Help!! Sky agreed to terms last week now say can't do it after starting my contract

mhobbs81

Please someone help me!!!

I phoned & spoke to the Win Back team. They offered me a tariff & box for £49. I went to pay & the advisor said there was an issue with the payments & he couldn't take it even though it was showing as taken from my account, he started my tariff & said the boxes could get sorted after. We went on & he couldn't do that day so said he would phone back the following week, in the meantime he said that I should get a statement to show money had come out my account & send off, once sorted I could phone & pay the £49 to get my boxes.

Anyway after speaking with my bank it seems that Visa reserved the payment for 7 days even though it had not shown as gone through to Sky & after 7 days the money was back in my account.

I have just gone to phone & speak to the advisor, who said he would call back but never, I have his Sky Id, name & department but couldn't get through. Now the advisors are saying that the deal I was offered is not possible. I made a complaint & I was told tough basically.

All I want is the deal I was offered, I specifically asked several times on the phone call so for X per month & Y up front and I get A B & C. This was confirmed several times by the advisor.

Surely Sky should honour this offer, it is the reason I took the contract, now I am not allowed this offer? I feel I have been ripped off into getting a contract by being offered something then told I can't have it. The reason the payment didn't go through wasn't mine it was the system & the advisor said this.

All I want is sky to check the phone call that they must record & honour what they offered, surely they cannot do this to me?

I have the date, time & duration of call. Along with the advisors name, ID number & department.

Please, please help me, I have phoned several times & no one can help me.

I am now left with a contract for 12 months & no boxes unless I pay an extra £100.

smackaine

First things first- your tariff should not have started. Everything 'starts' when your first card is paired your first box- if this has happened, then Mr Salesman either didn't have a clue, or was deliberately conning you.

The contract itself has a 31-day grace period, so assuming this hasn't been over a month already, you should be able to cancel this without issue.

With regards to your box, it's tricky. Retentions/returns offers are usually made on a call-by-call basis and I get a fair few people call back to get the deal they were offered and turned down. Yours, of course, had the necessary contractual elements of offer and acceptance.

Long story short- Sky should honour it. Even if they don't, the contract is voidable on your end as consideration has not been given by Sky. However, speaking from experience, this isn't something that a normal service agent can deal with, as offers are specific to departments and an outbound department such as win back tend to be notoriously hard to get hold of on our end.

Your best bet is to contact the executive team, who will likely have the power to honour it and more importantly, have the permission to honour it. E-mail one of the execs, Jeremy Darroch seems to be the most reliable. Never sure of the email posting rules round here, so replace DOTS with . in jeremyDOTdarroch@bskybDOTcom.

Best of luck.

mhobbs81

Thank you so much for your help & information.

I actually had a Sky contract about 2 1/2 years ago which I cancelled. I phoned the win back team to enquire & when I received the offer thought I would take it up.

The first thing the advisor did was set up my tariff, he then dealt with the one off payment after. He set up & my original old Sky Box & Viewing card from 2 1/2 years ago & I noticed that Sky 1 went on, after flicking through the channels. The upfront payment did not go through which he said was a problem with their system & nothing to do with my bank rejecting (I checked my online bank and the money had come out so I did not want to do again if it was not showing on Sky's system, I later found that Sky / Visa reserve these payments for 7 days which is why it took 7 days to be credited / show again in my account). The advisor said get proof money had come out of my bank & send to an address he gave me so the order could be put through at a later date. He said he would phone the following week to check everything was okay, which he never.

I phoned the day after he said he would ring me, now that my bank had been sorted & my original one off payment showing in my account again. I had the department, name & Sky ID & cannot get hold of him, despite being transferred from pillar to post.

The standard customer service said they can't put the said offer through without paying an extra £100 upfront or an extra £10 a month for a year.

I just feel lost, I have emailed a complaint & they said tough basically. I have emailed another complaint yesterday & posted on the Sky Forum & this forum. I honestly feel ripped off, I assume they must tape the calls, so if they can't get hold of advisor can surely listen to the taped conversation but no one seems to be able to help.

I will just hope for the best I suppose. Thanks again for your response.

atlantis187

Whats the tel no. for the win back team?

smackaine

I actually had a Sky contract about 2 1/2 years ago which I cancelled. I phoned the win back team to enquire & when I received the offer thought I would take it up.

