Setanta Sports is the worst company I have ever had to dea with. DO NOT subscribe to this company as it is almost impossible to unsubscribe.

Took out subscription in August 07.
Moved house in December 07, didn't move into new house until Feb 08.
Cancelled subscription therefore in December over the phone - fine no problem.
Upon moving into new house in Feb - resubscribed.

End of the football season comes in May - called to cancel with intentions to renew in August - why waste £30 over 3 months not watching it.

Couldnt do that! Needed a letter - sent letter off same day.
Nearly 2 months down the line no cancellation and numerous phone calls to ask why i hadn't paid my direct debit.

I have spent so far 6 hours on hold, £0.35 postage on first letter, £4.60 on second letter sent special delivery and the cost of phone calls.

And I am now.........nowhere down the line.

Managers cant do anything, supervisors cant do anything and customer service advisor's areas useful as an ice cream bench in the sahara!!!!

I like watching sport on TV, and genuinely believe it is why God invented Plasma TVs.

This year, the monopoly that Sky previously held on Premier League football has been broken and a new kid on the block has appeared. They are called Setenta Sports. You may have seen the adverts? Des Lynam in a burger van trying to convince someone it has nothing to do with Sultanas? Advertising at its very best.

Anyway, this extra choice for us consumers means that I now have to subscribe to not one, but two sports channels if I want to watch when my team plays on the television. The really good news however is that Setanta Sports do not require an annual contract. According to their increasingly irritating advertising materials, you just pay £9.99 a month, with no annual contract as you have with Sky. Bargain eh? So I called up to discuss a subscription.

Hello Setanta Sports.

Hello, I would like some details about your monthly subscription please. Is it really just £9.99 with no annual contract?

Yes.

And how do I sign up?

We can do that for you, with a one-off £10 set-up charge.

A set-up charge?

Yes, but it is only a one-off.

Err, still, that basically makes it £20 for the month doesn't it?

Only if you want it for just one month.

Which I do. But even if I subscribe to your service for one thousand months, it still isn't £9.99 a month on average, is it?

We prefer to see it as a one-off charge and £9.99 a month from then on.

Lets agree to disagree on that point. So, I can just pay the £20 and then the service would stop working in one months time?

Err, no. You would need to cancel your subscription, it won't stop automatically. Payment is by Direct Debit.

And how would I do that?

You can do that over the phone by giving us thirty days notice.

Hang on a minute. Thirty days notice? For a one month contract?

Yes.

So if I want to subscribe to your non-contract £9.99 a month sports channel, I have to sign up with you now, pay you £19.99 immediately, and then tell you I want to cancel my subscription straight away?

I would need to put you through to the cancellations department to do that, but you can't cancel in the first month.

I can't cancel it for a month? So I can't actually subscribe for just one month at all, can I? And the absolute minimum I can spend with you, even though I only want to subscribe for one month, is £30?

Err, yes.

And what if I wanted to miss a month and watch again in December?

You would need to pay another £10 set-up charge.

And sign up for another two months, as a minimum?

Yes.

Setanta Sports is not at all recommended for any one under any circumstances.
I found it to be the worst customer care on the face of earth. Everybody will tell you how to subscribe, but nobody will answer your phone when you want to unsubscribe.

Avoid setanta at all costs - this outfit is total rubbish - be warned!!!!. Easy to phone and subscribe - they answer very quickly. However - calling to unsubscribe or cancel and its a different story - constantly placed on hold and no satisfaction when you do eventually get to speak to someone.

Signed up on April 18th 2008 just to watch the Calzaghe Hopkins match - the operator explains that the basic deal is £14-99 'connection fee' , plus £9-99/month but that you can cancel as long as you give a minimum of 30 days notice. So - called back later to sign up - again the phone was quickly answered - but the rules had shifted slightly - now you must subscribe for a minimum of 2 months. So now we are up to £35 just to watch a boxing match - however - I signed up (foolishly) and got connected. Then yesterday 24th - shock horror - after trying to get through to customer services for ages I contacted the subscription line - they answered almost immediately - but said they couldn't help and recommended I contact customer services between 9 am and 9 pm. So today 25th at 9:05 am tried to contact customer services - automatic answering machine put me on hold for 10 minutes - so rang off and in exasperation called the subscription line again. The lady operator was sympathetic and said she would try to connect me to customer services via her direct line - again on hold - this time for a further 20 minutes!! before speaking to a live person and explained that I wished to cancel and was giving more than the minimum 30 days. I was told that I was not allowed to cancel until thirty days had elapsed and from that date had to give 30 days notice. When I explained that this would give me an impossibly small window in which to get through and cancel. I was told that this is the way it is!! I asked what would happen if I was not able to get through and was told that I would be liable for a third months subscription.

In my opinion Setanta is deliberately misleading subscribers - by failing to make clear how and by what means their cancellation policy operates and by applying a cancellation criteria and method of operations that makes it extremely difficult to only pay for an initial 2 months subscription. In other words I believe setanta is running a scam. Why else would they make it easy to subscribe and difficult to cancel? I urge all on this site who have had difficulties to contact trading standards and the various media consumer protection groups such as watch dog, rogue trader etc.

Fed up with quality of the broadcast, rang up and they said they would send me a signal test....
Anyhow... It's not worth £10 a month. I love SKY sports... so i'm staying with them and MOTD. hopefully Setanta will stop showing football one day...

I signed up to Setanta on Wednesday night - was not connected within 15 mins as told, nor within the 1hr maximum they said.
Next day got home from work - still not connected - called the customer service line and spoke to someone for about 10 seconds and gave my name then put on hold for 10 minutes - fortunately i suddenly had a picture so possibly the chap had done something about it?
Next day - no signal again - another call to Setanta and told to keep my tv on channel 38 for an hour until it came on
Still no signal so told to keep it on overnight - unable to watch any other channel for the rest of the evening - still no signal
I have had setanta for 3 days now and seen only 15 minutes of non league football which i was not interested in anyway
If i wanted to watch a blank screen i would not have paid 9.99 to do so

When cancelling my Setanta Sports contract they transfered me to a 'manager' to discuss it. On four occasions I phoned to cancel and was kept on hold on a 'special use' number (expensive) for 15 minutes after which time I hung-up without speaking to the 'manager'.

I then wrote to them and they took nine weeks to cancel my account. Fortunately I had cancelled my direct debit so they couldn't take any more funds from my account.

I wouldn't recommend anyone to get setanta as its as bad as talk talk to get out off and unable to get an answers from customer services. needs sorting or they are going to lose a lot of customers.

Signed up to watch the City v Everton game, picture broke up, sound disappeared, picture came back and then went again - I gave up and watched the Swansea v MK dons game on sky - perfect picture. Could not speak to any tech support at Setanta - the option was engaged !
I'll try the City v wigan game at the weekend and if no better I'll be cancelling.

Ok if you want naff spl or european football, but English premiership games, forget it!
i'm typing this during the liverpool v sunderland match which i can't watch because setanta have signal problems.
Can't wait for the next saturday top flight match, not.
thank goodness for 5 live