signed up for sky contract without knowing

ws.7

hi all, hope this the correct thread for this post.


i called sky for my partner`s mother Caroline last Wednesday to cancel the service, i had previously done this 2 years ago but was offered a very good deal, i think it was £34? for fibre, line-rental, unlimited calls and the tv entertainment pack in a 18 month contract, as this was in budget she decided to take up that offer.

when i finally spoke to a human, she informed me that Caroline was still in contract, this was a bit of a surprise as it was over 2 years since the 18 month contract, i was then told that Caroline had sighed up for the movie channel last September this had trigged an 18 month contract with everything she was on but at full price, £76 odd a month.

when i asked Caroline if she had spoken to anyone from sky about a new contract she says she did not, it was then that the sky rep in formed me that Caroline had signed up for the movie channel through the sky box.

having never had sky myself i had no idea that you could sign up to a new contract on the sky box itself, Caroline told me that she remembered renting a few movie`s last year, but not agreeing to any contract, it was then that i remembered that the sky box has a pin code and Caroline can never remember it, i informed the sky rep of this but she told me that you didn`t need the pin code or a password to sign-up to a new contract, ( which i think is bonkers ).

it was at this time that i informed the sky rep that among many of the medical things wrong with Caroline, (in the last 3 years 1 of them has been spent hospitalised), she suffers from cataracts, she has had one cataract removed 18 months ago and is awaiting the other cataract opp, in the last 3 years to read anything she has to use a magnifying glass and it is impossible for her to read any text on the TV.

the sky rep informed me that a 31 day cooling off period was in place and if caroline didn`t want the service she could have signed out of it and a letter would have been sent out advising her of this fact, i asked caroline if she had a letter from sky, she said she could`t remember, then the rep told me it was not a letter in the post but an email, the trouble is as i explained to the rep is that caroline can`t see to check her email, (even if she could work out how to use her tablet ).

in the end the rep offered to cancel the movie channel, and this would bring the cost down to £56 a month, i refused as this is still unaffordable to her as since she came out of the hospital Wednesday she has to have careers call 4 times a day and she needs money to pay for this service, that is why we had phoned to cancel sky.

she then told me she would get a manager to call me in 2 days time as the was nothing else she could do for me.


i`ll post the call from the manager next, sorry for the spelling or grammer.

ws.7

following on,

the manager called on friday for 38 mins, half of that time on hold while he was conferring.

after filling him in on the situation, he told me sky had done nothing wrong, but he could offer to cancel the movie package for a cancelation fee of only £30 instead of £60, i refused this generous offer and he told me that he would issue Caroline with a deadlock letter, he told me this would be an email.

1.
my first thing i like to ask is, can you sign-up for a sky contract on an old skyHD box without a pin? the manager insisted that you would need the pin to sign-up on the box, opposite what the first sky rep told me.

2.
the manager told me that sky had done nothing wrong,
i would like to know were does Caroline stand in all this ?
is it worth pursuing this with an ombudsman?
and what happens when she doesn`t pay? she`s not at that stage yet but maybe in 3-4 months.

again sorry for the spelling and grammer.

JJ_Egan

If she does not pay a legitimate contract . Credit record may be trashed for up to six years and debt passed to recovery .


Difficult to understand the post and sequence of events .






Key appears to be a live movie contract . Is that service on the box now ?? have you checked .

[Deleted User]

Thanks for your post OP.

Poor Caroline..

[Deleted User]

ws.7 wrote: »

following on,

the manager called on friday for 38 mins, half of that time on hold while he was conferring.

after filling him in on the situation, he told me sky had done nothing wrong, but he could offer to cancel the movie package for a cancelation fee of only £30 instead of £60, i refused this generous offer and he told me that he would issue Caroline with a deadlock letter, he told me this would be an email.

1.
my first thing i like to ask is, can you sign-up for a sky contract on an old skyHD box without a pin? the manager insisted that you would need the pin to sign-up on the box, opposite what the first sky rep told me.

2.
the manager told me that sky had done nothing wrong,
i would like to know were does Caroline stand in all this ?
is it worth pursuing this with an ombudsman?
and what happens when she doesn`t pay? she`s not at that stage yet but maybe in 3-4 months.

again sorry for the spelling and grammer.

I'm on Sky Q myself but have checked and I have an 'offer' of adding Cinema for either £11pm with a brand new 18 month contract at full price or £19pm with no new contract (therefore keeping me on my current discounted rate) for a rolling monthly Cinema deal. To get to the offer I went to 'Your Account' which does require the PIN even if you've got 'Parental Controls' turned off. I don't know if it requires the PIN again to confirm but I had to enter it at least once to get to that point anyway.

