Satellite Insurance Scams

brewerdave

After quite a few calls of this nature over the past 18 months I now deny having a Sky set up at all. Reactions vary from a polite apology thru' incredulity to downright rudenesss!
They have obviously got my details from Sky or their installers/fitters.

macman

Rebuilding_my_life wrote: »

My elderly Mum received an unsolicited phone call today from 'Sky' saying that her maintenance contract for her Sky HD box was due for renewal and that she needed to pay £300 for a 3 year warranty. Unfortunately she believed what she was told, and paid £300 on her Barclaycard to them. She took their phone number down (0845 467 9895) and reference for the payment.

Of course it turns out that the company concerned is not SKY but a company called Satellite4u. There seems to be lots of complaints on the internet concerning their miss-selling.

My Mum phoned Barclaycard to cancel the payment but they say that a payment has been presented yet and that it was really up to her to sort out a cancellation with Satellite4u.

Can anyone provide some advice on how to proceed with this? My mum is registered with the TPS and I have already raised a complaint with them.

They usually say 'working with Sky', or 'Sky partners', gullible people just pick up on the Sky bit. You'd have a hard job alleging fraud on that basis, and if the box is coming out of it's initial 12m cover, then technically speaking they are offering a valid extended warranty (even though of course it's entirely unnecessary to have such cover). So I can understand why the credit card provider declined to get involved, since she had willingly paid the money-it's not obviously fraudulent, and the 'service' has been supplied. As far as they're concerned, the card holder has just changed their mind, which is not a valid reason for doing a cancellation or chargeback.
As Kurtis says, rely on DSR to get her out of this, though it may be a struggle.
And give her some firm guidelines regarding unsolicited marketing calls.

Florence22

The above are,I believe, just the most recent names this company has been trading under.
I would urge anyone who is having problems with them after being cold called, to google and to read the reviews posted - in particular, "Who calls me....", a long ongoing saga with a sad and predictable route for most of their victims.
My elderly Mum called in May 2010, she's a little deaf, quite disabled and at the time recently widowed. Believing they were from Sky, she initially agreed and paid £6 on her debit card, mainly just to get the fast-talking asian man off the phone.
When she told me a couple of days later what had happened I immediately thought it was a phishing scam and called Sky.
They had heard of the company and told me they would never call anyone for insurance and it did indeed sound like a scam.

She cancelled her debit card with the bank and we thought she was safe. A very unprofessional looking "contract" arrived about a week later and she sent it back with a letter to say she wanted nothing to do with it and to leave her alone.
We thought that was the end of it......oh how wrong were we!

It seems that their, modus operandi is to leave you alone to let the payments 'rack up', not contact or remind you about outstanding payments and to then sell the debt on to Capital Credit Management, aka Capital Corporations UK Ltd. This has now happened to my Mum who received a demand for payment yesterday, advising her that she had until next Tuesday, 21st Sept, to pay in full or the charges would rack up.

As you can imagine, both companies were difficult and arrogant to deal with and I then spent hours on the phone looking for advice via the Consumer Credit Council, Consumer Direct (Trading Standards), Action Fraud and lastly The National Debtline, who were unbelievably helpful.

Florence22

So sorry, the above was posted before I'd finished by mistake - new poster, new laptop!!

We'll be submitting a subject access request, demanding the phone transcript and a copy of the contract (as per usual, they deny any knowledge of Mum's cancellation letter), but the sad thing is, the easiest thing to do will be to pay it as Mum can't face the long slog of court action, the costs involved, which will probably shoot in to the thousands, and the debt collection company racking up further charges.
Action Fraud advised that as they seem to be a legal company, what they're doing is morally wrong, but they can't pass this to the Police until the phone transcripts arrive and we have further evidence.

Those of you who think you have cancelled your contract, PLEASE investigate this. All mail to the company should be sent by recorded or special delivery - please follow this up - look up those reviews and posts on google, it seems to me that from April onwards, those of us who though we had cancelled are now hit with this nightmare and you will be too. You will most likely receive a letter from the debt collectors who will give you no warning and leave you no time to dispute.

I really wish someone like Martin, or Watchdog would do an investigation on this company - legal though they may be - are their selling methods? I will be pursuing this, as I have a horrible feeling that even if we pay, it won't be left there.

Buzby

I don't believe it would go to court - it is usually a case of who blinks first. I know of folk who treated them with the contempt they deserved and ignored them, and like private parking contractors, not worth worry about. They only win when the threat gels into a court date, but if you turn up to defend, they back out. I always say never buy anytihng over the phone, when they call YOU. It often ends in tears.

Florence22

I think it's easy for those of us who are younger to say we wouldn't be taken in - Mum is a little deaf and this cold caller was fast, insistent and implied he was from Sky.
After speaking to them and finding out how arrogant and hard headed they are (that's life I know), I am determined to chase them, they have caused worry and stress to many people and perhaps it's about time we stopped ignoring them and putting up with this sort of treatment in the hope that they will go away.
I want their behaviour changed and stopped and if anyone else agrees with me perhaps we could join forces and do it and prevent other elderly, not so elderly and vulnerable people a lot of worry and suffering.
I've approached Watchdog and my local radio station, although I'll be very surprised if I hear from them!! In the meantime I will slap a subject access request their way and if they go one day over the time limit, or anything we receive looks suspicious I will contact Action Fraud and let the Police deal with them.
The longer we ignore them I'm sure the worse they will get - one of the best ways to go will be for everyone to send in a SAR, and they will be so tied up with them they won't have time to drag in new unsuspecting customers! - Here's hoping!

Florence22

If anyone here needs further help and assistance, there is more info on the Who Calls Me website.
I've been having problems posting links but if you google whocallsme and then input 08442490999 on their search it will take you to the thread - believe me, you are not alone!

jhp

Florence22 wrote: »

If anyone here needs further help and assistance, there is more info on the Who Calls Me website.
I've been having problems posting links but if you google whocallsme and then input 08442490999 on their search it will take you to the thread - believe me, you are not alone!

Satellites4u have nothing to do with the companies you mention they are based in Shrewsbury and now hide behind a 0845 number.

http://www.companiesintheuk.co.uk/ltd/satellite-4-u

Florence22

I understand that, my post was intended as a start-point for help for people who are being chased by companies who use this type of selling technique, I probably didn't make that clear.
We've posted help numbers for Action Fraud, National Debtline, Consumer Advice etc., and how to go about submitting a Subject Access Request.
There is a lot of information out there, thankfully.

Abbafan1972

Sorry to bump an old thread, but these are still at it. Got 2 calls from them today, managed to answer the 2nd one.

The number is 0845 070 1599

Said he was from "Digital Services UK" and was calling about my Sky system and was it myself that deals with it. I said "but you're not from Sky though are you?", he said "No".

I just said that we weren't interest and put the phone down.