Warning - SKY £75 Pay Once Watch Forever problems

muddy_fox

Update for anyone recieving demands from Intrum Justitia:

Contact them on 01789 415181 rather than the 0870 number

Then send all relevant correspondence and a covering letter to:

PO Box 7182, Harlow, CM19 5WF

They will then complain to Sky that they are receiving inappropriate referrals.

muddy_fox

Further update. The james.murdoch@bskyb.com had a rapid response 2 days after I complained with this:

Dear Sir/Madam,

I am writing to you as a last resort. 6 months ago I signed up to the 'Pay Once Watch Forever' package that was heavily advertised. This included a trial period of two mix packages, which it would then be up to me to cancel. After being unimpressed with customer services I cancelled well before the end of my trial package and was assured by the Call Centre Operative that my account had reverted to the Free view package and that no money would be owing.

Imagine my surprise, if you will when the following month a letter arrived demanding payment for a subscription package that I was not benefiting from and had not contracted into. After a further lengthy phone call to your call centres, queuing for over an hour to have my call even answered. I was assured that there had been a mistake, that the records had been amended and there was nothing to pay. I believed everything had been resolved, but no.

Your incompetent Customer Service team then sent a further threatening letter demanding payment or legal action. Once again I phoned your number, queued to talk to a human being and was again assured that there was nothing to pay.

I am furious to find this morning that my non-existent 'debt' has been referred to Intrum Justitia, a debt collection agency. As I signed up for the 'Pay Once, Watch Forever' Free view scheme I in fact owe you nothing.

I must now request that you cease writing to me 'claiming' that I have a contract and owe you money. If you fail to heed this polite request I will be forced to take this to Trading Standards and seek publicity for this shameful scam at scaring people into paying you for a full Sky Subscription.

I have now sent a copy of the response e-mail to Intrum Justitia to prove that they can take this wrongful referral up with Sky.

Hopefully this will be the end of my dealings with this shower of a company. I will of course be contacting Consumer Direct, Watchdog and Trading Standards to register my concerns.

Something needs to be done about their bullying tactics, I felt sick and scared when I got the letter from the debt collectors, just imagine how a more vulnerable person would have felt.

@Cat

Please could someone help me, I can't read through everything as I'm disabled.
Is it safe to order Sky Pay Once Watch Forever as long as I cancel 30 days in advance of the end of the free trial? Or would it be best to pay £146.81 for Free Sat and I shouldn't get any problems? Thankyou very much.

muddy_fox

Personally I'd steer well clear and wish I'd read this thread before purchasing, the general problem that still hasn't been resolved is that even when you sign up to the Pay Once Watch Forever package you get entered on the system as a normal customer. Thus when you cancel (and I did this well in advance of the trial period end) you get marked as someone breaching contract and thus owing them money. It seems that despite hours of calls to their callcentre they still refer you for non-payment to their unfriendly debt collection agency.

So in summary to avoid the hassle and fear I'd look elsewhere and probably opt for Freesat. Unless you have the persistence to keep calling, writing and e-mailing them to correct their records.

Hope that helps

Oh and in an update I have had a general response to Consumer Direct with some advice on dealing with Intrum Justitia and saying they will refer my concerns to Trading Standards. Doubt anything will come of it, but you never know.

Jo-anneFeesey

Just to update you, I have received the following e-mail, having followed the advice on this forum:-

"Thanks for your email addressed to James Murdoch and Jeremy Darroch concerning the problems you’ve experienced with your installation and offer. I’ve been asked to respond on their behalf and will be personally dealing with your enquiry.

Regrettably, I was unable to speak to you this afternoon when I called to discuss your email. However, I have left a voice mail message on your mobile answer service to let you know I had called.

I was concerned to learn about the problems you've experienced with your installation and also when contacting us regarding your Pay Once Watch Forever Offer. Therefore, I welcome this opportunity to offer you my full assistance Mrs Feesey.

