SKY TV - Paying DOUBLE!!!

Worthingben

Riiiight... I recently took over the ownership of Sky in my house from my dad as I wanted Multiroom, and want to take on more of the bills.

Unfortunately that wasn't easy as Sky reckoned it would be difficult to transfer the account as it would need to be closed, blah, blah, blah..

Soooo, it is still in my Dads name, but the DD is via my bank and I have full administration of the account. FINE.
Well in November 2005 I set-up Sky multiroom, and for an extra tenner I had it in my room as well as lounge.
Had all the channels so it came £54. £44 for the sky World package and £10 for multiroom duplicate. FINE.

6 months ago, I had a strange bill, for £88 and I rang up to ask what on earth this was for, i was told as the box upstairs (my room) is not connected to the phone line. Well as I told the Sky engineer when he fitted it, we can't havea phoner line in here as I had tried acouple of years ago, but BT were being VERY difficult and said it was near impossible to fit one in my room, due to the slates in teh roof and the type of walls (baffeling, but i kinda understand) the engineer suggested he run a connect along the skirting board neatly in my room, and gave me a massive extrat cord to wind int down two flights of stairs to the Kitchen to the nearest phone line. Clearly not being practical for wwires all over the house he said just plug it in if you want to book a film.

So when he left i took it out, and back to the start of my tale, no problem for half a year.

Now when I rang up SKY to quesry the raise in price by £30-0dd they told me they both MUST be plugged in at the same time or its two seperate accounts, though held within one name. i get a tenner discont for having all the channel (I should be so bloody lucky, gee thanks Sky) but My bill has incresed from £54 to £88.....

ANY advice, I so, so, so, so, so wanna ring them up and tell Murdoch what he can do with his poxy Sky up my @ss digital but I love the sport, truely I'm amad fan of anything Sporting etc....

Its a quandry, do I have any legal stance on this, and can I get them to reduce the bill, and/or make a claim back???

(Please excuse the muffled and slightly out of sncy ffinish this has, but I'm almost shouting at the screen as I'm venting here....)

In hope
ben

cifpower

The Sky T&Cs state:

The Box used to receive your first Sky digital subscription must always be connected to a fixed and operational telephone line while any Multiroom subscription is in place. All the Boxes used to receive your Multiroom subscription(s) must also be connected to this line and number and you must let us collect information through this line, including your telephone number (caller line identification or CLI).

and

If you break these Conditions, we can:
(a) end all or any of your Multiroom Subscription(s) by giving you at least seven days' written notice; or
(b) end your entitlement to the Multiroom Subscription price on giving you at least one calendar month's written notice (in which case the terms of the Sky digital Subscription Contract will apply to your Multiroom Subscription(s)) in place of these Conditions, and you will immediately pay the then current full price for the Service you are receiving under this subscription.

As you have broken the terms of your agreement you are paying 2 subscription prices instead of one plus £10. Legally, you can do nothing but reconnect the two boxes to the same line if you want to take advantage of the multiroom offer.

simonts

Its a pain but I can see why they do it, you can have the full package for a tenner on a second box..unless its plugged into a phone to 'call home' theres nothing stopping you from moving the second box to another property which is exactly what I would have done on my parents subscription if you could get away with it

Astaroth

You should also be thankful that they havent charged you full price for the 2nd box and its installation which they are also entitled to do.

I am surprised that Sky are enforcing their T&Cs as they do it so rarely but it has always been on the cards that after they near saturation point in the market that they will then turn round and start enforcing them to increase revenue

nej

You can get wireless telephone extension cords. They're a bit pricey (I paid about £60 for one about 6 years ago but probably cheaper now) but useful.

deanos

As explained above, when having multiroom both boxes must be plugged into the phoneline as the boxes make a call to Sky once a month to check they are at your property, otherwise someone else could have it and another property.

Worthingben

nej wrote:

You can get wireless telephone extension cords. They're a bit pricey (I paid about £60 for one about 6 years ago but probably cheaper now) but useful.

Aaaaaaaaaaaa-ha, lovely jubbly, I shall have a looook aboooot!

Cardew

I have a variation on this problem.

I have Sky Multiroom with both boxes properly connected to the same telephone line.

I have just had my second threatening letter from Sky about it not connected to the phone.

The reason for this is I am away quite a lot, and even when home rarely use it, so I switch the box off at the mains. This Amstrad box has very high standby consumption - more than all my other electronic appliances combined.

So I have to keep a(comparatively) high consumption device on standby 24/7 in order to keep Sky multiroom.

Does anyone know any way around this?

cifpower

There isn't. Both boxes must dial out at least once a month from the same number.

rogue_element

Any way you can "encourage" your box to dial out? Manual reset etc? Then you could just connect - do reset- dials out etc. Every couple of weeks to be safe?