HELP!!! SKY is taking my money even though I dont have a subscription

brewerdave

smackaine wrote: »

Proving or disproving what a salesman said is notoriously difficult. In effect, it'll be a Sky employee's word (when asked, he's hardly going to admit acting fraudulently) against OP's.

...and the "salesman" at the Supermarket won't be a Sky employee anyway - he'll be an agency guy on commission. Agree that the only recourse is via your Bank.

SeamusMac

Thanks again, all, for the advice. I'm taking the FSA stuff to my bank tomorrow.

I still don't understand why SKY is refusing to budge on this now that my friend has contacted them, explained what has happened, and asked them to remove whatever details of mine they have on his account. This is SKY Customer Support he's talking to now, not a salesman - so SKY are acting fraudulently now they know that both I and my friend don't authorise them to take my money. :mad:

macman

There is no requirement for the card holder to also be the account holder. You gave your card info and your 'friend' failed to give his for ongoing payments, so Sky defaulted to the original payment source.
Sky have legitimately taken payment for services received by your friend, it s up to him to refund you, not them.

SeamusMac

But surely the card holder should at least be officially notified that their bank details are on someone else's SKY subscription.

The only 'card info' I gave was to type my pin number into the reader, same as I do in any shop I buy goods from ..but the shop can't 'legitimately' taken any further payment from me unless I authorise it.

My friend has offered to refund me, but I want a refund from SKY ..it's they who took my money!!! :mad:

macman

SeamusMac wrote: »

But surely the card holder should at least be officially notified that their bank details are on someone else's SKY subscription.

The only 'card info' I gave was to type my pin number into the reader, same as I do in any shop I buy goods from ..but the shop can't 'legitimately' taken any further payment from me unless I authorise it.

My friend has offered to refund me, but I want a refund from SKY ..it's they who took my money!!! :mad:

Sky do not have a clue who the card belongs to or what relationship they have, if any, to the account holder. Your friend failed to set up the DD and they took the payment from the back up account.
Who is going to refund Sky if they refund you?
The lesson is never to allow a recurring debit authority on your card.

SeamusMac

But SKY does "have a clue" who the card belongs to, I've told them it belongs to me, my friend has told them its belongs to me, and we've both told SKY that I did not authorise payments to be taken from my bank account. My friend set up a DD with SKY a few days after buying the subscription in Ocober 2011. A month later when SKY took the first unauthorised payment from me, he contacted SKY - they apologised and said it wouldn't happen again. And it didnt, until now!!!

As for who is going to refund SKY ..firstly, who refunds SKY should be of no concern of mine because SKY is not providing any service to me. But my friend has already contacted SKY and told them to take the payment from him and to refund me. Which is why I don't understand why SKY is refusing to co-operate.

Yes, its a valuable lesson to never allow a recurring debit authority on your card ..the whole crux of the problem here is that I didn't allow it

smackaine

Because I'd be likely one of the kind of guys your friend spoke to, I can potentially shed some light on this situation.

When he called, claimed the wrong details were on the account, I'd expect to bring up your billing tab and see a card payment currently registered as continuous payment. Something that became evident to me after multiple issues with this, but that is not (at least not at my place) made clear at all when training is, as you now know, we'll take any registered form of payment details in order to obtain payment, on questioning, I was told (potentially wrongly) that it's tucked away in the Ts and Cs somewhere.

So then, as your friend is evidently quite reluctant to give his DD details, ending this mess, our only option would be to put you onto an invoice payment. This will fail for multiple reasons, namely, nobody can now be put onto an invoice payment plan. Therefore, payment day rolls around, Sky's system realises that there is no way to take payment as it stands and surprise, surprise, goes for the card. (Which, by the way, we (the grunt advisors) aren't able to take off) This will all be unbeknown to the poor advisor who thinks they're doing you a favour. Of course, their ignorance (and it's pretty widespread) means you're short, yet again.

What your friend is doing doesn't add up. He puts his own payment details on the account, this problem goes away. I'd quite like to know what he's saying? Is he just telling them to take your details off and expecting Sky to forget that they're providing him with a service?

So, simply put- your friend talks to the grunts, you get shafted. He takes it up the ladder, I imagine you'll get shafted. Your friend, one way or the other, is either incredibly thick or not giving you the whole story.

After reading the previous post slightly more closely...

Didn't realise your friend had asked for that. Could be a problem with the DD he's trying to set up?

Buzby

The only way to print this to a head it to demand a refund and go to court if the money is not forthcoming by the due date. There is nothing that allows any firm to take a single card payment and turn it to an on-call or recurring mandate, depute what they say.

A cancelled/replcement card CANNOT be used to further an ongoing mandate. If the primary number changes (as it should with a compromised card complaint) then any subsequent debit attempt fails with a declined message. A replacement card, in which only the expiry date changes will not.

Notmyrealname

SeamusMac wrote: »

I still don't feel I made a mistake.

See below

I put my card into the reader, the amount was £30, I entered my PIN, and the payment was made. I never for once thought I was giving SKY access to my bank account.

And there was your mistake.

Your friend would not have died because they had to wait until they got home to subscribe. They would have been offered exactly the same bribes to sign up as were on offer on the stand.

SeamusMac

The latest update is that my bank (Santander) say there's nothing they can do because they can't break a contract "I" entered into. I tried to argue "I" didn't enter any contract, but they say that just the fact I used my card is "a contract with SKY". I quoted the section from the FSA website to them but they say that doesn't apply to them.

I contacted the FSA and they told me to contact the Financial Payments Authority, so I've sent my complaint to them.

My friend has reimbursed me with the money that SKY took from my account and also the bank charge. But on a point of principle I'm going to pursue trying to get my money back from SKY and stop them taking any further payments.