If your call spend is high, then don't go to Sky!!

Frustrated_of_Bangor
Frustrated_of_Bangor Posts: 4 Newbie
edited 16 January 2012 at 6:46PM in Phones & TV
For anyone considering moving to Sky Talk and who has a large monthly spend – DONT!!

November - I spend approx £200+ each month on call charges and in November I received an e mail from Sky asking me to ring and confirm if my calls were genuine or if these were fraudulent calls as my call spend had gone over £140.. I duly called and confirmed that these calls were genuine and impressed upon the customer service agent that my phone line was very important to me. She said not to worry as they were just checking and assured me that nothing outrageous as cutting off my service would happen as my credit limit was £300. (We actually had a bit of a laugh about it...ha ha, as if....) 1 day later I was cut off....a whole debacle ensued and it took me 3 days to get my service put back on again despite paying there and then for all unbilled calls made that month already, as I was told if I did this my service would be put back on immediately. It wasn’t.
I complained and the complaints team called me and said I had been given incorrect information and actually the credit limit was £150. If my calls reached this level they would contact me again by e mail and I would be asked if I wanted to make payment for any unbilled calls to avoid restriction and this should have been offered to me at the last phone call. Ok I thought...fair enough

December – I received an e mail from Sky telling me my call charges were at £80 and to call again to confirm if these were fraudulent. I duly called and expressed surprise to the customer service agent that I had received this e mail when my calls were at £80 as I had been told this would happen when calls were at £150. I asked if my credit limit had been reduced and if so, why, as I pay in full by direct debit each month. He refused to discuss a credit limit with me saying it was not company policy. So I didn’t know where I stood.......
Another letter to the complaints department followed........they called me to confirm their high call spend policy. When my call charges reached £80 I would get an e mail warning me my calls were at this stage. I would then get another e mail when my call spend had reached £100 and then when they reached £150 I would be given the option of calling them and making payment for unbilled calls to avoid service restriction.
I thanked them for clarifying this and for the line rental refund they offered for any inconvenience caused.

January – I received an e mail at £80. I made the obligatory call saying these were not fraudulent calls. I waited for the next 2 warning e mails but nothing came so I thought I would check my account myself as I knew my usage had been high. I noticed my call spend was at £152 so I made a payment for £60 to take me below my ‘credit limit’.
Guess what???? NO service later that day!!!! I called them from my mobile (as they do not even allow you the courtesy of calling their number from a restricted line) to be told that everything the complaints agent had told me was incorrect. There would be a warning at £80 but after that there would be no further contact. The agent said there is no such thing as a credit limit....there is a system generated program that looks at call charges and if this program thinks you have overspent in any period of time it will cut your service off without warning you. If the system ‘feels’ you have spent too much even within a 1 hour period it will cut you off. This means that you never know where you are with Sky. I pointed to my last 12 months bills and the fact they are high but always paid on time and in full so why can a stop not be put on this happening to me? They say there is no human intervention that can over ride this and whilst there are plans to try to get around this they are not yet in place.
I told him I had made the payment to take me below my ‘credit limit’ but he reiterated that there is no such thing as a credit limit. If the system thinks you have overspent in any time period be it 1 hour, 12 hours, 24 hours or 72 hours, it will cut you off without notice.


I am totally baffled by this policy and cannot see how Sky can possibly expect to retain high spending customers from whom they will make the majority of their profit if they continue to cut them off without notice and at the whim of a system generated decision.


I am told that they went through a trial that was successful as people were concerned at high bills and fraudulent use of their phones......all well and good, for those people, but what about the genuine high spend customers?

I remain without service, awaiting a response to my latest complaint letter, or a call from a manager which I was promised 9 hours ago. Think that might be as likely as seeing a flying pig.

If your call spend is high, then don’t go to Sky!!
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Comments

  • macman
    macman Posts: 53,008
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    Are these charges the result of business usage? If so you are technically in breach of the terms and conditions, assuming that you are on a residential service.
    Can you not make most of your calls on a Anytime package, and thereby save a fortune?
    No free lunch, and no free laptop ;)
  • In my own experience when we've had a BT service and had to use dial-up internet for days/weeks until the ADSL got enabled/the DACS box removed, I've run up £100+ bills (thanks to 3G that's a thing of the past) and hit an "unseen" credit limit.

    That (the unseen credit limit) does seem to be normal for a new customer with a new provider - at least, in the case of these two providers. Annoying when you know you can and will pay for it, but understandable perhaps.

    With those bills, perhaps you ought to investigate a VOIP service. 1000 mins to landlines for about six pounds..
  • duchy
    duchy Posts: 19,511
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    I suspect if it's purely domestic use it's a reasonable limit. After all Sky's Unlimited call package gives you free UK landland 24/7 plus various overseas calls free so anything vastly over that is 08 something numbers so either lots of calls to businesses or premium lines.
    I did once come across a lady who had paid nearly £200 on one call to a psychic line -premumably they told her she'd have an unexpectedly large bill in her future -plus other calls to other psychic line numbers.
    I Would Rather Climb A Mountain Than Crawl Into A Hole

    MSE Florida wedding .....no problem
  • brewerdave
    brewerdave Posts: 8,499
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    I read the initial post with incredulity - in this day and age WHY would anyone pay that much for residential calls?? Has to be for business use ..and even then.....
  • Thanks Mark - will look into this VOIP.
    As for being a new customer - I have been a sky TV customer for 22 years and a Sky talk customer for over 12 months so they have been aware of my usage and unblemished payment history for long enough I would have thought......
    onwards and upwards!!
  • Thanks Macman, Sky are aware of my reasons for high usage and have been since I signed up with them. Most calls are to mobiles which are not included in anytime package as far as I am aware (??)

    Thanks for your comment Duchy - I don't have a problem with them setting a limit and me working within that and paying off as and when I reach that limit to keep the service on....the problem is that I have now been told 3 different limits and also been advised that their computer generated system will just cut the service off without recourse to me, which I think is unreasonable. Complaints dept said I would be warned at £101 and £150 and asked for payment if I wanted to keep service on but no warnings received. HA HA loved the psychic line.

    Brewer Dave - your incredulity and other people's comments here have spurred me into looking at other alternatives eg VOIP. Wish me luck in my new technology search..............

    Thanks to everyone for your comments
  • billsavings
    billsavings Posts: 2,015 Forumite
    Heres a cheap call service you can use on SKY for cheaper geographical and non geographical calls. Access it via the 0808 freephone number http://www.18185.co.uk/mobilerates.php Might be handy whilst your looking at VOIP.
  • OldGreyFox
    OldGreyFox Posts: 1,403 Forumite
    edited 20 January 2012 at 12:04PM
    Most calls are to mobiles which are not included in anytime package as far as I am aware (??)

    Why not get a payg phone and a sim only deal with lots of xnet minutes that would cut cost of calls mobiles.

    Or you could stick the sim in this bit of kit expensive but effective.
    http://www.burnsidetelecom.com/burnside_products/prod_1_desktop_cellular_phones/21_P200_series.aspx
  • macman
    macman Posts: 53,008
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    If you need to make that many calls to mobiles, do it out of your own mobile's inclusive allowance.
    No free lunch, and no free laptop ;)
  • jhp
    jhp Posts: 2,342 Forumite
    macman wrote: »
    If you need to make that many calls to mobiles, do it out of your own mobile's inclusive allowance.

    Depending on how many minutes he has that could be more expensive.:D
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