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FUTURE TV & SKY - NIGHTMARE STORY!!!! NEVER USE A 3rd PARTY INSTALLER FOR SKY TV
ukbodybuilder
Posts: 6 Forumite
Hi
I have had SERIOUS problems in my initial dealings with sky and one of their agencies ''Future TV'' based in Bristol on the contact number 0117 9709700.
I ordered a full Sky Unlimited BB, phone and TV package on Thursday 21.07.11 and have had problems ever since. I called a number that I thought was sky tv and got transferred to Future TV unfortunately.
A girl by the name of ''Rhiannon'' took the order.
First of all she tried to add the sky HD subscription to my package without me even asking for it.
I was given no confirmation of payment made (£10 for line activation and 19.50 as a refundable deposit).
I was given no account number.
I was also not asked for a security password or email address to make the account secure.
I was not read the direct debit guarantee.
I was told my sky tv, broadband and phone was to be setup on Friday 29th, and that an engineer would just call me at some point in the day, no confirmation of even a morning or PM visit was given. Also I had no way on contacting the engineer to find out if he was even going to attend, if he didnt turn etc on the day.
(I now also know that sky tv and the bb and phone cannot be installed on the same day, and that in fact the phone and bb engineer had not been booked)
Due to the above I became suspicious as to whether or not Future TV had even put the order through properly. So I contacted Sky the same evening. It turned out that only the sky tv order had actually been placed, the sky agent advised it could be a delay in the system and that I should call back the next day.
I called the next day (Friday 22.07.11) and unfortunately my suspicions were correct. Only the Sky tv had been ordered and in no shape or form had BB or the phone been ordered or processed.
I rang Future TV and stated that I think they should check their system to ensure that the order had gone through properly. I got through to ''Rhiannon'' again and she said straight away of course it had gone through, to which I urged her to check with sky herself as they had assured me it hadnt in fact been processed.
I waited on hold while she spoke to sky and she came back and stated that in fact it hadnt gone through as I had thought and that a sky engineer had now been booked to install the BB and phone on the 5.07.11. I said you cant just book an engineer without telling me, as I am in fact on holiday from the 03.07.11, so I wouldnt be able to do that date anyway.
She said for me to call the Installations department and re-arrange the appointment, even though she had just booked the engineer herself. I rang the Installations department and they confirmed that no sky tv engineer had been booked just the engineer to fix the sky BB and phone. Obviously by this point I didnt have a clue what was going on.
I also told the Installations team that I need to rearrange the appointment for engineer for the bb and phone as I wont be there to meet him on that day.
It was by this point I had had enough of the whole process of even getting someone to take my sky package order correctly and get the thing installed that I said please can you cancel the whole thing! I just didnt want the hassle anymore...
I spoke to his manager to register a complaint with regards to how badly Future TV had dealt with the whole thing and was asked various bits of information non of which had actually been entered at any stage on the sky system. There was an ''invented'' email address for me, where various bits of confirmation of orders? I can only assume had or had not been sent. No security information existed for me, and so all of this had to be put onto the system, as it had not been done at the point of sale.... which seemed strange to me.
After speaking to the manager who was somewhat bemused I was even raising this concern with what had happened, I am still unsure to this day if a complaint was even registered.
After she left the call, the previous agent had confirmed that he had cancelled the sky package + installation and that later in the day he would call back to see if I wanted to go ahead with the sky order/installation through sky itself and not the agency (obviously). I said as I had previously stated I just wanted it cancelled, so please can you do this. He said thats fine etc.
I had no phone call and by this point 3 hours had passed, and I thought it couldnt possibly take this long to cancel an order surely. So I called sky again.
It turns out that the order had been cancelled and that it had then been ''un-cancelled''. So after all of this... I now had to again CANCEL the order/installation made, as the sky agent had uncancelled the cancellation. I have no idea why this was done?
