Question about Sky Contract - Is a Verbal Agreement binding?

sarahkmv

So, to make it as brief as possible; I rang Sky as I do yearly to renegotiate my contract. I have HD, Family plus Sports n Movies for which I was paying £45ish (never wanted the sports but got a better deal than just movies alone last year!).


Explained to the rep I didn't want sports just family, HD and movies and my new package was £72 which was too high. Usual negotiations ensued and he offered me for 46.50 a month variety (apparently better than family), HD and movies for 46.50 for a year which I agreed to. I queried several times that I'd get Sky F1 with this and he said yes every time. He also assured me this would be with immediate effect and that my next bill would be £37.00, then £46.50.


Fast forward to yesterday I get an e-mail confirming my changes to being family and movies for 10 months at £46.50 and removal of HD!!! So totally different to what we had agreed (I made notes so knew what I was agreeing to).


Rang Sky today and got put through to cancellations to get them to sort it. The best they will offer is £48.25 for ten months, for family, HD and movies BUT I will have to pay £72.50 for 31 days notice of sports. They are ringing me back tomorrow as I'm not happy with this - I have asked them to listen to my call to see what they offered me.


My query is - do I have in effect a verbal contract with what I was offered on the first call or is it just one of those errors and I will have to swallow the difference? I know it's not much per month, but if you factor in the extra for the Sports for the month and also the offer being 10 months not 12 it starts to add up. I have looked into the T&Cs it appears that the 31 days notice is correct, but it's not what I was told.


Thanks for taking the time to read this!

wealdroam

sarahkmv wrote: »

So, to make it as brief as possible; I rang Sky as I do yearly to renegotiate my contract. I have HD, Family plus Sports n Movies for which I was paying £45ish (never wanted the sports but got a better deal than just movies alone last year!).


Explained to the rep I didn't want sports just family, HD and movies and my new package was £72 which was too high. Usual negotiations ensued and he offered me for 46.50 a month variety (apparently better than family), HD and movies for 46.50 for a year which I agreed to. I queried several times that I'd get Sky F1 with this and he said yes every time. He also assured me this would be with immediate effect and that my next bill would be £37.00, then £46.50.


Fast forward to yesterday I get an e-mail confirming my changes to being family and movies for 10 months at £46.50 and removal of HD!!! So totally different to what we had agreed (I made notes so knew what I was agreeing to).


Rang Sky today and got put through to cancellations to get them to sort it. The best they will offer is £48.25 for ten months, for family, HD and movies BUT I will have to pay £72.50 for 31 days notice of sports. They are ringing me back tomorrow as I'm not happy with this - I have asked them to listen to my call to see what they offered me.


My query is - do I have in effect a verbal contract with what I was offered on the first call or is it just one of those errors and I will have to swallow the difference? I know it's not much per month, but if you factor in the extra for the Sports for the month and also the offer being 10 months not 12 it starts to add up. I have looked into the T&Cs it appears that the 31 days notice is correct, but it's not what I was told.


Thanks for taking the time to read this!

Agreements, either verbal or in writing, are binding.

The only problem with verbal agreements is the difficulty of confirming who said what.

If you can prove what your were offered, and agreed to buy, then you will have no problem. Hopefully Sky will be able to confirm what was agreed.

frugal_mike

Sky did that to me last year too. They ended up adding the HD back in and reducing the bill slightly.

sarahkmv

Thanks both. I have asked them to listen to the call to see what I was promised. I have the offer of 46.50 on the email too which will help.

The guy I am dealing with seems reasonable but has said he'd have to speak to his managers to get the tapes listened too and take it from there. I guess if the call isn't recorded then it's my word against the advisor which makes it tricky. I'll push the verbal contract thing, see what happens.

Just wish we didn't have to go though this hoo ha every year!

Ectophile

If the call wasn't recorded, then they have no evidence that you ever entered into any agreement at all.

In reality, the call will have been recorded, and you need to be pushy and insist that they listen to it.

sarahkmv

Thanks Ectophile, they were supposed to ring back today but didn't. I will chase them tomorrow and definitely put my foot down.