SKY NIGHTMARE

[penym]

I have not been here for a very long time as I now am living in St Lucia and likely to stay
Until next year.
I did not cancel Sky before I left as I had intended to return in early 2020. However, due to the virus I have remained here. I tried to find a way to contact Sky by email or messenger. Neither is a available but I found them on Twitter. I had decided to cancel my direct debit and did so but this has opened a hornets nest. Sky emailed me and told me I must reinstate the direct debit In case I owed them money. I will not do so.I pay £25 per month only for basic TV so there is no big debt. I have contacted them on Twitter and been given conflicting information.They said my daughter could ring them if she has the password and deal with any problem. Then they refused to speak to her. Now I can speak only to a virtual assistant which is honestly quite maddening. I do not want to sit on my mobile phone waiting to speak to them as it would cost nearly £1 per minute.

Legally, is there anything I can do. If I owe them sn extra month I would pay by bank transfer or my daughter would pay them, but this whole thing is very upsetting and surely they cannot force me to start another DD just for £25?

I need advice!

Thank you.

Penym

[monabri]

Post?

[scrumpyjack]

I saw this post on an Avforum

"I had the same hassles a few years back with about an hour of email tennis: "we need to speak to you", "no you don't." "we do", "no you don't".... Eventually I told them I had a speech impediment and couldn't use the phone. Things went quiet for a while and then I got an email from their special needs, disability team apologising profusely, cancelling the account immediately and waiving the "have to pay another 30 days" rule.

Result! (Although I was bricking it a bit that if it turned out that I DID actually have to speak to them I would now have to fake a speech impediment! (I practiced a bit, much to the amusement of my work colleagues))."

[UncleEbenezer]

Sky emailed you.

I wouldn't expect it to work, but did you at least try simply replying to that email? Is there an address for complaints?

The Blight of Our Times seems to be institutions like this, who make themselves very hard to contact. In my experience Virgin Media stands in a league of its own, but right now I'm engaged in minor struggle with both with Southwest Water and O2.

If the problem with phoning is no more fundamental than the cost, why not get yourself a VOIP service that'll get you calls to pretty-much anywhere - certainly including UK - at something under 1p/minute PAYG?

[supremetwo]

They cannot force you so just ignore that Sky reinstate request.

https://www.directdebit.co.uk/DirectDeb ... ments.aspx

Money shouldn't be collected from your account after you have cancelled the Direct Debit and, under the Scheme rules, an organisation would have to obtain your authority to reinstate a cancelled Instruction.

Once you have cancelled a Direct Debit take care to check subsequent bank or building society statements to ensure that no further payments have been collected. That way any error will be identified immediately and steps can be taken quickly to secure a refund.

[richlist]

Thats all very well but if if you owe them money and you don't pay they will iikely instruct debt collectors and the bill will grow rapidly depending on how much effort is expended to recover what is owed.

An active direct debit means your outstanding payment will be made.

[supremetwo]

That's all very well but if if you owe them money and you don't pay they will likely instruct debt collectors and the bill will grow rapidly depending on how much effort is expended to recover what is owed.

An active direct debit means your outstanding payment will be made.

Nothing said by OP about not paying.

It's not uncommon for such as Sky to 'lose' cancellation instructions and continue direct debiting.

£2,597 in this case:-

https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/exp ... h-ill.html

[supremetwo]

I have not been here for a very long time as I now am living in St Lucia and likely to stay
Until next year.
I did not cancel Sky before I left as I had intended to return in early 2020. However, due to the virus I have remained here. I tried to find a way to contact Sky by email or messenger. Neither is a available but I found them on Twitter. I had decided to cancel my direct debit and did so but this has opened a hornets nest. Sky emailed me and told me I must reinstate the direct debit In case I owed them money. I will not do so.I pay £25 per month only for basic TV so there is no big debt. I have contacted them on Twitter and been given conflicting information.They said my daughter could ring them if she has the password and deal with any problem. Then they refused to speak to her. Now I can speak only to a virtual assistant which is honestly quite maddening. I do not want to sit on my mobile phone waiting to speak to them as it would cost nearly £1 per minute.

Legally, is there anything I can do. If I owe them sn extra month I would pay by bank transfer or my daughter would pay them, but this whole thing is very upsetting and surely they cannot force me to start another DD just for £25?

I need advice!

Thank you.

Penym

Try this email:-
mysky@sky.uk

[penym]

Thank you for the reassurance.In fact I decided to share them one month up until January 13th 2021. They took the money. In the end I used the email address in the last reply and told the whole story again. Their behaviour has been nothing short of disgraceful and they should not be allowed to treat customers like this. I am thinking of writing to OfCom about them.Thank you all for your help.

