Old Sky Broadband Bill

funky1471

Just wanted to check if anybody has an answer on here regarding a call we had recently.

It may be that it's not possible to dispute this, and it goes down as a lesson learnt, but my partner got a call from a debt collection company saying there was an outstanding amount of around £340 to pay.

This is apparently from a Sky Broadband contract we had in a property we lived in over 2.5 years ago. We were renting a flat at the time.

By my estimations, this is around 2 years worth of broadband service they are charging for.

I'm not sure how the confusion arose, and why the service appears not to have been cancelled, or whether she has made the mistake of cancelling a DD instruction too early.

My question really is around whether we should be expected to pay this amount for service we never receiving, and could never have received as we weren't living at the property.

Should it really have taken 2.5 years for them to attempt to contact us? They called the number Sky had on file I assume, but they could have done this years ago.

Also if they hadn't received payment, surely the account should have been cut off and closed/defaulted?

We are waiting for a letter with the breakdown of dates the charges apply to and what they are for. Strangely the company handling this for them doesn't have this information...which seems poor. They are asking for payment but couldn't even give a detailed breakdown over the phone there and then.

Is this a lesson learnt the hard way, or does the time they've taken make any difference?

CoolHotCold

Time taken makes no difference, if you used it or not makes no difference.


If it wasn't cancelled, you owe the money

funky1471

I'll wait to see what we are actually being asked to pay before handing over anything.

It's poor of them not to actually know what they are asking you to pay regardless, but at least they are looking into it.

Why wait two years to get in touch with us via phone though, why not after 2 payments are missed?

Using that as an example, they may as well have waited 5 years from their point of view, and asked for even more.

Yes you are responsible for cancelling, but there is something wrong if they can wait as long as they want. A call 2 years ago would have helped avoid this...but then they wouldn't be getting £340 out of us...

bod1467

Flip-side of the coin ... the "injured party" to any breach of contract should take steps to mitigate any loss caused by the breach. Taking the OP at face value suggests that Sky haven't tried to mitigate the loss.

funky1471

Thanks for the responses. I think I have the information I need to discuss this with Sky. I'll go them directly now rather than speculate here.

Appreciate the views from both directions.

fozzeh

bod1467 wrote: »

Flip-side of the coin ... the "injured party" to any breach of contract should take steps to mitigate any loss caused by the breach. Taking the OP at face value suggests that Sky haven't tried to mitigate the loss.

Amen.
Had the same with 02 back in 2007. They forgot to cancel an old number. I'd taken out a new contract with them (new number) so they could see my active number. Old one wasn't used in 2 years, told them that, re-sent letter I had sent at the time, sent me a cheque for £180 for the year they'd been charging.

harrys_dad

I would suggest you cross post this on the Debt Free Wanabee board where there are lots of experts on how to deal with agencies chasing old debts.

funky1471

I thought I should come back and post the result. After going back and forth with Sky and the collection company, neither seeming to be able to give me a straight answer....

I got through to a CSA who after 5 minutes of looking found a record showing we called and cancelled the contract when we left the property.

The service had been cut off etc. properly, but the billing was still active.

He apologised and said there is no doubt we do not owe the money, and we definitely cancelled.

I know a lot of people that would have just accepted it and paid, always worth checking exactly what it is people are asking you to pay for, as companies and their IT systems can make mistakes.

Will have to get her credit report checked, as if this has been on there for a while, it would be best to get it removed, I assume this will be possible to do once we have the final confirmation in writing that the amount has been removed from our account as owing.