Sky Subscriber Services

[buzby]

Your SAR request will provide you with many (many many) sheets of A4 giving screen grabs of all the 'pages' on your account. You will not get transcripts or recordings, BUT the screen notes will summarise what was said at that date and time. In my case these were pretty accurate, but there were times calls were NOT logged. (But I make my own recordings).

 

Even if the recordings weren't for training purposes, they could argue your call wasn't recorded and you couldn't do anything about it. Look for the notes, it should tell you all you need to know.

[nator]

[message deleted]

[davefirewalker]

Just found this on another thread here.....its about bt but the principal must be the same

 

Millions could reclaim in BT bill backlash | This is Money

 

And just found this on a legal site that may be of help, it was regarding BT's fee for non dd payment

-------------------------------

 

I think I have them banged to rights here (having finished the contract part of my degree)

 

Yes they are perfectly within their rights to change their terms of service if they so wish at any time and charge more for say line rental or any other services they provide to me. Subject to my agrement and consent of course. However this charge is not a service provided by them but by a third party to the contract to whom I have no obligations. Evidenced by the fact they they do not charge VAT on the £4.50 and they are obliged to charge VAT on all the services they provide.

 

So I think I will just pay the bill less the £4.50 and I will not be in breach of contract because I will have paid only for the services they provide. I will put a note in with the bill to forward my representations to their legal department as to what grounds they attempt to justify the charge.

 

Should be an interesting one I'll keep you posted.

 

cheers

 

------------------------------------

 

rgds

 

Dave

[IdaInFife]

Hi all, I've been following this thread for a while. I'm going through Sky hell as well, and am at a complete loss as to what I can do. There seems to be some knowledge here, so I thought I would bounce this off you lot.

 

I moved into a new flat at the end of October. This has a communal satellite dish on the roof, so I decided to sign up for Sky+ with SkyHD service. I bought the package off one of sky's sellers in a shopping centre, with a special offer for the first month (Sky world for £31). This was not from a third party but from sky itself. I parted with over £300 for the SkyHD box and installation, paying by credit card. I signed and handed over the contract and set up a direct debit (I know I know..) on 3 November. My bank confirms that the DDM was set up on 6 November and has been active since.

 

The engineers came by a week later and set it all up. So far so good. Then the letters started coming: "Ooops, you have forgotten something! We have not received your contract! Please sign another one and send it to us to avoid any interruptions to your service". And so on and so on. I called the seller, who assured me the contract had been sent on.

 

Cue a long series of completely pointless phone calls (and ££s). I stated that I did not want to sign another contract as we already had one, but was happy to send a copy.

 

In early December I was cut off. I called again, and my service was reactivated, but the letters continued to come. Still in early December, I managed to get a fax number for customer services, and faxed them a copy of the contract. I received no reply and continued to get their letters. This time, I wrote a recorded letter to the signee of the letters, a Mr. Mark Anderson, Customer Marketing Director at their Livingston offices, enclosing another copy of my contract. This was received by them the next day, but again I got no reply whatsoever.

 

On 20 December I was cut off for another 9 days. Another phone call, and the lady at the other end confirmed that they did have a copy of the contract, and that they did have the direct debit details, and that my account was now 'active'. My service was restored.

 

Of course, on 10 January I received yet another letter, dated 4 January, and today, 11 January, my service was cut off again. I am at a complete loss as to what I can do here. Phoning resolves nothing at all and only costs a lot of money.

 

Every time I call I speak to somebody completely new, who has no knowledge of the problem at all.

 

They do not respond to my letters of faxes.

 

They have discontinued their email support service, so that's not an option.

 

I cannot use they're new 'my Sky' internet service because they have failed to activate my account.

 

Now, if they do not want my custom, that's fine by me. However, I have spent in excess of £300 for their decoder box which is absolutely no good to me other than viewing freeview channels (I can't even record on it without the service). I have paid for installation and have spent heaps of money on telephone calls and correspondence.

 

The only thing I can think of is doing them for breach of contract, and asking for a full refund. Paragraph 11© of the contract states:

 

"Except where you break the Conditions of we will not end this Contract during the Minimum Term. (...)"

 

This really is the only option I can see at the moment. I would loathe to do this because I take no pleasure in this kind of thing, nor do I really have the time for it.

 

If anybody else has a better idea, please let me know. Any other thoughts on the matter are also very welcome.

 

Many thanks.

 

 

Sky themselves do not deal with communial installs so you have had an independant install which means your equipment will be maintained by the company that installed it and they should have forwarded the contract to Sky.

 

If you are still having problems PM me.

 

 

Idax

[pugsley]

sending an SAR as I can longer access my old email account and have no proof I sent preliminary and LBA to Sky, Sky account still in dispute.

 

glad to see this thread is still active:D

[buzby]

Your LBA HAS to be just that, it is not an 'email before action'. Not only that, if you send it by Recorded Delivery you have proof that is acceptable to the court you gave them every opportunity to resolve the issue prior to litigation. If you've only emailed them, you'll need to do a formal LBA asap.

[swingtop]

How did you end up getting on with all these?

[elvira]

Could you tell me how's it possible that Sky charged me 115,75 and set up DD if I've never spoken to them and didn't give them any details at all?! I don't have even television! I've seen something like this in my bank account for a first time... Should I contact my bank or call damn sky first???