I then spoke to someone else (sorry for lack of names, but by this point I had probably spoken to 10 different people across most of sky's departments) and asked if they could please cancel all of this and issue a refund for the payment I had made on my card. They said this was absolutely fine and transferred me through to a billing department who issue refunds. The billing department then stated that it is actually Future TV who have to issue the refund as they took the payment (even though they work for sky and I can only assume release the funds to sky? ).
So I called Future TV who were unhelpful as always and spoke to the girl I had spoken to the previous day, Rhiannon. I requested a refund for the card payment made for the installation and deposit for the box (total 29.50). She said why and I said because the whole ordering/ installation hadnt been done as I had requested and I want a refund as I am no longer going ahead with it. She said she couldnt issue refunds over the phone and that her manager ''Karen'' was the only person who could issue this and that it had to be done via email.
So I emailed Karen (the manager) with my request for a refund of what I had paid and surprise surprise I had no response. In fact I was told that she had taken the afternoon off work and wouldnt be back in until the next day.
So I called the next day (today) and asked to speak to Karen. After initially being told she was in the office by the girl who picked up the phone, once I gave my name it turned out that actually she might not be in the office and that she had to check that she actually was...hmm
I got through to Karen - who unforunately straight away was very aggressive and non sympathetic to what had happened. She even stated that she had seen the email and had done checks her side yesterday afternoon (even though I was told she wasnt there yesterday afternoon when I asked to speak to her) and that no refund would be made today as apparantly ''their account systems do not work on saturdays''.
Obviously a pretty laughable response was given by the manager at this point. She said we have a skeleton crew on a saturday and that she wouldnt even attempt to look at ''all the facts'' until monday. She thought my reason for the fact that only sky tv had been ordered wasnt good enough to justify a refund and that as far as she was concerned no ''Rhiannon''worked in her office (this is a lie) and the order had gone through properly, even though it was ''Rhiannon'' that told me it hadnt.
Karen also stated that due to this, an admin fee for costs they had incurred and whatever else she felt was necessary to deduct from my card payment for an activation of a phone line that was never booked and a deposity for a box that was never ordered , wouild be made.
I want sky to take ownership of this problem and fully investigate everything that has been detailed in this very long and unfortunately very stressful first encounter with what simply was an order and installation of a full sky package.
I now have to chase a refund for a service that was never processed in the first place, from what is clearly a cowboy agency that Sky deal with.
Please help !!!
I have had SERIOUS problems in my initial dealings with sky and one of their agencies ''Future TV'' based in Bristol on the contact number 0117 9709700.
I ordered a full Sky Unlimited BB, phone and TV package on Thursday 21.07.11 and have had problems ever since. I called a number that I thought was sky tv and got transferred to Future TV unfortunately.
A girl by the name of ''Rhiannon'' took the order.
First of all she tried to add the sky HD subscription to my package without me even asking for it.
I was given no confirmation of payment made (£10 for line activation and 19.50 as a refundable deposit).
I was given no account number.
I was also not asked for a security password or email address to make the account secure.
I was not read the direct debit guarantee.
I was told my sky tv, broadband and phone was to be setup on Friday 29th, and that an engineer would just call me at some point in the day, no confirmation of even a morning or PM visit was given. Also I had no way on contacting the engineer to find out if he was even going to attend, if he didnt turn etc on the day.
(I now also know that sky tv and the bb and phone cannot be installed on the same day, and that in fact the phone and bb engineer had not been booked)
Due to the above I became suspicious as to whether or not Future TV had even put the order through properly. So I contacted Sky the same evening. It turned out that only the sky tv order had actually been placed, the sky agent advised it could be a delay in the system and that I should call back the next day.
I called the next day (Friday 22.07.11) and unfortunately my suspicions were correct. Only the Sky tv had been ordered and in no shape or form had BB or the phone been ordered or processed.
I rang Future TV and stated that I think they should check their system to ensure that the order had gone through properly. I got through to ''Rhiannon'' again and she said straight away of course it had gone through, to which I urged her to check with sky herself as they had assured me it hadnt in fact been processed.
