Unathorised use of direct debits

elainerory

Hope someone out there can help me. In 2000 my mother signed up to Sky TV and my bank account was used (which I agreed to as I completed the D/D Mandate). In November 2007 my mother had Sky disconected and the direct debit stopped.

In June 2008 my mother moved into a new home and received a mailing shot from Sky "come back to us for free". (she got free Sky+ box & free installation). I contacted Sky about the mailing and asked if she could take up on this offer and that I would like to pay a one off 12 month subscripyion payment. This was agreed to and I paid the money and she got Sky back.

After the 12 months were up we expected Sky to contact my mother and arrange payment for future viewing. We heard nothing. I have now noticed (yes 17 months later) that her subscriptions are coming out of my bank account by direct debit.

I have contacted Sky this morning who offered to put my mother on invoice billing and asked me if I could get the money back from her. (I can but I feel there is a principle here). Did Sky have the right to re-activate an old direct debit without my consent or my mothers? Nobody was every notified of increased subscriptions etc?

Thank you

p00hsticks

elainerory wrote: »

In November 2007 my mother had Sky disconected and the direct debit stopped.

do you mean that SKY just stopped claiming on the direct debit, or did you actually cancel it with SKY and your bank ?

timbo58

Sky, in common with pretty much any company, have linked that customer account with your payment details.
As a previous customer they have then assumed that the payment method is acceptable to the payee as it was before and the DD was set up with the previous authority you gave them originally.
Unless you cancel that authority with the bank as well as the provider (sky) then it can be reactivated.

I see your point but from Skys POV this is simple -'this is the payee account and they are paying for this sky account' it is irrelevant to them that the two are not linked by person or address.

AnonymousForObviousReason

If your mother wanted to continue with the sky subscription (which lack of cancellation indicates) then the money would have to be paid some how anyway. Your best bet may be just to phone up and complain and ask for a few months free goodwill?

Mark_In_Hampshire

elainerory wrote: »

Hope someone out there can help me. In 2000 my mother signed up to Sky TV and my bank account was used (which I agreed to as I completed the D/D Mandate). In November 2007 my mother had Sky disconected and the direct debit stopped.

In June 2008 my mother moved into a new home and received a mailing shot from Sky "come back to us for free". (she got free Sky+ box & free installation). I contacted Sky about the mailing and asked if she could take up on this offer and that I would like to pay a one off 12 month subscripyion payment. This was agreed to and I paid the money and she got Sky back.

After the 12 months were up we expected Sky to contact my mother and arrange payment for future viewing. We heard nothing. I have now noticed (yes 17 months later) that her subscriptions are coming out of my bank account by direct debit.

I have contacted Sky this morning who offered to put my mother on invoice billing and asked me if I could get the money back from her. (I can but I feel there is a principle here). Did Sky have the right to re-activate an old direct debit without my consent or my mothers? Nobody was every notified of increased subscriptions etc?

Thank you

"Did Sky have the right" - that depends on whether you cancelled the mandate with your Bank.

If you did, then no.

If you didn't, then yes, because you already gave that authority. The authority for the direct debit is separate to the contract for the service: they aren't one and the same.

That said, even if you do cancel a mandate with your bank, there's nothing in place to stop the payee setting it up again with known a/c details. They are supposed to "get your authority", but that's wooly - there's no actual mechanism to prevent it.

I am not enriely sure that Sky are entitled to hold the details for the DD after the service was cancelled anyway - perhaps someone can address this point. I would have thought they the bank account information ought to be removed when the service is cancelled to protect both the payee and the customer from e.g. security breaches.

Given these circumstances, if you did cancel the DD with the Bank, then you can ring the Bank and have every single DD payment that was taken for the second batch of service reversed and put back in your account, then ring Sky and tell them they need to send a bill for all the subscription payments.

However in the days of automated systems that's probably going to result in her service being cut off.

Direct debit is a dangerous way to pay and the best thing is not to use it in the first place, so problems like this are prevented.

More information:
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2747884

Mark_In_Hampshire

timbo58 wrote: »

As a previous customer they have then assumed that the payment method is acceptable to the payee as it was before and the DD was set up with the previous authority you gave them originally.

I do not believe that they are entitled to make this assumption.

timbo58 wrote: »

Unless you cancel that authority with the bank as well as the provider (sky) then it can be reactivated.

It can still be reactivated anyway.

Andystriker

elainerory wrote: »

I have now noticed (yes 17 months later) that her subscriptions are coming out of my bank account by direct debit.

It should be a lesson learned for you.

For 17 months, you did not notice that Sky are taking her subscriptions from your bank account?

I know life is busy, but the onus is on you to look after your money.