Good luck cancelling!

I've had three months of pure hell trying to get rid of my Setanta channels. I only really used to watch it for the football so when there were no decent games on I decided I save myself some money and try to cancel it.

I called and asked to be put through to disconnections and they told me I needed to send a letter (Not an e-mail) via post to their disconnections team stating that from the date of the letter I wanted to give my 30 days notice to cancel.

I did this, 30 days passed and then my next payment was taken out of my bank by direct debit as I still had the channels.

I called again... "Terribly sorry sir, we didn't receive your letter stating you wanted to cancel, could you please send it again" I told them I would send them an e-mail and wanted a reply stating that they had received my request.

I sent the e-mail and got a reply accepting my disconnection request. To be on the safe side I cancelled my direct debit online. Another 30 days passed and I still had the channels and then a letter from the bank drops through the door. "Setanta Sports have contacted us as you have failed to meet the direct debit requirement on your account, we have paid this on your behalf and you must now pay us £30 for failing to meet your Direct Debit".

Last Friday I claimed my £30 bank charge back as I had evidence to prove that I had cancelled my subscription via the correct procedure!

I am still waiting to hear back from Setanta regarding the last 2 months subscription charges but I don't hold out much hope.

Other friends and colleagues have had similar problems cancelling whilst some have had no problem at all and it has just taken a phone call.

I wouldn't touch Setanta Sports again with a 10ft barge pole!

Rant Over!

Setanta are an absoulte joke ... They will go bust within 2 years ...

Ive just cancelled my subscription with them, they tried to offer me all sorts of reduced deals to stay but with certain things in life you have to stand up to people like this and show them that they can`t treat RL fans as minority customers, they advertised 2 live NRL games a week and for the foreseeable future they will be showing just one live game a week which is what they said to me on the phone. The Footy show aint what it used to be either so that will be no great loss, the only thing i will miss is State Of Origin but to me its more important to stand up to these sort of people and not to let them treat customers how they like. If you need to cancel then email them with all your details incl viewing card number to the address below and cancel your standing order. requests@setanta.com

Ive just cancelled my subscription with them, they tried to offer me all sorts of reduced deals to stay but with certain things in life you have to stand up to people like this and show them that they can`t treat RL fans as minority customers, they advertised 2 live NRL games a week and for the foreseeable future they will be showing just one live game a week which is what they said to me on the phone. The Footy show aint what it used to be either so that will be no great loss, the only thing i will miss is State Of Origin but to me its more important to stand up to these sort of people and not to let them treat customers how they like. If you need to cancel then email them with all your details incl viewing card number to the address below and cancel your standing order. requests@setanta.com

Broncos Vs Storm is a repeat of last fridays game.

just phoned them and they said there will be 2 live games per week

Sending you a letter after the event shows that the payment was not made as a result of a mistake, but was a deliberate act. Deliberate or accidental I would contact the Financial Ombudsman as what the bank did goes against banking rules and the 'Direct Debit Guarantee" that all banks have to abide by.

Banks can try to fleece their customers, and do make mistakes, but this appears to go way beyond either of those situations and does seem very unusual. Clearly somebody has made a mistake!

I understand RL fans not being happy with it, but for people like me who are into their footie and boxing, it's hardly a joke for around £10 a month.

It beats paying 40 odd quid for Sky anyway.

and not forgetting racing uk and excellent golf coverage.

Setanta will be losing quite a few premiership games in 2010 as sky won the recent bidding war for premiership rights and they will be screening more games, it used to be a great channel but these days you get poor picture quality and sometimes its very blocky, poor customer service for when anything goes wrong where you need assistance, i had a slight problem not long ago and i used their automated email system via the website and never got a single reply to 2 emails. I then rang up and they said they would call me back with some technical assistance, they never did call back and i had to go chasing them again..

You used to get the NRL review and preview show with Gary Freeman and Chris Warren but that soon dissapeared as well.

This promise of 2 live NRL games a week and only getting one game is the equivelant of going into Asda and buying a 12 pack of guinness and then getting it home to find out you have only get 6 cans which is half of what you were promised and half of what you what paid for.

Which is along the lines of the point I have just made to them by email. I have had an auto response to say they will deal with the complaint within 5 days, which is fine.

I subscribed only a couple of weeks back at the start of the NRL season, as I thought I would try getting into it this year. I am not interested in any of their other sports, and any decent footy games on there can be watched in the pub. It is pretty difficult to find anywhere open at 9.30am to watch the NRL!

I will be cancelling and letting them know exactly why. I wouldn't be surprised to see them claim that it will average out as they will be putting 3 games on later in the year, and if this is the case, then I am okay with that, they can charge me half price until that time.