On checking your account I note your viewing is due to cancel on 14 February 2009. As a goodwill gesture to you in relation to the problems you have encountered, I have applied sufficient credit to your account to cover the cost of your chosen 4 mix pack until this date. Please enjoy this viewing with my compliments.

Please be assured no further charges will be applied to your account, unless of course you have booked and viewed any Box Office Movies prior to your account being cancelled.

We want all our customers to get the best service possible and I’m sorry that in this instance we failed to live up to this goal. If ever you would like to reconsider your decision to cancel and have your viewing reinstated in the future, please call our customer services team on 08442 414141 as we would be delighted to welcome you back.

I hope my response has addressed the issues you have raised Mrs Feesey. I would also like to take this opportunity to offer my further most sincere apologies for the inconvenience you have experienced. Should you wish to discuss matters further with me, please do not hesitate to contact me at the above email address with a day time contact number and I will gladly call you. My hours of work are 8.30am to 5pm Monday to Friday.

Yours sincerely

Karen Bromby
Service Excellence Consultant
Customer Relations"

I shall wait to see if they finally keep to their word!
This e-mail came from [EMAIL="CRsupport@bskyb.com"]CRsupport@bskyb.com[/EMAIL] - in case you need it.

If I ever decide to move again I will, most definately, opt for anyone other than Sky as the savings that you get with their Pay Once Watch Forever option just isn't worth the headache you get by trying to cancel!

NonGeographicalMan

@Cat wrote: »

Is it safe to order Sky Pay Once Watch Forever as long as I cancel 30 days in advance of the end of the free trial? Or would it be best to pay £146.81 for Free Sat and I shouldn't get any problems? Thankyou very much.

No at this stage in the game and in your position wanting to avoid any stress I would completely avoid Sky's lousy Freesat product and choose from one of the options available from BBC/ITV Freesat at https://www.freesat.co.uk

Prices start at about £129 with installation from retailers such as https://www.argos.co.uk for the standard basic box and dish, although you may want to consider going for the Humax PVR with hard drive recorder if you have an HD television and want an HD television recorder and receiver but with none of the ongoing subscription liability of Sky HD.:T

The full priced FreesatFromSky cannot be recommended as it is more expensive than BBC/ITV Freesat (https://www.freesat.co.uk) but much worse as your EPG is cluttered up with all those subscription channels you can't actually watch but that Sky wants to remind you that you could be subscribing to.

Mancunian

UPDATE: I got offered 1 mths free viewing via the CRSupport email address.

Asked for 3 months and got it! hehehe

never accept the 1st offer.

best wishes

The_One_2

Are people who took up recently, having problems cancelling after 4 months ?

Joe65_2

It's reassuring to see NGM on the case.

Having just spent ages venting my spleen about this lot while singing the praises of MSE Forums for highlighting it - the forum won't let me Post (lost the lot).

Suffice to say 'though, if NGM is still advising against it, that is good enough for me.

NGM has a long and distinguished background in such matters, and his advice should not be ignored lightly.

Mancunian

got this today:-

From: Field Intelligence <FieldIntelligence@bskyb.com>
Subject: BSkyB Customer Relations
To: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Friday, 27 March, 2009, 12:47 PM

Sky Customer Feedback Survey

Dear xxxxxxxxxxxx

We are aware you have been in contact with BSkyB recently as a result of a complaint.

We would appreciate your help, by answering some questions, to improve the way we deal with customer complaints and to help us to prevent these problems from arising in future.

To help us identify the appropriate area of the business who dealt with your enquiry please update the details below within the survey:

Reference code – (update at Q21) SEC

Account number – (update at Q22) your account number


To access the survey, please click here or copy and paste the following into your browser address bar: http://www.fieldintelligence.co.uk/0471

Yours sincerely,

Field Intelligence

---

can't see why anyone can't fill it in,,,, GO ON ,,,vent your spleen!