Erroneous early termination fee

[Anonymous]

Has this happened to anyone else?

On 6th March I received an email advising me of a price increase. The email advised:-

"If you're not happy with these changes, you can cancel by calling (number) If you're within your minimum contract period, call us within 30 days of getting this email to avoid early termination charges"

On 8th March I called the number and spoke of an advisor, who of course tried to pursuade me to stay. I declined and asked would I be charged an early termination fee if I used the switching service with Plusnet within 30 days. He said no. I then initiated my switch with Plusnet.

On 9th March I received a couple of messages telling me that any early termination charges would be advised in a letter posted to me.

I received the letter in the post dated 9th March "We're sorry to see you go". I was reassured to see no charges listed in the section at the bottom, titled 'About early termination charges'



22nd March: I switched successfully to Plusnet.

11th April: I received an email: We've added early termination charges - We recently wrote to inform you that as you had cancelled your subscription within the minimum term, you needed to reactivate your service [they hadn't]. As you've not contacted us to reactivate your service, the following early termination charges have been applied to your account: Sky Fibre Max (SOGEA): £65.00"

Note: I wasn't on Sky FIbre Max, I was on Sky Fibre Superfast.

12th April: I called and spoke with someone in a call centre in I presume Bangalore, to clear up what I thought was a mistake. They said it wasn't, as I had used the switching service to cancel my contract, instead of straight cancelling with Sky. They said the advisor shouldn't have told me there would be no fees if I switched away. They refused to remove the £65 charge that is on my account and due to be billed May 16th, until they had a chance to review the phone call on March 8th. I have a call-back booked with this advisor on Wed 17th.

I have tried to escalate this by submitting a complaints form (takes up to 10 days for a response), talking to advisors on Facebook ('Ross' doubled-down when I complained that I was upset at being accused of being a liar, saying "If we took everyone's word for it when they say that they are due money or a charge shouldn't be taken, we would go bust". When shown the letter where no charges are detailed, he said "looks to be an error, as the section is entirely blank, so we can't go off that").

I was transferred to complaints in (I presume) Livingstone last night, and the advisor was the first person at Sky who agreed with the Ofcom rule that my right to move away penalty-free within 30 days following notification of a price increase stands, whether I cancel via direct call or whether I cancel by switching away. Yet he couldn't remove the charge from my account until the team investigating have listened to my call.

I don't understand why this call is even being reviewed and whilst waiting I'm made to feel like a liar and a fraud. Very unhappy and would not recommend Sky to my worst enemy. 

[Anonymous]

Just a quick follow up on this. Tried messaging via FB again, who gave me a link I think to the cancellations team, who removed this charge immediately and apologised for me being passed from pillar to post. 

It's a shame thus wasn't resolved sooner, but hopefully my credit balance will be returned soon. 

[Charfie]

I changed from Sky after the price-rise letter and I'm currently going through the same nonsense you experienced.  Glad to see you got it sorted. 

[Anonymous]

I'm currently waiting for my switch to VM and have had similar conversations with them to try and get some clarification on the wording of the email.

"We hope you continue to use and enjoy Sky but if you're not happy with these changes, you can cancel your Sky Broadband by calling (removed). If you're within your minimum contract period, call us within 30 days of getting this email to avoid early termination charges. Unless you tell us otherwise, your Sky subscription will continue as usual."

As well as stating you can 'cancel' (no mention of switching which is probably intentional) I wanted confirmation that if the switch went over the 30 days for any reason from receipt of the email (not 30 days from the customer notifying them BTW, what happens if you contact them on day 29?), that I wouldn't be charged ETC's.

It took 3 webchat agents (foreign call centre), 1 email to the Exec team and 1 Whatsapp chat (The Scottish call centre I think) to finally get them to state that it wouldn't matter if it went over the 30 days once initiated. Even with the final Whatsapp agent it was like pulling teeth as he danced all around the question and seemed to be deliberately misreading my questions until realising that I was going nowhere without a definite answer one way or the other

After telling me that 99% of switches go through with no issues (not my question) and that the switch had been started so the ball was in VM's court now (again, not my question) he finally told me that "That will make no difference to the early termination fees as they have already been removed". It wouldn't surprise me at all to find myself having to come back to them for a refund.

