Sky - Debt Collector error

trickky33

I Have over the last month recived a FORMAL DEMAND ,and then a NOTICE OF IMPENDING ACTION from Past Due Credit, for the sum of £326, for their client BSKYB.

I did attempt to contract with Sky in 2011, however their engineer failed on two occasions to make his/her promised visit and so, as I was unable to access all of the services I was promised (I was never connected to Sky Broadband) I cancelled my direct debit and moved to a different supplier.

Having contacted Sky on 3 occasions, it seems that the £326 that Past Due are attempting to collect on their behalf, is for a Broadband service that they never provided (as evidenced by the fact that I recieve a broadband service from a different provider). As Sky have admitted that I do not and have not ever owed them £326, I have asked on 3 occasions for a written explanation as to why my details have been passed to Past Due, and asked to be sent a final written balance of £0. I am yet to receive either (it has been 35 days since my first call to them) and, despite promises that a manager will contact by telephone to update me, I have not recieved this either.

My next step will be to issue them with a NOTICE of costs of administration with regards to the time and effort in my having to correct their mistakes (wish me luck):rotfl:

But Before I do I would really appreciate if someone can shed some light on wether or not SKY passing my personal information on to a third party IN ERROR constitutes the breaking of any LAW/ACT for which they may be held accountable in a court of law? I have trawled the Information commissioner website and Trading Standards etc. but I'm still unsure weather or not they have acted illegally or just plain foolishly.

Any help/input would be much appreciated
Rich.

chanz4

If your going to take someone to court like sky, get legal advice dont go to a forum

McKneff

You cancelled your direct debit, but did you cancel your contract with SKY, I'm reading that you did not,

sharpy2010

trickky33 wrote: »

Any help/input would be much appreciated
Rich.

I'd suggest becoming a bit more chilled out, you sound like your about to have a stroke over this bill for £326!!!

Candy53

The OP said it's for £326.

Candy

DVardysShadow

McKneff wrote: »

You cancelled your direct debit, but did you cancel your contract with SKY, I'm reading that you did not,

This is a really important point.

If you have a problem with a supplier not providing a service, you go through the following steps

• Inform them in writing that they are not providing what was agreed and give them a reasonable time to provide the service
• If they fail on this, tell them in writing that if they do not resolve the problem by a specific date [reasonable amount of time again], you will regard them as having cancelled the contract.
• If they still fail, you tell them that as they have failed, and have been given 2 warnings, the contract is at an end
• Only when you have done all the above, cancel the Direct Debit

Keep copies of all letters. If you miss out the stages of writing letters, the result is they will regard the account as being in debt, trash your credit record and set the mongrels on you. And it is a whole lot harder to prove that you phoned and spoke with some bloke in India who calls himself after some character in Coronation Street.

trickky33

Thanks for the replies, I guess..

chanz4 - I have no intention of taking anyone to court, SKY have admitted their error on 3 occasions already, so I really don't think it necessary. However if SKY decide that they are unwilling to provide me my costs out of court then I may consider legal advice, so thank you for that. I merely hoped that someone on this forum may be able to clarify if their actions (providing a third party with my personal information in error) could be deemed unlawful? Or point me in the direction of the relevant information (rules for lawful distribution of data)?

McKneff - I didn't cancel my contract with SKY no, I cancelled my Direct Debit after paying for services they did not provide for 2 months. If they had honored their side of the contract then I would be in dishonor by not cancelling and refusing payment. As they never provided me with a service then it is SKY that broke contract, is it not?

Sharpy - If I was any more chilled out I would fall over I am actually really enjoying this process, I have had a couple of pretty good results with other companies, who have made far less severe errors than SKY have already admitted to, so not wanting to tempt fate, I've already won this one. The only question now is how long it is going to take them to pay up.

Oh and my original question obviously, perhaps I should just keep it simple.

Does anybody here know if it is legal/lawful to pass my personal information onto a debt collection agency if I don't owe them a debt?

Any help/input would be greatly appreciated
Rich

trickky33

Shadow - Thank you for your reply, some pretty sound advice there.
SKY are not disputing that it is they that dishonored the contract between us, they have admitted fault on 3 occasions, not that it would surprise me if they change this stance in the future.

I record all of my calls with SKY, some of their operatives (all from up north so far weirdly enough) do not consent but I just end the call and phone back till I find one that doesn't mind, this does take a few calls sometimes, perhaps they are trained to not consent? who knows?

Once I get through to one that isn't shy, I ask them to confirm their name and the name of the supervisor on duty and then just carry on as normal. Not as effective as written evidence of communication, I concur but they don't seem to want to enter into written communication with me.

As an aside when I do start sending my NOTICES as I don't send letters, I send them recorded delivery, that way the bloke in India can't claim they have not received any communication. I think this would also be advisable addition to your process.

Cheers
Rich

DevCoder

BSKYB obviously feel you owe a debt else they wouldn't have passed/sold it on. It may not be the department you have spoken to.

DVardysShadow

trickky33 wrote: »

McKneff - I didn't cancel my contract with SKY no, I cancelled my Direct Debit after paying for services they did not provide for 2 months. If they had honored their side of the contract then I would be in dishonor by not cancelling and refusing payment. As they never provided me with a service then it is SKY that broke contract, is it not?

Although there is a sort of logic to what you say, you are thoroughly mistaken. You must give the supplier an opportunity to put right their breach of contract.

As things are, at this point, if Sky took you to court, you would be staring at a CCJ because there is no evidence that there really was a problem - which there would have been if you had gone through the steps I suggested. Sky could just claim that you stopped paying and that you are just another one of those liars they deal with who stop paying and then claim 6 months later that the service was never provided.

When you cancel a contract, you actually cancel the contract to make sure that the supplier knows you have cancelled the contract. Stopping paying is not cancelling the contract. Stopping paying is just putting yourself in arrears and trashing your credit record.

trickky33

Shadow - With respect I agree with you wholeheartedly, your advice re. cancelling a contract is in my opinion, sound advice.
However, as things are at this point I have 3 admissions of fault from SKY, they have investigated my complaint and the result of their investigation is that they never provided me with a service, my Broadband Line never "went live" as their engineer failed to attend my property on 2 occasions, they also admit that I owe them no money, not a penny. I have these admissions recorded with their permission, and as current small claims court legislation stands these recordings can be entered as evidence. If SKY were to suddenly decide to change their mind and pursue the £326 I would eat both of my shoes :rotfl:
But as I said earlier I am not asking for advice on small claims court procedure or how to deal with SKY I am only interested, now that I have an admission of fault from SKY to Know if it is lawful/legal for SKY to give my personal details to a debt collector when I didn't owe them a debt? I think maybe I may be asking in the wrong place.

Krisdorey - Yes BSKYB did believe that I owed them a debt, but having investigated they now confirm that one of their departments made an error, the debt was passed/sold (not sure which) on in error, and that from 29th may they have confirmed that I owe them £0

Again thanks for the replies, any input with regards to the original question would be greatly appreciated

Rich.