Renewal contract dispute with Sky TV

DavidRossitter

I wanted to make people aware of a situation that I am currently stuck in, plus see if anyone has any further ideas on how to resolve this.

I have used Sky for many years but prices have risen sharply recently to a point that I decided to cancel Sky in June when my contract came to an end.  I gave the months notice and they confirmed all this in an email.  I have no other services so that would have drawn my relationship with Sky to an end.

Towards the end of this month they started contacting me with much improved offer so I decided to stay with them.  After phoning them we agreed the packages I was going to take and they confirmed this in an email.  £36/month for an18 month contract.

All seemed fine but when they took the first payment they charged me £44.

I phoned them up as it looked like a mistake and they told me that £44 was the correct figure and their reason was the "HD option" just rolled out so it didnt appear on the contract paperwork.  I said that given I had initiated cancellation of all services and then renewed, that the paperwork received was the only definition I had of what I have contracted to in my renewal and any suggestion that one part of their offering just rolled along was not a tenable stance to take. 

Unable to resolve this I initiated a complaint - that went unanswered for 3 weeks so I recomplained.

On investigation they tell me that the £44 figure is correct and that is what the agents notes (internal to sky!) say.  I have said that their internal notes are irrelevant as the confirming email is what I thought I have contracted to.  I have asked them to either honour what I have contracted to as per the paperwork or give me a further cooling off period as their documentation sent to me doesnt reflect what they think the situation to be - I would then review and probably decide to leave.

I seem to be going around the same loop with them and they seem very vague as to the stages in their complaints procedure.   I have asked for it to be escalated but it all seems a bit hap hazard.  On the website there is mention of independent arbitration but that seems to be only for specific types of complaint so I dont think this applies to this complaint. 

So i wanted to warn people of this kind of thing going on and also wanted to see if anyone has complained and how they escalated it/managed to resolve it.

Any input appreciated, thanks.

PZ19

My mate agreed £41 on the phone, with Sky Sports at £15 within that.  First bill has it as £25.  They agreed to waive the £20 admin fee.  They haven’t done that either.  First call on Thursday last week to sort it, ended with promise that they would have it all correct by Sunday.  Now on Weds and lo and behold, they haven’t fixed it.  They lied to him twice,

Peppa537

I've had 2 Sky contracts where I've previously been told one thing and it turned out to be something else. First time it was only a few pounds extra a month but I phoned them and they credited my account for the total wrong amount over the length of the contract. The second time I was told my discounts were for 18 months, I specifically checked this, after 5 months I had an email giving warning of a price increase and it turned out although it was an 18 month contract the discounts were only for 6. I raised a complaint and they listened to the phone call I had when agreeing to the deal. They then called me back and I ended up with an even better price and my account credited, the other option was to just end the contract with no penalty charges. If you can get hold of the Sky Executive Responce Group they're usually helpful this is who dealt with my 2nd problem, I emailed Sky explaining everything as a complaint and they got involved and sorted it.
The 2nd problem I had was about 3 years ago though. I'm not sure what they're like at dealing with issues like this now as generally their customer service has gone downhill, So much so that when my current contract ends I shall completely cancel Sky TV, for me it isn't worth the hassle every 18 months. 

brewerdave

I had a similar issue some years ago involving the agreed discount on the Sports pack being removed after a price rise - I had to go via the Exec. Complaints route to get it resolved as the standard Customer Services agents either didn't or wouldn't understand the issue. I actually emailed the then CEO with the complaint and got a call back

PZ19

Here’s a good one, further update to my mates £41 offer, they screwed that right up and guy was trying to sort well he came back with better price but was able to add ultimate back in to take it to £44.  Looked on my sky and his bills were right apart from one month, got onto Sky they said would sort that month. Looked back later and the £44 had risen to £49.  When queried Sky said cos price went up in April.  He only agreed the deal yesterday lunchtime and they claiming your new deal going up cos we put prices up 5 months ago. Comical

DavidRossitter

Thanks for all the comments.  Well having been tearing my hair out it seems I managed to get my issue into a complaints process.  I have just resolved the issue in about 5minutes via a Whatsapp chat with "sky complaints" - they have corrected the bill and are refunding the payments already made.   An extremely helpful and efficient guy called Colin sorted this immediately on looking at the issue.  The key seems to be getting it into this process for anyone facing similar issues.

saajan_12

Had something similar with Virgin a couple of years ago - we agreed a pretty good deal on the phone for £27. Bill comes through as £37. Three long calls later, they escalated to a manager who listened back and agreed to my account of what was offered.

Resolution: They eventually applied a £10 credit to my bill each month for the fixed term. Not perfect, because when the RPI increase came around, that applied to the £37 figure and not to the net £27, so I did lose out a bit, but it tbh it was a pretty good deal for what I was getting and it wasn't worth the extra arguing. Also nothing for the inconvenience of multiple long waits on hold and extra calls to get what we had agreed in the first place. 

So different company, but just an idea what I would expect telecoms companies to do to rectify. 

beantownbertie

I am out of contract with Sky TV this month. Managed to speak to a human being in their cancellations department yesterday and after some haggling agreed on £63.50 per month on a 24 month contract. With a £20.00 renewal charge on top. A few hours later I checked my next three bills which show up as £122, £73 and £73 per month.
I raised a complaint only to be told that they hadn’t kept any notes of my conversation and that the figures quoted (to which I certainly had not agreed) were correct. I have argued that there is a legally binding contract of £63.50 per month over 24 months and that they will be in breach of contract if they do not honour that.
I thought that all conversations with Sky were recorded ?
Any suggestions as to how to break the impasse ?

iniltous

Probably a little late now , but you should have asked for written confirmation ( email or whatever ) why is the first month £122 , even if this included this mysterious £20 ‘renewal’ charge , it’s still more than the £63.50 +£20 you expected , and more than £73 +£20 what they say was agreed ….was any new equipment received to account for the first month being some much more  ? 

TBH , if they won’t budge and you don’t accept the figures, your only real option is to quit .

robrymond

Sky seem to be updating systems in the past month or so and renaming things which has screwed up the discounts. I've had similar issues where it was showing a bill of £107 when we agreed £81. It was passed to management after speaking with retentions again (you need to speak with a British team) and they have after over a week adjusted the bills down to £80.50. 

MarzipanCrumble

And just how do you get to speak to a British Team?

(I have cancelled btw).