Sky Failed Direct Debit

dickydonkin

Having been with sky in the past, and depite my reservations about their abysmal customer services which I have experienced in the past, I (foolishly) decided to reinstate my subscription to them and opted for the TV/Phone/Broadband.

So far so good.

Having had a window broken by one of their 'engineers' who half installed the box and despite being without internet for two weeks due to to a 'technical fault' in delivering my router, I eventually was 'up and running'.

Now I have just received a letter stating that due to not having enough money in my bank account, my first direct debit has failed and when I checked out my account online, it does indeed show that the money was taken out but refunded on the same day.

But there was more than enough money in the account plus I had an authorised overdraft (which I never use).

Furthermore, I checked 'my sky' account and my payment options shows all of the correct bank/dd details.

I am hoping I am not going to be charged by Barclays for this failed transaction and I was wondering if anyone had experienced anything similar with sky.

BTW - They offer inducements to 'introduce a friend to sky' - I would not recommend this shower of s**t to my worst enemy.

Hazzanet

I had this.

They used the same direct debit details that they had on file from 18 months previous. Under the terms of the direct debit scheme, a direct debit which is inactive for 13 months or more gets cancelled by the bank, and sky hadn't reinstated the instruction with the bank.

When they claimed the first payment, it was rejected as the bank had no record of the direct debit - it had been cancelled by the bank some 5 months earlier.

Sky should know this really, you need to ask them to re-set up the direct debit.

dickydonkin

Hazzanet wrote: »

I had this.

They used the same direct debit details that they had on file from 18 months previous. Under the terms of the direct debit scheme, a direct debit which is inactive for 13 months or more gets cancelled by the bank, and sky hadn't reinstated the instruction with the bank.

When they claimed the first payment, it was rejected as the bank had no record of the direct debit - it had been cancelled by the bank some 5 months earlier.

Sky should know this really, you need to ask them to re-set up the direct debit.

My previous contract was actually paid monthly by debit card so there was no previous DD mandate.

I have checked 'my sky' and it clearly shows the correct bank details, payment dates and shows that I am paying by direct debit - well that is what it is supposed to do.

Hazzanet - they are absolutely useless and you would not believe the hassle I have had since reinstating my contract. And don't get me going on their customer services..... and as for their Asian contact centre........:mad:!

As I am now tied into their 12 month contract, I have given them 12 months notice of termination as I just cannot trust these clowns to provide me with a trouble free service.

I have also sent them a nice letter so hopefully this will be resolved soon, although I am not holding my breath!

mancini601

dpassmore wrote: »

My previous contract was actually paid monthly by debit card so there was no previous DD mandate.

I have checked 'my sky' and it clearly shows the correct bank details, payment dates and shows that I am paying by direct debit - well that is what it is supposed to do.

Hazzanet - they are absolutely useless and you would not believe the hassle I have had since reinstating my contract. And don't get me going on their customer services..... and as for their Asian contact centre........:mad:!

As I am now tied into their 12 month contract, I have given them 12 months notice of termination as I just cannot trust these clowns to provide me with a trouble free service.

I have also sent them a nice letter so hopefully this will be resolved soon, although I am not holding my breath!

Not sure how much this helps but I had a similar situation where the direct debit was cancelled. I reconfirmed my details with Sky and all appeared to be ok but on the next payment day, the direct debit seemed to immediately cancel itself. The bank stated that Sky had used the old reference details from the original direct debit so the bank would and did, automatically cancel this.

I could not get Sky to setup a 'new' direct debit with this bank account. They kept on setting it up with the original details. After many calls and banging my head against a brick wall, I had to setup the direct debit with another hardly ever used bank account that I had with a different bank. This then solved the problem but every month I now have to remember to pay into this other account enough to pay my direct debit (I forgot once and it cost me £38)!

misswadey

This happened to me and I spoke to both the bank and Sky. The bank confirmed to me that Sky needed to send another number but they also stated if another number was sent I would have the DD declined as the new authorisation number would not be recognised by Sky as being my account number or the bank as being linked to my account.

