Warning - SKY £75 Pay Once Watch Forever problems

geebet

Thanks for that. :beer:
I asked for proof that I had entered a contract for 12 months and now they have changed their mind and cancelled the sub. Hopefully for real this time. I'm now going to try and recover the extra months cost they charged me...

NonGeographicalMan

geebet wrote: »

I asked for proof that I had entered a contract for 12 months and now they have changed their mind and cancelled the sub. Hopefully for real this time. I'm now going to try and recover the extra months cost they charged me...

I suggest that you detail precisely what money you consider they still owe you and also require an email from them confirming that your account has now been desubscribed and that no charges are outstanding to jeremy.darroch@bskyb.com with cc to crsupport@bskyb.com

A written communication by email (make sure to request a read receipt in the email) in that direction will get the required results, whereas the advisers on the customer service phone line cannot be trusted to do anything they have promised to do and constantly lie to Sky customers if they think the company will extract more money from them.:eek::mad:

The_One_2

NGM, have you seen Sky's shift in tactics now - http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/digitaltv/a174377/sky-confirms-freesat-from-sky-card-plans.html

Surprisingly, i got a call from Sky today saying i would receive my card by the end of October, current cards according to the lady were due to be killed in November

Seems like a result, but as usual with Sky.....seeing is believing !!

NonGeographicalMan

The_One wrote: »

NGM, have you seen Sky's shift in tactics now - http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/digitaltv/a174377/sky-confirms-freesat-from-sky-card-plans.html

Surprisingly, i got a call from Sky today saying i would receive my card by the end of October, current cards according to the lady were due to be killed in November

Seems like a result, but as usual with Sky.....seeing is believing !!

I suspect my email to the CEO and directors of Five copied to the Sky top brass pointing out a whole lot of FreesatFromSky customers would be deprived of watching Five's channels in violation of Sky's own Terms and Conditions on the product may have had a few repercussions.

However at the present time on Sky's replacement card website they are still demanding £20 to replace my mother's card even though they claim FreesatFromSky cards will be replaced automatically. But my contention is that Sky don't actually know who most of the Pay Once Watch Forever customers are because they were never set up properly on their database as having this status. I think they in particular will have trouble tracking down any FSFS accounts where the account has been closed after the free trial period. These will just look like normal 12 month customers who have unsubscribed to Sky's database now. So customers will be left to hassle Sky about it and only those who email [EMAIL="jeremy.darroch@bskyb.com"]jeremy.darroch@bskyb.com[/EMAIL] are likely to end up with a new viewing card free of charge.

The below reply I have had from Sky today still does not correlate with the fact that when I enter my mother's card on their replacement card website it is not recognised as being due to get a free replacemen. Her comments that the point is covered in their FAQs on the card replacement website, even though their database quite clearly thinks the card is still not entitled to a free replacement is hardly reassuring

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Original Message

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Subject: Sky Reference 621007024873/KZM
Date: Fri, 28 Aug 2009 15:31:24 +0100
From: CR Support <CRsupport@bskyb.com>

Hi _______

I refer to your email addressed to Jeremy Darroch concerning the cost of replacement viewing cards. I've been asked to respond on Jeremy's behalf and will be personally assisting with your enquiry.

I'm sorry for any misunderstanding over the cost of replacing your Sky viewing card and hope I will be able to clarify matters for you.

I can confirm that all Pay Once watch Forever customers are automatically being mailed free replacement Sky viewing cards irrespective of when the pay Once watch Forever product was purchased. We plan to have completed all card mailings by early October and you should expect to receive a new card sometime before this date.

On sky.com/replacecard we do direct visitors to read the FAQs where we do make it clear that Pay Once Watch Forever customers will automatically be sent a card however do concede that this could be made clearer on the homepage and we'll look to updating this accordingly.

We do aim to provide a high level of customer service and I'm sorry that you feel so let down in this instance.

I hope I've managed to address your concerns however should you require any further assistance please do not hesitate to contact me at the above email address.

Regards

Karen Mackenzie
Service Excellence Consultant
Customer Relations

pimeson

Not surprisingly,I'm having the same issues with Pay Once Watch Forever.

Sky's website checker says I need to pay £20 for a new card and their customer services number has me down as an unsubscribed former Sky customer not as a POWF customer.

When I asked their CS department to simply email me confirming that they are refusing to comply with the terms and conditions of their Pay Once package,they changed tack completely and decided I was entitled to a free card after all.:rolleyes:

I'll believe it when I see it.So I've followed NGM's example and emailed the usual suspects at SKY HQ.