Moderator note: Removed phone number.

[Anonymous]

Strange, I've posted two replies to this thread (I thought maybe I'd made a mistake for the first one) and both have quickly been removed.

No abuse or bad language, no links, no naming of names and yet they've both been removed with no explanation?

Are Sky just trying to control the narrative over these poorly worded mid-contract price rise emails?

[caesarome]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Are Sky just trying to control the narrative over these poorly worded mid-contract price rise emails?

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It is more likely the spam filter has removed your posts in error so if this is the case they will be reinstated later.

[Anonymous]

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@caesarome wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

Are Sky just trying to control the narrative over these poorly worded mid-contract price rise emails?

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It is more likely the spam filter has removed your posts in error so if this is the case they will be reinstated later.

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Perhaps although I'm struggling to see what would have triggered the spam filter, I'll wait and see.

[Mark39]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@caesarome wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

Are Sky just trying to control the narrative over these poorly worded mid-contract price rise emails?

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It is more likely the spam filter has removed your posts in error so if this is the case they will be reinstated later.

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Perhaps although I'm struggling to see what would have triggered the spam filter, I'll wait and see.

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It works in unfathomable ways! While it's generically called a spam filter, there are several different filters, as I understand it.  No idea what in  particular triggers them.

[Charfie]

I saw two reply/thread notifications from you @Anonymous ... but when I went online via the email link it said that I didn't have the authority to view the page.

[caesarome]

@Anonymous 

Your post has been reinstated, it looks like it was removed due to a phone number being posted.

[Anonymous]

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@caesarome wrote:

@Anonymous 

Your post has been reinstated, it looks like it was removed due to a phone number being posted.

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Yes, I missed the phone number being included although it is Sky's own so why they'd want to remove that makes no sense, it's actually still on a separate thread I posted on.

[CountryMouse]

Just going through this nonsense now...received the same email, 6 months into an 18 month contract after moving.  The price was increasing 13% which really didn't make any sense on a service that barely achieves 10mbps.  I phoned Sky and said I wasn't happy and wanted to exercise my right to cancel and move to a new provider. I was asked whether I had a date for the switch- I didn't as I hadn't organised anything and wanted to find out what the process would be.  Was told that in most cases the new provider would organise the switch and notify Sky of the cancellation so I probably wouldn't need to do anything.  Switched successfully to Plusnet and returned equipment, then this evening have received the email advising early termination charges.  So unimpressed that they make this process so difficult, suggesting one thing then and then not having the systems in place to actually manage it.  Now the onus is on ME to have to try and find time to chase them and make sure THEY don't take money that they shouldn't be taking.

[Daniel0210]

@CountryMouse 

The option to leave penalty free has a stipulation that it must be done within 30 days of receiving the notification if that could be a factor as to why the charges have been applied. 

[Anonymous]

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@Daniel0210 wrote:

@CountryMouse 

The option to leave penalty free has a stipulation that it must be done within 30 days of receiving the notification if that could be a factor as to why the charges have been applied. 

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That's not how I read it and was the basis of my argument with them:- 

If you're within your minimum contract period, call us within 30 days of getting this email to avoid early termination charges. 

You simply have to call them (which can include emails, webchats and Whats App messages as far as I'm concerned)  and confirm you're leaving within the 30 days. The OP of this thread called and and moved within the 30 days, so it looks like Sky's software has failed again. I say this as someone who still has a £874 pending payment for Sky Glass on their account and has since October 2021.

My BB changes to VM on the 20th and I'm fully expecting an ECT email.

[Charfie]

Same here.  I phoned about 2 weeks into the 30 day period and was told that there would be no termintation charge, now that I had notified Sky.  Instead, I have a £95 fee being taken out of my account automatically in a few days.  
I have made a complaint, as what is happening is completely wrong, but still waiting to hear back.  Sent it as an electronic form rather than go through the call centre again...

From Colin's post:

If you're within your minimum contract period, call us within 30 days of getting this email to avoid early termination charges.