Moriarty Law - Sky box help

teekay_tk

Hi all
Back in 2019 I had a sky tv connection that no one at home used. When about to move house I intended to cancel it beforehand but forgot. First week into new property I found the sky box in unpacking so gave Sky a call and ended my contract. Once the contract was eneded (while on the call) the Sky rep said they have automatically posted a packaging box to me and I need to put the Sky Box in the package and await collection. At this point I told him I was going to come to my second issue of the day that I have moved house now and no longer have access to the old property that I was renting. They guy said he;s already pressed the button and the package has been sent to the old address. He got my new address on file but wouldn't send me the return packaging to the new address. Anyway, a few months later Sky sold a £100 debt to some debt collectors and they sold it to another and they sold it to another then went a bit quite. So again, during garage clear out I found the sky box, it now being like five years old full of dust I put it in recycling. Same week started to get threating letters from Moriarty Law. The last one is very threatening, and mentions that the next one would be pre-action if I dont respond.

I think here are my options to move forward, can anyone help please. In no way I can afford a CCJ as it's take me long time to get to this point with my credit rating after set of defaults in 2015
1. I call Moriarty law and offer to pay in installments
2. I send them letter to prove the £100 contract has been breached and that a SkyBox was never sent to them (that's being cheeky/taking advantage)
3. Keep ignoring until actually receive pre-action but then they would have added costs to it?

thanks all

sourcrates to tag you in this

Devongardener

Did you have post forwarding set up when you moved?   If so you would have received correspondence about not having returned the box, and subsequent information about the fine being issued for non return.   If you did get all the correspondence, that’s when you could have tried to it collected.  Not sure why you would bin a 3 year old box when you knew it should have been returned.   When you found it again you could have taken action with Sky or the debt company.

fatbelly

Sounds like Moriarty are just running through their standard letters.

It's really not worth anyone's time to take court action on a £100 claim that will get defended, but If you do get a pre-action one you do have to respond. There will be no extra charges. Until then, ignore it.

teekay_tk

Devongardener said:

Did you have post forwarding set up when you moved?   If so you would have received correspondence about not having returned the box, and subsequent information about the fine being issued for non return.   If you did get all the correspondence, that’s when you could have tried to it collected.  Not sure why you would bin a 3 year old box when you knew it should have been returned.   When you found it again you could have taken action with Sky or the debt company.

I didn't set up post forwarding, however, this wasn't by royal mail, I believe they were using Hermes or some other carrier like that. Also from that day onwards they had my new address and all correspondence has been via new address. The collection box was sent to old and they wouldn't send another box to new address as account was now closed.. I was told in no uncertain terms that they couldn't send the collection to new address as the computer said "No". Recycled the sky box because it was taking space, I had no intention or will to negotiate with debit collectors as they don't really  care about back stories. Also, didn't want to acknowledge the debt as I disagree with them that this situation is of my making. 

Anyway thanks for your input.

fatbelly

teekay_tk said:

 I had no intention or will to negotiate with debit collectors as they don't really  care about back stories. Also, didn't want to acknowledge the debt as I disagree with them that this situation is of my making. 

And despite their legal-sounding name that's all they are at this point

sourcrates

That dastardly fiend Moriarty`s computer generated recycle bin fodder gets send out by the skip load.

They have a scary name, and use long words, bright colours and large font in the hope that you will crumble at the sight of it.

In all seriousness, they send out thousands of these kinds of letters, every day, it`s a numbers game they play, if only 10% respond, they have still made money on it.

You may get the odd reminder, but £100 doesn`t buy much of their time, and they will soon move on to someone else.

If they do come good on their threats, as fatbelly says, you have a reasonable defence, so wait and see would be my advice.

peteuk

I think here are my options to move forward, can anyone help please. In no way I can afford a CCJ as it's take me long time to get to this point with my credit rating after set of defaults in 2015
1. I call Moriarty law and offer to pay in installments
2. I send them letter to prove the £100 contract has been breached and that a SkyBox was never sent to them (that's being cheeky/taking advantage)
3. Keep ignoring until actually receive pre-action but then they would have added costs to it?

It is your responsibility to return the box, as it remains property of sky and you would have been informed of this when you cancelled the account.  I agree its a bit stupid sending the package to the old address, something Sky changed for me quite rapidly and they were happy to resend it. 

There was nothing stopping you from contacting them again and saying you’d not received the box and get them to resend it to the correct address.

Check your credit file (for what’s its worth) to see if sky are reporting this, then pay it off which every way you can.  

Graham1982

@teekay_tk:

Here is another option you might want to pursue. Others might say this won't work so await their response.

I used to buy these sky boxes from recycling shops or off of Facebook marketplace and take the hard drives out and use them in computers as a bit of a sideline. There have literally been 100s of these boxes sold in this way. If the box is five years old, I imagine it is the dark blue, curvy one.

I would be tempted to get one of these sky boxes for between 5 and 20 quid, that was the going rate last time I checked, phone Sky again, ask for a return box for my old account and send that back to them.

Alternatively, phone Sky, open a new account with them, they will refuse to send you a new box because they will have record you have an old one (happened to me before). Cancel account within two weeks or whatever the contractual cooling off period is and then they will send you a box to return old box - put box you purchased in there and job done.

When/if they say the box you had doesn't match the serial number of the one sent out to you just play dumb - not your problem it must have been mis-entered by the engineer.

Again this might not work but it might.

teekay_tk

@Graham1982
I tried and called SKY they cannot discuss my account with me because I don't remember my security questions 

Smaru

teekay_tk, has there been a resolution on this ?