Warning - SKY £75 Pay Once Watch Forever problems

Boroseagull

I have been having exactly the same problems with Sky. It came to head yesterday with a very rude, aggressive [Scottish] female on the phone threatening me with further action. I had sent this attached email last Friday & had no response. Having perused the forums today and picked up Murdoch's & others email addresses I sent the attached letter [my I.D removed] & have received this response. What a dreadful company to deal with, they obviously require national newspaper coverage for their marketing strategy.

Dear Derek

Customer Account Number:

Thank you for your email regarding your offer enquiry.

I can confirm that I have cancelled your account on 20/02/2008, in accordance with your instructions and have cleared the balance due.

Should you wish to resume viewing our channels at any time, please contact the email address above and I will be pleased to reinstate your account.

I trust that this information assists.

Kind regards

Jeanette Fleming
Customer Relations

From:
Sent: 15 February 2008 14:08
To: MYSKY
Subject: generalForm

General Enquiry.

First NameDerekSurnameEthertonEmail Addressdetherton@talktalk.netTelephone NumberAddressViewing Card NumberMessage TextAttn Accounts Dept. . Please note, for I am sick of writing to you, that I have NEVER entered into a contract with Sky. I purchased from DSG a NON - CONTRACT, £75 package to enable me to receive Freeview, this came with a 2 mix Sky thing for 6 months. Check your promotions & you will find this - it was recommended on Moneysavingexpert.co.uk. I am not interested & do not intend taking out a contract, I am using the system for the purpose it was sold for - FREEVIEW. I must ask you to stop writing to me "claiming" I have a contract & for money I do not owe. If you fail to heed this warning I will seek publicity that you will not find flattering.


Information in this email including any attachments may be privileged, confidential and is intended exclusively for the addressee. The views expressed may not be official policy, but the personal views of the originator. If you have received it in error, please notify the sender by return e-mail and delete it from your system. You should not reproduce, distribute, store, retransmit, use or disclose its contents to anyone. Please note we reserve the right to monitor all e-mail communication through our internal and external networks. SKY and the SKY marks are trade marks of British Sky Broadcasting Group plc and are used under licence. British Sky Broadcasting Limited (Registration No. 2906991), Sky Interactive Limited (Registration No. 3554332), Sky-In-Home Service Limited (Registration No. 2067075) and Sky Subscribers Services Limited (Registration No. 2340150) are direct or indirect subsidiaries of British Sky Broadcasting Group plc (Registration No. 2247735). All of the companies mentioned in this paragraph are incorporated in England and Wales and share the same registered office at Grant Way, Isleworth, Middlesex TW7 5QD.






20 February 2008


Denise Allan
Head of Operational Finance
Sky Subscribers Services Ltd
PO Box 43
LIVINGSTON
West Lothian
EH54 7DD


Dear Ms Allan

I am in receipt of your letter dated 11 February, copy enclosed, together with photocopies of the service that I purchased outright in July 2007. It is plainly obvious that nobody within your corporation seems to have knowledge of the NO CONTRACT, NO SUBSCRIPTION package that you offered to customers for Freeview use.

Your company has been informed three times in writing, once by telephone and once by email that I do not have and do not wish to have a contract with Sky.

I therefore request you to put an end to the harassment of letters and rude telephone calls emanating from your organisation with immediate effect. Failing this, I will take the matter to a higher authority and seek publicity in national newspapers. An apology on behalf of Sky is awaited.

Yours sincerely




Derek R Etherton

Gavin57

Boroseagul
Well done getting matter resolved.
You should edit your post to remove your email to stop chances of getting spammed.

beachcomber02

I have now paid the £19-00. I am not intimidated by Sky - in fact I see this as a challenge!

Extract from my covering letter.

"Regarding your letter dated 15th February demanding payment of £19-00 and my reply dated 19th February.

This sum plus a post office fee has now been paid. This does not imply my acceptance that the charge is legitimate. The payment has been made purely so the account can be closed and to avoid unpleasantness while I am out of the country.

I expect Sky to look into the matter properly and professionally and have the issue fully resolved by the time that I return towards the middle of March.

I expect you to have informed me by that time, in writing, exactly why you have made the charges or to have made a full refund to me by cheque for the sum of £21-35pence (your bill plus Post Office standard charge).

Initially, I had assumed that the charge was the result of a mistake. I have now found via the Internet that I am not the only Sky “Pay Once Watch Forever” customer to be facing these charges (https://www.moneysavingexpert.com).

Should you have not resolved the matter by the time I return in March I will make complaints through official consumer protection channels, without further correspondence with Sky.


I am not holding my breath on this. I won't be wasting my time arguing with anyone at Sky call centres (which seem to cut me off just as someone answers).

Does anyone know if BBC 'Watchdog' have been made aware of this problem?

Beachcomber........

harz99

Well, 4 weeks have elapsed since I wrote back to Denise Allan in response to the first threatening letter from Sky.
All I have had back until today was a "your refund is on its way to bank account" letter from the Customer Marketing Director which said they have arranged for a £19 refund to be paid straight into my bank account-which as I have never paid the £19 and they don't have any bank or CC details is impossible!
However, the fact that they sent me this "refund" letter indicates that the finance dept. has passed on my Denise Allen letter to Customer Services and something should have been done to rectify the situation.

Todays post turned up not an apology, not an offer of compensation, but a SECOND THREATENING LETTER.

So another letter will be winging it's way to Ms Allen, backed by the threat of legal action if they do not sort this out and compensate me asap.

Alnmouth

:rotfl: :rotfl:

Alnmouth wrote: »

I am a pensioner and now find myself in a similar position. The letters are very intimidating but Sky will not bully me into submission.

