Issue with Sky & cancelling

lady1964

Me & my husband are moving overseas next month but our DD's are staying in our house. We've agreed with them that we will switch from Sky to Virgin (Tivo) so dh called Sky to cancel on 17/10. They agreed to this and said it will be cut on the 18/11 (31 days notice as required). DH asked if he could cancel direct debit and was told yes he could, so he did once the next payment had been taken.
I received a letter this weekend from Sky saying that as payments may still be due, and as the direct debit had been cancelled, they would need to send a paper bill and this would include an admin charge of £4.00. The charge for one day of Sky (18/11) is £2.41. If I set up a direct debit, then cancel when this £2.41 has been taken, I won't have to pay it.
I told them that I didn't want to set up a direct debit & cancel as it's a hassle I could do without but I was happy to pay the £2.41 on my debit card today. Sky absolutely will not budge over this £4.00. They argue that as the Sky person didn't put a note on the system agreeing that we cancel the direct debit, that's why there is a £4 charge. I feel it's unfair to pay for someone else's error.
I offered to send them a cheque for the £2.41, they say they won't accept cheques.
I haven't told Sky we are leaving the UK as it wasn't really relevant, we only wanted to cut our bills down where we could so we would be sending less money home.
My feeling now is that I will send them a cheque for £2.41 with a letter saying this is in full & final payment for our service on 18/11, and postdate the cheque dated 18/11.
We've been Sky customers for 14 years and I'm just staggered at this.
Can anyone avise if my intention is ok or is there a better way of dealing with this?
Many thanks

Buzby

Pay them in ADVANCE, and not when the bill is generated. This way, they take the money from the residual balance and as long as this covers the amount owed, no 'invoice' charge is raised on your account.

lady1964

Buzby wrote: »

Pay them in ADVANCE, and not when the bill is generated. This way, they take the money from the residual balance and as long as this covers the amount owed, no 'invoice' charge is raised on your account.

Thanks, so sending them a cheque for £2.41 stating 'in full & final payment' will stop them generating an invoice therefore not incurring the other £4.00 charge?

McKneff

Just because you say its 'full and final settlement' doesnt mean Sky has to agree with it even if they cash your cheque.

If you dont want more hassle, I would just pay the extra £4, I know its the principal of the thing, but at least then you could put it to bed and not have it to worry about.

lady1964

Yes, I understand about the principle and not wanting the hassle but I'm furious about it and the attitude of the Sky staff I spoke to left a lot to be desired.
Part of me thinks the same, just pay the £4 and be done with it but my 'sticking to my guns' part of me doesn't want to do that....
they haven't raised - or at least sent this invoice yet, and really, will £4 be chased after? If they send letters to my home address, they will be returned 'no longer at this address' because Mrs XXXX won't be.

Glass_Half_Empty??

The way of the world these days, customers are only wanted when we are handing over cash.
For what it is worth why not just set the direct debit up? In fairness you have already spent more time starting and following this thread then you would of logging into online banking and cancelling it Saves you £4 to, I would do everything possible to NOT pay them whether it was a hassle or not.

lady1964

Glass_Half_Empty?? wrote: »

The way of the world these days, customers are only wanted when we are handing over cash.
For what it is worth why not just set the direct debit up? In fairness you have already spent more time starting and following this thread then you would of logging into online banking and cancelling it Saves you £4 to, I would do everything possible to NOT pay them whether it was a hassle or not.

I take your point entirely and I agree, I have already spent more time starting this thread, following it & posting again.

The thing is, they would take the amount on the 18/11, we go overseas the next day, so the 18/11 will be spent on a business meeting then packing for a 3 week trip, along with working our way through a list as long as your arm in readiness for Xmas as we return to the UK for just 2 weeks (mid Dec) before moving overseas early January. My concern is actually that amidst all this to-ing & fro-ing, cancelling a direct debit would be forgotton, even if it got added to the to do list and then, if they take more from this, we will not be in the country to chase them for the money. We had a nightmare several years ago with Sky taking double amounts for months and it took months to get it sorted out, so my instinct (& stubborness!) is to send a cheque as I've already mentioned.

Gordon_Hose

They require the DD to remain active in case you decide to hammer Box Office or PPV events. Either set the DD up again or pay the £4.

lady1964

Gordon_Hose wrote: »

They require the DD to remain active in case you decide to hammer Box Office or PPV events. Either set the DD up again or pay the £4.

My husband is adamant he was told by the person at Sky he spoke to that it would be ok to cancel the DD, so he did. We don't use Box Office or PPV, no reason to start now. Sky would only have to look at the last 14 years of bills to see that we've never done that.

Besides, this wasn't given by either person I spoke to at Sky as a reason to re-start the DD up again.

Thanks for your advice but I won't be setting up & cancelling a new DD, nor will I be paying the £4.

Gordon_Hose

I'm not sure why you're here asking for advice if you already know what you're going to do... ho-hum...

Whoever you spoke to was wrong. You could cancel your DD then hammer Sky Box Office, then do a runner. It makes no odds whether you have never used it in 14 years really. You could also have watched things that are yet to be billed, again it doesn't matter if you've never used SBO or PPV.

Good luck with your quest. Stick it to "the man"... for 4 quid lol

Lets hope they don't trash your credit file.

lady1964

Ok, update here. I got a call from Sky today as we've cancelled & they offered me 12 months half price subscriptions, I didn't take the offer as the cancellation and new set up with Virgin Media happens next week.
I then explained about the problems we've had with the direct debit thing and she agreed that I can make the £2.41 payment over the phone using my debit card. I will not have to pay the £4 or set up a direct debit. I have asked for a letter stating that the payment has been made in full & final settlement of outstanding fees due.
This feels like a victory but what a load of hassle to get it!!
Thanks for the advice offered.