Can I get out of Sky TV scammy contract?

ladydawny

My husband filled in a tick box form for sky online back in the summer for a special offer of extra channels for £5 extra a month. We have been with Sky for years so triggering a contract for 12 months for doing what we have been doing for years adding and downgrading channels didn't enter his head. Just like this person here ... ah apparently I cannot post links yet kk.

I am disabled, my husband cannot work, he looks after me 24/7 we need to be able to adjust outgoings quite easily as we run a tight budget. This is devastating as the heating bill has gone up substantially this winter. When we rang to cancel the TV part of our package we were told able to do so, not till May.

The tick box form has gone from the website, been changed. We never got the vouchers which we didn't know about anyway, nor did we get this pack the woman on the phone talked about. We still haven't got any of these things and no proof on either side that this was ordered. He only wanted extra channels for a while and not HD as we don't have a HD TV :O
HELP:( we really need to save all this money.
Ladydawny

macman

If he agreed a new 12m minimum term, then no.
If your budget is so tight that you can't afford to pay the heating bill, then can you really afford subscription TV at all? Freesat from Sky will cost you nothing and require no new equipment, so consider cancelling Sky from May. Instant saving of around £318 pa minimum.

[Deleted User]

ladydawny wrote: »

nor did we get this pack the woman on the phone talked about.

The "pack" is the package of extra channels which your husband agreed to pay £5 extra a month for. It's not a physical parcel.The HD is included as part of this "pack" whether you can receive high definition or not.

You can cancel Sky TV before the twelve months are over, but Sky will obviously charge an Early Termination of Contract (ETC) fee if you
do so. However, you may be able to persuade them to drop this charge if you can show your financial circumstances have significantly changed in the last few months. I'm not sure a rise in heating costs will convince them, though.

As macman says above, if money is so tight you'd be far better off not having a Sky TV subscription at all. Your existing Sky equipment will still provide a multitude of Free-To-Air channels for no subscription at all.

macman

Moneyineptitude wrote: »

The "pack" is the package of extra channels which your husband agreed to pay £5 extra a month for. It's not a physical parcel.The HD is included as part of this "pack" whether you can receive high definition or not.

You can cancel Sky TV before the twelve months are over, but Sky will obviously charge an Early Termination of Contract (ETC) fee if you
do so. However, you may be able to persuade them to drop this charge if you can show your financial circumstances have significantly changed in the last few months. I'm not sure a rise in heating costs will convince them, though.

As macman says above, if money is so tight you'd be far better off not having a Sky TV subscription at all. Your existing Sky equipment will still provide a multitude of Free-To-Air channels for no subscription at all.

However 'humble' he may claim to be these days, I don't see Uncle Rupert buying that one...

ladydawny

No we cannot afford to have a subscription and that is why I was ringing up to cancel it. Things change quite quickly on a very low budget. I think it is disgusting how they always let you change things before and now all of a sudden you are agreeing to things and don't realize because you have been doing this for so long. Should be illegal.
thanks anyway.
Stuck but no longer will we be a Sky TV customer at the end of this. I feel they will lose a lot of loyal ones like us over it. If money had got better we might have gone back to them in the future but not after this little episode.
Anyway my husband insists they have put him on the wrong package, so why don't they have to show him the documents?
Seems in this world now, legal traps are all over the place. Signature no longer required to take out a contract. Ridiculous.
Big business can do what they like with us and people just roll over.
ah well
take care
x

[Deleted User]

macman wrote: »

However 'humble' he may claim to be these days, I don't see Uncle Rupert buying that one...

I agree, but the poster concerned has previously been a long term customer so this might have swayed Sky if the OP didn't continue to pursue the line that she isn't on the package they originally wanted and just complained that they can no longer afford the subscription. Sky might even offer a deal to stay...

ladydawny wrote:

Anyway my husband insists they have put him on the wrong package, so why don't they have to show him the documents?
Seems in this world now, legal traps are all over the place. Signature no longer required to take out a contract. Ridiculous.

Verbal contracts are nothing new. If you were put on the "wrong package", why didn't you complain last May instead of waiting until months later?

McKneff

You cant be on that tight of a budget is you could afford Sky last May, Do and Statement of Affairs, we could possibly help you budget up until at least next May, when you could have a new budget set up in advance, without Sky.


No scam involved, no trap, you asked for something, you got it, now you have to pay for it. Not Skys fault if you didn't read the terms and conditions. So you know the risks now of not doing so......

ladydawny

''Verbal contracts are nothing new. If you were put on the "wrong package", why didn't you complain last May instead of waiting until months later?'' really is that so? If I had been able to post links you would see we are not the only people tricked into this contract there are people complaining on Sky's own forums and of course getting nowhere. TBH we didn't realize we had subscribed to something with HD and 3D since we haven't got the equipment to use it and no documentation came telling us. Why do I feel I am defending myself to the people on this forum rather than getting help?

It IS a trap when you have been adding and taking off channels for years without getting a new contract. Suddenly when you are unaware that inside the Terms and Conditions somewhere is a contract for something where you don't expect it. These things are usually huge long legal documents, do ordinary people always read them or just those that get taken and start reading them more thoroughly afterwards?

You have no idea about our financial affairs so please don't assume just because we could add a few channels for a couple of months we are not strapped for cash when you have absolutely no idea of where we are, what we have to cope with let alone the in depth state of our finances.

Do you two work for Sky or something?

I shall use a helpful site in future, thanks for nothing. Maybe you should rename the forum to something longer and more fitting like...'come here so we can take you down a peg for making a mistake'

ladydawny

McKneff wrote: »

You cant be on that tight of a budget is you could afford Sky last May, Do and Statement of Affairs, we could possibly help you budget up until at least next May, when you could have a new budget set up in advance, without Sky.


Of course we won't have Sky once the contract is out we don't need to draw up a financial plan for that thank you very much for your offer but..omg you have no idea what it is like for us so please don't imagine on our money a financial plan wouldn't change suddenly. Or do you have a spouse looking after you 24/7 for £1 a week? Please don't assume to know what is impossible to fathom from a short post on the internet.

So glad I am getting on in years now, things are going a certain way which isn't comfortable for those without means. I do worry about the young ones though that are getting used to corporations getting away with whatever they want with the support of ordinary people like you, because they have made laws to fit them.

[Deleted User]

ladydawny wrote: »

You have no idea about our financial affairs so please don't assume just because we could add a few channels for a couple of months we are not strapped for cash when you have absolutely no idea of where we are, what we have to cope with let alone the in depth state of our finances.

I neither know nor care about the state of your Finances and I don't work for (or support) Sky in any way.

The only way you will receive positive responses to your queries is if you actually tell us something Sky have done wrong. So far you have only told us that you didn't know what it was you were agreeing to but went ahead anyway.

I've already told you the only way to approach this with Sky is to plead that you cannot afford the cost and see if they will not charge the ETC and let you cancel early.

If you go on the attack, you have no chance whatever of getting out of the "scammy" contract you have legally agreed to.

Money-Saving-King

Ladydawny if you treat the people at Sky as rudely as you have poeple on the forum here who are trying to give advice then you will get nowhere at all.

This is not Sky's problem. It's not scammy or should be made illegal. You need to get your head round this if you are to get anywhere.

When you next deal with Sky admit it's your fault and you might get somewhere. If you the attitude towards them you've used on here you'll get nowhere at all.

No I don't work for Sky, it's just like many others on here I can tell when something is a companies fault & when something is the consumers. This is a case of the consumer being at fault and nothing else.