Can I cancel my Sky contract early due to downtime and not receiving my sign up bonus?

just Scott · 21 Nov 2018 at 23:51

I signed up to Sky broadband 5 months ago because factoring in a £50 prepaid Mastercard made it the best option. 4 months later and I still haven't received it. I phoned them 3 weeks ago and they said they would resend it. It still hasn't arrived.

As well as this my internet has dropped more with this ISP than any other I've had before. 5 times in this last month it has dropped, including 2 12+ hour outages. I want to change ISP but I signed up to a 12 month contract.

With Sky falsely promising me a money bonus and not delivering can I can cancel my contract early? I want to get off this ISP ASAP.

Thanks

Avalon · 22 Nov 2018 at 09:09

No.

Down time falls into one of two categories, ISP and OpenReach. The line, cab, exchange, backhaul to your ISP’s network are usually operated by openreach, if that breaks then no matter who your ISP is, you are going to have a loss of service and that beyond Sky or any other ISP’s control. If Sky had multiple periods of national outages of 12hrs+ all hell would break loose, if it happens for an hour regionally let alone nationally, it makes the UK IT news feeds. If you have repeated downtime then raise the issue with Sky, it’s not unheard of for them to offer a goodwill gesture.

If you haven’t received your pre-paid card and have met the offer criteria/timescales (you need to read the T&C’s), then they should be able to sort out a replacement.

Shawreyboy · 22 Nov 2018 at 09:17

Not only this, the products offered (ADSL & FTTC)) have no guaranteed up time, zero SLA and carry a best endeavours fix.

If you have a dodgy line or have had outages (someone perhaps hit the PCP or stole the copper cables) you are just unlucky - switching ISP won't make any difference in relation to an Openreach based fault. Switching ISP only effects who's core infrastructure/data centre you are connected to and if Sky had core infrastructure/data centre issues it would bring countless users down.

Shawrey

Caged · 22 Nov 2018 at 18:41

Some providers are more reluctant than others to actually persue an issue with Openreach, preferring to just keep you bouncing off the first line team and changing your Wi-Fi channel or resetting the router.

Sky are usually pretty good about it though. How many times have you spoken to support about your problem?

WJA96 · 23 Nov 2018 at 10:02

I’m going to offer a different opinion. The Pre-paid MasterCard was part of the contract. You have not received it. So in my view, yes, you can cancel as you have given Sky reasonable time to fulfil their obligations under the contract. You should really have written to them (even e-mail would do) informing them that if they failed to supply the Pre-paid MasterCard within 20 working days you would hold them in breach of contract and request a move to another ISP. You will probably have to do that anyway. The uptime/downtime issues are separate from the the contract issue with the Pre-paid MasterCard and should not form part of your reason for terminating the contract.

r7slayer · 24 Nov 2018 at 09:00

WJA96 said:
I’m going to offer a different opinion. The Pre-paid MasterCard was part of the contract. You have not received it. So in my view, yes, you can cancel as you have given Sky reasonable time to fulfil their obligations under the contract. You should really have written to them (even e-mail would do) informing them that if they failed to supply the Pre-paid MasterCard within 20 working days you would hold them in breach of contract and request a move to another ISP. You will probably have to do that anyway. The uptime/downtime issues are separate from the the contract issue with the Pre-paid MasterCard and should not form part of your reason for terminating the contract.

That's not how it works... If it did so many contracts could be broken in this day an age. You need to read up on OFCOM and that will provide more information. The 50 gift card will have been a "offer" and gift is in the name. No where in the contractual agreement will there be anything about a gift card so writing in such a way won't do anything and if they tried to leave will still get charged. You have to raise it as a complaint and if the problem is not resolved in so many days you can escalate it and then they have a final time period to resolve the issue before you can leave charge free.

WJA96 · 24 Nov 2018 at 09:29

That’s exactly how contracts work. Anything that formed part of the incentive to get the OP to sign the contract is part of the contract. Would the OP have signed up to the contract without the £50 incentive? No. Therefore the £50 is absolutely part of the agreement. What the OP has to do is to make sure they offer Sky a reasonable opportunity to fulfill their obligations under the deal, which is why he should have written to them giving them a reasonable time to make good on their offer. If they don’t he’s absolutely within his rights to terminate the contract. OFCOM is nothing to do with this. Their area of influence is only over the telecoms side of the arrangement.

Avalon · 24 Nov 2018 at 09:48

OFCOM oversees Phone, Broadband and TV/Radio now. The ‘gift’ needs to be actively claimed, it’s T&C’s clearly state the timescales involved (no fixed SLA). That leaves the service issue.

WJA96 · 24 Nov 2018 at 13:12

It’s not a gift. The OP would not have been given the gift had they not signed up to the offer so it very definitely does form part of the contract.

If the OP has indeed tried to claim the promised item and it has not been forthcoming then the seller is in breach and the contract can be voided. See example 20 in Annex 1 of the Unfair Commercial Practises Directive 2005 which is enacted in England as the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008.

The contract of sale is not the same as the contract for the service although one is part of the other. When the OP signed the service contract they entered into a contract with the seller where the seller would provide the service AND the Pre-paid Mastercard. It’s absolutely nothing to do with OFCOM and everything to do with representing something as a free gift that isn’t free at all.

A decent contract lawyer will have this in the bin in less than 20 minutes or about £150+VAT

Avalon · 24 Nov 2018 at 14:28

WJA96 said:
It’s not a gift. The OP would not have been given the gift had they not signed up to the offer so it very definitely does form part of the contract.

