Sky failed to notify me of end of contract and I have overpaid £50 as a result. 9 September 2021 at 11:17AM in Phones & TV 10 replies 303 views

Chippy49

On taking out a Sky TV + Sports package in January 2020 I was assured I would be warned a month before the contract expired. This did not happen and I noticed on my July bank statement that the Sky Direct Debit had increased from £45 to £70. I thought it must be a mistake but when this happened again in August I contacted Sky. They refused to refund the over payment of £50. I have today written to their Complaints Department.

I then experienced sharp practice when renewing my contract online as a £4 charge was added for a Netflix subscription I had not selected. Disgraceful attempt at forcing customers to pay extra for unwanted services. The charge was removed by a Sky operative on the phone. They also tried to charge a £30 admin fee for starting a new contract! Also disgraceful and also removed by operative. This company uses it's monopoly on services to fleece the customer as they know there is nowhere else to go if you want specific services.

Neil_Jones

Chippy49 said:

On taking out a Sky TV + Sports package in January 2020 I was assured I would be warned a month before the contract expired. This did not happen and I noticed on my July bank statement that the Sky Direct Debit had increased from £45 to £70. I thought it must be a mistake but when this happened again in August I contacted Sky. They refused to refund the over payment of £50. I have today written to their Complaints Department.

I then experienced sharp practice when renewing my contract online as a £4 charge was added for a Netflix subscription I had not selected. Disgraceful attempt at forcing customers to pay extra for unwanted services. The charge was removed by a Sky operative on the phone. They also tried to charge a £30 admin fee for starting a new contract! Also disgraceful and also removed by operative. This company uses it's monopoly on services to fleece the customer as they know there is nowhere else to go if you want specific services.

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/2021/05/ofcom-warns-sky-tv-over-failure-to-send-end-of-contract-notifica/

Anyway its not particularly difficult to work out your contract ends in June 2021 if you agreed to it in January 2020.  There is also the "Future Bills" section of your online account with Sky which tells you your bills three months in advance.  So you could have found out yourself with three months notice when it was ending.

Re: the Netflix thing, that'll be because you activated it, its a benefit of Q.  The Admin fee isn't new either, but if you phoned them up this can be waived or reduced.  It does not have a monopoly on "services", only on paid satellite TV.  Other TV options are available.  If you don't watch the channels don't pay for them.

Chippy49

Why are you supporting the behaviour of this company? Are you an employee? If they hadn't assured us they would warn us before the end of contract we would have taken the initiative i.e diarised it. The Netflix self activated. It was an unasked for add on, not a benefit, as it was an extra charge. If we "activated" it when selecting the basic Sports package without asking for it and got charged £4 then that's sharp practice by Sky.We already have Netfix.

Neil_Jones

Chippy49 said:

Why are you supporting the behaviour of this company? Are you an employee? If they hadn't assured us they would warn us before the end of contract we would have taken the initiative i.e diarised it. The Netflix self activated. It was an unasked for add on, not a benefit, as it was an extra charge. If we "activated" it when selecting the basic Sports package without asking for it and got charged £4 then that's sharp practice by Sky.We already have Netfix.

So you didn't bother to make your own notes regardless of what the company said they'd do or not do as the case may be.  And it sounds like you didn't bother looking at the My Account section of Sky's website either.  It would have been obvious from the rise in the future bills section that your deal was due to end and you would have had at least two months notice of that.

y3sitsm3

Chippy49 said:

Why are you supporting the behaviour of this company? Are you an employee? If they hadn't assured us they would warn us before the end of contract we would have taken the initiative i.e diarised it. The Netflix self activated. It was an unasked for add on, not a benefit, as it was an extra charge. If we "activated" it when selecting the basic Sports package without asking for it and got charged £4 then that's sharp practice by Sky.We already have Netfix.

Check your spam folder.  I received an email a couple of months before my TV contract was due to expire informing me it was due to expire.

iniltous

TBH, I was unaware that TV services were the same as broadband , and that the provider had to warn you as you came to the end of a discounted period , when I had Sky I effectively overpaid for years , but that was my own fault, I knew that pretty much an identical package was available for £10-£15 per month less ( it didn’t have kids tv or music but that would have been no loss ) but it was  my own laziness and inertia not Sky  , having said that, they never contacted me about it ( being on a legacy package ) and when I eventually called to cancel the entire thing, they offered the ‘new’ package , and tried to convince me it was saving me money £15 ( which it was ) and would be ‘mad’ not to take it, unfortunately for them I saved even more by cancelling the whole thing and truthfully can say I haven’t missed it at all

Chippy49

Sky customers should check now if they are overpaying for their TV package, after the firm admitted it hasn’t been sending out end-of-contract notifications despite the regulator Ofcom insisting it should have been.

Ofcom says telecoms firms must warn customers when contracts are due to end

"www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/2021/05/ofcom-warns-sky-tv-over-failure-to-send-end-of-contract-notifica/"

I rest my case.

prowla

FYI, I tend to download my Sky bill every month and take a glance at next month's while I'm there ("Future Bills" shows the next 3 months estimates).

onomatopoeia99

Chippy49 said:

 Are you an employee? 

killfile for you

Neil_Jones

I don't believe in blocking/ignoring users, sometimes its more fun to watch them dig their own hole.

giraffe69

Ah! The " are you an employee" comment. Happy days!