The customer is stuck between a rock and a hard place by both the bank and Sky.

Would asking for a new paper mandate form to be issued would resolve the issue (but just putting the usual DD details on?)

exel1966

Hazzanet wrote: »

Under the terms of the direct debit scheme, a direct debit which is inactive for 13 months or more gets cancelled by the bank, and sky hadn't reinstated the instruction with the bank.

When they claimed the first payment, it was rejected as the bank had no record of the direct debit - it had been cancelled by the bank some 5 months earlier.

Sky should know this really, you need to ask them to re-set up the direct debit.

It's not up to Sky to reinstate an old DD as they're not permitted to do so without your authority, otherwise any company could reinstate false DD's at will. It's up to you as an account holder to ensure the DD is still active.

However Sky will know from their records that the DD hasn't been used so could send the customer a reminder to activate a new DD, but are they a reminder service ?

AnonymousForObviousReason

exel1966 wrote: »

However Sky will know from their records that the DD hasn't been used so could send the customer a reminder to activate a new DD, but are they a reminder service ?

Agree. Stupid customers, why should Sky try and make it easier to ensure they can pay bills? How unreasonable, it's like people are expecting a service or something because they are customers.

Wonder what happened in this case as DD appears to be a new one. Follow advice above and let Sky sort it out, it's not your job to chase payment for their mistake, I'm sure they'll understand and won't be charging you with this logic.

dickydonkin

Thanks everyone - it seems that I am not the only one who has experienced difficulties with sky and DD.

The letter I received from them also informed me that they will try again on Monday to debit my account although as I suspect that this will fail as well.

I could make the payment by other means however, I am concerned that after doing this, the DD will be activated/reinstated/ and I will have paid the bill twice - nothing surprises me anymore with this outfit.

The last thing I want is to attempt to contact sky again and have to deal with their contact centres.

Maybe it will be sorted next week. :whistle:

Tiddlywinks

OP - try sending an email headed up as a complaint to the big boss (Chief Exec Offr) at Sky -

[EMAIL="jeremy.darroch@bskyb.com"]jeremy.darroch@bskyb.com[/EMAIL]

He won't answer but he'll get one of his complaints team members to contact you.

Good luck

chexum

dpassmore wrote: »

My previous contract was actually paid monthly by debit card so there was no previous DD mandate.

I have checked 'my sky' and it clearly shows the correct bank details, payment dates and shows that I am paying by direct debit - well that is what it is supposed to do.

Some banks (Barclays for one) enforce that the direct debit originator must notify you 10 days before the first debit. If the instruction reaches your bank too late, they will reject it on the grounds that it's not possible you were given proper notice.

If you haven't been charged for the overdraft, this is a more likely reason - to keep an audit trail, they still show the direct debit taken, then returned.

Another pitfall is that after 2-3 failed attempts, banks can auto-reject all further attempts with the same identification numbers, so there's a lot for the originators to mix up, and difficult for the front line staff to fix it... Keep records what happened to prove their wrongs, and be firm to ask for their complaint procedures and escalate as appropriate.

Hazzanet

exel1966 wrote: »

It's not up to Sky to reinstate an old DD as they're not permitted to do so without your authority, otherwise any company could reinstate false DD's at will. It's up to you as an account holder to ensure the DD is still active.

However Sky will know from their records that the DD hasn't been used so could send the customer a reminder to activate a new DD, but are they a reminder service ?

Agreed. I pointed out that the instruction had expired at the time of re-subscription and requested that they reinstate it via AUDDIS. As you can appreciate, this is something that Sky would have to do rather than I as it is a process driven by the originator.

Despite assurances by Sky, they failed to act on my instruction and the DD failed. I did all that I could as the account holder in this instance other than visit Sky and do it for them