I waited on hold while she spoke to sky and she came back and stated that in fact it hadnt gone through as I had thought and that a sky engineer had now been booked to install the BB and phone on the 5.07.11. I said you cant just book an engineer without telling me, as I am in fact on holiday from the 03.07.11, so I wouldnt be able to do that date anyway.
She said for me to call the Installations department and re-arrange the appointment, even though she had just booked the engineer herself. I rang the Installations department and they confirmed that no sky tv engineer had been booked just the engineer to fix the sky BB and phone. Obviously by this point I didnt have a clue what was going on.
I also told the Installations team that I need to rearrange the appointment for engineer for the bb and phone as I wont be there to meet him on that day.
It was by this point I had had enough of the whole process of even getting someone to take my sky package order correctly and get the thing installed that I said please can you cancel the whole thing! I just didnt want the hassle anymore...
I spoke to his manager to register a complaint with regards to how badly Future TV had dealt with the whole thing and was asked various bits of information non of which had actually been entered at any stage on the sky system. There was an ''invented'' email address for me, where various bits of confirmation of orders? I can only assume had or had not been sent. No security information existed for me, and so all of this had to be put onto the system, as it had not been done at the point of sale.... which seemed strange to me.
After speaking to the manager who was somewhat bemused I was even raising this concern with what had happened, I am still unsure to this day if a complaint was even registered.
After she left the call, the previous agent had confirmed that he had cancelled the sky package + installation and that later in the day he would call back to see if I wanted to go ahead with the sky order/installation through sky itself and not the agency (obviously). I said as I had previously stated I just wanted it cancelled, so please can you do this. He said thats fine etc.
I had no phone call and by this point 3 hours had passed, and I thought it couldnt possibly take this long to cancel an order surely. So I called sky again.
It turns out that the order had been cancelled and that it had then been ''un-cancelled''. So after all of this... I now had to again CANCEL the order/installation made, as the sky agent had uncancelled the cancellation. I have no idea why this was done?
I then spoke to someone else (sorry for lack of names, but by this point I had probably spoken to 10 different people across most of sky's departments) and asked if they could please cancel all of this and issue a refund for the payment I had made on my card. They said this was absolutely fine and transferred me through to a billing department who issue refunds. The billing department then stated that it is actually Future TV who have to issue the refund as they took the payment (even though they work for sky and I can only assume release the funds to sky? ).
So I called Future TV who were unhelpful as always and spoke to the girl I had spoken to the previous day, Rhiannon. I requested a refund for the card payment made for the installation and deposit for the box (total 29.50). She said why and I said because the whole ordering/ installation hadnt been done as I had requested and I want a refund as I am no longer going ahead with it. She said she couldnt issue refunds over the phone and that her manager ''Karen'' was the only person who could issue this and that it had to be done via email.
So I emailed Karen (the manager) with my request for a refund of what I had paid and surprise surprise I had no response. In fact I was told that she had taken the afternoon off work and wouldnt be back in until the next day.
So I called the next day (today) and asked to speak to Karen. After initially being told she was in the office by the girl who picked up the phone, once I gave my name it turned out that actually she might not be in the office and that she had to check that she actually was...hmm
I got through to Karen - who unforunately straight away was very aggressive and non sympathetic to what had happened. She even stated that she had seen the email and had done checks her side yesterday afternoon (even though I was told she wasnt there yesterday afternoon when I asked to speak to her) and that no refund would be made today as apparantly ''their account systems do not work on saturdays''.
Obviously a pretty laughable response was given by the manager at this point. She said we have a skeleton crew on a saturday and that she wouldnt even attempt to look at ''all the facts'' until monday. She thought my reason for the fact that only sky tv had been ordered wasnt good enough to justify a refund and that as far as she was concerned no ''Rhiannon''worked in her office (this is a lie) and the order had gone through properly, even though it was ''Rhiannon'' that told me it hadnt.
