£50 activation fee. Even though I cancelled within 14 days.

[Marion11]

I've been billed a £50 activation fee for an upgrade. Even though I cancelled the upgrade within 14 days of selecting the upgrade. And even though I cancelled before the agreed activation date was supposed to take place. Is this legal for Sky to bill me inside their 'cooling off' period of 31 days. And in this case it's inside the 14 days statutory 'cooling off' period?

The virtual assistant wont put me through to an online operator and the helplines operator say they can't help me. So this sounds dodgy to me.

[peter-marlow+1966]

Ring sky, when it  gets to  the bit where it says we  have sent you a link and would  you like to use  it say no you will be put through  to an advisor 

[Marion11]

@peter-marlow+1966

Thanks for your reply Peter, appreciated. I've contacted Sky. The telephone operator said he couldn't help as he wasn't allowed to authorised refunds. So it's not clear how I recoup this money? I just wondered if this has happened to anyone else? It seems like a delibarate ploy to make it as hard as possible for people to recoup their falsely billed Activation fees (mine is £50) I might be paranoid but it feels like Sky are hoping I just give up and that I write off the £50. But if this policy is common practice then Sky could be falsely making tens or (even hundreds of millions of pounds) in profit.

Anyway, luckily I have a transcript of the cancellation conversation that I made within the 14 day cooling of period – I'm pretty clear in that transcript I want to cancel and I'm inside the 14 day cooling off period. So I guess I'll need to make an official complaint (I'll also need to figure how to do that as it's not clear on the website - the telephone operator couldn't put me through to do that on the phone). Plus I guess I can see if Ofcom are interested in such minor matters. Maybe, for now, this can just be a warning to others to be careful and to check their bills carefully. 

[Marion11]

Thanks Peter or your response, it's appreciated. I replied earlier but it looks like it's been removed, or perhps it was sent as a DM only.

Actually I called and got through to a real human operator, which was good as the Virtual assistant wouldn't allow me to get through to an online human. Anyway the upshot is the telephone advisor told me he can't give refunds or authorise refunds over the phone. This is frustrating because if a human on the phone can't refund the money (according to the Sky operator I spoke to, anyway)...and the virtual assistant can't put me through to a human computer operator then it's going to be pretty hard to get my money back.

Has anyone else experienced this problem? Basically Sky just don't want to seem to engage and they put me throught to a community of fellow customors to sort it out. I can't help but feel ths is a delibarate ploy on Sky's behalf to make it really difficult to get a refund. Anyway, I'll continue to post and write stuff, some body somewhere must exist. I'll try Sky customer comlaints next, the Ofcom (though, I don't expert much from them to be honest).

[Kelsingra]

Hey @Marion11 

Sorry to hear that you had such a bad experience with Sky.

 If you wish, you can take a look at the sky.com article about how to make a complaint:

https://www.sky.com/help/articles/how-to-make-a-complaint

I hope the issue will be resolved for you soon!

[Marion11]

Thanks Kelsinga, that looks like a good link.

I'll contact one of those options and see if I can find someone to give the refund or explain why cancelling within the 14 day 'cooling off' still results in a £50 activation fee. I'll post back here once I know the outcome. Thanks again for now.

[Chrisee]

@Marion11 it sounds like a mistake thst needs sorting but follow the complaint route @Kelsingra posted. Sky are pretty good at sorting issues like this but it needs routing to the rightteam who can authorise refunds the formal complaint is the quickest way to get that done. Give thecdate of the cancellation call as Sky hold recordings of all calls.

[Marion11]

Just an update on this thread. I've followed the links that Kelsingra kindly provided.

There are a number of options telephoning, writing a letter by post, emailing and an online chat service. The chat service say the opening times are "Opening hours: Mon-Sun 08:30-19:30" but it's currently 'unavailable' even though its 13:20. Since I've telephoned already and waited in various queues but was told they can't sort it over the phone or give refunds over the phone. I've decided I'll wait till later and see if the chat function becomes 'available' agian. I'll if still unavailable I'll call again.....then if they still wont help I'll write the email option, if that doesn't work I'll write the old fashioned way.

