Setanta sports £1 for 2 mths.

NeilB

glastowinebar wrote: »

It's a total scam...they said it would take 28 days for the money to be put back into my account

Now if they do this to thousands of others, then thats a tidy high interest account that they must have and a nice little earner

Yep and imagine how many people would just poke up with the extra £10 just to get rid of them. They just dont realise its going to p people off, word gets around, and their name will be (is in my book) mud and end up unable to compete with the likes of Sky.

BEX94MAT97

Tried to cancel on 31st December, giving the 30 days notice. The guy at the other end offered me 3 months for £5 per month. Decided to accept and have now found that £9.99 has been debited from my bank account. Looks like a painful call to the Newcastle number in the morning. That to this post I've kept ful details of who I spoke to, when and what was agreed, I can also cancel my DD online so the theiving bas*ards can't steal any more money.

BEX94MAT97

Another update. Spoke to cancellations on 31st December but Setanta have no record of my call. They do have a record of a call they claim took place on the 26th January, which I never made or received.

I've cancelled my direct debit, cancelled my service and informed Setanta that they can keep the £9.99 they've misappropriated from me, but I expect that my service will run for the next 30 days.

I suppose three months for £10.99 isn't too bad but I will NEVER consider signing up with them again even if the offered me six months for free.

FunkyFeet

hello i thought an hour ago that i would be coming on here and posting my sorry story too of how they wouldn't let me cancel however after reading the trouble you all have been having on here i took a deep breath, threw out a couple of white lies to setanta customer services tonight and have got a result, my account with them fully cancelled, in fact they wrote off the £10 charge and the 2days i have been over my 3months today which was 66p and yes i was told numerous times that the cancellation dept is closed but i persisted, i completely insisted i must cancel tonight, i also stated i will not pay the £10 connection charge as i was not told about it at time of connection and i told a little white lie!! which was that i was a lawyer and this call is being recorded, lol! ( well i did study law for a while but could not complete my degree due to reasons at the time)

Anyway, I thought i would post my experience so as to urge my fellow mse'rs not to take no for an answer FROM THIS UNPROFESSIONAL AND RUDE COMPANY SETANTA or accept stupid excuses like 'cancellations is closed now, call back tomorrow' 'if you pay the remaining charge only then we will cancel your account' also v.important- take his/her employee number and full name like i have done so.

I called up twice and got hung up on after asking to cancel my subscription, i was absolutely furious the third time i called back it was 10.07pm, was on hold for a while but then when again a scottish young man answered i stated that this call is being recorded as i am a lawyer and im not taking any chances as your colleagues are hanging up on me constantly, he said i wont cut you off but i insisted he tell me his full name which he did immiately then began to tell me that i took my 3 month trial out on 30 October, i cancelled my DD after the £15 was taken and that i owed them £10 connection fee which could not be taken as i cancelled my DD. i told him as i was not told of this at the time i took this out, i will not pay this and no i cannot wait until tomorrow to cancel and also he started telling me i had to give 30 days notice, i again said this is ridiculous as i was also not given this information at the time of signing up therefore i am not giving 30 days notice i would like this done right now and of course i said please, he put me on hold, came back in 3minutes and said just pay me £1.81 and ill just cancel the whole thing for you. Although i was half tempted at this point to just agree, i asked what for? he, without answering said actually i dont think we need that either and asked if he could put me on hold, came back like a minute later and said that he will write off the 66p charge along with the £10 connection charge plus he is going to switch on my setanta and then immediately switch it off so that their system recognises it as a customer cancellation and not a system cancellation, this will mean i will not receive any letters in future demanding cash, i ofcourse agreed to this, said my ThankYou's and just before putting the phone down asked why do so many people have problems cancelling? he just laughed and said its the way this company acts, i have just one thing to say to anyone wanting to subscribe/try their cheap trial at the moment STEER CLEAR OF THIS COMPANY.

hth (i have posted this on the other setanta problems thread too, posting here as it may help someone who misses it there)

sabina1986

I also joined setanta for the 2 months for a £1, but joined using a credit card BIG MISTAKE. Both me and my father joined on this offer and both of us cancelled on the 14th January, both of us have been charged £9.99!

In fact in the end i had to cancel 3 times this is so obviously a SCAM it makes me feel sick!

I want to complain to as many people as possible because the way me, my father and many of you have been treated is quite frankly disgraceful!

Should i be writing to offcom do they regulate setanta?

I am now waiting like many of you to recive a refund!

I just wonder how many other people this has happened to?

Teknophobia

Have just sent this to BBC's Watchdog programme; I suggest everybody experiencing problems with Setanta do the same. I filed this on-line via the Sport, Leisure and Entertainment (Miscellaneous) section here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/consumer/tv_and_radio/watchdog/contact_sport.shtml:

"Took out Setanta's 2 month offer for their Sports channel for £1 back in November. Cancelled subscription on 14 January, as per their terms and conditions. Found that they have since taken £9.99 from my credit card on 28 January. Called them 31st January. The representative I spoke with acknowledged that my account was cancelled in accordance with their T&C's, and would pass my case onto their Head Office. Promised that I would receive contact within 48 hours. No word yet received.

