i have left sky but they have still taken a months payment after leaving why .

[homer1958]

left sky on 17.1.23 , they said they would owe me a few pounds as i have paid month in advance when joining them , now today i find they have taken another  full month payment off me ! im so angry , i should have cancelled the direct debit with them on leaving , but left it open to get a few pounds back they said , what a fool i am ! im more angry with myself than anything !! i will have a right battle now to get the £32,50 back sky have taken without my consent ! has anyone else had this problem ?

[Daniel0210 · Accepted solution]

@homer1958 

Did you contact Sky to cancel on the 17th, or was that the last date of connection? Bills are generated 2 weeks before your payment date so either way that bill would have been generated when you were still a customer. 

[caesarome]

If the 17th was the day you left then billing would have continued as normal right up to that date so all the bill would have been created on the 3rd January then this is correct so what you need to call Sky is to call them and ask them to refund the amount that is left on your account. If you have left the direct debit in place then they can do it via this that should take 3-5 working days otherwise they will issue you with a cheque which can take longer.

[Nettyking]

Yes I'm going through it right now

[Daniel0210]

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@Nettyking wrote:

Yes I'm going through it right now

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@Nettyking 

What are you going through? 

[homer1958]

thank you for your reply , i i was out of contract with sky , i started with plusnet which went live on the 17th , same day sky sevice stopped , this was fully agreed with sky , with email and fone back up to confirm a couple weeks befor  , sky rang me to try get me to stay , not though , the guy on fone was nice as they do , he told me to leave my d.d in place because actually they owe me a few pounds ,and at no time did he say i owe them another month  , but yesterdau 25 th , a was angry to see they took a full months payment , more than normal amount , on looking at my account this is up to 23 february ! they kidded me by enticing me not cancel d.d , sorry for rant but im fuming !

[homer1958]

that was last day of my connection , bottom line i should have cancelled d.d but sky conned me into leaving it in place saying they owe me some money !  why do these companies treat people like this ?? i will contact bank try get charge back , will post back thank you .

[homer1958]

i h ave just rang sky , who say they will refund me in 5 days time , some one else on same situation as me was told same thing , but was later told it will take 45 days to refund ! so its case ot wait and see for now , thank you for your replies all .

[Mark39]

I doubt there was any deliberate intention to mislead you. It's inevitable that you'll overpay when you leave because you pay in advance, so the advice to leave the direct debit in place is sensible to facilitate a refund.

Sky's billing process continues as normal right up to the date your service actually ends, as though you haven't cancelled, so any bill generated up to 17th would have been generated and processed as normal. I'm not sure that all advisers are aware of the impact of that and would have thought to let you know. I suspect other providers work in the same way.

Sky will, of course, refund the overpayment.

[homer1958]

the last payment was for period 23 jan to 24 feb , so a whole extra month ! nothing to do with billing up to the 17th jan , they try it on , next time i will cancel d.d straught away  my own fault , thank you for your kind replies .

[PandJ2020]

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@homer1958 wrote:

the last payment was for period 23 jan to 24 feb , so a whole extra month ! nothing to do with billing up to the 17th jan , they try it on , next time i will cancel d.d straught away  my own fault , thank you for your kind replies .

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yes, because you are charged in advance of actually receiving services - as per the contract.  (Even past cancellation date if your account is still active at the time of bill generation)

It's not 'trying it on' - it's all an automated system.  The following monthly cycle recognises the overpayment and creates a credit to be refunded.  You never pay for services past the cancellation date.  However, they do appear to hold onto your cash a little longer than you'd like...

Cancelling the DD would actually create more issues.

[Louise+james]

I'm in the same position, as at 9th December 2022 they owed me £17.85, they now owe me £105.85, each time I call I have to speak to 3 or 4 people, and I've called at least 6 times, Ive spoken to accounts, supervisors, customer services, complaints, I've emailed customer services, I've had promises money will be received, emails saying payment will be with me in 3 to 5 days . Complaint has now been escallated and now they have been promising me a cheque which was sent over 3 weeks ago, still no payment received , they just ring me now every week to see if I've received the refund. In 38 years of working in finance I have never dealt with such incompetence, I still don't know why I can't get my money and haven't received so much as an explanation or apology. 

[Dannybhoi]

I just saw this morning that my direct debit was due to off on the 1st of August. I have cancelled the direct debit. My contract ends today, I have paid in full until the 31st of July. A bill has already been generated. I understand that this is an automated system, but surely, once you switch broadband providers, my account should be flagged - after all, I delayed the switch date until the contract expires- today, and my new telecoms company had notified Sky of the switch, and Sky phoned me to get me to stay. I just got a better deal. Sky could not match it. 

I find this system to be a bit unethical. I refuse to wait to be paid back, so I cancelled the direct debit. 

[Daniel0210]

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@Dannybhoi wrote:

I refuse to wait to be paid back, so I cancelled the direct debit. 

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@Dannybhoi 

Never a wise move as has been discussed many times on the forum. This is likely to cause you further problems including Sky reimbursing you for any overpayment. 

[Dannybhoi]

I can't wait for Sky to reimburse me £61. My account is fully paid until the 31st of July. Sky might owe me for 2 days of unused service. My overpayment is not worth bothering about. I find this practice unbelievably unethical - generating a bill for service that will not be delivered because I have left. My account is fully paid up, my television direct debit will go off as normal.