[richlist]

That's all very well but if if you owe them money and you don't pay they will likely instruct debt collectors and the bill will grow rapidly depending on how much effort is expended to recover what is owed.

An active direct debit means your outstanding payment will be made.

Nothing said by OP about not paying.

It's not uncommon for such as Sky to 'lose' cancellation instructions and continue direct debiting.

£2,597 in this case:-

https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/exp ... h-ill.html

You know as well as the rest of us that one example does not make it common practice.

[supremetwo]

That's all very well but if if you owe them money and you don't pay they will likely instruct debt collectors and the bill will grow rapidly depending on how much effort is expended to recover what is owed.

An active direct debit means your outstanding payment will be made.

Nothing said by OP about not paying.

It's not uncommon for such as Sky to 'lose' cancellation instructions and continue direct debiting.

£2,597 in this case:-

https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/exp ... h-ill.html

You know as well as the rest of us that one example does not make it common practice.

There are plenty of other examples plus "It's not uncommon" does not mean 'common practice'.

[penym]

I meant to conclude this saga by telling you my persistence paid off.Sky never did send their own packaging but the caretaker packed the Sky Box and took it to the local depot and that was that!

I hate companies which will not allow you to contact them directly to cancel your subscription.I now have KASPERSKY telling me I will be paying them for total security for a notebook computer that is in London and will not be used until I return....and when that will be only the good lord knows. I want to cancel the subscription but in all the stuff I have read on their website there is no clear explanation of how to do so, so I merely replied to their email tellling me I would be renewing in March to tell them I have no intention of doing that!

Thanks for your help.

Penym

[Mike4]

The only way I was able to get rid of my Sky subscription after multiple failed attempts by phone was to rake a different tack.

I called them and explained I was moving out of the house and I would be delighted to remain as a subscriber, but couldn't see any connection options suitable for a boat. The guy reluctantly explained they could not fit a Sky dish to a boat as it moved around and they would be unable to point it the right way. Consequently they would have to cancel my service.

RESULT!!!!

[UncleEbenezer]

The only way I was able to get rid of my Sky subscription after multiple failed attempts by phone was to rake a different tack.

I called them and explained I was moving out of the house and I would be delighted to remain as a subscriber, but couldn't see any connection options suitable for a boat. The guy reluctantly explained they could not fit a Sky dish to a boat as it moved around and they would be unable to point it the right way. Consequently they would have to cancel my service.

RESULT!!!!

Mike, nice idea, but surely impractical for any of today's worst offenders. It relied on you being able to speak to someone by 'phone!

(and even then you have no clear record of it for if they come after you with debt collectors).

penym: good to hear you're sorted. Hope where you are has been doing better than the nightmare back home!

[richfool]

As a general point, note direct debits can be cancelled with your bank, and through online banking.

I prefer to avoid setting up regular payment authorities through my credit cards, though they tell me they too can cancel such instructions.

[production100]

As a general point, note direct debits can be cancelled with your bank, and through online banking.

I have done this in the past and the debit has still gone through as the companies can set up a direct debit without your confirmation. You then have the aggravation of contacting the bank and telling them that they have paid out on a cancelled direct debit and you want your money back.

So if you do this then check your bank account regularly. Ideally cancel it online and write to the bank with your instruction that you have cancelled it so that if a further payment does go through you can refer to the letter. (or online messaging if your bank has that facility).

Chris

[UncleEbenezer]

BTW, Sunday's Dilbert topical here: https://dilbert.com/strip/2021-01-10

[Mike4]

The only way I was able to get rid of my Sky subscription after multiple failed attempts by phone was to rake a different tack.

I called them and explained I was moving out of the house and I would be delighted to remain as a subscriber, but couldn't see any connection options suitable for a boat. The guy reluctantly explained they could not fit a Sky dish to a boat as it moved around and they would be unable to point it the right way. Consequently they would have to cancel my service.

RESULT!!!!

Mike, nice idea, but surely impractical for any of today's worst offenders. It relied on you being able to speak to someone by 'phone!

But no, the most elegant thing about my solution was when I called, I navigated the menu to the "I'm moving house" department, which obviously needs to be properly manned by normal human beans!

[stevensfo]

BTW, Sunday's Dilbert topical here: https://dilbert.com/strip/2021-01-10

I have never in my life cancelled, or tried to cancel a contract like this by phone or email. I simply write an official letter, send it recorded/registered (whatever they call it these days) and forget about it, ignoring any attempts to call me back. With Sky, I think it was twice a day for a few weeks. I think that I stated in the letter that if they wanted the recorder thingy back, they should send a request in writing. After one year, I threw it away. It worked for Sky, mobile phones, insurances whatever.

Life is really too short to waste time with these people.

Steve