Hi Can anybody help please.

Many years ago, I had Sky tv but after many years subscribing,I cancelled it.

Just before Christmas 2010, I was called by an agent from Sky, who offered me the service for half price. The woman catagorically stated that there was no contract and that if I was not happy continuing the service, I didn't have to, as there was no bind. After a month, I was unhappy with the usual constant repeats and cancelled my payment. No problem I thought. I had paid my money up front and had had my months viewing .Sky cut me off as expected. End of. Or so I thought.

Several months later, I got a final demand letter for £30. I sent them numerous letters saying that I had not had a second month of viewing and I was not paying. There was no contract written or verbal. They replied stating that I should have told them I was not continuing. I replied saying that absolutely nowhere in the conversation from their agent who called me, was there any mention of being told that I had to contact them if I did not want to continue. They immediately got huffy and sent their "debt" on to a collection company they used at the time...the name escapes me.

I wrote to the debt company and told them this could be solved by listening to the phone conversation I had with the sky agent'

Several weeks later, they wrote back to me and said that they had investigated the matter and as a result, were happy that nothing had been breached and there was l no further action.

A couple of months ago, I had a letter from Sky... "Come back to us" they said "we will wipe off your debt"....Strange, I thought, I have no debt with them. I had no intentions of phoning them on their premium number to remind them of this fact.

Like a dog with a bone, a few days ago, a letter dropped on my mat from a company called Past Due Credit Collections, acting as agents for Sky,demanding payment of £37.49P. However,the letter said, if I wished to reconnect to sky, I could call Skys operator.

I phoned today and told the guy at Past Due Credit Solutions that the matter had been resolved by a previous company acting for Sky.

His reply was "well it may have been resolved by another company but the papers from 2010 were all sent back to Sky and now sky have given it to us to collect the debt."

I told him that he had no chance of getting a penny from me as I owe nothing, the matter was investigated and it was proved that I had broken no contract.

I then got the "your credit will be affected" threat

Who are these people?

More to the point, what the hell are Sky playing at?

If this was not an underhand dirty trick to either try to get me back to subscribe to some stupid overpriced sky package or try to scare the hell out of me, I don't know what is.

How many other vulnerable people are Sky trying this on with.?

It seemed to me that the person who I spoke with at this debt company knew full well this matter had been put to bed by the other company but he was trying it on.

I sincerely hope that any vulnerable person, doesn't have to deal with this.

Anybody have any thoughts or ideas on this ? x

Thread moved to digital services forum.

So you just cancelled the DD and never gave Sky notice you were cancelling? It's in the Terms and Conditions that you need to give them the 30 days notice to cancel, even outside of your minimum term. You may not have much luck with this besides trying to get a gesture of goodwill out of Sky by trying to take it higher up their complaints chain to the head office.

No contract that I've ever seen, be it Sky, Virgin, Mobile Phone, etc, can simply be cancelled by stopping the DD and not actually telling the company, and it baffles me that people continue to think they can do it this way.

Thanks MaxxPower but there are a couple of points here.

Firstly, the buyer should be told the terms and conditions and not assume them.- This never happened,

Confident the conversation was being recorded I asked the agent, after paying for one month by card whether there was a contract and she said no. At no point was I told to phone to cancel. She never said so I didn't ask.She spent 15 mins talking about her Christmas plans.

Secondly. Don't you think there are a few dirty tricks here? The Debt team allocated by Sky at the time - 16 months ago did their investigation and told me there would be no further action.

Out of the blue, I get an "offer" from Sky promising to wipe my " debt" - what "debt? -" if I return to them.

When it is obvious that I am not interested, they get another Debt Company to start threatening me and stating "It was the other company that decided no further action and now Sky have sent all their 2010 stuff back to us to collect"

I don't want any goodwill gesture or anything from Sky.

I am big enough and ugly enough to tell Past Due Credit Solutions where to go, but my concern is, they will start contacting other "debtors" whose matters have been resolved, trying to extort money.

All service comes with terms and conditions and you continued your services with sky under these terms and conditions.

I am with maxx power on this one and cannot see why you would assume that there was no terms connected with this.

