Thread: Sky talk..

I thought that the best way to post this would be to just paste the letter that I sent to Sky with my complaint to them as it explains exactly what's been happening. It's written by my husband.

May 23rd 2009

Dear Sir or Madam,Customer ref no:-

On 27th April 2009, a direct debit payment was taken from my bank account for £121.35. Because this was £16.85 more than I had been informed would be taken from you, there were insufficient funds in the account. Therefore, the payment was returned and incurred a charge of £35 to me, by my bank.

During a telephone conversation with Linda on 3rd April 2009 at 21.02, I had been told in no uncertain terms that the exact amount to be taken out of our account would be £104.50 on 27th April 2009.

I made sure that there would be enough money in our account to cover this payment for £104.50. However, as the amount taken was greater than I was previously advised, there were insufficient funds in there, resulting in payment being returned and bank charges being applied.

I telephoned Sky again on 30th April 2009 at 23.55 and spoke to Lynn. I was advised that the extra £16.85 was for call charges which I was not made aware would be taken on top of the £104.50. I was also advised that Sky would re-attempt to collect payment from my bank account in 14 days, so I made sure to put more money into my bank account to cover the payment.

On 15th May 2009, the payment still had not been taken and the money was still left sitting in our bank account. Then I noticed that our telephone line had been restricted and also our Sky TV package. I again had to telephone Sky. I spoke to Gary, at 17.04 and gave him our bank account details so that he could set up a new direct debit instruction. I am unsure as to why this was.

Meanwhile, my wife made a payment of £50 online. I was assured by Gary that our phone line would be re-activated within 72 hours, and that our Sky TV would be re-activated within 4 hours. Within a couple of hours our Sky TV package ws accessible again.

However, three days passed, and on the 18th May 2009 our phoneline was still restricted. Again, I telephoned Sky and spoke to Michelle, at 19.15 and was assured that our phoneline would be re-connected by the following day.

It was not.

Understandably angered by this point, I telephoned Sky again. This time I spoke to Karen at 13.06 on 20th May 2009. She apologised and told me that the phoneline would definately be reconnected by 6pm that evening.

It was not.

Again, I telephoned Sky. I spoke to Amy at 19.15. I was told that the phone would definately be reconnected by midnight.

It was not.

Very unhappy by now, and questioning weather or not it was really worth it switching to Sky talk in the first place, I telephoned Sky. I spoke to Grace at 11.51 on 21st May. She transferred me straight to another department. I then spoke to Kevin in accounts management, at 11.53.
Kevin advised me that a lot of mistakes had been made on Sky's part and apologised. He advised that I should not have been given a timeframe as to when our phoneline would be reconnected but that he would sort the problem out once and for all.

I do feel that I have been caused a lot of unnecessary inconvenience. I have now been over a week without a phone line and my wife is heavily pregnant and could go into labour at any minute. I have not felt happy about having to go to work leaving her without a telephone.

Although I had a lot of problems with the service that BT provided when I was with them, I am beginning to regret switching to Sky talk. I am, however, been very impressed with the broadband service I have received.

I would like to suggest that in order to resolve this matter, that I am compensated for the time I have been without a telephone service. I also request that the £35 bank charge that I have incurred as a result of your error be credited to my account, or a payment in the form of a cheque be sent to me to cover this charge.

I look forward to hearing from you soon and appreciate your help.

Yours faithfully

Since writing this letter we have had to phone Sky twice. On 28th we spoke to John, who was very helpful and also very angry on our behalf. He assured us that the phone would be reconnected within 72 hours. He e-mailed the I.T. department as apparently the problem was "if 2 reinstatement requests are made within 24 hours of eachother the signal comes back to sky as 'reinstatment reject' (so basically a glitch). When a rejection notice hits Sky's systems, that particular line locks down, and turns into a big 'mess' of information. I.T. then have to go into that system, delete all the detritus, to clear the line and this usually takes 72 hours. Then the line will be free to be re-opened".

Still no phone. Spoke to somebody called Dorothy this evening and she is none the wiser so getting someone to ring us back tomorrow.

Don't know what else to do but it's getting ridiculous. I've made sure all payments are up to date and even made a manual payment of £50 to put the account in credit so that I don't have to worry about the whole direct debit situation if they make another error.

Hi D,

Gary that you spoke to has not followed the correct procs and caused the hassel with then phone line. John has followed up correclty but Dorothy should have advised you exactly when you can use the phone again (hopeing she has reinstated it).

Sky agent cannot give you a complete Breakdown of billing until 13 days before your payment due date and when you spoke to someone on the 03/04 they should have advised it would be for the amount plus any calls. If you have you phoneline plugged in to ur tv then sky active is a good way to check the amounts 10 days beforehand and the same with the website if you use my sky on it.

if you give me a few mins ill recompose and give you an email addy.

Idax

Thanks Ida

due to a few personal info reasons have Pm'd you

but send any emails to jeremy.darroch@bskyb.com

ida x

With thanks to Idainfife, I e-mailed the appropriate person and somebody called yesterday to apologise, and are going to make sure our line is activated within 5-7 days, and after that they are going to contact us to discuss compensation

and to add this should not have happened but glad you have got a way forward, keep me posted.

Liz, calls to sky are free i take it you are on freetime then calls to sky are free within your free period.

ida x

Today we finally had our phone line reactivated!! It's been a month!! Now we're going about seeking compensation.

glad you are up and runnning

ida x

Still got to sort out compensation but they haven't contacted us about it like they said they would. So will have to pursue..