Just got a reply from Kimberley at Customer Relations. Profuse appologises were made, no payment neccessary. I knew Sky would come up trumps! Pity I cannot afford their products.

bloodnok

I wrote this a month or so ago
23-01-2008, 10:49 PM #367 bloodnok vbmenu_register("postmenu_8141833", true);
MoneySaving Convert


Join Date: Jul 2005
Post Count: 176
Thanked 19 Times in 14 Posts



My Mums 6 months are up today, so I rang 01506 421702 and got through to India and explained that I'd like them to turn off the mixes and let her just receive the free to air channels only.
The young lady, who was very helpful, said she'd have to transfer me to someone else to get this done.
I was put through to a young man up in Scotland who said "No problem, I'll get it cancelled......Ignore the £19 bill that had arrived for month 7 and we'll drop you a line to let you know that you are now a freesat viewer"
Let hope they keep to their word !!
:j :T :beer: :T :j or will it be :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek:

---

Well it was............ :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek:

and thought it was sorted !!!!!!!!!!!!

What a hope.
A week later I received a bill for £96.52.
I rang Sky and whoopie, got through to Mumbai.
Of course they knew nothing , other than I owed Sky £96.52, as I had broken the contract.(What contract..It says on the box...No contract, No monthly fee)
I asked to speak to a supervisor and spoke to a person named Simon Andrews who seemed to know about the package and again I was told to ignore the bill and I'd hear no more about it.
Another month has gone bye and today I've received another letter saying that my Sky Digital subscription has a minimum term of 12 months etc etc.....followed by
"It is critical that you call us within the next 14 days to settle the outstanding amount on your account. If you do not contact us and settle the account, your debt will be referred to a debt collection agency.
This could adversly affect your credit status and ultimately result in legal action being brought against you.
Oh thank you Rupert !! I love you too !!!
I rang this evening and again got through to a young lady in Mumbai, who again had no idea about the "Pay Once etc".
Again I asked to speak to a Supervisor and spoke this time to Rahul Selvi. I told him I would record our conversation, which he accepted. He told me he was very sorry to have inconvenienced me so much, and to disregard the letter, and he would write a message with my details on the screen saying that I don't owe anything.
Should I put something in writing to Sky, or e-mail them ?
Do any of you have a name and the correct address to write to or an e-mail address and a name that will read and answer me.
I did say to the Supervisor that there were hundreds of disgruntled customers like myself writing on forums like this one and that the proverbial would inevitably hit the fan pretty soon, dragging Sky's caring customer service down with it.
I've already written a letter to guy in the Sunday Mail who investigates scams and rip offs.
Any helpful comments will be gratefully accepted
SKY NEED TO SET UP A DEDICATED LINE FOR ANYONE WITH PROBLEMS WITH THIS PACKAGE.....WITH A FREEPHONE NUMBER !! IF THEY WISH TO SALVAGE ANY GOODWILL BACK FROM US......THE LONG SUFFERING RIPPED OFF CUSTOMER
Any chance that Martin might intervene on our behalf ?
:mad: :mad: :eek: :eek: :mad: :mad:

harz99

bloodnok wrote: »

I wrote this a month or so ago
23-01-2008, 10:49 PM #367 bloodnok vbmenu_register("postmenu_8141833", true);
MoneySaving Convert


Another month has gone bye and today I've received another letter saying that my Sky Digital subscription has a minimum term of 12 months etc etc.....followed by
"It is critical that you call us within the next 14 days to settle the outstanding amount on your account. If you do not contact us and settle the account, your debt will be referred to a debt collection agency.
This could adversly affect your credit status and ultimately result in legal action being brought against you.







Should I put something in writing to Sky, or e-mail them ?
:mad: :mad: :eek: :eek: :mad: :mad:

Same letter as us then. Suggest you write to the person/dept. named on the letter from Sky - Denise Allen?, and send recorded delivery as we have done. There are enough pointers on this site as to what to write. As soon as we get a response it will be posted up here; good luck!

vix2000

just a thought - has anyone contacted watchdog about this, and is there a way to alert Martin to this for his help?

EDIT - Have just contacted watchdog through their contact form on their website with a brief resume of the problem and a link to this thread. Please could you all spare 5 minutes to do the same, as I think only the media (or Martin) is big enough to make sky take note and stop this disgusting situation.

Edit 2 - Have also emailed Martins office through the site to ask his advice so hopefully he might give us some advice. I am aware that, as with me, this is often a gift for elderly parents who can't and shouldn't have to cope with this, and sky should be publicly shamed for this farce.

Edit 3 - OMG have now emailed a link to skys CEO James Murdoch!!!!!! Hope he reads it (fat chance). Another idea - if we all emailed him?
[EMAIL="james.murdoch@bskyb.com"]james.murdoch@bskyb.com[/EMAIL]
worth a try?

littleredhen

:mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad:

i am in same boat except i have added problem that its in my husbands name (for reasons that i won't go into) and although i deal with all the bills etc the people at sky usually don't want to talk to me and it is becoming a challenge to get the time for my husband to do it

however... we received the £19 bill today and when i phoned the guy tried to tell me i had bought the asda 4 month package:mad: :mad: is this big brother watching - we did look at it but it was unavailable so we bought the dixons one - eventually he said i had to write to the correspondance department:rolleyes:
so i think as i don't live that far from livingston i will go and deliver my letter personally to pobox 43 or whatever it is and get hold of a real person when they pick up their mail:rotfl:
please help someone:o

littleredhen

vix - i emailed martins office when we first bought the package as sky were harrassing me for my bank details - the reply i got was to post on the forum as the office received over 400 emails a day - just thought i would let you know - who knows maybe this time they may pick it up as it is kind of 6 months on from when this was recommend on the money saving emails;)