Sky chicanery.

Hello, Despite being a reasonably satisfied Sky customer - since early analogue days - their latest stroke appals me.
My sister, aged 74, recently received a text from Sky, thanking her for placing a broadband order - she had previously been with o2: she has never been in touch with Sky about broadband - although she does have Sky TV.
I immediately phoned them and said that no such order had been placed, and that when I visit my sister on the weekend (yesterday) it would be discussed - but to do NOTHING until then. They said at the time "if she wants Sky BB and phone, then she'll be a new customer, and have to pay a £50 charge for "installation/router": I politely told them to forget it!
I went to her part of London yesterday and found her a little distressed, as she had received a letter - despite my calling Sky - thanking her for "choosing Sky BB & phone".
I phoned Sky on her behalf, but was put through to the wrong department when, even though he could not help me, a pleasant NI guy called Mark, said that the transition from o2 should be FOC: he then put me through to Customer services.
They told me that there would indeed be a charge - £60, this time - if my sister wanted to be with Sky: I told them, in the politest possible way, to go diddle themselves!
I said that both she and I would close down our respective Sky TV accounts there and then, because of this financial chicanery: at that point, his demeanour changed completely. He rescinded the £50/60 charge, and the only thing to pay was the £2.98 postage for the new router
Despite me telling this guy - at least five times during his sales pitch - that my sister would only want the basic phone service, and the 2GB "free" BB, he kept on talking about unlimited/half price offers. I finally got through to him, after asking to speak to a supervisor, that I knew what was wanted - and we didn't want what he kept wittering on about!
Finally, it was sorted - £15+ for phone/no charge for basic BB and the postage charge for the router.
My sister - and I'm sure many others - should not have to jump through hoops to persuade Sky that they did not order a product, nor did they wish to be overcharged, if they did.
This is a pretty poor "seamless transition" for former o2 customers, who wanted a phone/BB: the management at Sky and o2 should be ashamed of themselves, having the temerity to assume something which, in my sister's case, was rejected at the first opportunity
Anyone else aware of this bit of deviousness? Cheers, Les.

Edited by lelboy (Sun 09-Feb-14 13:45:20)

The £50 charge makes me think an order for Sky Fibre was somehow placed. That shouldn't be done automatically for O2 migrants so I'm not sure what happened there.

Hello Oliver, Thanks for the reply.
Quite emphatically NO order was placed by either my sister - or more importantly, me: my contribution, as I said, was to CANCEL whatever machinations that THEY had started.
Pattie, my sister, has never had any contact with Sky, other than a few issues - over the years - about TV matters. This certainly seems to me an issue that Sky have assumed they could just "do" and hope few people notice it!
There's no other logical explanation for:
a) The text, thanking her for placing an "order".
b) The follow-up letter, after I had spoken to them, saying that no such order had ever been placed, confirming said order.
Nah, this is a fast one by Sky, I'm afraid!
Cheers, Les.

How come it's ONLY happened to your sister?

In all they time I've been with TBB, Batboy, I'd say that 75% of your posts are plain provocative - offering little to the matter in hand.
Do you not see how inane your comment is? How do you conclude that this "has only happened to your sister".
Foolish, baseless comment - but so typical, sadly.
Cheers, Les.

In reply to a post by BatBoy:

How come it's ONLY happened to your sister?

Sky T&C say: "Existing [TV] customer set-up £60 for Lite or free for Unlimited."

Sounds like the OP's Sister managed to get out of the £60 Lite fee by complaining.

In reply to a post by lelboy:

she had previously been with o2

How much previously?

Do you mean she is 1 of the O2 custs that have been sold to Sky? In which case she should not have to do or pay anything. Sky should just transfer her to their network (I assume she had both phone + BB from O2). I believe even the O2 router will work on Sky.

Or do you mean she was an O2 cust in the past before the sale by O2?

my sister would only want the basic phone service, and the 2GB 'free' BB

What 'free' BB? O2 never had a 'free' BB, did they? If you mean a Sky offering then it would be a new contract.

In reply to a post by lelboy:

In all they time I've been with TBB, Batboy, I'd say that 75% of your posts are plain provocative - offering little to the matter in hand.
Do you not see how inane your comment is? How do you conclude that this "has only happened to your sister".
Foolish, baseless comment - but so typical, sadly.

I note you did not answer the question.

OP's Sister would have been entitled to Sky Broadband Unlimited with no setup fee as part of the O2 migration.

If Fibre or Lite wasn't ordered then the £50 would have been an error. We have no way of knowing if an order had been placed manually or not, but this is the first report of a £50 "automatic" setup fee out of many migrations.

Sky Broadband Lite would indeed be a new contract with a £60 fee, as would Sky Fibre with a £50 fee.

In reply to a post by lelboy:

Hello, Despite being a reasonably satisfied Sky customer - since early analogue days - their latest stroke appals me.
My sister, aged 74, recently received a text from Sky, thanking her for placing a broadband order - she had previously been with o2: she has never been in touch with Sky about broadband - although she does have Sky TV.
I immediately phoned them and said that no such order had been placed, and that when I visit my sister on the weekend (yesterday) it would be discussed - but to do NOTHING until then. They said at the time "if she wants Sky BB and phone, then she'll be a new customer, and have to pay a £50 charge for "installation/router": I politely told them to forget it!
I went to her part of London yesterday and found her a little distressed, as she had received a letter - despite my calling Sky - thanking her for "choosing Sky BB & phone".
I phoned Sky on her behalf, but was put through to the wrong department when, even though he could not help me, a pleasant NI guy called Mark, said that the transition from o2 should be FOC: he then put me through to Customer services.
They told me that there would indeed be a charge - £60, this time - if my sister wanted to be with Sky: I told them, in the politest possible way, to go diddle themselves!
I said that both she and I would close down our respective Sky TV accounts there and then, because of this financial chicanery: at that point, his demeanour changed completely. He rescinded the £50/60 charge, and the only thing to pay was the £2.98 postage for the new router
Despite me telling this guy - at least five times during his sales pitch - that my sister would only want the basic phone service, and the 2GB "free" BB, he kept on talking about unlimited/half price offers. I finally got through to him, after asking to speak to a supervisor, that I knew what was wanted - and we didn't want what he kept wittering on about!
Finally, it was sorted - £15+ for phone/no charge for basic BB and the postage charge for the router.
My sister - and I'm sure many others - should not have to jump through hoops to persuade Sky that they did not order a product, nor did they wish to be overcharged, if they did.
This is a pretty poor "seamless transition" for former o2 customers, who wanted a phone/BB: the management at Sky and o2 should be ashamed of themselves, having the temerity to assume something which, in my sister's case, was rejected at the first opportunity
Anyone else aware of this bit of deviousness? Cheers, Les.

Isnt the free 2GB broadband on sky connect which is rubbish and has lots of latency/speed issues?.

Sky have brought O2 Borabdand so surely any migrations are free and did sky not recently do an update to O2/BE routers to enable them to connect to skys network?