Ida x

Remember that this wasn't a new account, you were just re-activating your old account. It's therefore more than reasonable to assume that the previous Terms and Conditions, which you have already been supplied with, would still apply.

When you were told there was no contract, this would have been referring to a minimum term. You're still receiving a service however, and would need to give notice to end this service.

I would also check my credit file if I were you. Sky may have registered a default against you for non-payment. If they haven't, my advice would be to pay what you owe them before they do as it's going to be a lot less hassle than trying to get a default removed later.

Remember, it was only a DCA that said "Oh there is no debt", Sky themselves have never said this from reading your posts. Most likely they probably thought their chances of getting any money were slim so they just wanted to abandon the case and send it back to Sky.

Hi Thanks for your posts.

I am not quite sure about the legality in "assuming". Time and time again in these posts we are told never to assume, yet you say it would be reasonable to assume this was a resurrection of old Terms and Conditions.

My contract ended with Sky ended a year or two before that no problem, hence the Terms and Conditions did too.

All I know is that the agent said this was on a month to month basis. I am absolutely confident NOTHING was said about phoning them to cancel. My Sky TV was switched off by them shortly after the start of the 2nd month anyway.

My concern is this.

How, can a Debt Company, allocated by Sky, investigate and be satisfied that no breach had been made.- I told them to listen to the conversation whereby they would find no mention of Terms and Conditions or phoning to cancel - come back with a No Further Action result, only for Sky send it out to another Debt Company to see if they can have a go with their threats?

Where does it end?

Past Due Credit listen to the conversation, find no breach, send it back to Sky , who then send it to another Debt Company etc etc etc???

Where is the right to reply with Sky without them feeling they have a right to spoil your credit?

What about the fact that Sky tried to get me to sign up, (wiping out the "debt" as they told me.}and when they hear nothing from me, scrape this up again 18 months later after I was told there was no futher action?

A form of blackmail and certainly seems like a breach of something or another!

Even if they demanded a penny I would not send it. You surely cannot NFA something then try it on again

Why not ask Sky for a transcript of the call if possible?

Hi...and thanks guys for your help

I can only assume that they did listen to the transcript as I got this email today.

Thank you for your email.

I understand that you are unhappy about being charged after cancellation of your account.

As you have been charged for january, I am applying a credit of £37.49 on your account.

If you receive any letter regarding overdue of payment from the debt collection agency, inform them that the outstanding balance is been cleared and for more details they can contact Sky.

I hope this information has helped with your enquiry. If you require any further assistance, you can respond to my email.

Kind regards

Pravesh

Sky Help Centre

Just a warning to anybody else who may have had the No Further Action message from a DCA and a subsequent letter from another trying to resurrect a non existant debt.

Interesting. Had another threatening letter from Past Due Credit, re the above saying the usual blurb about impending action.

Under no circumstances am I going to phone them on their pricey phone however many pence per minute number to inform them again what I informed them earlier.

Personally, I think of all the companies I have ever had to deal with, Sky pull the dirtiest tricks ever and seem to be forever trying it on.

Personally, I think of all the companies I have ever had to deal with, Sky pull the dirtiest tricks ever and seem to be forever trying it on.

I still stand by my opinion that Sky haven't pulled any dirty tricks here. You failed to cancel the service, you just cancelled the direct debit.

Even if you had no 'contract', don't you think you would still need to contact the service provider and inform them that you are ending the service? Just because Sky is paid in advance rather than arrears doesn't mean that a missed payment immediately ends the service.

Thanks Maxx. I would think that I would need to be told to cancel the service with Sky.

That is the whole point.

The lady NEVER told me to phone.

Sky have obviously listened to my call.

Would it matter if I was a first timer.????

You know that you have to be told or given written t and c s......I was not.

I was not told it was my old contract being resurrected either.

It was not a missed payment as I had no second month broadcast,

What about the Debt issue?

One debt company say they are satisfied and there is no further action.

Sky ask me to go back.

I refuse and another company come after me saying Sky wants their "debt"

Get chased up and threatened.. For what?

As I said...dog with a bone...you can't threaten somebody when you have told them no further action.

Dirty tricks by Sky in my opinion!