Sky problems - overcharging/mis-selling/poor service etc *WON*

[barrybarry]

Hi I really hope someone can help and it is quite a long story so I hope it's not boring but I'll try and put all the details in.

 

I wanted sky and saw a flyer for "3 for £26.50", including sky+ with free sky+ box, broadband and sky talk telephone. Maybe it was me being naive but I presumed this would be easy and be dealt with as installing one complete package as advertised. How wrong I was.

 

I was first told that the sky+ needed to be installed first and as I live in a block of flats with a communal dish, that this needed to be installed by the local company sky deal with (in cardiff this is city satellite).

 

I phoned them and they said yes this is fine and it could be installed at a cost of £25 and that also it would be £27.50 with current prices not £26.50. This was fine as it was still much cheaper than getting the lines installed/connected with BT.

 

I will also say at this point (to avoid repeating myself) that every single person I spoke to confirmed the overall package I wanted, 3 for £27.50.

 

So they installed everything relatively quickly and I was told that as soon as the sky+ was installed, to phone sky and tell them to turn my phone line on. I already had phone points in my flat (5 to be precise) and they worked as in there was a single tone when you plugged a phone in. However, I was repeatedly told that sky needed to order a BT engineer to come and 'install' the phone line despite my repeated pleas that they were already installed.

 

This date kept being pushed back and back until I complained and they managed to do it faster, albeit 6 weeks after my initial request. Their excuse was they have to work to BT and this causes delays.

 

Lo and behold when the engineer turned up the first thing he said was "you already have phone lines installed!". Obviously I was quite annoyed that no information I gave them was passed on. He plugged in his device to confirm that yes they were 'live', phoned BT and it was switched on. The visit took 5 minutes and I had to take all afternoon off work due to the "any time between 12 and 6" or something and "no we cannot give you an indicator of a more accurate time".

 

I was then told that once the phone line was activated to phone for broadband (starting to get really annoyed now!). So I phoned up and asked for it, again stating that I wanted the package to complete my "3 for £27.50" overall package. I remember the conversation clearly where the rep asked what I used internet for, I said no downloads, just surfing, she said great you can have the free one that comes with paying for phone line. "Is this the one for 3 for £27.50" I asked? "yes".

 

So again, another 3 weeks later it was activated and then the router arrived and everything was fine.

 

However it gets worse when my bill arrived and it was £65!

 

I immediately phoned up and chose the option to speak to billing (think this sounds obvious? So did I) to be told that I was through to the wrong department. I was put through to another department and when I asked whom I was speaking to I was told "Sky talk new customers!" Unbelievable. So I phoned billing back and asked to speak to a supervisor which i was denied until I repeatedly asked.

 

Eventually spoke to a supervisor who advised me that I had been put on broadband unlimited at a cost of £10 a month! We came to the agreement that I would pay the part of the bill minus the broadband coming to £20, 10 for this month and 10 for the future month as the bills are worked out that way apparently. I was told to cancel my direct debit and she would downgrade the broadband, refund the early contract cancellation charge and then wipe off the outstanding £20 on my account. She would also write all this in a note on my account for others to see and understand been as no one had so far written anything about my 3 for 27.50 package on my account. Also quite conveniently I believe, I don't have written confirmation of any of the discussions I have had which I believe is both deliberate and extremely frustrating.

 

I thought this would be fine until I checked once last time the balance of my account on the due date. It was still outstanding saying I had to pay etc.

 

I phoned up again and enquired about it. I was told flat out that only the broadband team could downgrade broadband and I needed to speak to them and tell them to read the notes on my account so I was put through. The boy I spoke to then was rude from the off and when I politely asked him just to read the note he refused until I told him what I wanted. Being a bit sick of explaining it I just asked him to read it all first and then explain but he wouldn't. So I explained again the whole saga and then he amazingly said "I know, I can see that on your notes!" Really think I just got someone on a real off day, but that's not my problem is it!

 

He told me that no one can authorise waiving the early contract termination fee and that if I wanted to go on braodband basic (the free one) I would have to pay £20 connection fee! I said I've never heard or been told of that and he said that unlimited comes with free connection and that's why I haven't paid connection so it was one or the other. I literally couldn't believe it!

 

I asked him if he would pay for something he was mis sold and didn't want and his reply was simply "well it's not about me but I probably wouldn't have got myself in this mess!" As you can guess I am fuming by this point and ask to speak to his manager. He said "that's one warning". Although I hadn't done anything, having worked in a call centre before I saw where this was going. I said "excuse me? I would like to speak to your manager" and he said "right, that's two warnings, bye" and hung up! Unbelievable.

 

So I phoned back billing and just pleaded with them to sort it out. I was told that indeed no one did have authorisation to do what I was told, and in fact the notes were a "request" to management to action. So either it wasn't actually requested or it was, and ignored/refused.

 

I enquired as to whether if it had been refused would it not have been a good idea to notify me and I was told "sir, we have 10 million customers, it's not like we could single out you and contact you!" Exactly I thought, 10 million customers so indeed why would you care about one individual! She also changed her tone when she must have read an updated note from the previous guy 'warning of a highly abusive customer!', he really must have been having a bad day!

 

So as it stands I had to pay the remaining £20 to avoid hassle. I am now completely stuck as to what to do. My bill will be about £40 a month, not good value at all, not what I wanted, with a mis sold broadband package, £60 in phone calls to them, wasted time on emails that don't get answered and letters that have no reply.

 

I have been passed around time after time after time and no one seems to know what they are doing, no one can make decisions, and no one has any empathy at all with my situation because I am just "1 in 10 million".

 

Please please please help me as I have no idea what to do, who to contact or even if it's all my fault or something!

 

I really hope you can help me. I think I have written down all the details but if there is anything else you need to know please ask and I will write it down for you.

 

Many thanks

[tigga_1961]

hi you have an im, hope it helps

[IdaInFife]

Hiya,

 

Ok clear case of the bb sales op adding the wrong package and should have been rectified on your first call.

 

As you have had no joy on the phone best to send email/letter

 

ida x

[barrybarry]

Thanks very much for the advice everyone.

 

Would I be right in thinking that she (it was a female rep) added unlimited to get more "points" or bonus?

[IdaInFife]

you may be

 

ida x

[barrybarry]

great! I knew it!

 

That's just more ammunition for my second email (presuming the 1st one I sent will be totally ignored!)

 

Thanks

[barrybarry]

Ok, got a response and had a phone call.

 

They have refunded the £20 I had to spend on the broadband and downgraded the package down to broadband base which will be free of charge as per normal.

 

I have also been given £17.50 goodwill as a start.

 

Should I just take this or should reasonably ask for more?

 

In effect the refund of 20 is only what I spent anyway, so I've wasted 50-60 on phone calls, and countless hours in time, just to get what I originally asked for so I'm still out of pocket really.

 

Should I ask for more compensation?

 

Or are there any offers of free channels etc I could ask for at the moment?

 

Or is this as good as it'll get so just take their first offer and run!?

 

Many many thanks for all the help so far.

[IdaInFife]

it's up to you

 

if you aren't happy with it then ask for a little more to compensate the calls as as you state this isall you wanted in the first place

 

or accept and just move on

 

Ida x

[barrybarry]

But is it likely that they will budge and agree to a little more?

 

And is there a possibility of free channels or something like that or am I guessing incorrectly?

 

Thanks very much again

[IdaInFife]

re free channels only if they offer it.

 

regarding a little more youcould only ask them and if they say no then no harm done (excuse the pun)

 

ida x

[barrybarry]

They gave me even more!

 

What a result, thanks to everyone who helped, so grateful.

[IdaInFife]

 

ida x