Sky TV billing confusion

foggy_lad

i got set-up recently with sky after moving house, i went back to sky and they installed the dish and as i am with them over a year at the old address i am now out of contract so can cancel anytime.

the 1st bill was supposed to be €34.79 but because they never sent me a direct debit form they are now charging €5.08 admin charge because of their mistake! they sent a letter asking for payment and giving me 14 days to pay which is up on 14th of march yet today i have received another request for €66.82!

so they have added the admin charge for the 2nd month before the deadline for the 1st payment is up? should i cancel until i get an apology and quarantee they will improve their billing procedures?

anyone else had issues with sky bills??

Sam Vimes

its likely you will get an apology but the chances of one complaint resulting in a complete ovehaul of the billing procedures are basically nil.

what you should do is ask for the erroneous charges to be removed from your bill in a polite, non-threatening way. If they refuse, ask to speak to a manger.

In the highly unlikely event that the manager accepts the error but refuses to remove the erroneous charges, make a formal complaint. If the formal complaint is not dealt with in a reasonable period of time, contact the regulator. Reasonable is determined by the regulator.


Note the lack of a threat anywhere in the procedure

If you want to leave yourself without TV service in the mistaken belief that the multi billion business that is sky will beg you to come back, that's up to yourself

foggy_lad

Sam Vimes wrote: »

its likely you will get an apology but the chances of one complaint resulting in a complete ovehaul of the billing procedures are basically nil.

what you should do is ask for the erroneous charges to be removed from your bill in a polite, non-threatening way. If they refuse, ask to speak to a manger.

In the highly unlikely event that the manager accepts the error but refuses to remove the erroneous charges, make a formal complaint. If the formal complaint is not dealt with in a reasonable period of time, contact the regulator. Reasonable is determined by the regulator.


Note the lack of a threat anywhere in the procedure

If you want to leave yourself without TV service in the mistaken belief that the multi billion business that is sky will beg you to come back, that's up to yourself

i have rang and was told their computer systems were updating so they could not look into my account but if i wanted to waste more money ringing them back later i could, they would not take any details or have anyone look into it and ring me back!

then i rang again and after waiting quite a while i was told i was through to the wrong department and i would have to ring again as sky will not transfer calls within their departments and they would again not take details and get it investigated.

to be honest i will lose nothing if i cancel as they did the installation free, and it was their mistake in not sending me the direct debit form which i requested that has lead to this mess!

also they will lose more customers than me with this level of service and ringing people from witheld numbers just to argue with them!

tbh

whats happening to you sounds very frustrating, but I have to say, the couple of times I've been onto sky, they've been remarkably good - and I have high standards when it comes to customer service. Hopefully you've been unlucky, and the next time you talk to someone they'll be able to sort it out. Let us know how you get on.

rameire

i think sky are useless, although i subscribe to sky, i try not to contact them as it just leaves me fustrated.
when i signed up to them, which i did online, i put in all my details correctly, and they came back with an address which is just not possible, just not possible, this caused the dd mandate to be not sent to me and also the sky card being not sent to me, thankfully they didnt charge me for the time i had nothing, but luckily the postie has a head on him and realises my address, and now 18 months and about 10 phonecalls and 10 letters later telling them of my correct address, guess what, its still at the stupid non existant address,

cgarvey

Sam Vimes wrote: »

If the formal complaint is not dealt with in a reasonable period of time, contact the regulator.

Which regulator?

dahamsta

I used to sing the praises of Sky CS in the past, but I reckon they've gone downhill in a big way in the past couple of years. They're increasingly frustrating to deal with, and the attitude of a minority of them is very reminiscent of the Eircom biddies.

adam

parsi

The old conspiracy against Victor Meldrew aka Foggy Lad is alive and well I see. I think you should get Mrs Foggy lad to sign up for these things and see what problems are encountered.

I've been gone from Sky for around 6 months but generally found their CS to be ok but they could be pushy when cancelling.

Sam Vimes

cgarvey wrote: »

Which regulator?

the broadcasting commission?
http://www.irtc.ie/

i'm not 100% sure who regulates this area tbh. a 5 second google brought them up

foggy_lad

parsi wrote: »

The old conspiracy against Victor Meldrew aka Foggy Lad is alive and well I see. I think you should get Mrs Foggy lad to sign up for these things and see what problems are encountered.

I've been gone from Sky for around 6 months but generally found their CS to be ok but they could be pushy when cancelling.

Conspiracy?? i just said i have had problims with their billing procedures and that their customer care were unhelpful expecting me to ring again and again to resolve a small issue which i'm sure any one of them could fix in a matter of two minutes! have they got no pride in their work?

you're also assuming there is a Mrs foggy_lad, you do not know me so how can you assume anything about my personal situation?

i have been with sky for over a year and have in that time had good contact with sky but now it seems different, they chased me to get me back as a customer after i moved house and i wonder why they bothered arranging a "free installation" if they were going to treat me this way?

cgarvey

Sam Vimes wrote: »

the broadcasting commission?
http://www.irtc.ie/

i'm not 100% sure who regulates this area tbh. a 5 second google brought them up

All a 5-second google brings up is that Sky aren't regulated outside the UK at all, and that their UK regulation is not so straight forward either. Which is why I asked. Me thinks you assume too much of our regulators

themadchef

foggy_lad wrote: »

i have rang and was told their computer systems were updating so they could not look into my account but if i wanted to waste more money ringing them back later i could, they would not take any details or have anyone look into it and ring me back!

then i rang again and after waiting quite a while i was told i was through to the wrong department and i would have to ring again as sky will not transfer calls within their departments and they would again not take details and get it investigated.

to be honest i will lose nothing if i cancel as they did the installation free, and it was their mistake in not sending me the direct debit form which i requested that has lead to this mess!

also they will lose more customers than me with this level of service and ringing people from withheld numbers just to argue with them!

I was on to Sky yesterday too 4 times. "Their computers were down" was what they told me too.

Have to say though, the lady was very nice. I had an engineer out in Nov and the 90 days has expired. The storm blew my dish out of sync and i said i really didnt want to pay the €100 again!

She told me i could have a free engineer call. Wow, really didnt expect to get it. Other calls were to Sky + service. So it's worth voicing your opinions in customer service IMO.

Best of luck

roadruner

I have 5 HD boxes for a while now but last august I started getting letters about the phone lines not being connected to the boxes, this went on for weeks even though I rang them and checked all the connections on each box which were fine
The letters kept arriving which eventually started saying they would cut off the service
So i rang again but this time asked for tech services where the guy checked the lines while I was running around the house like a blue arsed fly checking each box, he finally said they were all fine
He logged the problem and said they would get back to me which they did from the CS department
Apparently they had a computer problem for 8 weeks! but it had been sorted out
The letters stopped, but did I get an apology? Not a sausage and cost a few yo yo's to ring them about a problem which originated on their side
So I ended up paying for their mistake !

Best time to ring them I found is late at night anytime I rang during the day I'd be waiting 10 - 15 minutes for an answer
But in saying that I have found them very pleasant to deal with and useful
But they'd seriously want to practice a bit more interdepartmental communication skills
Departments which I’d imagine are all on the one floor in the same building :rolleyes: