Sky - fuming!

lalamb

We have been with Sky for a few years now and I am utterly disgusted with the way they have treated me this morning!

I will try and make it as brief as possible.

On the 5th of each month our payments are due to come out.

On the 1st of March I realised we would be really struggling to make this months payment due to car trouble and a couple of other issues.

I called Sky on the 1st of March and asked if I could delay payment until the end of March. The CS lady was really helpful and advised we cancel our direct debit because it was too late from their end to cancel it and she said we should avoid bank charges etc. She even suggested we set up direct debit for 1st of each month to make it easier for us. She also told me that we would be hit with a double payment of around £160 on the 1st which I was more than happy with. I was really pleased with the service and left it at that.

I decided to contact Sky over the weekend just to confirm things so I sent off an email.

This morning whilst watching the news my Sky went off. I quickly checked to see if Sky had replied to the email I sent them over the weekend. Email received from them this morning...


Thank you for your email about the change of your payment date. I am pleased that we have sorted this to be more convenient for you. I can see that we dont yet have your direct debit details set up for the payment to be taken on the 01/04. I have tryed to call to today to get this set back up for, unfortunately I was unable to get you. if you can reply with the best time and contact number I can give you a call to get this arranged. Alternatively this can be done by visiting www.sky.com and logging in with your user details.
Kind regards
Ashley
Sky Help Centre

So I thought it's a direct debit issue as to why my sky has gone off.

Logged into my sky account and proceeded to set up the direct debit but there was an error advising me to contact them.

I gave them a call and explained my sky had gone off and that I had just tried to set up direct debit but there was a problem.

Right away she said about the account being overdue. I explained to her about the conversation with the CS lady on the 1st and she said there was nothing she could do until payment was made.

As you can imagine I was quite annoyed when she said this.
After trying to appeal to her better nature I found I was getting nowhere so I asked to speak to her supervisor. She said he will just tell me the same but I was insistent.

Supervisor was about as much use as a chocolate teapot! Said more or less the same thing as his colleague, saying they cannot override the system. He did however tell me I have an obligation and I should've read the terms of my contract which sent my blood pressure through the roof.

I took his details because I am not happy with this service. I never asked for our sky service to continue without payment, in fact I was surprised at how helpful the lady on the 1st was so I have gone on assuming everything was in order, because I have had no warning about any of this was going to happen, no letter, phonecall or email from them warning me.

What should I do now and what are my chances of having my service restored? Can they override the system? I told them I knew for a fact they could because I'm sure they can.

After this I really want to terminate my contract but I am tied till Nov because we took out HD last Nov and another multi room.

Tropez

There has been a mistake somewhere. You could try explaining the matter to the CEO and see if he can help you at all - jeremy.darroch@bskyb.com - although beware that he probably gets a lot of emails and so it may take some time. Be thorough and explain when the calls were made etc. and he can arrange for it to be looked into.

Sky's customer service, in my experience, has been very good. Unfortunately, both for them and the consumer, they are reliant on rigid computer systems that were designed and installed to perform in a set manner, never really taking into account potential problems such as yours.

lalamb

Thanks for that. Just sent an email explaining what's gone on.

Heinz

Sky has 10 million or so customers.
You are a very small cog in a machine with numerous other large cogs - and they wouldn't notice if you broke off.

lalamb

Heinz wrote: »

Sky has 10 million or so customers.
You are a very small cog in a machine with numerous other large cogs - and they wouldn't notice if you broke off.

I'm not for one minute suggesting they would miss me, but that's not the point, is it?

The point is, I have either been misinformed or been poorly dealt with by a customer service rep and a supervisor today. Either way it's a shoddy service! I am relying on Sky to inform me of where I stand when I phone up and say I am having trouble making this months payment, I am not the first or the last person who has been in a little bit of a financial pickle and Sky will deal with cases like that every day, but if they pass out wrong information where does that leave their customers?

Had I been told my service would be terminated until payment was made then I would've lived with it but that clearly wasn't the case, I was told a double payment would be taken on the 1st of April FULL STOP!

Edited to add
If every business thought like you they would all treat their customers poorly! Thankfully the majority of the time businesses value their customers, yes, even Sky value their customers!!

terriandaaron

i had a nightmare with this after my install of multi room i changed my dd date, the bill was wrong and they tried to take it on the old date resulting in bank charges, i rang them and was advised to cancel like you to avoid it being re applied for at the wrong amount just to have my sky cut off.

I did just what they told me and they said someone would contact me about the bill, fast forward a week and no one had and my viwing is restricted.
I ring them and go over what was said and they agree to put it back on and a double payment would come out as long as i reset my dd on the phone with them which i did
A few days later a promise to pay letter comes from them saying i promised tp pay by that date and i hadnt
i ring them again and explain, this time a bit annoyed as everyone seems to say something diffrent to me.

this time im told not only do i have to pay this months bill but also next months in advance ( which by the way are still incorrect amounts!!)_

it was a nightmare to resolve, no apologies, nothing!!

Tupperware_Queen

I'm just in awe that you pay £80 a month for sky :eek:

Don't get me wrong, its your money and its totally up to you...I just didn't realise it could cost that much :eek:

poet123

We are leaving Sky after exactly one year, to return to VIRGIN, we have had terrible CS from Sky and couldnt wait to get back to the effiency and good CS that Virgin delivered to us. We are voting with our feet.

Kurtis_Blue

Tupperware_Queen wrote: »

I'm just in awe that you pay £80 a month for sky :eek:

Don't get me wrong, its your money and its totally up to you...I just didn't realise it could cost that much :eek:

Must people I meet who are having money trouble or are on benefits have full Sky or full Virgin, I am not sure what the correlation is.

lalamb

Tupperware_Queen wrote: »

I'm just in awe that you pay £80 a month for sky :eek:

Don't get me wrong, its your money and its totally up to you...I just didn't realise it could cost that much :eek:

Well we have Sky HD and 2 multi rooms, it all adds up!

We could decide not to have it and it would cost nothing or we could cut back on our package or cut back on the multi rooms but we work hard, don't drink, don't gamble, don't smoke. It's the only thing we really treat ourselves to other than the odd trip here and there and holidays. I have a large family who love their sports and movies so when I break it down per person it doesn't actually cost that much.

lalamb

Kurtis_Blue wrote: »

Must people I meet who are having money trouble or are on benefits have full Sky or full Virgin, I am not sure what the correlation is.

Not that it has anything to do with you or anything to do with the matter at hand but my husband and I work very hard!

One of our cars happened to need a lot of work doing to it this month....oh my husband needs the car to get to work

On top of that our tumble dryer and fridge freezer broke down within 2 days of one another.

Just coming out of Christmas and my daughters 21st birthday. Approaching my daughters 16th birthday in a week. An expensive school trip.

Our final payment on our holiday to Florida was also required this month, so you could say we were under a teeny bit of financial pressure this month.

But like I said, it's really none of your business!