Sky kept billing me for old TV deal after I had moved house
WHEN we moved house last August, we found that we could not have Virgin broadband, so signed up to Sky instead.
In December, we noticed Sky had not cancelled our television agreement at our old address. It was still collecting £80 per month by direct debit, in addition to the charges for our new property.
When we left the old place, we were given packaging in order to return the Sky equipment that we had used there.
Yesterday, Sky called and told us it had a record of advising us to just take the old equipment to our new address. We could not recall this conversation.
We also queried why we would start a new contract if it had been made clear to us that this was all we needed to do.
What’s more, if Sky didn’t think we were cancelling the service at our old home, why did it provide packaging to return the equipment? F and A. B., Eastbourne, E. Sussex. Your problem seemed straightforward. But, as is often the case, there was more to it than met the eye.
When you originally called Sky to discuss your home move, you were advised to contact its Home Move team. However, you then contacted Simply Digital, which is a separate company acting on behalf of Sky to sell its services. You explained clearly what you wanted to do, but were given incorrect advice.
It suggested you take out a new contract in your name to take advantage of a new customer deal and terminate the existing contract in your wife’s name.
I can see the temptation to do this, but it is not allowed under Sky’s rules. As a result, your wife’s subscription was not cancelled.
As far as Sky was concerned, your wife had a subscription at one address and you ordered a new one elsewhere — a plausible scenario if you had separated, for example.
Sky has now sorted the muddle and will refund the subscription charges from your wife’s account dating back to when your account was opened — so £320.
Sky is mystified as to why you were sent packaging to return the old equipment. It usually does this only if you cancel a contract within its cooling-off period. Perhaps you are confusing it with Virgin.
A Sky spokesman says: ‘We are sorry about the difficulties and confusion your readers experienced while trying to move and cancel their Sky services. The issue has been resolved and we have offered a refund as a gesture of goodwill.’ MY WIFE and I recently visited our local Nationwide to close some old Cheshire Building Society accounts. They could not trace one, which, according to a 1997 statement, has £1,045 in it.
We have contacted its complaints department, but have been told that the account failed to migrate from the Cheshire. J. L., Deeside, Chester. NATIONWIDE took some time to address your complaint and, I note, paid you £50 compensation for its tardiness.
I don’t think the situation was explained to you as clearly as it could have been but, in a nutshell, Nationwide says the account was closed many years ago.
There was no record of it being transferred from the Cheshire to Nationwide. As details of closed accounts must be kept for six years, this suggests the account was closed at least six years before the merger of the Cheshire with Nationwide in December 2008.
So the account must have been shut between 1997 and 2002. Please bear in mind that you do not need to produce or return a passbook in order to close an account, so it is entirely possible that you would still have a statement or passbook many years after an account has been closed.
You may have moved the money to another account to earn more interest or popped it into an Isa. I HAVE a dispute with Virgin Money regarding my cash Isa.
In 2014, I opened an account with £85,000 — at the time, the limit of protection under the Financial Services Compensation Scheme.
In 2016, the limit was dropped to £75,000. I believe that, as a result, I lost hundreds of pounds in interest because I had to move some funds from the Isa to remain below the compensation limit.
The branch did not inform me at the time that the FSCS limit is reviewed every five years. P. E., Tyne & Wear. AT FIRST, I thought Virgin Money had deducted interest or charged a fee when you removed the portion of your savings from its Isa.
But this was not the case. Virgin Money followed guidelines set down by the Prudential regulation Authority and let you move your money without penalty.
Your argument is that Virgin should have alerted you that the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) limit is reviewed, in your words, every five years.
And because it didn’t, Virgin should now pay interest on the £10,000 or so you withdrew.
Frankly, I find your argument bizarre and without credibility.
Are you suggesting that if Virgin had told you the limit may be reviewed, you would have put less money into its account?
Presumably, you chose Virgin as it had a top rate of interest. So if you’d put it elsewhere you’d have earned less. Virgin, not surprisingly, rejected your complaint.
I am told you referred your complaint to the Financial ombudsman Service, but it, too, found against you. The ombudsman added it was your choice to withdraw the £10,000 that exceeded the compensation limit.
It would not be reasonable for Virgin to pay interest on anything you withdrew.
Incidentally, the compensation limit on deposit accounts is set at €100,000 by a european directive.
The Bank of england’s Prudential regulation Authority must review it at least every five years, but can do so more often if there are significant currency fluctuations.
It’s now returned to £85,000, and was only at £75,000 for 13 months.
I really think you are grasping at straws here.