Forgot to cancel Sky

Purpleronnie

Writing on behalf of my mum...

My mum switched from Sky to Virgin in February and was told by the Virgin salesperson they ‘would take care of everything’ so she didn’t give it another thought.

I found out at the weekend that she is (was now) still paying the £35 subscription for Sky even though she has not used their services for 9 months. They even tried to charge her £16.95 cancellation fee as she was halfway through this month. They ‘did her a favor’ waiving this fee (thanks!). I called sky on Saturday and the account is now closed.

My question is: is she entitled to ask for the money she has already paid since she hasn’t been using their services all of this time? Surely they can check her satellite signal to verify that she was now longer using sky?

Carrot007

From SKY? No I do not see what they have done wrong.

Complain to Virgin for not doing what they said they would do. but I doubt they will refund 9 months that was not noticed.

[Deleted User]

Purpleronnie wrote: »

Surely they can check her satellite signal to verify that she was now longer using sky?

Nope, that's not how the system works, and even if they could they were still under no obligation to waive even the part month they did. You really should thank Sky for that.

Purpleronnie

Thanks for the replies guys 👍😁😁

So she doesn’t have a leg to stand on? Even though she has been paying for a service that hasn’t been used??

I thought that there may be something they could do since she was out of contract (forgot to mention that) and they can clearly see she hasn’t used the service?

I know it’s her fault for not checking but surely if you pay monthly for something that you don’t use - and they can prove they haven’t used it - she can claim something back?

[Deleted User]

Purpleronnie wrote: »

So she doesn’t have a leg to stand on? Even though she has been paying for a service that hasn’t been used??

Sky really don't have any responsibility for this. If anyone is to blame it is Virgin for promising to "take care of everything" and your Mother for not checking that she wasn't still being charged.

Purpleronnie wrote: »

they can prove they haven’t used it - she can claim something back?

She can't prove that she hasn't used the Sky service. The satellite signal has no return path and plenty of people use Virgin AND Sky services in tandem with each other. Sky don't know (or care) whether you are actually watching as long as you continue paying.

If you are going to complain, complain to Virgin. However, unless you have it in writing that Virgin would cancel your Mother's Sky services (unlikely since that can only be done by the account holder), she'll just have to accept that she's wasted nine months subscription.

It's no different to signing up to a gym membership and then not going. She is not legally entitled to a refund.

[Deleted User]

Purpleronnie wrote: »

and they can clearly see she hasn’t used the service?

Which bit of 'they can't see if you're using the service' did you not understand?


It's a privacy issue, the only thing they can tell you use is movie purchases for obvious reasons.

macman

Whether she used the service or not is not relevant. The point is that she remained in contract with Sky and had the option of using their service if she wished to.
Did she not cancel the DD once she received what she thought was the final Sky bill? Only she can do that-not Sky.
Two lessons here: 1) check your bank statements monthly and 2) never trust a telcoms salesperson who says that 'they will take care of everything'. They won't.

[Deleted User]

Purpleronnie wrote: »

Surely they can check her satellite signal to verify that she was now longer using sky?

Purpleronnie wrote: »

surely if you pay monthly for something that you don’t use - and they can prove they haven’t used it - she can claim something back?

Saying 'surely' before things that aren't true, doesn't make them true.

Buzby

There is no way Virgin can cancel Satellite services - they never could. They can cancel phone service (as I’m adduming the phone number ported from Sky to Virgin, so worth checking IF the Sky phone charges reduced - if not, then that is a valid complaint. Nobody is ever ‘out of conteact’ It is a misleading term that only means the minimum term is past and no early termination charges will apply.

The onus is always with the customer to ensure suppliers do what is promised.