Problem with Sky mis sold contract

anticlaus105

I have posted below a copy of an email I sent to jeremy darroch @ bskyb com. In the past when I have hit a brick wall with Sky customer service this usually resolves the matter fairly quickly. On this occasion I have not even received an acknowledgment let alone a response. I sent the email on Wed 26/11/2014 at 18:26 so maybe I am hoping for a response too soon, but I need to plan my next move should an adequate response not be forthcoming.

My main question is that given that Sky mis sold the fibre broadband can I cancel my whole Sky contract? Retentions dept seem to think not as I am apparently I am tied into line rental and TV for 12/12. I didn’t realise I was signing up to TV for 12/12 again and assumed the whole line rental/internet go together. I would not have agreed to a 12/12 contract for these if I knew the fibre would be for 18/12 so by misrepresenting the fibre contract I feel the whole thing should be called off.

I am also not too happy they misled me about my potential line speed.

Dear Mr Darroch,

I write to you as a Sky customer of 10 years and I will try to keep this succinct.

My Sky broadband recently failed resulting in a call to Sky. I was suspicious the router had failed as it was acting odd, but during my call a line fault was diagnosed. I was told it would take 72 hours for an openreach engineer to investigate and I would get a call between 2-3pm the following Tuesday. After 2 days with no internet I decided to try an old router I had lying around. Not so surprisingly this worked confirming my suspicion the original router had failed. Sky then phoned me on the Monday but being at work I missed the call. Thankfully they called again later and seemed surprised I had my internet back. They explained my router was out of warranty and if I was ok they would close the sport query and I could just carry on.

This incident prompted me to investigate if fibre broadband had become available. I discovered it had so called Sky on 12/11/14. After much haggling I was offered a 12 month contract which included fibre broadband. Having seen online that fibre contracts tend to be for 18 months I queried this point and was told that new customers get an 18 month contract but being an old customer mine would be for 12. I was also not informed that I would have no 14 day cooling off period and I was also told the maximum speed available to me was 40Mb. I have a recording of this call. Following the call I received an email which appeared to confirm a 12 month contract (see email 1 below). Over the following days I received my Sky hub and my fibre went live on 25/11/14. To my surprise I received another email detailing an 18 month contract (see email 2 below).

Obviously I had not agreed to this so called Sky again on 26/11/14. Eventually retentions told me they could remove my fibre contract as it was miss-sold but this would remove my 6 months half price fibre and increase my monthly bill, or I could simply accept an 18 month fibre contract.

I explained I was not happy with either of these options but then I was informed I could not fully leave as I have allegedly re-contracted for TV and phone so these will remain with Sky for 12 months. I believed I signed up to Sky as a whole package for a certain amount of time for a particular price, I was not aware of different contracts tying me into services separately. I am not happy to pay any more than the price that was agreed or be forced to stay with my entire package for any longer than I agreed. The annoying thing is I would most likely still be a Sky customer long after 18 months anyway but I take exception to being forced to via misrepresentation.

If I do end up leaving following this incident I would have to remove all my services to another provider to ensure I get the best deal. I cannot simply just take my fibre broadband elsewhere. I do however not wish to leave and would rather find a more amicable resolution.

I have since further investigated your packages and note that you have a Sky Fibre Pro service with a 12 month contract so it is clear that 12 months was available. I have checked my line speed with BT wholesale and it confirms that I can get up to 80Mb downstream and 20Mb upstream. I was not made aware of this during my original call only being told my line would support up to 40Mb. I now know this is what the service you have given me is actually capped at and not the limit of my line as was suggested to me. I do however note that this service is more expensive that the one I have been signed up to.

I would appreciate you looking into the issues I have raised and I look forward to your reply and suggested resolution.

Kind regards
xxx
Sky Account No: xxx
Mob: xxx

EMAIL 1 – 12/11/14
Dear xxx
Account Number : xxx
I'm writing to confirm that you have agreed to take up our fantastic Line Rental for 9.99 GBP for 10 Months (Recontract) - Existing UK Customers. We also wanted to remind you that as part of this, you've agreed to re-subscribe for a new minimum term to the products listed in the table below:
Subscription Contract Start Date Contract Length
Sky Broadband 12/11/2014 12 Months
Sky Talk 12/11/2014 12 Months
Sky Line Rental 12/11/2014 12 Months


If you cancel or stop paying for your subscription(s) before the end of the minimum term (other than where you have a right to do so under your contract), we may charge you early termination charges. These will be based on the amount of subscription payments due for the remainder of your minimum term less any costs we save, including the cost of no longer providing you with the service. We will give you reasonable notice in writing before making any charge.
We're sure that you'll continue to enjoy all the great services that Sky offer - if you need any further help, please visit sky.com/help.
The Sky Team

EMAIL 2 – 25/11/14
Dear xxx
Account Number : xxx
I'm writing to confirm that you have agreed to take up our fantastic Sky Fibre Unlimited. We also wanted to remind you that as part of this, you've agreed to re-subscribe for a new minimum term to the products listed in the table below:
Subscription Contract Start Date Contract Length
Sky Broadband 25/11/2014 18 Months


If you cancel or stop paying for your subscription(s) before the end of the minimum term (other than where you have a right to do so under your contract), we may charge you early termination charges. These will be based on the amount of subscription payments due for the remainder of your minimum term less any costs we save, including the cost of no longer providing you with the service. We will give you reasonable notice in writing before making any charge.
We're sure that you'll continue to enjoy all the great services that Sky offer - if you need any further help, please visit sky.com/help.
The Sky Team

[Deleted User]

BT might be able to give you 80 meg but sky wont.. I get 20meg with BT if i sign up to sky it 10meg.. It because the line own by BT so they rather give Their own customers the bandwidth, hench why sky cheaper as BT only let sky some of the bandwidth so sky can charge you cheaper.. i might be wrong but sure read this somewhere as BT only one who can give me 20 meg no other company will...

As for TV package im sure they would of said on the phone... if they didnt !ask for copy of the recording... It common when upgrading and your in a package that they start all on new 12 month contracts.. eg i went from 7meg to 20meg.. to do that i knew that BT would tell me i have to have new 12 month contract...

anticlaus105

Thanks for your reply. I already have a copy of the call recording as playing this to them was what made them agree I had been mis-sold. I'm not sure what would happen if I didn't have it. My main beef is that sky offered a 12/12 contract which I agreed to. They then reneged and set it to 18/12 which I did not. They are now holding me to ransom. Apparently I can't leave so I either accept 18/12 or go back to 12/12 and pay more. Neither of these options are acceptable to me.

I have not received a response to my email so plan to send another tonight. After 7 days I will write to the Sky complaints address recorded delivery and following this will raise my complaint with OFCOM, if they don't start addressing my complaint.

Ectophile

Iain79 wrote: »

BT might be able to give you 80 meg but sky wont.. I get 20meg with BT if i sign up to sky it 10meg.. It because the line own by BT so they rather give Their own customers the bandwidth, hench why sky cheaper as BT only let sky some of the bandwidth so sky can charge you cheaper.. i might be wrong but sure read this somewhere as BT only one who can give me 20 meg no other company will...

Fibre broadband is supplied by Openreach. It is part of the wider BT Group, but completely independent of BT Retail who sell broadband to residential customers.

They offer two levels of service - up to 40M and up to 80M. In both cases, the speed is dependent on your distance to the cabinet, and could be as low as 15M.