[Marion11]

Great, got through to a guy called Marc on the online chat service. He agreed immediately that the £50 activation fee was an error. He agreed to change it. Told me it would be fixed by the time the next bill is due. And I got to save a transcript of the conversation as proof, should the bill not be changed. What a palaver though, and it was so difficult to get to the human being that could rectify this. My advixe is to use the chat options - mainly because you can save the transcript and see clearly what was offered and what was agreed and when. Using the telephone operator take ages to get through, you don't have a record of what was agreed, therefore Sky can dispute what was said and agreed. And often when it comes to the refund bit the operator says they aren't qualified to activate refunds anyway are your told to call or email someone else. So boooooooo to Sky from me. BUT many thanks to Marc, who is a Sky operative after all and thanks too to Kesingra for finding the links to the operators who are human and can fix stuff.

[Marion11]

Bad news. I've now been sent an email with a bill for £454.75 for early termination charges! This can't be right? So just to recap. I was out of contract with Sky. Upgraded to a new offer but cancelled within the 14 days statutory 'cooling off period' and before the agreed activation date – when I discovered my 'future' bill didn't meet the advertised offer. So in theory I shouldn't be in any contract with sky at all as it had lapsed many months before. I've now moved to Virgin and that's gone live but have instead been sent a bill from Sky for the £454.75 early leaving bill. I have transcripts of online discussions where I clearly state I want to cancel the upgrade and revert to my non-contract status.

Some potential good news could be that this £454.75 doesn't show up on my account at Sky.com, it's just an email sent from a sky auto generated email address that I'm not allowed to reply to. I 'think' this is an error from an automated billing email BUT will now need to go online again and find a human to make sure. So will post back depending on what response I get....I hope it's Marc again as he seemed reasonable.

[JimM1]

@Marion11 You should pursue this to be sure that it is cleared up. you dont want this to end up in a debt collectors hands which will lead to all kinds of issues...

[Marion11]

Ok, Immediately there's another problem. If I use the link Kelsingha kindly provided above to raise a complaint the online chat service is switched off and unavailable. This seems to happen when I'm signed in to my Sky account. If I log off I can see the 'online chat' option changes and becomes green and is available again. But asks me to sign in to raise a complaint....which then makes it unavailable again! It's a bit like that book 'Catch-22'. This also happened at the weekend and I can't remember how I got round it. But I will log out of all accounts and try a completely new browser and see if that works. This is hellish.

[Marion11]

OK, logging into a new browser doesn't seem to work either.

@JimM1Yes, I'm hoping to persue this as although it seemed to be all sorted out amicably at the weekend –– the £454 email is of course a BIG worry

I'm not sure why the online messaging service wont work anymore. It's possible because techincally I'm now with Virgin, perhaps Sky wont let me make a complaint via my Sky account? But I can login to my sky account and see 'future bills' which details the amount I owe up until my switch over date to Virgin (20 Feb 2024). This 'future bill' section has no mention of the £454 leaving charge? This whole process has been a nightmare to try to get in touch with a human being. I have previously telephoned and successfully got through to a human BUT they couldn't help me ( said they can't give refunds or change bills) and suggested I write instead. The online chat is a good option for me because you can save transcripts of exactly what was said and agreed. Which is not something that is available over the telephone. Anyway, this happened at the weekend too and I logged in later and it worked so I will calm down a bit and try again later as I'm now in a very bad mood. Many thanks for your response though:)

Marion.

[Marion11]

Finally got through to an online chat. A nice man called Robert confirmed that no £454 leaving charge was due. He told me he will contact the Team that sent the email and tell them it was an error.

The email was sent from 'The Sky Team' with a message that you can't reply to this email as the mail box isn't monitered. Quite rediculous really that they can send out bills from an annoymous source with no right to reply.

Anyway, Robert assured me the fee would be cancelled/remove and not come out of my account. Many Thanks to Robert for sorting it out.

Again I've got chat transcripts of all conversations, so my advice is to always try and get those if you can. Otherewise you'll have a hell of a job explaining the whole palaver to a new Sky operator everytime you telephone.

I will keep an eye out for anymore hidden demands for cash and report back here if anything else comes through.

[JimM1]

@Marion11 That is the correct way to deal with it, and it is frustrating. Never is anything made easy.