Have 2 friends who also took up this offer and who also find themselves unable to cancel. In one case, they informed my friend that upon cancellation, he had subsequently 'signed' up to their 3 months at £5 per month (cancellation) deal, and has since found a charge for £9.99 on his credit card.

Various forums (moneysavingexpert, digitalspy, etc.) are awash with similar stories of people trying to cancel their Setanta accounts.

They must be brought to justice!"

Teknophobia

Received a phone call from Watchdog. They sound like they are receiving quite a few complaints, so I would imagine it is only a matter of time before Setanta are brought to rights. Watchdog asked me if I would appear on the show; I graciously declined!

I would advise everyone who has been affected by this contact Watchdog at their earliest convenience, as usually it is those people who have their issues resolved immediately when Watchdog get on the case.

Tek

NeilB

Aw, you should have said you'd go on the show!

haythb

look I really don't see why people have such a problem with setanta, I've not had any problems with my own. I feel sorry for the people who work at setanta customer services when they have to deal with irrate customers. There's no need to take out your problems on them, you don't see them shouting and swearing at you when they're having a bad day.

When i've had dealings with setanta they have always been nice and polite and very helpful and they're just trying to do their job. why make it so hard for them? Fair enough setanta "stole your money". Did you ask about or look up their terms and conditions? i was made fully aware of the month in advance, 30 days notice and even of my billing date when i called so i didn't have a single problem. When my viewing went off they were extremely helpful and managed to sort it all out for me and i look foreward to remaining a customer with them for a long time.

So next time you give setanta a call just try and remember it's not the person on the other end of the lines fault that you were charged too much, they're just trying to do their job and help as much as they can. If anyone who uses this forum works in a call centre then maybe they will think about how much they hate it when they have someone yelling abuse at them.

monstermind

Haythb, read the rest of my post, hopefully you will see why I have a problem with Setanta. I work in a callcentre. It's not a good job, it's not well paid and not always easy. I wouldn't call any callcentre and "make it hard for them". Having said that, at work I don't lie to people who call me. Setanta staff do. How is that "trying to help as much as they can"? As regards your comment about the terms and conditions, when I called Setanta I had the terms and conditions in front of me in black and white. I read them to an agent and was told they were wrong.

Teknophobia, well done. I have just registered a similar complaint with Watchdog, hopefully everyone else on here who's fallen foul of these cowboys will do the same. Setanta are crooks!

I foolishly gave Setanta my card details when I took out the special offer subscription, advertised in the Scottish Daily Record - 2 months free, just pay a £1 registration fee. The terms and conditions of the offer clearly stated that provided I called to cancel before 15 January 2008, no other payments would be due. (T&C's, parts 4 and 6 - I kept a copy of the offer)

I called on 13th January to cancel, all seemed to go well, no fuss, and I was assured by the agent who took my call that no payments would be collected from my debit card. But lo and behold, Setanta went ahead and charged my card for £9.99 on 28 January.

I have called Setanta on three occasions since, to resolve this issue, but was given a different version of events on each call. The first agent apologised, said it was an oversight, and that he would "fill out a form" to process a refund.

I wasn't convinced with this, I felt he was fobbing me off. He didn't sound convincing, and he couldn't give a timescale for the refund, so I called again.

The next agent I spoke to said that there was no record of the previous call to Mr Fob-Off, and that the subscription was in fact still active! She said that according to the notes on file, when I had originally called to cancel, I had in fact changed my mind and agreed to keep the service for another 3 months!

I got a bit hot under the collar at this, so she then altered her story and said that oh, hang on a minute, yes, she could now see that cancellation was in fact processed on the 13th.

However, she said that because 30 days notice had to be served, the payment taken on the 28th was due. When I reminded her of the terms and conditions of the offer, she just kept repeating "30 days, 30 days." She put me on hold when I asked to speak to a supervisor, than hung up.

At this point I was still naively willing to believe that the problem here was due to incompetetent or poorly trained call centre staff. After a third call, I'm convinced that Setanta staff are trained or instructed to tell barefaced lies. If the first lie doesn't work, just try another. I have a fair amount of sympathy for callcentre staff, but the next agent I spoke was an antagonistic cow. She gave me FOUR conflicting reasons why the £9.99 was taken from my card!!

1. She initially said, quite matter of factly, that the payment was taken because the subscription was never cancelled, and there was absolutely no record of my call on 13th January. This despite the fact that the two previous agents had acknowledged that I had called on the 13th (even if there was some discrepancy over what took place during the call.)

2. Then she changed her story and said that yes, she could see that I had called on the 13th, but that I certainly hadn't spoken to anyone in the cancellations department!!

3. She changed her story again and said that yes, I had spoken to the correct department, and I had successfully cancelled on the 13th. But she said that I had been called three days later, at 11 o'clock on the 16th and agreed to re-subscribe on a special offer of £5 a month for 3 months. When I told her I was at work at 11am, she told me I was called at 11pm!!

4. When I told her it was illegal to call customers at this time of night (which it surely must be?), she came up with her fourth story, and said that in fact they didn't call me at all, it was I who phoned Setanta at 11pm on the 16th to reinstate my subscription!!

At this point my brain was melting! There was no point staying on the call, she was obviously just making it up as she went along. I gave up and asked her for an address to put my complaints in writing. I'll send it recorded delivery.

Never, never, NEVER deal with this company!!