Sky charge me £ 65 service call without telling me beforehand there would be a charge

spiritus

I phoned Sky as we had a faulty HD box. They said they would send an engineer out in the next few days but made no mention or reference to the fact that it would cost £ 65.

Today I checked my bank statement and discovered that they have billed me £ 65 and my bank account has now gone overdrawn.

I have phoned them and they said there is nothing they could do and that "somewhere along the line I would have been told about the charge".

I have asked them to check their phone recordings of the conversation that took place.

Where do I stand on this ?

rrf494g

I suppose you could sue in the small claims court. It would then rest ( I guess ) on whether they can demonstrate that they informed you of the charge, and whether you can show it was reasonable to assume that the service visit was free.

I don't think that if you ask a company to perform a service, there is an automatic assumption in law that it's free if there is not an explicit, advance statement of the charges. (although its obviously good practice for that to be made)

good luck

giraffe69

I would have thought it normal to ask especially if the bank account was to be threatened by this payment but i agree they should make it clear.

brewerdave

Have you had the box for more than 12 months? Service calls in the first year should be free.

Kurtis_Blue

Did they replace the box? if so then seems you have has a good service, if you wish to reclaim fees paid then you will of course need to swap back the goods.

Bad form for them not making it clear but lesson for the future, always ask.

Crisp_£_note

Wouldnt it be free callout if you had Sky's own insurance?

Asking as I cancelled mine some time ago as didnt see the benefit to it as nothing has broken down since we subscribed 12 years ago, but now reading this I am thinking is it worth getting it back?

Thanks

Kurtis_Blue

Crisp_£_note wrote: »

Wouldnt it be free callout if you had Sky's own insurance?

Asking as I cancelled mine some time ago as didnt see the benefit to it as nothing has broken down since we subscribed 12 years ago, but now reading this I am thinking is it worth getting it back?

Thanks

No it wouldn't be free, you would be paying around £100 a year for it, every year, call out or not.

So over 12 years you would have paid £1,200 and never had a need for it, how do people not understand this?

Crisp_£_note

Kurtis_Blue wrote: »

No it wouldn't be free, you would be paying around £100 a year for it, every year, call out or not.

So over 12 years you would have paid £1,200 and never had a need for it, how do people not understand this?

Thanks for the reply.

I DID understand it but stupidly did not realise I didnt have to have the insurance as a Sky subscriber as nobody pointed it out in 12 years!

I dont usualy fall for Insurance unless its necessary eg home, car, pet. I know quite a few people who have Sky and have no end of trouble so thought it wise. Knowing my luck now I will wish I hadnt cancelled it before long as one of the standard boxes is 12 years old and counting (which did have a couple of faults when first instaled so I did make use of the insurance).

macman

A service call out is always £65 unless you are in the first 12m, when the equipment is under warranty.
What made you think that Sky would come out and fix your equipment for nothing?
The dish, LNB cabling and box are not leased, they are yours from day one of your contract-any faults from 12m after that date are your problem.
The trick is to call them and say that you will have to give notice to cancel because you have a faulty box and cannot afford the call out-the call out will then be invariably be offered FOC.
Insurance is pointless, because it costs more per year than a service call!

cattie

I thought it was common knowledge that there was a £60+ call out fee for calling a Sky engineer. I know it was made quite clear that a charge would be levied in the paperwork I received when first signing up with Sky.

You need to read the small print to double check if it's in your contract details.

McKneff

They dont have to 'tell' you. It's in your terms and conditions.

You surely cant have expected them to come out and do the repair free of charge.