Karen also stated that due to this, an admin fee for costs they had incurred and whatever else she felt was necessary to deduct from my card payment for an activation of a phone line that was never booked and a deposity for a box that was never ordered , wouild be made.
I want sky to take ownership of this problem and fully investigate everything that has been detailed in this very long and unfortunately very stressful first encounter with what simply was an order and installation of a full sky package.
I now have to chase a refund for a service that was never processed in the first place, from what is clearly a cowboy agency that Sky deal with.
Please help !!!
0
Comments
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that does sound like a nightmare! Do you mind if I ask why you didnt just book with sky themselves?
I'd ring back and say you either refund straightaway or you'll be ringing trading standards0 -
I rang sky and apparantly they can't install to a communal dish ( becusI live in an apartment block) and so only Future TV can....
Sky have now advised future tv "to resolve this situation immediately" as it is a breach of contract to with-hold funds for a service that never took place!
The manager of future tv "karen" apparantly has been uncontactable, even to sky
If sky can't get through to someone who works for them! What chance do I have... What a bunch of cowboys
Anyone else had an experience like this?0 -
Well i have major sympathy for you i hear these cowboy stories all the time in sky customer services so much so that i actually tell people in flats to usually opt for cable if available XD.
but anyways you could always register a complaint through sky.com to customer relations for this or you could email Ceo directly at jeremy.darroch@bskyb.com and register a direct complaint to him and possibly salvage the install or they may even have another 3rd party in the area but i suspect as soon as you copy and paste this OP you will get your money back and possibly an "incentive" to stay with sky0 -
Sky do not do phone/broadband installs-they have to book this through BT Openreach, who do all the physical work on the local lines. So the Sky TV installer (not an engineer) will know nothing about the phone/broadband side, and will not do the phone install.
BT OR make their own schedules, and for this reason it invariably takes longer to get that side connected than the TV service.
The communication between Sky and OR is hit and miss, so if you order the whole service through a third party Sky agent then the potential for mis-communication is even greater.No free lunch, and no free laptop
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I emailed Jame.murdoch@bskyb.com, and as many other sky email addresses I could get my hands on from other forums and got a response the next day...which also contradicted what the previous 10 other ppl I spoke to at sky had said.
They all advised me that it was my responsibility to chase no-future tv, as the payment was made to them and as a result only future tv could refund.
But obviously if the cowboys there don't issue refunds...what am I supposed to do?!
It would be awesome if martin lewis got involved with this one - if your reading this get in touch!!
I did a bit of research on future tv in these forums from previous posts, and its not unheard of for them to take illegal cash payments for installations and apparantly the police are all too "aware" of future tv.
WHY WOULD SKY DEAL WITH THESE PEOPLE ?
Also, no money or deal in the world is going to make me have tv through future tv ( I was advised they are the only ppl in the area who act on behalf of sky)... Sometimes it just isn't worth the hassle...0 -
I think that emailing James Murdoch may not get a response at present-he's rather busy with some other matters...No free lunch, and no free laptop0
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what duplicate posts...
As previously mentioned got a response the next day after emailing the James Murdoch email address0 -
Why did you use Future TV? Do they have an agreement with your managing agents and landlord to be the "preferred" installer?
If you needed the dish installed it is normally the job of the managing agent to organise the initial install of a communal dish.
I live in a small block of 7 flats, each of which has a Sky dish. Are you in a high rise?Estate Agent, Web Designer & All Round Geek!0 -
For my area (south wales) sky don't deal with communal dishes and put me through to future tv (I thought I was still dealing with sky at this point as no one told me otherwise)
Future tv are the only company sky recommend in south wales and bristol, which seems strange to me as they have clearly never issued a refund - even to sky when they request it themselves... Shocking0 -
But it's the responsibility of the managing agent of your block to get the dish installed, not you.Estate Agent, Web Designer & All Round Geek!0
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