancel it.

Yes Barrow I only have freeview and use the same 5 or 6 channels!

And the sneaky habit they have of moving the cricket to another Sky Sports channel on some days - just to persuade you to pay for the entire Sports package.

glam yes, don't we just. My best is that DH has certain 'favourite' sports people who can do no wrong, who never get told off whilst others get shouted at (albeit from the sofa), so just to make sure things are balanced, I love pointing out the mistakes his pets make. He gets really uncomfortable when I do that! Somebody stop me.

I'm with Barrow. We ditched Sky years ago and although we have Freesat we still only watch 4 or 5 channels.

i noticed that when u want to cancel sky they move you to a cancellation number then you are offered a deal for 6 months ive had this and i found that virgin offer me a greater deal if you can get virgin

We don't have any channels that you have to pay for, if I can't find something I want to watch on TV, I do something else instead.

I have found that posting an adverse comment on a companies facebook page can bring surprisingly quick results, where other methods have failed.....