Beware of unplugging your phone line from your sky box...

chaffordred

...and using SKY box office.

Noticed on my monthly bank statement SKY had withdrawn £242 from my account. When I queried this, the customer services advisor told me because the phone line was unplugged the machine couldn't upload the sky box office details to them, then for some reason last month all the information was uploaded. This information dated back from 2002 and I got charged for it in one lump sum.

aliasojo

This is unusual for it to be as large an amount as that.

Normally the usage is capped at around £40 or £50 pounds and once that limit is reached then nothing else can be ordered until the phone line is plugged in again, the information is uploaded and the balance outstanding is paid. (As confirmed by a Sky employee.)

It might be worth phoning to query this, if they haven't put any kind of limit on your account by error, then perhaps they may agree to a goodwill gesture of some sort. It they tell you that not all accounts are capped...ask why not and why wasn't yours. Also ask why they didn't inform you first before withdrawing the funds. Aren't they supposed to notify you by letter to tell you how much and when etc?

I would definately look into this.

flea72

if the telephone line isnt connected, you cant buy box office films, via your remote control, so if you ordered any films they had to be done over the telephone to customer services, at which point you have to pay an extra £1 admin charge for doing so, and any fees due are automatically added to your next monthly payment

chaffordred

Thanks. I probably didn't explain it very well in my initial post.

My phone line is usually disconnected from my SKY box. Whenever we watch a Box office event I connect it up to order, then disconnect until the next time.

According to SKY, because I changed my digital box to a Sony and had my phone line disconnected, they couldnt get the details of my box office orders until last month (possibly when the phone line was connected for a short time). So they charged me for every box office order dating back to 2002 in one hit.

sockospice

You must have known that you hadn't been charged for any box office events though. Not that it's good practice of sky to take that much in one go (especially before christmas), but surely you'd have had to pay for them eventually.

machtzu

chaffordred wrote:

Thanks. I probably didn't explain it very well in my initial post.

My phone line is usually disconnected from my SKY box. Whenever we watch a Box office event I connect it up to order, then disconnect until the next time.

According to SKY, because I changed my digital box to a Sony and had my phone line disconnected, they couldnt get the details of my box office orders until last month (possibly when the phone line was connected for a short time). So they charged me for every box office order dating back to 2002 in one hit.

Sounds a bit like you got what you deserved! If you have been watching all these films and not paying for them then there is nothing wrong in what sky have done.

mike55_2

chaffordred wrote:

Thanks. I probably didn't explain it very well in my initial post.

My phone line is usually disconnected from my SKY box. Whenever we watch a Box office event I connect it up to order, then disconnect until the next time.

According to SKY, because I changed my digital box to a Sony and had my phone line disconnected, they couldnt get the details of my box office orders until last month (possibly when the phone line was connected for a short time). So they charged me for every box office order dating back to 2002 in one hit.

i'm not sure what happens if you change to sony etc, but a bt engineer disconnected ours saying it was used by sky for things like interactive voting for reality programmes. he didn't mention that we'd get films, or anything else for free, but after he'd done it, we were inundated by mails from sky warning us to reconnect the phoneline. i didn't worry too much as we don't use much of what we pay for on sky, but i'll bear this topic in mind if we ever do get billed for it.

after seeing some of Martin's comments and snippets about sky and how to save money, i'll be cancelling it soon regardless

chaffordred

machtzu wrote:

Sounds a bit like you got what you deserved! If you have been watching all these films and not paying for them then there is nothing wrong in what sky have done.

Got what I derserved? If you read my posts correctly, at no point have I disputed the fact that I owed the money to SKY, I was merely warning other people who disconnect their phone line from their SKY box or have changed their SKY box, that they may get charged in an unexpected lump sum.

At no point have I tried to scam SKY. Infact the only reason I disconnected the phone line was because we had wooden floors fitted and we could no longer hide the phone line behind the carpet. The simple solution was to connect it up as and when it was needed.

machtzu

But then why are you complaining that they took the money that you owed them in a lump sum? Part of the terms of service say that the box must be plugged in to a phone line (see your interactive sky discount). Unfortunately the box and sky cannot communicate through the 'ether' sky wouldn't know you owed the money until the box told them that you did.

smartmaniacs

Also worth noting that the condition of getting your free digi-box
is that the box is kept permanently attached to your phone line.
It's part of Skys contract.

I have a Sky+ in the living room & use my old box in the
conservatory so I can excercise to MTV. (it isn't switched
on very often as I often use CD's instead). Sky sent me a letter
saying they were aware that my box wasn't connected and
that I was breaking my contract.

I had to phone them up and explain that it wasn't switched on
let alone connected to a phone line before they stopped their
"mail campaign".

Good Luck

Nic X

jockettuk

machtzu wrote:

But then why are you complaining that they took the money that you owed them in a lump sum? Part of the terms of service say that the box must be plugged in to a phone line (see your interactive sky discount). Unfortunately the box and sky cannot communicate through the 'ether' sky wouldn't know you owed the money until the box told them that you did.

he is not complaining only commenting and warning others so they dont get a huge bill all at once like he did.. its a warning to others to be careful.