topic Re: Sky failure to repay direct debit payment in Account & Billing

Sky failure to repay direct debit payment

Rogers2 — Fri, 31 Oct 2025 14:28:34 GMT

Sky took £67.50 from our bank despite having not taken up new contract and having informed them that we were not renewing our contract (which they offered at £66.50 not £67.50 anyway) with them 6 weeks prior to end of old contract. We had acknowledgement that they had received our emailed instruction to cancel (although actually it wasn't cancelling, just not renewing) and we received a request to return equipment which we did and they acknowledged. After numerous attempts - chat line, emails, we finally got to talk to a Sky representative who reluctantly confirmed that they had made an administrative error and would repay the money. After two weeks no money had been repaid and we sent a recorded delivery letter to their customer complaints dept. We received no reply. After a further two weeks we were forced to resort to sending them a Letter before Action which gave them 14 days to remedy the situation or face it going to court. Again we have no reply.

How many other people who have either correctly cancelled a contract, or declined to renew one had money taken? I'd like to know as this seems not to be a unique case but a money maker for Sky. Why do Sky make it virtually impossible to contact them. Chat lines give insensible answers, phoning them result in hour-long waits and there's no address for you to write to. You can't return their phone calls.

Re: Sky failure to repay direct debit payment

MarkGoldsmith — Fri, 31 Oct 2025 14:52:23 GMT

@Rogers2 wrote:
Sky took £67.50 from our bank despite having not taken up new contract and having informed them that we were not renewing our contract (which they offered at £66.50 not £67.50 anyway) with them 6 weeks prior to end of old contract. We had acknowledgement that they had received our emailed instruction to cancel (although actually it wasn't cancelling, just not renewing) and we received a request to return equipment which we did and they acknowledged. After numerous attempts - chat line, emails, we finally got to talk to a Sky representative who reluctantly confirmed that they had made an administrative error and would repay the money. After two weeks no money had been repaid and we sent a recorded delivery letter to their customer complaints dept. We received no reply. After a further two weeks we were forced to resort to sending them a Letter before Action which gave them 14 days to remedy the situation or face it going to court. Again we have no reply.
How many other people who have either correctly cancelled a contract, or declined to renew one had money taken? I'd like to know as this seems not to be a unique case but a money maker for Sky. Why do Sky make it virtually impossible to contact them. Chat lines give insensible answers, phoning them result in hour-long waits and there's no address for you to write to. You can't return their phone calls.

A couple of points.

You will always overpay your Sky account when you are leaving. This is beacuse regardless of providing cancellation notice, billing continues as normal until your disconnection date, and bills are generated 14 days before payment date, therefore you will almost always certainly end up with a credit in your Sky account.

To be honest when you called customer services and they said they had processed the credit, they should have done, but we have seen other comments on this forum where people have been told the refund had been processed but that had not received it within 3-5 working days ( which is how long it should take).

You mentioned you have raised a complaint with Sky ( which I would say is the correct thing to do if you were told the credit was being returned but it hasn't been processed), however you need to be aware that when a complaint is raised Sky have 8 weeks to respond and rectify the situation before you can take the complaint further.

Re: Sky failure to repay direct debit payment

Rogers2 — Fri, 31 Oct 2025 16:38:01 GMT

Thanks for the information. A couple of points I would raise is that this was NOT a cancellation of a contract for SKY TV but notice that I did not want to accept a new contract (@ £66.50). They had 6 weeks notice that I did not want to enter a new contract. Then they took a payment for £67.50, not even £66.50 from my account. I therefore do not feel I should have to wait 8 weeks. Since the payment was taken on September 15th that's already more than 6 weeks. I will now pay to take out a court order and will be claiming not just the £67.50 but the court fees too. How many other people are Sky doing this to? I think this needs wider publicity.

Re: Sky failure to repay direct debit payment

Lawrence+cope — Fri, 31 Oct 2025 16:47:35 GMT

Take a look on Trustpilot for Sky.com...it's quite common🤨.

Re: Sky failure to repay direct debit payment

MightyQuinn — Fri, 31 Oct 2025 16:58:00 GMT

Hi @Rogers2 My apologies, I haven't followed what is going on. But the ONLY way to end a contract is to give Sky 30 days notice of cancellation. Just checking that you are not confusing Minimum Term with Contract. Not taking up a new minimum term is not ending a contract, it is simply moving it to a 31 day rolling contract without discounts.

Re: Sky failure to repay direct debit payment

Rogers2 — Fri, 31 Oct 2025 17:01:31 GMT

Thanks but we did give them 6 weeks notice of cancellation and in addition confirmed we did not want to continue. They emailed us originally to say that our contract was ending on September 15th.

Re: Sky failure to repay direct debit payment

Rogers2 — Fri, 31 Oct 2025 17:02:46 GMT

Thanks Lawrence I'll certainly look at Trust pilot.

Re: Sky failure to repay direct debit payment

MightyQuinn — Fri, 31 Oct 2025 17:14:17 GMT

@Rogers2 wrote:
A couple of points I would raise is that this was NOT a cancellation of a contract for SKY TV but notice that I did not want to accept a new contract (@ £66.50).

Hi @Rogers2 Confused, why did you say that this was NOT a cancellation of contract? Then you say that I did not want to accept a new contract (minimum term), this does not end your contract, it simply moves it on to a 31 day rolling contract.