Cancelling Sky

[jonphil]

Has anyone gone through the process of canceling Sky TV yet and told them why you are jumping ship?

Once I have a confirmed date to get Tivo I will be canceling and telling them the many reasons why Tivo is better and all the other reason's I've had enough of them.

Seriously, how easy was it to cancel and do you really have to send a letter to them to confirm you want to cancel?

[Tavis75]

Has anyone gone through the process of canceling Sky TV yet and told them why you are jumping ship?

Once I have a confirmed date to get Tivo I will be canceling and telling them the many reasons why Tivo is better and all the other reason's I've had enough of them.

Seriously, how easy was it to cancel and do you really have to send a letter to them to confirm you want to cancel?

I just had to phone them when I moved to Virgin I think. But the phone call was a struggle, the Sky woman got quite angry and was explaining to me how Virgin were more expensive (I had the prices in front of me and was saving £15 per month for basically the same package) and how they only supplied Freeview channels (she didn't seem to get it when I said "I didn't realise Sky One was Freeview!"). That was pre-TiVo though, so didn't have that card to play.

[jonphil]

The thing is people have a right to cancel. Have to admit when I dropped the movie channels I didn't want the whole 'you can have it cheaper' thing so I just e-mailed them and they did just cancel them with no arguments.

I am still waiting for a reply to my question about why they thought sending me a offer to buy a new Sky box just to get the 'free' Anytime+ service was a good offer at £149 for something that everyone else is getting for free. Especially as my HD box wasn't even a year old (understand why I got my box 'free' in the end, they were just shifting old rubbish HD boxes)

[okonski_uk]

It is their 'Cancellations' (actually 'Retentions') department that put on the squeeze to make an offer you cannot refuse, but - whether you cancel in writing or not is up to you. By doing it this way you have verifiable proof of your request, and can cancel your DD with impunity.

[jonphil]

Interesting last night when Sky was confirmed as cancelled. The woman asked why I was cancelling and if anything would make me stay and she never questioned anything when I said it was because of Tivo.
I was surprised as thought the reply would be 'what's a Tivo?' or at least an attempt to keep me, but I'm guessing Sky maybe getting a few people cancelling to switch to Tivo on Virgin.
I do hope that the person at Sky who said 'Tivo's no threat' is made to eat his words. ;)

[okonski_uk]

That would be good. Yes! (Especially as Sky, who have no back channel capability, cannot offer the same/similar offering).

[jonphil]

If they tried to copy Tivo features I would hope Tivo now has enough money and power to sue the pants of them.

[AdamInKent]

If they tried to copy Tivo features I would hope Tivo now has enough money and power to sue the pants of them.

Personally, I'd much rather see the (hopeful) success of the vTiVo leading to Sky and others raising their game when it comes to PVRs so that, if I move into a house which does not have access to Cable, I'll have a much better choice of TiVo replacement than we have now.

Adam

[Pine Cladding]

I wonder what hoops Sky would have to jump through to get TiVo on their platform, given the history between the two companies? Would TiVo even enter into talks?

[jodie98deg]

I wonder what hoops Sky would have to jump through to get TiVo on their platform, given the history between the two companies? Would TiVo even enter into talks?

I would think there's some sort of exclusivity between VM and TiVo in which case TiVo wouldn't be going into talks with Sky. I've a feeling the marriage between VM and TiVo will work tons better than Sky's poor efforts of yester year.