Erroneous charge for viewing outside home

[Graham198]

For the last few months I have received emailed letters saying I will be charged an additional fee for using my Sky streaming outside of my home. Every month I have called, as requested, to say this is an error, provided the information required (I have a mesh WiFi system with multiple IP addresses), and am told the charge will be removed and not charged again. I have received refunds, apologies, and been told two or three times that somebody would take personal responsibility for resolving the issue and will call me back with an update. I do not get called back and the problem is not resolved. Every month, it happens again and I have to start from scratch to get the additional charges removed.

Has anybody else experienced this? I am considering legal action as this is now causing me distress. I think Sky are in breach of contract, and potentially in breach of the Consumer Protection Act 1987. The catalogue of customer service failings may also constitute negligence. If nothing else, I have been lied to repeatedly by customer support people I have dealt with. Please help!

[BenJoBanjo]

@Graham198 

This all must be incredibly frustrating for you. Have you lodged a formal complaint? It may help to get someone senior to sort out what seems to be a ridiculous situation. 

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

[Graham198]

Yes I have raised a complaint a couple of times. This usually results in somebody saying they will take personal responsibility for resolving it and a promise to call me back with an update - which doesn't happen. I have chased a complaint again today, and been told that previous 'escalations' had not been done properly by the support team. I provided all the information requested again, and was assured (again) that this would now be sorted. I asked for confirmation by email, but was told this couldn't be provided. They said they would send me a text confirming everything, this has not arrived. I wait in anticipation to see what happens next!

[BenJoBanjo]

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@Graham198 wrote:

Yes I have raised a complaint a couple of times. This usually results in somebody saying they will take personal responsibility for resolving it and a promise to call me back with an update - which doesn't happen. I have chased a complaint again today, and been told that previous 'escalations' had not been done properly by the support team. I provided all the information requested again, and was assured (again) that this would now be sorted. I asked for confirmation by email, but was told this couldn't be provided. They said they would send me a text confirming everything, this has not arrived. I wait in anticipation to see what happens next!

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Wow. Very poor. Sounds like you've done all you can.

Best of luck with getting a resolution soon. 

[lettice]

@Graham198 

Let's see if we can get you some help from Sky, but first can you help with some questions.

Can you describe your house and network more.

There must be something getting flagged up above that is not working well with some of the basic rules Sky have set for monitoring.

As well as a single WAN ip address provided via a single house from a mesh system connection through or direct to your hub/router to the Sky devices, there are we are told additional GPS type of checks being run and either of these are seemingly being reported wrongly.

Of course, Sky have your address on record and that will match as a reporting tool for the above also.

Are all your Sky Stream or Sky Glass devices all connected to a single router and thus a single provided WAN address on your network.

Assume your pucks are all fairly close together within your household and maybe an outhouse or shed not a larger than normal distance away.

Is your broadband provided via a cg-nat service, like many altnets provide (not always provide well from them shamefully).

Who is your broadband provider?

Obviously any local network ip address provide by your hub/router will have no bearing.

One last thing, assume your mesh system in any form is not operating with any kind of decentralised mesh type VPN or you have any other settings or VPN device control on your local network?

[Graham198]

Thank you @lettice. By way of WiFi setup I have:

- Broadband provided by BT comes into my house into a BT router. This is connected to a Deco mesh hub via a ethernet cable.

- The Deco mesh covers my house through four units. One is connected to a puck by an ethernet cable, my other puck picks up the WiFi signal.

- I also have (and this is where the problem is I think), a microwave repeater to get the WiFi to a poolhouse. This is about 25m from the main house, so the mesh signal is weak and no cables run between the two.

- This creates a separate WiFi network in the pool house (but ultimately fed from my single BT broadband), to which I have a glass TV connected.

I have explained all of the above to Sky, taken photos, provided IP addresses and serial numbers (several times) and have been told that an exemption will be applied to my account. This is the bit they have consistently failed to do. They agree that the charge is not valid, and have even refunded one of the payments, but don't seem able to apply this month to month.

[Graham198]

My main irritation is that I keep being told it is resolved when it isn't, and being told people will take personal responsibility and promised calls which don't happen.

I also don't understand why they can't write/email these assurances to me as this makes it difficult to hold anybody accountable. They seem very capable of emailing special offers and letters about charges, but not their mistakes.

[lettice]

@Graham198 

Ok all fine, even with your local network as you describe.

I have flagged this to our Superusers closed forum area, to see if we can get some further resolution for you on this matter.

[lettice]

@Graham198

Afraid, from what we have been told as you have a current complaint into Sky. You will need to persist there.

The complaint would have a communication path, if not you will have to call Sky.

Complaints go through a timeframe and all communication will be through the above.

It was generally agreed, the Sky agent may not have gathered all the required information needed to resolve your issue/s.

Im sorry I could not offer anymore, but it was worth a try to see any further help paths were there, in case something backend was ongoing and the like.

Hope you get it resolved soon and an exception or similar as was mentioned.

Keep pestering Sky 😀

[Chris+Bolt]

Yes — I’m experiencing the same issue today, having received a letter stating that I’m using my Sky pucks outside of my home address.  To be clear I am not

All four pucks are located behind the TVs within my property and have never been removed from the address.

I’m using a TP‑Link Deco XE75 Pro (3‑pack) AXE5400 WiFi 6E Mesh system. One unit is hard‑wired directly into the router, and the mesh network is using the IP address supplied by the router.

These Deco devices have been installed since October 2020, and I’ve never had any contact from Sky regarding this until now.

Trying to resolve the issue with Sky was extremely difficult — I had to repeat the same information multiple times and go through all serial numbers and WiFi details with them.

It seems Sky can send out these letters, but they are unable to explain which device(s) triggered the alert or why.

This entire process took 45 minutes and required speaking to two different people, which was a significant inconvenience.

Given SKy have just increased prices by £7 per month I am sure you can guessing how Im feeling about SKY right now!

[Ms93]

I've had my second email today, I've not called them a second time yet

I basically have the sky router, one puck wired and one on wifi in the same semi -detached house, one upstrairs and one down.

no mesh or anything advanced. i do have a switch connected to the router but neither puck is connected to the switch

so it might not be related to the non-standard set up.

as it happens I'm not sure i can afford or want to pay the extra £27 a month they are suggesting to use the pucks outside of my house so I will likely end up trying to cancel, I'm sure they will want to impose a cancellation fee though

[Chady1526]

Hi

I am having the same isssues, and it looks to be a wifi extender is the culprit,as it shows a different IP Address.

I have never streamed outside of my home.

[Chady1526]

I have raised a complaint.