If the OP has indeed tried to claim the promised item and it has not been forthcoming then the seller is in breach and the contract can be voided. See example 20 in Annex 1 of the Unfair Commercial Practises Directive 2005 which is enacted in England as the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008.

The contract of sale is not the same as the contract for the service although one is part of the other. When the OP signed the service contract they entered into a contract with the seller where the seller would provide the service AND the Pre-paid Mastercard. It’s absolutely nothing to do with OFCOM and everything to do with representing something as a free gift that isn’t free at all.

A decent contract lawyer will have this in the bin in less than 20 minutes or about £150+VAT

Read Sky’s FAQ on the claim page, they make it clear that no set timescale exists for them to provide the card - ergo even if the op has done as they needed to, it still doesn’t follow that having not received the gift card, Sky have breached the contract.

Let’s be honest, in the real world the op has two issues, one can be solved relatively quickly and easily by the op communicating with Sky (assuming the op has followed the process and requested the card, if they haven’t then tough), the other is unlikely to be resolved by any ISP reselling an openreach product.

Also as someone who has retained the services of a contract law specialist, just for her to read the contract in question and offer initial advice was four figures, that advice however saved me £144k+ and I had fun following it

just Scott · 24 Nov 2018 at 21:14

I've spoke to them twice, and both times they said they'd get it sent out. Still not received anything.

I know it's all openreach, but my internet with BT didn't drop anywhere near as many times as with Sky.

r7slayer · 26 Nov 2018 at 10:26

WJA96 said:
That’s exactly how contracts work. Anything that formed part of the incentive to get the OP to sign the contract is part of the contract. Would the OP have signed up to the contract without the £50 incentive? No. Therefore the £50 is absolutely part of the agreement. What the OP has to do is to make sure they offer Sky a reasonable opportunity to fulfill their obligations under the deal, which is why he should have written to them giving them a reasonable time to make good on their offer. If they don’t he’s absolutely within his rights to terminate the contract. OFCOM is nothing to do with this. Their area of influence is only over the telecoms side of the arrangement.

No it's not, contracts are a binding agreement. You literally said it, an incentive it's like throwing something in to sweeten the deal. But Its not part of the deal/contract ergo it's not in any T&Cs of the contract. In the contract it will not say anything about a gift card however Sky will have offered one as a gift. They can still get into bother by not sending one but you will find it does not give them a get out of jail free card on the contract. Ultimately if you follow this avenue is they will send one out. I know ive seen the complaints at Plusnet and they send one out personally by post but people ring saying they want to cancel because of it and ive had to explain it was not part of the contract so they cannot. But it has to be rectified because it starts getting complicated because it was advertised as a "free gift". Like you said the person may have not taken out the service otherwise and it's misleading them which can get the provider in trouble.

WJA96 · 26 Nov 2018 at 11:09

I actually thought when I read the first post “this person works in a phone shop and has been told to be less than straightforward with the customers”. I wasn’t a million likes off. The information you have received from your line managers is plausible and incorrect.

In almost anything legal there is a test for “reasonability”. A “common person” test.

Ask yourself this... “If the offer had not included a pre-paid MasterCard, would I have bought the service product?”

If the answer is “no” then it is unreasonable to expect one party to the agreement to be bound by it when the other party did not fulfil their obligations in full ie. if the OP didn’t get his £50 MasterCard, why would he still want the broadband contract that is now £50 more expensive than it was at the point the OP signed up.

So, I firmly assert that the OP can indeed break the contract if the £50 MasterCard is not forthcoming in the immediate future.

If Sky do send out the £50 MasterCard then yes, the OP has to stick with the contract, poor uptime and bad service included as, as you correctly state, there is no SLA in the agreement.

What people should take from this is two things; Firstly, that Sky has pretty poor customer service. And secondly, that if what you are being told doesn’t feel ‘right, it probably isn’t, no matter what the support person on Sky, PlusNet or The Purple Shirted Ones assert. They’ll tell you anything to get you to go away.

just Scott · 22 Dec 2018 at 14:48

So I just spoke to Sky and they said because they have sent it out twice, upholding their end, there is nothing they can do.

I don't really understand. I've made sure they're sending it to the correct address. Have I just been ridiculously unlucky with royal mail? I'm finding it hard to believe royal mail have lost it twice.

Avalon · 22 Dec 2018 at 14:52

H2F Scott said:
So I just spoke to Sky and they said because they have sent it out twice, upholding their end, there is nothing they can do.

I don't really understand. I've made sure they're sending it to the correct address. Have I just been ridiculously unlucky with royal mail? I'm finding it hard to believe royal mail have lost it twice.

Improbable, but not impossible. Ask for it to be sent recorded, or agree a £50 credit to the bill as a compromise?

just Scott · 22 Dec 2018 at 15:17

Avalon said:
Improbable, but not impossible. Ask for it to be sent recorded, or agree a £50 credit to the bill as a compromise?

Well I've just moved house, and because they don't offer sky at my new property, I had to cancel. Do you think it would be worth phoning back and offering your suggestion? I am looking at it from their prospective - they've just got rid of me, so why would they want to compromise?

I might do still ring back though, because I can't help but feel I've been scammed out of £50.

Avalon · 22 Dec 2018 at 15:31

H2F Scott said:
Well I've just moved house, and because they don't offer sky at my new property, I had to cancel. Do you think it would be worth phoning back and offering your suggestion? I am looking at it from their prospective - they've just got rid of me, so why would they want to compromise?

I might do still ring back though, because I can't help but feel I've been scammed out of £50.

One way or another, as long as you fulfilled the criteria for the offer, they owe you £50. I wouldn't let that go...