Now TV - scamming the vulnerable?

mzaalam

I've just put in a complaint to Ofcom about this and will be formally complaining through the Now TV customer service channel.  But before anyone else falls for this, here is the scam from Now TV:

1) advertise using 'Now TV' branding a low broadband rate on a 12 month contract (in our case, £24 a month start of April 2023). 
2) 3 months later send en email from 'Sky' with a long email citing market forces etc etc and incerasing the broadband cost by £3.50 a month.  Give 31 days to allow customer to cancel contract and switch.  (in our case my mother missed this email because it looked like spam as she didn't correlate Sky with Now TV.
3) Price is now increased since customer was most likely to miss the email, and is now stuck for another 8-9 months.
4) All the while Now TV continue to advertise low 12 month contracts at £22 or £24 a month - presumably drawing in more suckers to this scam!?

I'm wondering if anyone else has found this or has challenged Now/Sky about this?  I work in IT but becuase I set this up under my mum's email she's the one who got the emails.  Even so I'd have been hard pressed to spot the update email from Sky (not Now TV).  It seems like a really sly and deliberate setup to scam people into paying more than the originally agreed costs for broadband...

oldernonethewiser

mzaalam said:

I've just put in a complaint to Ofcom about this and will be formally complaining through the Now TV customer service channel.  But before anyone else falls for this, here is the scam from Now TV:

1) advertise using 'Now TV' branding a low broadband rate on a 12 month contract (in our case, £24 a month start of April 2023). 
2) 3 months later send en email from 'Sky' with a long email citing market forces etc etc and incerasing the broadband cost by £3.50 a month.  Give 31 days to allow customer to cancel contract and switch.  (in our case my mother missed this email because it looked like spam as she didn't correlate Sky with Now TV.
3) Price is now increased since customer was most likely to miss the email, and is now stuck for another 8-9 months.
4) All the while Now TV continue to advertise low 12 month contracts at £22 or £24 a month - presumably drawing in more suckers to this scam!?

I'm wondering if anyone else has found this or has challenged Now/Sky about this?  I work in IT but becuase I set this up under my mum's email she's the one who got the emails.  Even so I'd have been hard pressed to spot the update email from Sky (not Now TV).  It seems like a really sly and deliberate setup to scam people into paying more than the originally agreed costs for broadband...

So not a scam.

mzaalam

oldernonethewiser said:

So not a scam.

Not sure if you're trolling or not.  Of course it's a scam.  It's a scam if the original intention of the provider was never to honour the original contract.  It's exemplified because a) they slyly increase the costs with a notification under a 'pseudonym' and b) continue to advertise the low rate - which if they truly had to increase costs due to the market they wouldn't be able to offer the lower rate to new customers.  As such it is definitely a scam.  Please take your negativity elsewhere and leave this thread for anyone who wishes to help...

oldernonethewiser

Still not a scam.  Did you check the details of the contract?

That might help

dil1976

• Taken out contract
• Had a email that wasn't read which allowed you to cancel penalty free
• Missed Email

Yet you think this is a scam? They in no way have duped you, actually allowing you to leave penalty free is a good offer.

Clive_Woody

Did she not also get a letter in the post?

https://www.which.co.uk/news/article/now-announces-broadband-price-rises-what-are-your-options-aKVrx9P832XL

Neil_Jones

mzaalam said:

I've just put in a complaint to Ofcom about this and will be formally complaining through the Now TV customer service channel.  But before anyone else falls for this, here is the scam from Now TV:

1) advertise using 'Now TV' branding a low broadband rate on a 12 month contract (in our case, £24 a month start of April 2023). 
2) 3 months later send en email from 'Sky' with a long email citing market forces etc etc and incerasing the broadband cost by £3.50 a month.  Give 31 days to allow customer to cancel contract and switch.  (in our case my mother missed this email because it looked like spam as she didn't correlate Sky with Now TV.
3) Price is now increased since customer was most likely to miss the email, and is now stuck for another 8-9 months.
4) All the while Now TV continue to advertise low 12 month contracts at £22 or £24 a month - presumably drawing in more suckers to this scam!?

I'm wondering if anyone else has found this or has challenged Now/Sky about this?  I work in IT but becuase I set this up under my mum's email she's the one who got the emails.  Even so I'd have been hard pressed to spot the update email from Sky (not Now TV).  It seems like a really sly and deliberate setup to scam people into paying more than the originally agreed costs for broadband...

I see no scam.

1) Now TV, it's always been Now TV, until it was rebranded in 2021 to just Now.  The name is immaterial, it could have been called Monkey Tennis for all the difference it makes.  But £24 would have been the going rate.

2) Yeah, that's what you agreed to when you signed up.  If prices go up you get 30 days notice to move away, if you do not do that then you want to stay.  You say the email It was sent, which is the notification of the price increase and if it gets missed, that's not Now's problem.  Again if you didn't read your T&Cs, that's your problem.

3) See above.

4) On what basis exactly?  It tells you on the website £24 a month for 12 months, prices may vary.  You'll be hard pushed to find a provider at the budget end of the market that will stick to a price for 12 months these days...

I have Now TV.  I get emails from Now.  I can see them and I know they're from Now.

Maybe it would have been more beneficial to use your email address which would have solved part of what you're complaining about and the rest of it sounds like sour grapes if I'm honest.

QrizB

It's a good rule of thumb that if a newspaper headline asks a question, the answer will be "no".

It's also broadly applicable to subjects of posts on internet forums.

mzaalam

That's weird that people are misreading what I've written.  The notice to change the price was not sent by NowTV.  It was sent by 'Sky', which my mother would have no reason to expect any communications from.  It's not a trivial connection for the lay person to assume the communications are linked when there's so much spam running about.

Separately I may be mistaken but prices should only be varied by companies within a contract period if they're doing a wholesale price increase due to market forces.  If they're continuing to sell new contracts at the £22 rate then it makes a mockery of '12 month contract'.  

Shame you guys can't see the scam here but given this is an internet forum I'm guessing you guys can't see the impact this has on lesser IT literate - elderly etc - people.  This company is using these underhanded techniques to basically ensure they never deliver what was originally promised to people.  I've been with lots of other places and haven't noticed these tactics before.  

To be clear the two main things are 1) using a different company name to send the increase notice and 2) increasing the price 1/4 way through contract when continuing to offer low/cheap deals to new customers, thus showing zero intention to honour a 12 month contract at the offered prices.  These are clear ethical malpractices if they're intentionally done - hiding behind weasel word T's and C's that no sane person has the time to read and interpret is not an excuse really.

Farway

The only misreading is by you not seeing the answers you want to see where we all agree you wuz robbed

QrizB

mzaalam said:

Separately I may be mistaken but prices should only be varied by companies within a contract period if they're doing a wholesale price increase due to market forces.  If they're continuing to sell new contracts at the £22 rate then it makes a mockery of '12 month contract'. 

You are mistaken.

Contracts can state any number of reasons for price increases. You are free to accept the contract on those terms, or decline the service.

You might like to read this thread:
https://community.nowtv.com/t5/Account-and-Billing-Broadband/Are-Now-Broadband-Customers-seeing-a-yearly-increase-in-March-or/m-p/573145

According to that thread, NowTV reserve the right to increase prices at any time during a contract, giving you 30 days notice of any price increase and the right to exit the contract at that time.

mzaalam said:

I work in IT but becuase I set this up under my mum's email she's the one who got the emails.

It appears that you agreed to this contract term when you set up the contract on your mum's behalf.