NonGeographicalMan

pimeson wrote: »

Sky's website checker says I need to pay £20 for a new card and their customer services number has me down as an unsubscribed former Sky customer not as a POWF customer.

When I asked their CS department to simply email me confirming that they are refusing to comply with the terms and conditions of their Pay Once package,they changed tack completely and decided I was entitled to a free card after all.:rolleyes:

A sign of the complete and utter shambles or the quite deliberate devious crookedness (take your pick) in operation at Sky over honouring their contractual duties to replace the viewing cards of non subscribing Sky Pay Once Watch Forever is that my mother's account was actually closed down at the end of the 6 free months and 2 Mixes directly as a result of an email to Jeremy Darroch and a response confirming the account closure from one of his Customer Liaison Consultants (a Ms Jacqueline McCue - see below email). So if an account closed in this way was not closed and marked down correctly on their system as being a dormant Sky Pay Once Watch Forever account then what hope that any accounts closed through ordinary phone calls have been marked down correctly as dormant Pay Once Watch Forever accounts or that Sky has any way at all to identify them compared to normal 12 month contracts where the customer has desubscribed?

Sky should know who all the Pay Once Watch Forever customers are as you had to quote a code off a special card in the product box to get the install compared to paying Sky any cash directly. But because the customers were handled by the normal subscription side of the company and not by the FreesatFromSky team they had no idea at all how to properly set these customers on their database as having a different status. This is where all the difficulties with cancelling and not becoming a subscriber on this product then came from. And it is why Sky clearly have no idea who their Pay Once Watch Forever customers who are not paying a subscription are and cannot differentiate them from ordinary paying ex subscription customers.

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Original Message

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Subject: Sky Enq Ref - JAC/36227
Date: Mon, 21 Apr 2008 14:23:38 +0100
From: CR Support <CRsupport@bskyb.com>

Sky Enq Ref - JAC/36227

Dear _______________

Thank you for your email addressed to Jeremy Darroch, which has been passed to me to investigate and respond on his behalf.

I note your comments regarding the Pay Once Watch Forever offer and take this opportunity to confirm the following.

The date that the offer ends on your mother's account is 7 May 2008. I can advise that I have arranged for the cancellation to be actioned without your mother having to contact us, to save any inconvenience. There will no billings applied or letters sent as the balance will be clear and the account cancelled.

I am unable to comment on any other account that may be set up on the same offer. Thank you for taking the time to email us.

Kind regards

Jacqueline McCue
Customer Liaison Consultant

JohnDinton

Has anyone asked Ofcom to order Sky to delay the switch off of the old cards until the problems reported here have been sorted out?

Has anyone asked Channel 5 how it is going to respond to the loss of a large number of viewers who consider that £20 per card is too much to pay to continue watching its three channels? I can't see anything on Channel 5's website about the need to order new cards.

NonGeographicalMan

JohnDinton wrote: »

Has anyone asked Ofcom to order Sky to delay the switch off of the old cards until the problems reported here have been sorted out?

Ofcom have a proven track record of not intervening in response to any individual consumer complaints and instead of only acting in response to industry complaints or on issues that government ministers or government QUANGOs make it clear to Ofcom they deem to be important. So I wouldn't expect any help in that quarter.

Has anyone asked Channel 5 how it is going to respond to the loss of a large number of viewers who consider that £20 per card is too much to pay to continue watching its three channels?

I sent the Chairman and Chief Executive of Five and her fellow directors the below email last Friday. I did also copy in the relevant members of personnel at Ofcom but past history shows they won't even bother reading my email and I will get a message from their email system saying it has been deleted without being read in 6 months time.:eek::mad:

