Difficulty paying customer service won’t help

[Fdug]

Hi I'm just wondering if anyone can help me or let me know what to do? 

I currently can't pay my bill and my broadband will be restricted/blocked. The TV has been blocked for over a month. I've tried talking to advisers who have been no help at all. We are currently in financial difficulty and are behind on so many things and have two small children. We can't lose access to the broadband as it's what I use to work. But advisers don't seem to have any compassion for our current situation and are refusing to do anything to help in anyway. 

Is there anything I can do? 

[Daniel0210]

@Fdug 

They can't help you. The restriction process is automated.

The billing process described here applies to everyone…

▪️If you have a Direct Debit set up and the payment fails on the normal payment date Sky will automatically attempt it again 10 calendar days later (so DO NOT be tempted to make a manual payment in this period).

After 10 days, if that second attempt also fails Sky may send a text and/or email notifying you that your payment has failed again and you then have a day or two at best before they restrict your services.

▪️If you have a Continuous Card payment method set up, if the payment fails Sky send the text/email notification about the failed payment and you usually have at best 2/3 days before being restricted. There is no grace period and I believe only 1 attempt is made for a card payment, so if this has failed, you will need to pay manually and then reset the payment method for next month.

Restrictions are an automated process and we’ve been told Customer Service agents can’t stop it… even if you’re told otherwise on the phone. Sky don’t allow payment plans (except on a legitimately closed account) or a promise to pay on or by a certain date.

This link may also provide some advice
https://www.sky.com/help/articles/cost-of-living-support

________________

If your services have already been restricted any calls to Sky will only prompt you to pay. Restrictions are normally only due to a missed payment and they are applied automatically so agents can’t override the process.

Sky won’t reinstate services until you’ve paid what is owed in full and set up a new continuous payment method. If your payment is two or more weeks overdue you will have to pay the next bill as well. It’s worth noting that it you’re in arrears for 56+ days Sky can fully terminate your subscription.

If you can’t pay what you owe in one go you can pay what you want, but until the bill is fully paid Sky will not reinstate your services. Sky don't allow payment plans on overdue live accounts, nor will they consider promises to pay on or by a certain date.

Once your full payment has cleared and is in Sky’s account your services should be reinstated, but this may not be instant. Also, any payment you make over a weekend or on a Bank Holiday won’t be processed until the following week.

You should be able to pay the bill and set up your direct debit via the MySky app or online using this link
https://www.sky.com/manage/bill/

Once you’ve done all this you’ll be able to call Sky if you still need to speak to an agent.

[caesarome]

I'm afraid not because as you have discovered if your bill isn't paid then services will be restricted and when and if it gets to 56 days with no payment made then your account might be cancelled,

[Gamer01000]

Wow what useless replies from those 2 sky employees. I'm sort of in the same situation but id suggest losing some packages and having the bare essentials or even move from sky altogether. Ps dont believe those 2 previous replies they're sky employees undercover.

[Daniel0210]

@Gamer01000 

Incorrect information there. You've posted on a thread that's 14 months old. 

See this article in the About section from the top of the forum page. You'll see that we are customers just like you as the bold type under our user name explains.

https://helpforum.sky.com/t5/Superusers/bd-p/meetthesuperusers 

edit: which was explained to you on 5th December but you seem to have missed that. 

[Gamer01000]

Why should we believe a bunch of writing that you probably posted? You posted that on their yourself. Sky dont help with financial difficulty because they refuse to but you employees copy paste the EXACT same response

[Daniel0210]

@Gamer01000 

The replies from @caesarome and myself are correct and we're both customers. It's up to you whether you believe us or not. 

[martswain]

@Gamer01000 you are incorrect, the users above don't work for Sky.

However, they have correctly described the automated timeline for non payment of bills.

[Gamer01000]

Exactly they both described it in the exact same way and offered ZERO financial advice or help they are sky employees 

[Daniel0210]

@Gamer01000 

We aren't here to offer financial advice. Through our experience on here we have explained the process when having difficulty paying. That link I posted leads to information from the Sky Community staff fully explaining SuperUsers. Perhaps you'd like to dm one of the staff to confirm. 

[TimmyBGood]

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@Gamer01000 wrote:

copy paste the EXACT same response

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Correct information does tend to be repetitive: facts are rather boring in that respect.  Some of us have responses saved as templates because we use them so often, which should also be a clue that the answer contained is accurate.

[daveNOS]

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@Gamer01000 wrote:

Exactly they both described it in the exact same way and offered ZERO financial advice or help they are sky employees 

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@Gamer01000 You are incorrect, no one who has replied to this thread is employed by Sky in any capacity, it's not up to fellow customers to offer financial advice and there is no help that can be offered to someone who is having trouble paying their bill, the procedure Sky use is automated and as far as we are aware cannot be overridden.

You are of course free to believe that or not, as it's your right to be entirely wrong. 

[Gamer01000]

The person who originally posted saught help/advice on what to do in her difficult situation and there are dozens of other posts like it, you could've simply said "have you tried removing a few packages" but instead you just copy pasted the exact same thing all the other employees said. And if people cant post here to get advice then I suggest you remove all those posts.

[TimmyBGood]

@Gamer01000 

Another boring fact is that 'removing a few packages' cannot be done when an account is already in arrears.

There have been thousands of similar posts over the years, but forum users typically jump in and create a new one, so the same advice gets repeated over and over again.

[Nimbob · Accepted solution]

Hey everyone,

I am going to close this thread off as the superusers have provided the information they can regarding bills and payments and the thread is now going off the original topic.

The superusers are correct in what they said that agents are unable to keep broadband on when blocks are automatically placed on an account for unpaid bills as the system only allows the restrictions to be lifted after debt has been cleared.

When a service is restricted like TV the billing stops until the bill is cleared and the service is unrestricted so removing packages wouldn't help in this instance but would help in the long term after clearing the bill.

Thanks,