Sky won't refund our money

BadgerGirl_2

Hi All

I'm a long time lurker but first time poster so please be gentle!

Recently we switched our TV package from Sky to Virgin. Due to us paying our Sky bill by direct debit and the changeover occurring part way through a month it has ended up that Sky owe us just under £10 back - which they won't refund.....

The crux of this matter stems from an on-going battle we had with Sky regarding the account holders name. The Sky package was in my hubbies ex-wife's name and we have tried on numerous occasions over the past 4 years to change this. (We had very contradictory explanations and 'solutions' from a number of Sky Customer Services staff and as directed by Sky, even sent them a letter signed by the ex-wife agreeing to the change.) But to no avail - they never changed it. :mad:

At this point, let me mention that the direct debit for the Sky has always been taken from a bank account held in my husbands name ONLY. So now Sky say they cannot simply refund the money into the account from which they took all those thousands of pounds subscription fees over the years and will not discuss the matter further with my hubbie because he is not the name on the account!

I'm not so fussed about the £10 (although I would appreciate it back!) - what I'm cross about is how they can justify such bad customer service.
Anyone had anything similar or any advice?

Can we force them to simply refund the outstanding money into the account from which the bills were paid?

Thanks in advance!

spike7451

It's the Data Protection Act that is blocking you,not Sky.
Unless your husbands Ex had him added to her account as a secondary account holder,Sky WILL NOT allow anybody except the account holder to do anything on that account.
As I read it,you have tried to have him added to the account with his wifes blessing but with no joy. Sky are anal with regards to the DPA so I'm not supprised you have had problems.

Kurtis_Blue

Can you "switch" TV package?? the time that Virgin starts has no bearing on the refund from Sky and is not a seamless switch, you cancel sky separately and it will end when your notice runs out.

End of the day you did not have a contract with Sky the other women did, I wouldn't be sending monies to anyone without a contract.

As spike says they clearly cannot discuss one persons contract with anyone else.

BadgerGirl_2

Thanks for your replies.

So really when we explained the situation Sky should have advised us to cancel the original contract and start again in another name. Something which we, of course, would have been willing to do. Instead they insisted that it was possible to change the name - something which in hindsight was obviously not possible, they just wanted to keep getting the money from us!

lessons learnt I guess.

Thanks.