[buzby]

Your details have become compromised (somehow) as all it takes is a Sord/Account name and Sky can take the money without a signature. There is little point in speaking to Sky if you are not a customer of theirs. Call your Bank and explain that you have an unauthorised debit that you know nothing about, and once refunded, that should be it. You won;t hear from Sky since they don;t know who you are.

[elvira]

Thanks for quick response. I will do.

[jaam]

please please someone help me, I was a sky customer and was unable to pay them due to my partner being made redundant. So my finances took a fast downward turn before christmas. I had started to recieve debt letters from SKY. We are now on benefits. months after i defaulted on the sky account and it was cancelled they took £200 pound in 2 separtate payments from a family members debit card as they had allowed me to use their card to pay for the instilation. sky has made their account overdrawn and the bank took their tax credit benifits to pay sky plus they now have pending bak charges. sky say its in the contract that they can get money back from the method of payment you used to sign up with them orginaly. The bank wont do anything apart from take the money and say contact sky. please advice needed:(

[buzby]

The bank is WRONG. The cardholder did not authorise this amoiunt to be taken and their bank should arrange to recall it immediately. It isn't fraud, but it's not far off it. Sky can have a point about taking any payment means they can, but the person giving you their card details for the install could have done so as a gift, and would not expect any further debit attempts. And this is where Sky tripped up.

 

THEY need to go to their bank and say they are NOT a customer of Sky and they need ther money BACK!

[IdaInFife]

now when you book a sky install using a credit or debit card you also agree to them charging any fees that are due if you do not fulfill a minimum period, this is stated on the phone at time of booking and also in the t and c's that are sent and they also ask if you are not the card holder if you have authorization for the card.

 

as buzby says, the card holder will need to reclaim the payments back through the card issuer.

 

Ida x

[Jasper1965]

please please someone help me, I was a sky customer and was unable to pay them due to my partner being made redundant. So my finances took a fast downward turn before christmas. I had started to recieve debt letters from SKY. We are now on benefits. months after i defaulted on the sky account and it was cancelled they took £200 pound in 2 separtate payments from a family members debit card as they had allowed me to use their card to pay for the instilation. sky has made their account overdrawn and the bank took their tax credit benifits to pay sky plus they now have pending bak charges. sky say its in the contract that they can get money back from the method of payment you used to sign up with them orginaly. The bank wont do anything apart from take the money and say contact sky. please advice needed:(

 

I'm in the same boat. Sky took three payments totalling £250 from my 78 year old mother in laws card a week before christmas. She has reported them to the bank (NatWest) who say each transaction was manually keyed using existing authorisation codes therefore not for the bank to chase the money as they were 'authorised' transactions.

 

I'm challenging the terms in the Sky agreement for the following reasons.

 

The one time we paid on MIL's card it was agreed before usage that this payment was a one off and her details were not to be stored and the card was not to ever be used again without further authorisation. The sky adviser agreed to this but they haven't listened to the phone conversation yet.

 

Sky are relying on a contractual agreement signed by myself awarding them the rights to retain 3rd party card details. I am not in a position to award them these rights since I have no title to the card and cannot lawfully authorise any payment on this card.

 

Sky are in breach of the verbal agreement that these 3rd party card details were to be destroyed after one time usage.

 

Sky T&C's contain an unfair term and should be amended to incorporate the phrase "held by the sky account holder" after "any card" since I like nearly all account holders am not lawfully able to assign any rights in a 3rd parties CC to sky and the contract is not signed by the cc holder.

 

The Sky contract potentially breaches the fundamental principle of "nemo dat quod non habet" and in every instance where a charge is applied to a third parties card without express authorisation from the cardholder Sky are guilty of breaching this legal fundamental.

 

The letter of notice stating they were going to approach the card did not arrive, the payment was taken on the 17th Dec and funnily the letter arrived this morning with "ReISSUE" stamped in the top corner. They would have been told not to and MIL would have been advised to alert the bank had this letter arrived.

 

By taking three payments Sky managed to circumnavigate the account security flag which would have been triggered had a single payment of £250 been requested. Three manual payments within minutes tends to suggest that Sky were aware a trigger for authorisation might have been set.

 

The card was removed from the system as agreed but was subsequently manually re-entered on the system and no authorisation was given for this.

 

 

I have found Sky to be dreadfully evasive in their dealings over this. Sadly MIL uses NatWest so no surprises with their attitude but what shocks me is that Sky apparently re-used authorisation codes according to NatWest yet only one payment was ever made on that card so where did the authorisation codes (plural) spring from? I suspect but can only guess that Sky do some sort of pre-authorisation setup whenever they get a new card and obtain authorisation codes for future payments.

 

Some useful contact details for escalating the dispute away from the terribly polite but wholly unhelpful call centre team I've just gleaned are:

 

allcustomerrelationsescal ation@bskyb.com

 

fax- 01506 484334

 

And if you don't have a Sky phone to use free for hour after hour I think the following works as a non chargable call from other networks.

 

01506 831 780 press 3 then 3 again then 2

 

BTW although the Sky offices are in Livingstone West Lothian be careful if taking it further because the registered office for Sky Subscriptions Services LTD is in London. Legal letters sent to Scottish office aren't deemed properly served.

 

I'm on to TS through Consumer Direct tomorrow to see if theres mileage in this being an unfair term as it invokes a right under contract which does not exist under law in cases like this where the card does not belong to the sky account holder. Sky have awarded themselves the right in perpetuity to approach third parties cards and deduct money, I'm not very convinced this is legal.