Sky reviews and complaints

I would like to make a complaint about todays coverage of the Scottish Cup Semi Final between Inverness Caledonian Thistle and Celtic at Hampden.
The commentary throughout the match from Andy Walker was completely embarrassing, totally unneutral . He was biased throughout the game to Celtic, gave no praise to Inverness whatsoever, and also continued to blame the officials the whole time. I felt the commentary was completed unfair on Inverness, who fully deserved there win today. At the end of the game he managed to congratulate Celtic, but failed to congratulate the team that actually won the game - his signing off quote at the end of the game "Lets not forget how awful the officials were today!". I cant believe that he is taking away what is a fantastic achievement for Inverness, its unacceptable. I honestly don't believe you should employ Andy Walker as a commentator, he completely ruins the experience for a neutral fan.
Sky Sports also failed to deliver any coverage after the game, which Is probably because of the next programme, however, if this was a Premier League fixture or an FA semi final I fell the situation would most definitely been different.

Signed up February for HD box, package, Variety pack TV, free Broadband. Not told phone socket needed next to TV and computer, Broadband only active for 2 days since February. Programmes non-existent for 3 weeks. Numerous letters and e-mails sent (from work) as no e-mail access at home. All complaints ignored. Since February paid them £187.90 - what for - just a few extra channels, no Broadband or e-mails, no call barring on telephone. They have not fulfilled their side of the contract and promise to provide me with TV, HD service, Broadband and e-mail. What do you have to do to be noticed by this company? I've tried all communication possible, asked for a refund etc. all complaints totally ignored.

Sky tv yet again charging exsisting loyal customers to upgrade there products when new customers are given them for free!

I have been a loyal customer of sky for aproximatley 5 years which more or less equates to a spend of £3000 so to say I was shocked that I would have to pay an install charge of £30 for an engineer to come to my property to swop a set box no new satalite dish no new cables just the new HD box which they also charge you for.

This is highly unfair when I have no alternative to sky due to the area I live in other wise I would be knocking on Virgins door now.

here are 2 letters i sent to sky, useless ###

To whom it may concern
On the 18th of February this year I decide to temporarily cancel my subscription to sky due to moving home until I could find another job, so I decided to contact your cancellation department and was willing to pay the cancellation charge but I was lead to believe that if I deactivated my sky talk account and my broadband account I could pay just £16.50 a month starting from march until I was back in work and ready to upgrade again something I was happy to do,
Until yesterday when I was about to upgrade my basic sky account I looked at my bank statement and realised I had been paying over the odds for the last three monthly payments, on the 3rd of march I paid £33 and on the 1st of April I paid £27.
I put this down to a simple technical error so I made my first call to sky and ended up being put through to some one who give me a different excuse to the following calls I made later that afternoon, basically saying it was my fault and talking in technical jargon only a law graduate or a bank manager would understand and this was after a fifteen minute conversation broke down into phonetical alphabet, the answer I got was more or less its tough and your going to pay the bill.
So I bit my lip and carried on my next call which was to set up my sky to the new home where I mentioned my previous problem to the call taker only to find out that someone had been making calls from my previous property using my sky talk account after this I set up a online account with sky to view these calls then called you again to sort out what had happened,
after being passed from department to department I decided enough was enough and its time to cancel before I get stung for anymore money where all of a sudden a team leader was willing to credit my sky account for £16.which I was ok with but it still left me £15 out of pocket after some time on the phone I decided to leave it for the day.
Today I called about the getting sky + Installed which is advertised at £30 but I found out it doubles for an existing customer, this doesn’t really give me incentive to stay a customer then I find out my new internet connection is going to have to be broadband connect? £17 for a slow connection £12 more than my original 16mb deal but I wanted to stay as a sky customer until I checked my updated bank account balance only to find sky are going to charge me another £27 tomorrow, just to inform you this direct debit has been cancelled and so have all other transactions between me and sky, I made one last phone call to sky and ended up talking to the technical department for some reason or other who where the most helpful and they mentioned that I had infact cancelled my sky talk but it hadn’t been finalised on the system, more jargon but nether the less they informed me that this is not my fault before giving me your address .
I have no idea who made these calls as the property was under renovation and the letting agency wont release the details of the landlord as they are no longer a client to the landlord, but regardless I did cancel my sky talk and for the money you have been taking from me it would have been simpler and cheaper to pay the cancellation which I will not be paying for now.
I am aware this breach of contract but so is taking money from my account for something that has been cancelled.
My overall sky experience hasn’t been too good as when I first signed up I was paying for sky for around six weeks before it was all set up and ready to go.
It all seems a little misleading and complicated for a bit of entertainment.
If you wish to contact me my email address is ………………….or you can contact me on ………….. or you can pass a message on to ………………… as I work shift patterns.
I don’t really want to settle this in court for not paying for the cancellation fee or the direct debit I just want to be reimbursed for all the money that was taken from my account for the sky talk then I will pay the cancellation fee but I will not be returning to sky as a customer as the customer service is very poor.
I hope we can sort this out without me having to fork out more money or go to court.
Regards
Mr ……..
several months later there still raping me for cash and debt collectors are looming so heres the next letter

