Sky Cinema - Unwanted or asked for

pdel61

I had sky broadband and TV installed last September in a holiday home. I wasn't there for the installation but a neighbour has the keys and let the engineer in. On his departure he said we had a month of sky cinema free.

Not good practice I know, but hadn't really checked my bills since, even though I thought the Sky one was more than I was expecting, until this week when I finally noticed that I was being charged for Sky cinema.

Contacted sky to ask when this was added and the date they have come back with was the date the system was initially installed. I went back and explained that I wasn't there at the time so could not have signed up and they have just repeated, it was added on such a date through the retail shop.

No idea what the retail shop is, any advice on what to do next.

user1977

Well, how did you order it in the first place?

If you hadn't really checked your bills, had you checked what you had ordered?

Ayr_Rage

The offer WAS probably included in your original order and like all most free trials will continue at full price unless cancelled within the trial period.

Time to dig out that order and the Ts and Cs regarding the cinema offer.

pdel61

This was my original order:

Your Sky TV

 

Sky Signature

 

18 months In-Contract discount

18 months Sky Signature Discounted

 

Ultimate TV Add on

18 months Ultimate TV Add on Discounted

18 months Ultimate TV Add on Discounted

 

Your Sky Broadband and Talk

 

Sky Broadband Superfast

 

18 months In-Contract discount

18 months Broadband Subscription Discounted

When I complained about the sky cinema the forwarded me an email they supposedly sent which said the following:

Summary of changes to your account.

Sky Cinema £19.00

2 months Sky Cinema Subscription Discounted -£19.00

But that change happened at the time the engineer was doing the installation and I was 200 miles away lecturing students.

Ayr_Rage

Seems pretty clear, you must have missed or ignored the email.

TELLIT01

If the neighbour who let the engineer in to do the installation didn't make it clear to the engineer that they didn't have authority to agree to the free trial of Sky Cinema, it would have been added and a leaflet left explaining that there would be charges from the end of the free period unless it was cancelled.  How was the engineer to know that the person who let them in wasn't the property owner?

If you are able to show that Sky Cinema has never been used you may be able to get them to cancel and reimburse as a goodwill gesture.

Olinda99

This is completely unacceptable behavious by Sky and I would definitely complain. I don't believe it is allowed to add things when you haven't specifically ordered them ie just rely on a default cancel them if you don't want them

do a formal complaint and if they don't uphold it then complain further to off-whatever it is. com?

born_again

Olinda99 said:

This is completely unacceptable behavious by Sky and I would definitely complain. I don't believe it is allowed to add things when you haven't specifically ordered them ie just rely on a default cancel them if you don't want them

do a formal complaint and if they don't uphold it then complain further to off-whatever it is. com?

As Op has posted original order & it is mentioned as 2 month free.

Sky have done nothing wrong. 
I'm sorry but not reading your emails, does not pass blame to anyone else.

pdel61

born_again said:

Olinda99 said:

This is completely unacceptable behavious by Sky and I would definitely complain. I don't believe it is allowed to add things when you haven't specifically ordered them ie just rely on a default cancel them if you don't want them

do a formal complaint and if they don't uphold it then complain further to off-whatever it is. com?

As Op has posted original order & it is mentioned as 2 month free.

Sky have done nothing wrong. 
I'm sorry but not reading your emails, does not pass blame to anyone else.

Probably not clear from my postings, but the my original order for Sky did not include Sky cinema at all, that was added 2 months later when the engineer installed. Yes I may have missed the email notifying me of the change to the package on the day the engineer installed it, but it doesn't alter the fact I did not ask for it.

pdel61

Many thanks for all your comments, not what I expected, but it's always good to hear other opinions. My take from the general consensus is:

It doesn't matter what you order from Sky the engineer can add anything they like to it and if you do not notice in time then tough.

Aylesbury_Duck

pdel61 said:

Many thanks for all your comments, not what I expected, but it's always good to hear other opinions. My take from the general consensus is:

It doesn't matter what you order from Sky the engineer can add anything they like to it and if you do not notice in time then tough.

That's not the consensus as I see it.  The consensus seems to be that Sky cannot add anything they like to an order, but there's enough doubt about what actually happened, and honesty about a lack of attention on your part, that it's possible that Sky haven't done anything wrong.

You need to go back over the email history and see exactly what was provided at the time of installation and crucially, whether you agreed to it or not.  Don't rely on what you think happened, check carefully.  If Sky added the free trial without being asked, and if you didn't agree to it when they sent the email confirming it had been added, put in a formal complaint.