The first thing the advisor did was set up my tariff, he then dealt with the one off payment after. He set up & my original old Sky Box & Viewing card from 2 1/2 years ago & I noticed that Sky 1 went on, after flicking through the channels.

Ahh, this makes a lot more sense. Fair enough, I may have been unnecessarily harsh on the advisor in this case.

The upfront payment did not go through which he said was a problem with their system & nothing to do with my bank rejecting (I checked my online bank and the money had come out so I did not want to do again if it was not showing on Sky's system,

Sadly, not a rare occurrence at all. Usually, this would involve a CRF (customer resolution form, fancy name for system errors requiring back office fixing) which can take anywhere from 24 hours onwards to come back to us. Was this bandied about? I imagine this is what said advisor was waiting for when he said he'd call you back.

My optimistic/naive guess is the following- he's still waiting for it. He comes into the account at predetermined times. (We get an absolute bollocking from everyone if we set a callback and then don't at least access the account and update) He sees if it's been done and let's say there's no response. In fact, nobody's even accessed you account since he sent it off. Some advisors fear calling customers to tell them there's no progress. Some will simply hold it off until good news is available, inevitably causing the customer to become somewhat concerned!

Sure, the more likely explanation isn't quite so peachy, but anyway..

I later found that Sky / Visa reserve these payments for 7 days which is why it took 7 days to be credited / show again in my account). The advisor said get proof money had come out of my bank & send to an address he gave me so the order could be put through at a later date.

Sky Subscriber Services Ltd, yadayadayada? If so, avoid like the plague. Stalling tactics at their finest.

He said he would phone the following week to check everything was okay, which he never.

Not cool, but as above, very rarely a deliberate attempt to fob off. More likely, came back in, saw bad news and chickened out.

I phoned the day after he said he would ring me, now that my bank had been sorted & my original one off payment showing in my account again. I had the department, name & Sky ID & cannot get hold of him, despite being transferred from pillar to post.

Getting a hold of a particular advisor is hellish and that comes from within the company itself! Your best bet if you still want to deal with Mr Salesman directly is to request that somewhat contact his manager and request he call you back- although not 100%, under threat of managerial influence, they usually do what they're told.

The standard customer service said they can't put the said offer through without paying an extra £100 upfront or an extra £10 a month for a year.

Almost certainly right on their part, sadly. I drop within these permissions for sales and upgrades, so I understand their frustration and yours!

posted on the Sky Forum & this forum.

Now,as a consumer, I very rarely criticise a bad decision, but the guys on the Sky Forum are clowns. All they do is apologise and tow the company line. If regular complaints said no, so will they.

One of the reasons I joined this forum was to give some impartial advice based on what insider knowledge I have! I'm glad people are using MSE for just this.

I honestly feel ripped off, I assume they must tape the calls, so if they can't get hold of advisor can surely listen to the taped conversation but no one seems to be able to help.

I'll point you to a post I made in an earlier thread pretty much addressing this point:

One possible problem with obtaining the recording is the different recording methods used in each call centre. In-house Sky have a centralised system whereas outsource Sky will each have their own call recording software which is run in conjunction with Sky. At my call centre, for example, the software is by and large reliable. However, I would say out of every 1000 calls I take, at least one is affected by some sort of issue. If these calls were to be investigated, it would be incredibly difficult to confirm what was spoken about!

This is rarely a problem but I have seen it occur. The guy's Chordiant ID that you spoke to, did it start with three letters followed by two numbers or did it start with either a number of letter-number? If the former, he's Sky direct and the call, short of nuclear attack, will be recorded somewhere. It's more likely that the call could potentially be lost if it was one of the last two.

I will just hope for the best I suppose. Thanks again for your response.

Good luck once again! Did you try the executive team? Don't give up until you've received a definite negative from them.

mhobbs81

Well I just had the installer round & everything is installed.

So everything is sorted now. I have received confirmation of my tariff which seems correct.

So thankyou everyone for their comments & help. Everything is fine.

As one point I would say that it is very hard to speak to someone that can help by the phone as it took me two weeks plus to get rectified, however once I did manage to get through it was corrected quickly.

Again thank you everyone.