Sky & Statements

[puzz1ed1]

Hope this is the right section to post this in (am sure mods will move if not) - been getting into a debate with Sky and their statements/invoices and DD charges etc.

 

As I think has been discussed on here before, non-DD customers get a £4 invoice admin charge on their bill, at the top of which is printed "statement". I've had these charges refunded quickly by emailing them, though arrogant CSR on phone stood his ground.

 

If paying by DD, however, Sky do not post anything to you at all - though they have in the past said that monthly statements can be posted out if requested (they reckon they're eco-friendly yet send loads of other letters out unnecessarily, often with a reply envelope too, and then there's that awful magazine they waste our money on, but I digress).

 

As a result of this, when there is a DD on my account the only way to view my bill and thus know how much money they will be taking is to visit their website or use Sky Interactive. Sure, normally it is the same amount, but will vary if we use box office, or if a previous payment bounces (oops).

 

My argument with them is that it should not be my responsibility to contact them in order to ascertain how much money they will be collecting by DD. The CSRs I've spoken to can't grasp the underlying concept in this, and insist that by using interactive I am not contacting them, but my sky box has to dial into their systems (ok, free call but phone not been working so cant in fact do it, but that's not the point) in order to retrieve that information - in effect, therefore, I am having to contact them.

 

Bank have (I think) agreed that Sky have failed to notify me of DD activity, and as such have refunded the charge for last months failed DD on that basis. Sky, however, believe that they are still acting appropriately and within the DD guarantee even though they do not notify me (without me contacting them) of charges and collection date.

 

Before digging a huge hole for myself, has anyone got any thoughts on this? Is it against DD guarantee?

 

Steve

[barracad]

Under the DD guarantee, if the amount to be paid changes, they must notify you 10 working days in advance of the payment being debited - so yes, this is against the DD guarantee in my opinion.

[buzby]

Sky are a law unto themselves. They only folded on the steps of the Court, so don;t expect any favours from them. They do what they do because they CAN, and folk let them do it. The 'Guarantee' is of very limited use, and if you're going to be close to the wire as that DON'T give access to your bank account. You can have no idea what every DDM access you give out is going to do that month, and if one error impacts on all the others, you're NOT covered for that. Revert to paying them the way you want to, and then claim back all those £4 'Invoice' charges, as they never send one, only a Statement! (So they're charging for a service they've not provided).

[artoo]

Hah! good luck I have been trying to get statements from Sky for Months now, they keep promising to send them but they never do. They make up new figures each time I speak to them and are generally entirely clueless. Good luck!

[Rich44]

We had the opposite got call after call after call sometimes 5/6 times a day asking us to setup a DD when we eventually called them to do so they kept telling us their system was down, then they set it up but didnt take any money and then cut us off again calling 5/6 times a day for their screw up.

 

the only plus side is recently they have scrapped the £10 per month for sky+ if you dont have premium channels so our sub is now only £15 per month so imagine not payingg by DD their non-dd charge is nearly 33% of the total bill talk about disproportionate

 

It's also worth emailing james.murdoch@sky.com never hurts to tell the boss what you think

[Simon7685]

Watch this space I will post my story on here tomorrow, I ahve been battling with them for a few weeks now and its turning nasty. But I am going all the way with it including media coverage over their non dd charge, bit late to start now but will post full details tomorrow - it really is worth a read.

Simon

 

Please read new thread:

 

Sky TV and their penalty charge - how far will they go?

[buzby]

The media don't care about the non-DD charges, as they see this as 'acceptable' (and in much the same way Watchdog used to use 0870 numbers for consumer responses). You're heading down a well trodden litigation path, it's just a shame we've to do it at all.