To whom it may concern
I recently had major problems with your cancellation service as you where illegally taking direct debits from my account, an issue that took some time to sort out, days off work and a large phone bill due to a technical error as well as poor customer service in certain departments, eventually after sending a letter of complaint (which I have included for reference) I got reimbursed with £15 which was no where near the amount you took of me without my consent which involved more phone calls to get back the full amount I was owed.
While this was processing I was advised by your customer service to cancel my direct debit as another payment was due the following day, due to this cancellation and all the messing about with my direct debit I had my bank account closed down and then you passed my remaining debt on to a debt collecting agency which has now severely effected my credit rating resulting in me not being able to open a new bank account, thanks a lot.
It was made clear in my last letter I was no longer using your service as it would have been cheaper for me to just go ahead and cancel my account in the first place.
You had also failed for the second time to cancel sky talk in my previous address, which resulted in the previous residents running up a phone bill for the second time in my name, something I have not been able to follow up due to privacy laws as the property has been passed over to a different agency, yet again I cancelled this twice.
After you passed my debt over to the debt collecting agency I was informed to pay around £35 immediately or not doing so would result in court action been taking, this is extremely threatening and very angering as you took money form my account illegally advised me to cancel my direct debit which resulted in my bank account being closed and credit rating being affected, your company really has some nerve, so I have give in and decided to pay £5 a month as I felt I had basically been bullied into this and didn’t have a hope at sorting this out, a month later it goes up to £70 and then Friday just gone it has been increased to £100 pounds with no explanation or statement, just to remind you my contract expired anyway in July, besides I have cancelled it enough times anyway so these charges don’t make sense, I have already paid £15 which I feel I shouldn’t of as you broke the terms of the contract by taking money from my account without consent .
I will not pay anymore money and I think its time you wiped this ridiculous debt and cancel my account all together for the 3rd time for free with out no more stealth charges or technical jargon and if possible somehow restore my credit rating as this problem started with you and should end with you .
Sky where very quick and responsive to take my money and to set up an account, but it took nearly 2 months to set the sky broadband up, but when it came to canceling and so called downgrading I hit a wall something one of your advisers told me was not my fault as departments where being swapped around and some other technical talk about errors in the system .If I receive anymore threats from debt collectors about this situation I will be reporting this to trading standards and any other governing bodies who handle problems like this .
Just to remind you because of YOUR technical error I have lost my bank account, lost money due to time of work to sort this out, run up a huge phone bill making calls to you as well as the sky talk account you didn’t cancel, had my credit rating effected resulting in me not being able to open a new account and now I have to deal with threats from debt collectors and court orders, all this to watch repeats.
I have nothing against your staff as some of them mainly the ones based in Scotland where very helpful but on more than one occasion I was being redirected over seas to staff reading from scripts who couldn’t care less, I will not be paying another penny as my account should have been closed and forgotten last time I had a problem I just want this bill wiped and the debt collectors of my back so I can get back to normal and if all goes well I might consider using your services again when I move to my next property,
And just to add I have not used your services since February so its not as if your being ripped of by a unhappy customer .
Regards
Mr angry

I subscribed to sky 4 months ago for tv, broadband and phone line thinking that it was much easier to have everything with one provider and the offer they were giving seemed good value until 8 weeks into this contracte when the router and broadband never arrives. After several phonecalls I was assures it was on its way only to never arrive. As compensation they would give me 2 months of free movies and again said they would send it to me. After 2 monthe broadband still not here and they continues to bill me for movies that I didnt want and were told would only be on for 2 months for free due to my upset and communication failure on their part. Also when sky was fitted I was left with 2 unsafe cables left on my main staircase not pinned or secured and cables throught the hallway and living room which now have to be taken up as landlord of my appartment which is attached to my work has told me that after their health and safety officer had seen it that he thought it was one of the most dangerous and bad installations of any job he had seen. I have spent upto 2 hours a time on the telephone to sky only to never get anywhere or literally be cut off by one of their customer service reps. After all of this I wanted nothing more but to cancel my contract as had been let down with everything sky had offered including signing me up to 12 hd package never knowing or being asked if I had an hd ready tv, which I dont and didnt realise needed one to gain this service. I was told I couldnt cancel and at that point I was moving so asked about my services being moved to new address if there was no way to cancel, they then told me it would cost me £60 for an installation guy to change me over (the same company that made such a mess and health and safety issue at the other address). I instead have an independant guy coming to fit it at a cost of only £40 and no long wait. I must say I would never ever reccommend anyone to use sky and their services as if anything goes wrong you have no chance of having anything resolved by their service teams. I feel the service they give is absolutly disgusting and would tell anyone to try a different provider before every thinking about sky. It seems by googling this subject Im not alone as there are so many people like myself in the same situation and having the same type of calls where the staff either are no help or just cut you off. Please someone do something about the public being mistreated and misled by this company.

