Warning - SKY £75 Pay Once Watch Forever problems

My mum has now received her replacement viewing card from Sky for her Pay Once Watch Forever Sky box and it has been inserted and is working correctly to decrypt Sky Three, Fiver and Five USA (Fiver and Fiver+1 being channels she watches a lot due to her liking for house property prices and house improvement programs when there is nothing else on tv that she feels like viewing).

Someone I know who was also merely a currently desubscribed ex subscription Sky customer has received a free replacement viewing card from Sky too.

I have yet to decide whether Sky has now decided that this issue is causing them so much grief and adverse publicity that they are finally biting the bullet by simply posting a replacement viewing card to anyone who was formerly a Sky subscriber (given that it is perhaps near impossible for them to accurately identify all the Pay Once Watch Forever customers who did not become paying subscribers, although I would have thought a search for a customer's susbcription payment histories defining certain revenue parameters might find them) or whether they are only actually sending the replacement viewing cards to those who have made an escalated high level complaint to Sky about the issue (eg via [EMAIL="jeremy.darroch@bskyb.com"]jeremy.darroch@bskyb.com[/EMAIL]) and are still hoping to sell lots of replacement viewing cards for £20 each to any customers who finally get their viewing of Sky Three, FIVER, Five USA etc blocked in a month or two's time. They may have decided that the heat on the issue was getting too much if both trading standards and/or various executives at Five tv (for whom this would have the greatest impact in terms of lost viewers) were now beginning to take an interest in what was going on.

I don't believe that the cost to Sky of sending out these replacement cards is more than about £3 per subscriber done in bulk (the mailings are an almost completely automated process and the smartcards can't cost more than a pound or two to buy in this volume) so if there are say 1.5 million ex subscription customers the total cost of giving them all a free replacement viewing card is perhaps £5 million. On the other hand if they could have got 500,000 of these ex paying customers to pay £20 for a new viewing card minus a £3 issue cost then they may also be giving up £8.5 million of potential revenue stream. But on the other side of the coin if somebody suddenly realises a sports event they want to watch like test cricket or the Dakar rally is on today and they ring up Sky to resubscribe and are told they have to wait two weeks to get a new viewing card then they may not bother at all. So it may actually be in Sky's commercial interest to replace the viewing cards of all customers with their equipment who are not currently paying a subscription to Sky..........

Certainly if Sky gave me an offer to resubscribe to a couple of Mixes for six months for say £39.99 then I might well be willing to consider it, although at the moment they don't seem to be doing any deals of that kind.

Anyhow its great to see that in the end consumer pressure seems to have forced even the mighty Sky corporate oil tanker to turn and to do the right thing by its Freesat From Sky and Pay Once Watch Forever customers.:T

If any Pay Once Watch Forever or Freesat From Sky customers have not received a replacement viewing card by the end of December then I hope that they will make a post in this thread.

After emailing the big wigs (thanks NonGeographicalMan for the template and addresses) I received not one but two phone calls from Sky telling me my card was on it's way. Timescales ranged from a few weeks to a few months but it arrived last Saturday. Popped in and everything seems ok so far.

If anyone is yet to email, make a big fuss about the message that pops up on the screen and how it's ruining your viewing. It magically disappeared a few days after my email!

Take your card out, then you won't get the message.

I spoke too soon!! The message is now back..as big and as annoying as before. I can only assume Sky thought they'd do some sort of 'amnesty' over Christmas to stop us POVF customers complaining.

Hi, I too have been having problems with getting a free replacement card from Sky!!:mad: We are POWF customers, but not according to Sky!!
After numerous lengthy phone calls and three emails, i have today received this reply:

Dear Mrs *****
Thank you for contacting Sky Help Centre
I have had a look at your account today and your box and installation was free.You were put on a package at 33% off for first year which at the time should have been 18.00(GBP)/mth but you got it for 12.00(GBP)/mth which is why you paid 144.00(GBP).That covered your first years subscription then the account was cancelled so if you require a Freesat From Sky viewing card the cost would be 20.00(GBP)


I was under the impression that i had taken out a Pay Once Watch Forever Package, and there was an offer on for 2 free mixes for 12 months, which i cancelled when that time was up!!

Please, if anyone could help with this i would be soooo grateful, i know its only £20 but why should i have to pay it when others are getting it for free!!:mad:

xx