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Original Message

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Subject: Sky Charging Its Freesat Viewers Unfair £20 Fee To Go on Viewing Five's Channels
Date: Thu, 27 Aug 2009 11:14:16 +0100
To: [EMAIL="dawn.airey&#64;five.tvCC"]dawn.airey@five.tvCC[/EMAIL]: [EMAIL="mark.white&#64;five.tv"]mark.white@five.tv[/EMAIL], [EMAIL="geoff.foorde&#64;five.tv"]geoff.foorde@five.tv[/EMAIL], [EMAIL="richard.wolfe&#64;five.tv"]richard.wolfe@five.tv[/EMAIL], [EMAIL="sue.robertson&#64;five.tv"]sue.robertson@five.tv[/EMAIL], [EMAIL="charles.constable&#64;five.tv"]charles.constable@five.tv[/EMAIL], [EMAIL="paul.chinnery&#64;five.tv"]paul.chinnery@five.tv[/EMAIL], [EMAIL="jeremy.darroch&#64;bskyb.com"]jeremy.darroch@bskyb.com[/EMAIL], [EMAIL="andrew.griffith&#64;bskyb.com"]andrew.griffith@bskyb.com[/EMAIL], [EMAIL="robert.fraser&#64;bskyb.com"]robert.fraser@bskyb.com[/EMAIL], [EMAIL="david.scott&#64;digitaluk.co.uk"]david.scott@digitaluk.co.uk[/EMAIL], [EMAIL="barry.cox&#64;digitaluk.co.uk"]barry.cox@digitaluk.co.uk[/EMAIL], [EMAIL="stewart.purvis&#64;ofcom.org.uk"]stewart.purvis@ofcom.org.uk[/EMAIL], [EMAIL="stuart.mcintosh&#64;ofcom.org.uk"]stuart.mcintosh@ofcom.org.uk[/EMAIL], [EMAIL="peter.culham&#64;ofcom.org.uk"]peter.culham@ofcom.org.uk[/EMAIL], [EMAIL="philip.graf&#64;ofcom.org.uk"]philip.graf@ofcom.org.uk[/EMAIL]

Dear Ms Airey,

Sky Trying to Charge Sky Freesat and Sky Pay Once Watch Forever Viewers Unfair £20 To Go on Viewing Five

I thought you might be interested in the below email to Jeremy Darroch, Chief Executive of Sky, showing the way in which Sky are apparently misadministering their current Viewing Card replacement program by trying to charge Sky Freesat customers a fee to go on viewing one of the five main analogue terrestrial channels - Five (which cannot be received by analogue signal in many parts of the UK including my home address) - via a Sky Digital satellite dish and a Sky Digital approved set top box.

At https://mysky.sky.com/replacecard/get-a-card they state customers with a Freesat product are entitled to a replacement Freesat From Sky viewing card if the product was installed after 1st May 2006 but in their terms and conditions for their Sky Pay Once Watch Forever product installed at my mother's home in November 2007 they said they would replace the viewing card free of charge for the first five years after install. But when you enter the viewing card number on their card replacement website for non subscribing Sky viewers it then says a £20 fee is now due. This is because Sky clearly failed to code any of their Pay Once Watch Forever Customers who did not take up their pay tv subscription offer correctly on their database as being FreesatFromSky customers.

The bottom line is that several hundred thousand Sky box viewers of Five's three channels (Five, Five US and Fiver) are likely to lose their viewing of those channels on 1st October 2009 and that Sky is trying to charge £20 per head to go on using a service that they sold as being "Freesat From Sky" or "Pay Once Watch Forever" and I do not see how the concept of Freesat can involve occasional fees to continue viewing via what is otherwise fully functional viewing equipment. I would also note that I believe that the £20 fee to replace the card to be above Sky's administrative costs in issuing the replacement card (perhaps £5 at most if done through a website) and a further attempt to make a profit on their part from a product that they sold to customers as being Freesat.

Given that this situation impacts substantially only on Five and its customer base I would have thought that you and your colleagues might choose to take an interest in discussing it with Sky. At the very least Sky should be forced to extend the date for card deactivation beyond 30th September 2009 and Five should issue some sort of public statement about how its Freesat viewers via a Sky Digibox are expected to go on viewing. Or does Sky and/or Five simply expect them to go and buy a Freesat from the BBC and ITV where they will never be subjected to any more occasional or iniquitous fees by Sky to continue watching what Sky laughingly call FreesatFromSky.

Personally I would have thought that Five should also consider issuing these replacement cards to customers itself and paying Sky's card issuing cost if it does not wish to lose a substantial number of FTA viewers of its three television channels from 1st October 2009.

I look forward to your comments.

Regards,

rabialiones

just phoned to cancel, after a lengthy argument girl finally agreed that i did not have a contract and she would cancel my account.
hope i do not come against any more problems!
hope i still get a card though, if not will my box be useless?

Ypaymore

According to this site http://www.skyviewinghelp.com/ they will automatically send you a new viewing card.

"Who will receive a new Sky viewing card?

We'll be replacing all Pay TV providers' viewing cards. Plus, Pay Once Watch Forever and Digital SwitchOver (DSO) Help Scheme customers will also be automatically mailed cards.