Ripped off by Sky Ireland. What can I do?

[soikeonhanh]

Ordered a sky glass off them in January. Paid €120 upfront for the tv and one package.
Got it. Realised it was too small and we wanted the bigger 55’ one. We literally turned it on twice.

Spoke to them and they cancelled the order and they told me to reorder. And they’d have to issue me a refund and start again but it shouldn’t be a problem. It’s within the cooling off period so no bother.

Tv collected grand. No refund.
I’ve rang them I dunno how many times now and just on hold for hours. The three times I did get through youre passed from department to department and basically got told three times ‘ok my managers going to look into that for you we have your details he’ll be in touch.’
Never heard back from them at all.

Then? They took the monthly €42 out of my account even though I’d cancelled the whole thing. We didn’t even have the tv in the house for a week!
Rang them again. Same thing. Passed from pillar to post ‘oh well look into that and someone will get back to you.’

They haven’t.

It’s impossible to actually get to speak to the correct department or even a person it seems.

Does anyone know what I could do?
Any ideas appreciated.

*needless to say won’t be going near sky ever again if this is the customer service experience.

[h5]UPDATE[/h5]

Thanks for all your help folks. Some of you gave me emails of head of the group and CEO s etc. emailed them over the weekend.

Just got a call from their accounts and I’ll have my refund by the end of this week.
So thanks all of you for the help and advice. Shows that if you keep at gougers like this and don’t let them away with it you’ll get what is owed to you.

Thanks all!

 

[myia]

@soikeonhanh Threaten to take them to the consumer regulator/ombudsman.

 

[barryg]

@myia Small claims court might be more appropriate in this situation, as Sky is a private company. Tbh, I'd actually start proceedings at this stage. It's relatively easy and not expensive. Just to teach them a lesson. Fuck them.

 

[cree4christ]

@barryg No I'd definitely start with Comreg first. No point wasting money with the small claims court when this exactly what Comreg is for

 

[acquanette]

@barryg Yep it's 25 quid and you can do it online

 

[call_me_tom]

@barryg Before engaging the SCC, OP should write to Sky at their Dublin address stating their issue, asking for the remedy to which they are entitled and then asking Sky to write back confirming the next steps and the exact timeframe.

If OP decides to pursue the SCC route the court clerk will ask for this information anyway.

 

[cross4life]

@myia Don't threaten, just do it.

 

[captainfarkus]

@myia I've seen posts like this before and have no idea why this was upvoted.

There is NO SUCH THING as a consumer regulator.

There is NO SUCH THING as a consumer ombudsman.

There are various ombudsmen who deal with consumer complaints resolution, each with a specific remit (such as financial services, public services etc) but none for this situation.

There are various regulators, each with a specific remit (such as financial services and communications). They're are more focused on industry regulations rather than consumer dispute resolution (and are generally useless in every regard anyway)

The correct (and only) official dispute escalation is the Small Claims Court.

 

[rainn]

@captainfarkus Not true there is the CCPC and they deal with exactly this. Not just competition issues but consumer rights. It’s their remit to investigate complaints made to them by the general public. Www.CCPC.ie

 

[captainfarkus]

@rainn Yup, that's the thing I love about this sub. The post I am responding too is complete BS, yet is continuosly upvoted. My reposnse, outlining the facts is downvoted, and now you respond with even more BS and get upvoted.

If you were to actually read the CCPC webstie regarding complaints, you would see that it says exactly what is in my post. You would also see the following, completely contradicting your post:

The CCPC does not get involved in individual cases

Source: https://www.ccpc.ie/consumers/how-to-complain/

 

[rainn]

@captainfarkus I do understand that they do not resolve individual cases but they do investigate possible breaches of consumer law and are the correct body to report too as stated here

 

[captainfarkus]

@rainn But the point of this post is to:

Threaten to take them to the consumer regulator/ombudsman.

Which is a complete BS statement (yet is the most upvoted on the thread) and I respond to state that there is no such thing.

You are then arguing that I am wrong, stating:

Not true there is the CCPC and they deal with exactly this

But the very link you provide verify's my statement and comepltely contradicts yours.:

We are not an ombudsman. We cannot act on individual consumer complaints. We cannot get involved in individual consumer or business issues.

I am not sure what point you are trying to argue here. The OP contacting the CPCC will not, in any way, shape or form result in the OP's situation being resolved. The only benefit of reporting is for the wider conusmer market as it adds to the CPCC's statistics. But that is all.

 

[lindaloo33]

@soikeonhanh Did you pay with card? If you did call your bank and request the charges are reversed. Also tell your bank to block any payment attempt from them in the future.

I did this for a builder who let me down last year, €500 deposit for work and he ghosted me. I think I remember there was a 3 month limit, so the payment had to be in the last 3 months. It was a debit card transaction, some people think only credit cards can be reversed but that isn't true

You might be able to do this if you paid by direct debit, I'm not sure but worth calling the bank

 

[soikeonhanh]

@lindaloo33 Yeah spoke to the bank. They said nothing they can do but there was no link to my account from sky now anyways so they must have cancelled it eventually

 

[lindaloo33]

@soikeonhanh Did you specifically ask for a chargeback? That's what I did. Maybe you have to ask, not sure tbh

 

[soikeonhanh]

@lindaloo33 I did yeah. They said they can’t do it in this situation

 

[lindaloo33]

@soikeonhanh Shite.

If you want to annoy then make a Gdpr request for all your data including phone calls. My boss did that for a company he was dealing with. Didn't get his money back but he felt it was a small victory for him

 

[soikeonhanh]

@lindaloo33 Haha! I’ll do that next!

 

[orion3003]

@soikeonhanh thats not true. Under SEPA legislation you can request a refund of any SEPA Direct Debit without reason inside 13 weeks. Its a year(AFIK) if fraud is involved.

Tell the bank you want the DD reversed under SEPA legislation and the Direct Debit cancelled.

 

[readerjoseph]

@soikeonhanh My recent experience with Sky.
Had a 12 month contract of €30 broadband, after 6 months, they emailed me that the price went up €5 more but stated I can cancel without penalty.
I contacted Sky via web chat for 2+ hours
- they tried to sell me new contract
- they couldn’t cancel it because I was still in contract
- they still couldn’t cancel it, some technical issue on system
- bla bla bla
I told them I’ve already given my notice here for the cancellation and I’m blocking further payments.
At the end, the agent said his shift is over and still didn’t process my cancellation request.

I immediately signed up for another broadband and the new provider handled the cancellation & switch for me within days.
Note that all providers can do this for you, never again I will try to contact support for cancellation request.

I’m glad I blocked the direct debit via Revolut.
I can see Sky kept trying to process the next payment, almost daily for 2 weeks now. They certainly don’t have issues on their payment taken system.