Raising a formal complaint- treatment of elderly customer- how?

[MrsBR]

I want to raise a formal complaint to Sky TV, on behalf of my elderly mother who is a long standing customer, about her treatment but I am finding this almost impossible.  My mother has gone through security and given permisson for me to speak on her behalf so that's not the issue. I have spoken to one of their sales people who says that he has logged a complaint on the system but refuses to send me a copy of what he has included on that or tell me what the next steps are.  I wanted this as I do not think he has understood my complaint properly or logged all aspects of it. I have asked to be put through to the customer complaints department and have been told that there is no such thing and no other way to make a complaint.  Surely this cannot be correct? There must be a way for a customer to send their own explaination of a complaint to an appropriate person for investigation.  I have found information on here and on the website about general complaints procedures but when I click through the info on making complaints only seems to relate to complaints about programming, online safety or for business customers.  Does anyone know how a domestic customer can make an official complaint about customer services in a way where the customer actually decides or at least sees what is sent to the complaints department?

To give some more context, my elderly unwell parents were left without an working landing (vital for older people who struggle with mobile phones) for several months with no real attempt to resolve it. This has now been fixed (the engineer was brilliant once someone actually sent her out) and we were promised a refund of part of the sums paid for the time it was not working. I have seen the latest bills and have discovered that not only has this not happened but the price they are being charged has just gone up to over £100 per month for the most basic package (advertised for about £35 on the sky website).  I understand that there are deals for new customers but charging almost 3 x the price to elderly customers who are not able to make comparisons easily etc feels excessive and is something that I feel should be raised as a problem, especially as we have been in touch with the accessibility team when my father passed away recently so they are aware that the customer has accessibility needs and is recently bereaved.  The only resolution I have been offered is to sign up for another 2 years!  

[Daniel0210]

@MrsBR 

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@MrsBR wrote:

I want to raise a formal complaint to Sky TV, on behalf of my elderly mother who is a long standing customer, about her treatment but I am finding this almost impossible.

To raise a complaint she can do so on the methods on this link

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

My mother has gone through security and given permisson for me to speak on her behalf so that's not the issue. I have spoken to one of their sales people who says that he has logged a complaint on the system but refuses to send me a copy of what he has included on that

That's usually the case. Sky do not normally do that. 

or tell me what the next steps are.  I wanted this as I do not think he has understood my complaint properly or logged all aspects of it. I have asked to be put through to the customer complaints department and have been told that there is no such thing and no other way to make a complaint.  Surely this cannot be correct?

See the above link

There must be a way for a customer to send their own explaination of a complaint to an appropriate person for investigation.  I have found information on here and on the website about general complaints procedures but when I click through the info on making complaints only seems to relate to complaints about programming, online safety or for business customers.  Does anyone know how a domestic customer can make an official complaint about customer services in a way where the customer actually decides or at least sees what is sent to the complaints department?

Again see above

To give some more context, my elderly unwell parents were left without an working landing (vital for older people who struggle with mobile phones) for several months with no real attempt to resolve it. This has now been fixed (the engineer was brilliant once someone actually sent her out) and we were promised a refund of part of the sums paid for the time it was not working.

This link explains the Ofcom agreed auto compensation scheme which Sky operates for when there is a TOTAL loss of Sky Broadband or Sky Talk for UK customers.
https://www.sky.com/help/articles/auto-compensation

If she has a total loss of service and it isn’t fixed after two full WORKING days from when Sky are notified of the fault, she will become eligible for it.

From Ofcom’s website:~
If your broadband or landline service stops working, you will have to report the fault to your provider. If the service is not fixed after two full working days, you would not need to ask for compensation or contact your provider again, as your provider has systems in place that mean you will start receiving compensation automatically if the repair takes too long.

This auto compensation is applied 30 days after the fault has been repaired and will come in the form of a credit appearing on your Mums Sky account (from 01/04/25 the new rates are £9.98 per day). There is no equivalent scheme in place for customers in the Republic of Ireland. 

I have seen the latest bills and have discovered that not only has this not happened but the price they are being charged has just gone up to over £100 per month for the most basic package (advertised for about £35 on the sky website).  I understand that there are deals for new customers but charging almost 3 x the price to elderly customers who are not able to make comparisons easily etc feels excessive and is something that I feel should be raised as a problem, especially as we have been in touch with the accessibility team when my father passed away recently so they are aware that the customer has accessibility needs and is recently bereaved.  The only resolution I have been offered is to sign up for another 2 years!  

It sounds like your Mums discounts have ended therefore the best new discounts are still normally acquired by contacting Sky and negotiating or potentially amending the package which will require a new 24 month minimum term contract.

Significant discounts are harder to come by these days so if she's offered something acceptable be prepared to agree to it there and then because if you/she decides to think about it the offer is unlikely to be available when you call back. Also remember she's not a new customer so don’t expect anything close to a new customer deal.

If she decides it’s no longer value for money and is thinking of changing providers remember that in 18/24 months time she will be in the same position with that company at which point she'll be able to return to Sky and benefit from the new customer discounts available at that particular time.

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[MightyQuinn]

Hi @MrsBR   The link shows you how to raise a Complaint

[MrsBR]

Thankyou for taking the time to answer my question.  I will write with my complaint, as this seems to be the only way to ensure that a complaint is raised with all the details of the issues.  It's very interesting to hear about the automatic compensation for total loss of service- this has not been mentioned my anyone at sky and my mother was left with no landline for months despite informing sky of the issue and having someone come out to look and telling them that it was a fault with the line that they would try to fix.  Another thing to add to my complaint I fear

[TimmyBGood]

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@MrsBR wrote:

Another thing to add to my complaint I fear

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Complaints are more likely to be resolved satisfactorily if they don't bundle different things together.  Loss of service and payment of compensation is far more clear-cut than pricing issues, for example.