Sky contract dispute threatened with debt collection

biggs14 · 30 April 2015 at 8:45PM

What has started as a simple end of contract termination of leaving Sky tv after 5 years and being on a rolling contract i phoned Sky and told them i wish to end my contract as i was having Virgin installed ,they tried to butter me up with free multiroom etc but said no need a better broadband that they cannot provide and that i had with Talktalk broadband anyway ,so over the phone they said it is 31 one days cancellation and i agreed and said my wife being the account holder had to authorize it and she is in the next room and they did not ask to speak to her (nothing i could find in sky contract about account holder authorizing termination) and i said no wish to leave and they said ok ,i cancelled direct debit after last payment and they informed me i still had a payment to make so paid sky with a one off payment through the billing dept .Since then i have been issued with a demand for another payment as i had not informed them through my wife (account holder) so contract was still live,i have spoken to Sky and explained the story above but they are being ridiculous and petty as i have technically paid up and thats the end of it and i am now seeking legal advice .from January 10th my box was disconnected and virgin installed so i said check my usage and waffled on and i am getting really annoyed now over not the £36 but the principle of the matter

Anyone offer assistance or experiences similar

poppasmurf_bewdley · 1 May 2015 at 8:35AM

For clarification, did your wife as the account holder, cancel the contract? No company will accept a cancellation from someone who is not the account holder unless the account holder first gives permission either verbally or in writing for that person to act on their behalf.

brewerdave · 1 May 2015 at 8:43AM

I've made financial decisions over the phone for my wife BUT only after they have gone thru "security" with her to give me permission to act on her behalf - this has happened with banks/insurance companies/utilities -so strictly Sky are in the right.

macman · 1 May 2015 at 9:20AM

They should not have been discussing the account with you at all without your wife's authorisation, so they were already in breach of their own terms and conditions.

Sinhanada · 1 May 2015 at 9:27AM

With Sky you can get yourself added as an additional account authority but you will still need the account holder to cancel. Unfortunately you are without merit on this one and Sky can stick to their guns

biggs14 · 1 May 2015 at 4:45PM

@Macman so should they have insisted at that time to speak to her ? as by the time we finished the call of about 6 mins she had left for work and was unavailable and i do not recall them saying she needs to authorize it ,i also spoke to a manager yesterday who said they could send a transcript of the call and i replied "how do i know if it is edited for your convenience" I a m bloody fuming a t the pettyness of Sky over this as i told them i corrected my error of cancelling direct debit and made manual payment through the website and they still are not happy !