Steven Bates

Attention: SKYTALK Customer Services

Please read this letter thoroughly as I believe that you will find my story quite amazing.
First of all, as you can see from my account detail, I have been a customer for only a short time.
My story begins on Friday the 2nd of January 2017.
I picked up my landline telephone to make a call, I heard the following message.
(Welcome to sky, this is a sky talk customer announcement, I am sorry but your service is currently being restricted etc...) as I followed the instruction, I came to contact with a gentleman who announced that my line has been restricted due to a high level of usage. At that point I told the gentleman that instead of restricting my phone, I should have been contacted by phone or text message before hand. The gentleman advised me that this was not part of your normal services.
I asked the gentleman to advise me on the amount I owed. He advised me that I owed £309.00. I told the gentleman that I would be paying the total amount immediately. After going through my payment details, the gentleman advised me that my line will be restored within 72 hours and to keep on trying the line as it may happen earlier.
The next day, Saturday the 3rd of January, I again tried to make a phone call and yet again the same message. As I followed the sky talk message, I came in contact with a young lady who apologised for the inconvenience caused but she was unable to do anything about the situation at this point in time and reassured me that the line would be restored as soon as possible.
On Sunday the 4th of January, yet another lady came to the phone and of course as one will expect, She gave me the same advise as per previous advisors. My line will be restored on Monday as this was the 72 hours.
On Monday the 5th of January, (after I came back from work) well to my surprise, I am still unable to make outgoing calls and still hearing sky talk messages. As per usual I followed the message through and finally got greeted by a young lady. Again, we went thought the entire story and she could only apologise and advised me that she will send another request for my line to be restored.
On Tuesday the 6th of January, Once again I have tried to make another call and surprise, skytalk on the line. After approximately 15 minutes waiting, I finally spoke to a gentleman who did not seem to understand why the request had not gone through; he put me on hold in order to look into my account. He then advised me that there was a technical problem and that he would have to resend yet another request through and that I would have to wait another 72 hours. At this point, as I complained to him he mentioned that there nothing he could do about it. I requested to speak to the Manager. To my surprise, even the Manager started to tell me about your company policy and then advised me that there was nothing they could do about it at this precise moment. He told me to check the line again the following day. Later on, I needed to make an urgent call and once again I tried and surprise, skytalk are still on my telephone line. I spoke to an adviser and as a result took the decision to cancel my contract.
The following morning, I tried again and still the same message from the automatic voice. Though I had just cancelled my contract, I still should have been able to get a line and having waited the previous day, I felt cheated so decided to contact Skytalk once again. The first adviser I spoke to clearly didn’t understand the subject matter so passed me onto the technical department to see why the line hadn’t been restored before, even though more than 6 requests had been made.
After a 10 minutes wait, a gentleman took a quick look at my account and simply stated that the reason why the line still wasn’t active on my part was because of a £90 balance remaining. I quickly responded that I had paid £309 the bill on the 2nd already. He replied that in fact, the right amount was £399 and that it was probably a case of misinformation. He advised me to get in touch with the billing department as soon as possible, but that there would be a possibility of having to wait 72 hours to have the line restored after the payment.
Later that day I decided to confirm with another adviser that there was indeed £90 to be paid off. A lady quickly confirmed it so I made the payment over the phone. She then said that I would have to wait another 72 hours in order for my line to be restored, which was clearly the icing on the cake. I then asked to speak to a manager who clearly even had difficulties to figure out why all of this had happened. When asked about the fact that there was a remaining balance in my account that no one had told me about, he said that £309 was the minimum I could have paid for my line to be restored. So the adviser did not have to tell me exactly how much I owed Skytalk, even though I asked that question in a rather direct manner. How difficult is it to answer a simple question?
From what I gathered it was that payment that was blocking the whole system. The manager even noticed that 7 requests had been made so far, without success. And why? Because somebody was not doing their job as they should. After drafting another urgent request, he advised me to try again the following day.
Another day, another Skytalk customer announcement. As you can probably guess, I had the same response from numerous advisers but with a twist. There was no possibility of checking my account because the server was down for the weekend. So if my line were not to be restored on the same day, I still would have had to wait another 72 hours. Which I did.
Monday 12th of January and still no line. The U Switch Customer Satisfaction Award was well deserved.
In the meantime, I am still unable to make any calls from my landline at all.
I have been and still using my mobile phone to make any calls, which cost me a lot more.
Meaning that for the last 10 days you have lost a lot of money as well as me just because of your bad customer service.