You should be able to check yourself by going to 'Your Account' if that's what it is called on the HD+ box. If you do need the PIN then unfortunately it looks like Caroline has signed up to a new contract and she would have to rely on Sky's goodwill to cancel the whole lot or reduce her to a minimum Entertainment package at anywhere from £11 to £20 a month for 18 months.

If you're managing Carolines affairs to some extent then with her permission I would change the PIN (don't tell her what it is) and turn 'Parental Controls' off. This will allow her to purchase 'Box Office' events (PPV) and rent movies without inputting the PIN. However it does restrict her access to Buy & Keep purchases and of course accessing the 'Your Account' section where you can make changes to the package.

ws.7

JJ_Egan wrote: »

If she does not pay a legitimate contract . Credit record may be trashed for up to six years and debt passed to recovery .


Difficult to understand the post and sequence of events .






Key appears to be a live movie contract . Is that service on the box now ?? have you checked .

hi thanks for your interest,

last September Caroline must have mistakenly signed-up for the movie channel thinking she was renting a movie, she can`t see very well because of cataracts and deteriorating eye site, she can not read any text on her tv screen.


i asked at the top of my post am i posting it in the correct place, am i?

ws.7

Colin_Maybe wrote: »

I'm on Sky Q myself but have checked and I have an 'offer' of adding Cinema for either £11pm with a brand new 18 month contract at full price or £19pm with no new contract (therefore keeping me on my current discounted rate) for a rolling monthly Cinema deal. To get to the offer I went to 'Your Account' which does require the PIN even if you've got 'Parental Controls' turned off. I don't know if it requires the PIN again to confirm but I had to enter it at least once to get to that point anyway.

You should be able to check yourself by going to 'Your Account' if that's what it is called on the HD+ box. If you do need the PIN then unfortunately it looks like Caroline has signed up to a new contract and she would have to rely on Sky's goodwill to cancel the whole lot or reduce her to a minimum Entertainment package at anywhere from £11 to £20 a month for 18 months.

If you're managing Carolines affairs to some extent then with her permission I would change the PIN (don't tell her what it is) and turn 'Parental Controls' off. This will allow her to purchase 'Box Office' events (PPV) and rent movies without inputting the PIN. However it does restrict her access to Buy & Keep purchases and of course accessing the 'Your Account' section where you can make changes to the package.

Thank you very much for the info and advice,

i`ll try what you suggested regarding settings on her HD+ box.

as for sky`s goodwill, i went over what she is having with the manager, he offered to chancel the movie package and nothing else for ONLY £30 cancellation fee.

as it is only £4 a month and the contract has 10 months left,

which= £40 - £30 = £10 ,

so much for sky goodwill

ChrisK....._3

As with any contract the onus is on the provider to evidence its existence so I would ask for a copy of the contract because you don't seem sure there is one. Then you can establish whether you have a position. Paper or verbal they need evidence of the agreement, without which they are going to have to concede

Boohoo

ChrisK..... wrote: »

As with any contract the onus is on the provider to evidence its existence so I would ask for a copy of the contract because you don't seem sure there is one. Then you can establish whether you have a position. Paper or verbal they need evidence of the agreement, without which they are going to have to concede

Would there be a "copy of the contract" if the OP's Caroline purchased this through the Sky box?


There have been a few posters on MSE and over sites i have been on where users have agreed to a 12/18 month contract when they have only been looking at offers on the box or there own sky online account and then they got an email saying thank you for signing up for your new tv or broadband deal when all they are doing is seeing what offers are about.

[Deleted User]

Boohoo wrote: »

Would there be a "copy of the contract" if the OP's Caroline purchased this through the Sky box?


There have been a few posters on MSE and over sites i have been on where users have agreed to a 12/18 month contract when they have only been looking at offers on the box or there own sky online account and then they got an email saying thank you for signing up for your new tv or broadband deal when all they are doing is seeing what offers are about.

That did happen to me not long back online, the agent I spoke to said she'd seen it before. I started getting emails and texts from memory within a couple of hours of just checking what the offers were.

ChrisK....._3

If course, even if the agreement is made by phone, online or in a box, the provider has to be able to point to it, and establish that it is in fact an agreement. You can agree to a contract just by ticking a box and continuing to use a service but this has to be evidenced somewhere, even if it's just small print on their T and Cs

Boohoo wrote: »

Would there be a "copy of the contract" if the OP's Caroline purchased this through the Sky box?


There have been a few posters on MSE and over sites i have been on where users have agreed to a 12/18 month contract when they have only been looking at offers on the box or there own sky online account and then they got an email saying thank you for signing up for your new tv or broadband deal when all they are doing is seeing what offers are about.