The older generation and Sky TV

Scrinson

Good Morning All,

A friend of mine has recently had to move his 80 year old mother into a residential home and during the course of sorting out her household he has come across a number of DD's. One of these is a Sky bill for £111 a month!

This seems an incredible amount of money for just a TV package. Her box is very old- one of the first digital boxes to be released by them- with only one room wired in and with the full sports package and movies package. She has no broadband at the property and her phone is supplied by a different provider.

To make things worse, if I go to the sky site now and scope out the top of the line multi room you-cant-bend-it deal with all the trimmings, it comes in at £115/month.

Is this a common thing or do Sky not have some form of team that looks at these accounts and asks the question is this the best deal?

Please don't get me wrong, I know they are a business and profit is their purpose in life but, where does the line get drawn?

I suppose what I'm really asking is can anything be done about claiming back some of the outlay she has spent? My friend is in the process of getting POA but I thought I might see what thoughts the MSE'ers had.

If nothing else it may highlight an issue some of you may have not thought about with regards to your parents. It certainly has with me!

Thoughts on a post.....

HappyMJ

Scrinson wrote: »

Good Morning All,

A friend of mine has recently had to move his 80 year old mother into a residential home and during the course of sorting out her household he has come across a number of DD's. One of these is a Sky bill for £111 a month!

This seems an incredible amount of money for just a TV package. Her box is very old- one of the first digital boxes to be released by them- with only one room wired in and with the full sports package and movies package. She has no broadband at the property and her phone is supplied by a different provider.

To make things worse, if I go to the sky site now and scope out the top of the line multi room you-cant-bend-it deal with all the trimmings, it comes in at £115/month.

Is this a common thing or do Sky not have some form of team that looks at these accounts and asks the question is this the best deal?

Please don't get me wrong, I know they are a business and profit is their purpose in life but, where does the line get drawn?

I suppose what I'm really asking is can anything be done about claiming back some of the outlay she has spent? My friend is in the process of getting POA but I thought I might see what thoughts the MSE'ers had.

If nothing else it may highlight an issue some of you may have not thought about with regards to your parents. It certainly has with me!

Thoughts on a post.....

It's up to the customer to constantly review the package they are on and cut out the channels they no longer watch.

Who knows that she doesn't watch the Premier League on a Saturday night..it's very popular. She might have watched a movie or two last month. They do have a reasonable selection of movies.

Nothing can be claimed back.

JJ_Egan

My slightly older Aunt has a Sky package and would be most annoyed if you took the football golf etc off her .
I have another 90 year old friend that would be most upset if relatives started interfering with his accounts and lifestyle .

But that does not mean some people are fully in charge of their affairs no matter what age .

Scrinson

Thanks for the replies.

Neither of us are looking to run her life for her. We were just shocked to see how much she was paying for the package she had, and for the length of time she had been paying it.

I accept that it is the ultimately the responsibility of the contract holder to manage their account.

With regards to taking her package away from her this is no longer an issue as she will not be returning home.

My grandfather would also be outraged if we messed with his F1 but, on that same note he is savvy enough to have looked for the best cost option to watch it. Alas it seems this was not the case of my friends mother.

Scrinson

On a slightly different tack it may not be seen as interfering necessarily if you were to save the person in question almost £40 a month (in this case).

It is a money saving forum after all!

I suppose my main point was to highlight this may be happening and people of all ages/levels of consumer savvy could be getting a better deal.

HappyMJ

Scrinson wrote: »

On a slightly different tack it may not be seen as interfering necessarily if you were to save the person in question almost £40 a month (in this case).

It is a money saving forum after all!

I suppose my main point was to highlight this may be happening and people of all ages/levels of consumer savvy could be getting a better deal.

All you can to is suggest she look at her package and while you're at it tell her the savings you've made by switching energy suppliers, mobile and home phone providers etc...

Tell her you've saved thousands and if she did the same her fixed income pension would go much further and she could go on a holiday with the savings.

I do have friends that insist on being with BT, Sky and British Gas because that's the way it's always been.

They would never dream of threatening to leave a supplier to get a better deal because they think that means they will lose their precious service. I know they won't but that's just what they think.

duchy

It is interfering if it is done without the account holders permission but nothing to stop her calling Sky and then giving permission and then passing the phone to the OP. A quick call to the retentions team should net her a free new box if it really is one of the original ones and a lower bill. It's probably worth sorting out a deal on phone at the same time as odds are she's paying too much on that too and then she'd get free BB so get the box sets too.

giraffe69

I think lots of providers (and not just TV) use inertia and people are reluctant to switch or get confused by the process which is usually not as easy as is typically suggested.

My elderly parents in law have asked me to sort out a couple of bills and car insurance became £800 cheaper and house insurance £300 cheaper with no loss of cover. Mind you I wasn't allowed anywhere near Sky and the Sport!

Dan-Dan

Sadly its the same as anything in life,if you allow them most companies will screw you senseless if they can

brewerdave

As Dan-Dan says - EVERY Company you have an arrangement with ,will try it on at renewal time -its down to you to react - as an example I've just had a renewal letter for an insurance product -no claim for at least 15 years - yet the premium is more than doubled!! I don't think so!!

teddysmum

duchy wrote: »

It is interfering if it is done without the account holders permission but nothing to stop her calling Sky and then giving permission and then passing the phone to the OP. A quick call to the retentions team should net her a free new box if it really is one of the original ones and a lower bill. It's probably worth sorting out a deal on phone at the same time as odds are she's paying too much on that too and then she'd get free BB so get the box sets too.

The lady has gone into care, so no longer needs the service, but 30/31 days' notice will be required.