Sky Overcharging on an obsolete package 11 June 2020 at 9:08PM in Phones & TV 10 replies 961 views

garyfindlay

I have been with sky for 12 years, and mostly on a basic package. During Lockdown, my monthly bill went up to £109 a month. I phoned and was told the 2 packages I was on were obsolete. I have been paying over £100 for years. I was offered a new package, new sky Q box, and new router for £39 a month saving £70. I was told it was up to me to phone up for a new deal when I questioned it. I have been paying £70 extra a month with old equipment, and service. Is there anything I can do to get money back from them, or is it lesson learned?

[Deleted User]

Hopefully it's a lesson learned. There won't be any refund for choosing to keep the same package.

Neil_Jones

garyfindlay said:

I have been with sky for 12 years, and mostly on a basic package. During Lockdown, my monthly bill went up to £109 a month. I phoned and was told the 2 packages I was on were obsolete. I have been paying over £100 for years. I was offered a new package, new sky Q box, and new router for £39 a month saving £70. I was told it was up to me to phone up for a new deal when I questioned it. I have been paying £70 extra a month with old equipment, and service. Is there anything I can do to get money back from them, or is it lesson learned?

Well at the risk of sounding blunt, who's fault is that?  This is what apathy does to you.  Packages don't "expire", they just get withdrawn to new customers, this happens all the time.  If you're on the wrong deal that's not Sky's responsibility to sort.

bobstheboy

In this day and age you must shop around for everything, insurance, utilities, phone,broadband, tv. I dread to think what I would be paying pm if I didn't haggle.

iniltous

I recently became an ‘ex’ Sky TV customer, having been a customer continuously since around 1988, in all that time I purchased the kit and paid for the install myself ( twice ) , upgraded the boxes at my own expense apart from one occasion when a Sky HD box I had purchased had gone faulty , and they wanted to charge me for a refurbished replacement , In that case I managed to get a new box , they even sent an engineer out to fit it , and  the only ‘charge’ was a 12 month minimum term., I have to threaten to leave to get that though, they started at a £300 charge , gradually reducing to £60 for a repair visit that would ‘fix’ whatever the problem , to finally,  ‘free’ , as at every special price ( just for me )  I said , no , just cancel it, as I insisted after all that time I deserved what ‘new’ customers were getting as standard.

I was on a legacy package , and the event that made me overcome my customer inertia, and call and cancel was when they advised of a yet another increase of £2 a month to around £35, this for a pretty basic TV package , no HD, no box sets , no movies , no sport, It seemed quite expensive  for watching Simpsons re-runs, but it had been poor value for years and years.

When I called , so got the usual hard core retention team hard sell, and they offered a good deal to stay, the  current equivalent of what I had for £15, new minimum term, may even have been Sky Q , I cannot say for sure  because I wasn’t going to accept any offer, my mind was made up , and I insisted as wanted to leave , and TBH I haven’t missed it at all.
I  don’t blame Sky , and don’t think I was ever  ripped off, I was aware for years that could have negotiated a better deal ( cheaper price ) just for a committing to a minimum term , but never did , and over the many years I probably could have saved many hundreds of ££’s, company’s dream for customers like that, pay by direct debit and don’t notice the gradual increase, or more accurately do notice but do nothing about it, even when that legacy package becomes increasingly poor value, as always, it’s ‘caveat emptor’ 

dcfc67

Take it on the chin as a lesson learnt,

Have a look at all your other outgoings and see if you can lower them

Car insurance
life insurance

buildings/contents

gas/ electric

breakdown cover

and so on.

Use a referral thread or topcashback/quidco and you may get an extra discount

matelodave

You need to review all your accounts, subs, insurances, energy bills etc at least once a year if you want to ensure that you are getting the best deal. You can save £100's if you do

NellyBlake1970

Take a look at the Consumers Rights Act 2015, Section 51; Reasonable price to be paid for a service.  What is a reasonable price is a question of fact.  Therefore, if you are paying (or have been paying) £109 a month for a basic Sky package and you compare this with the cost of their packages, I think you will find that only a minority of Sky customers are being charged such extortionate prices, which strangely seem to be for basic packages, and as such you have a good chance of obtaining a full refund for the period you were overcharged if you take legal action.  

MaryCakes72

Unfortunately, that’s exactly how companies like Sky earn their money. At least you’ve learned a lesson now, always call me do the whole “I’m gonna cancel” spiel!

littleboo

NellyBlake1970 said:

Take a look at the Consumers Rights Act 2015, Section 51; Reasonable price to be paid for a service.  What is a reasonable price is a question of fact.  Therefore, if you are paying (or have been paying) £109 a month for a basic Sky package and you compare this with the cost of their packages, I think you will find that only a minority of Sky customers are being charged such extortionate prices, which strangely seem to be for basic packages, and as such you have a good chance of obtaining a full refund for the period you were overcharged if you take legal action.  

You've missed the part where Section 51 applies "....if the contract does not expressly fix a price". 

JSmithy45AD

littleboo said:

NellyBlake1970 said:

Take a look at the Consumers Rights Act 2015, Section 51; Reasonable price to be paid for a service.  What is a reasonable price is a question of fact.  Therefore, if you are paying (or have been paying) £109 a month for a basic Sky package and you compare this with the cost of their packages, I think you will find that only a minority of Sky customers are being charged such extortionate prices, which strangely seem to be for basic packages, and as such you have a good chance of obtaining a full refund for the period you were overcharged if you take legal action.  

You've missed the part where Section 51 applies "....if the contract does not expressly fix a price". 

Highly suspicious that a brand new poster would reply to another brand new poster and miss out important information.