Sky’s the limit when it comes to ‘free TV’ offer

In May, we highlighted the difficulties two readers had getting the “free” television they thought they were getting after they signed up with Sky TV. Both readers waited for their televisions but they never came. Eventually, they contacted the company and were told they should have clicked an activation email months earlier but because more than 90 days had passed, they were out of luck. At least one of the Sky activation emails ended up in reader’s spam folder. We managed to resolve their issues but they were not alone. We recently received an email from a reader called Nichola, whose story was strikingly similar.

“My complaint with Sky relates to the information they are providing at the point of sale regarding the “Free TV” offer,” her mail began. “I took out a Sky subscription in December 2017 and was told during the sales call that the TV would be sent automatically after the third bill on the account was paid,” she says.

“I waited and by the beginning of April no TV had arrived. I rang Sky to be told that I was no longer entitled to the TV as I had failed to claim it within 90 days. I was not advised of this when I entered into the agreement,” Nichola says.

“I asked for the call where I agreed to the service to be listened to. I knew if they listened to the call they would clearly hear what I was advised. Instead, Sky have refused to honour the agreement and continue to put the blame back on me because I did not submit my claim for the TV online,” she continues.

Why can’t I get my water charges refund?

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Sent automatically

She was then surprised when on May 24th, her husband, a previous Sky customer, received a sales call from Sky “to encourage him to come back to Sky. He was told by the sales adviser that the TV would be sent automatically after the third bill and explained it would be by courier. My husband explained that I had complained and was told on the sales call to go back to the complaints team.”

Nichola says the sales team “are continuing to advise the TV is sent automatically and that there is no requirement to ‘claim’ the TV within 90 days and we should get it. I went back to the Sky complaints team but received no reply, one attempt to call me and no contact since. They are refusing to acknowledge that Sky sales advisers are continuing to provide inaccurate and misleading information.”

She says she “would love to know if others are having the same issues – it seems very clear they are misleading customers. I do not know who to complain to, I am a Sky TV-only customer so unsure who the regulator would be in this case.”

Well, we bypassed regulators and went straight to Sky and got the following statement. “We have looked into this complaint and regret that the customer was advised incorrectly on the TV offer. Sky Ireland is focused on delivering the best-quality service to all of our customers and we apologise that this was not the case on this occasion. We have reached out to the customer and have resolved this matter”