The idea that a television service provider would be taking well over €100 a month off people who can perhaps ill afford it without being able to adequately explain what is going on is pretty awful.
But it enters the realm of appalling if those people are older, and might be struggling to get on top of their day-to-day finances.
We have two stories connected to Sky Television that are strikingly similar, and involve family members seeking help for older people.
“I am writing on behalf of my elderly father-in-law,” begins a mail from a reader called Jacinta.
On October 30th last year, he had contacted Sky, as he was concerned about being charged a monthly fee of €120, she explains.
“He verbally agreed to a new monthly contract of €84.50 for six months and was told he should contact the company when that timeframe had elapsed to agree the next charges.”
She says that on February 19th the charge was €85.14, and on March 18th the charge was €87.50. She says there was “no notification of an increase”.
[ Sky broadband blues: ‘During the day, it stayed working. After 8pm, zilch’Opens in new window ]
Then on April 16th “the new charges were €105.80. This was within the six months period and there was absolutely no notification. On May 16th charges were €121 – an almost 50 per cent increase inside a few weeks with absolutely no notification."
“My father-in-law is in his 70s, and suffers chronic health, and talking at times on the phone can greatly exacerbate his breathing [problems]. It’s not possible to email Sky, though you can call and be left usually up to 45 mins before you get to talk with someone and all that, apart from their charges. Sky can charge whatever they wish whenever they wish. Neither Comreg nor CCPC want to know as it’s not their area.”
Then there is the story about a woman in her 80s who appears to be paying an awful lot for very little.
The story was shared with us by her nephew.
“I’ve an aunt in her late 80s who spent her life giving of herself to others,” begins the mail.
“She doesn’t ask for much and uses TV to watch the news in her kitchen, and one other channel that’s free on the internet. For quite some time she couldn’t get Sky to work on the TV in the kitchen. I assumed it was because the TV was old, so I bought her a new one. The problem persists.”
Our reader asked her aunt how much she pays, and whether she had the account details. “The only information she could find was on her bank account, and she became upset as she realised how much they were taking from her account every month (average €150-plus).
“I work abroad, so rarely get the opportunity to resolve problems for her, but the week before last, after a lot of searching, managed to get through to Sky by phone. They went through security with my aunt and, after a few minutes, the call disconnected.”
He says that he tried four times “going through the same process, getting various levels of sympathy and assurances, but each time the calls eventually disconnected. This weekend I checked with my aunt. She’d received no mail or follow up of any sort,” he writes.
“My aunt’s a trusting and generous person, and it seems as if Sky are happy to take advantage, deliberately make it incredibly difficult to contact them, and apparently impossible to get support.”
It seems to Pricewatch that both of these people are is paying way over the odds for their television service but it also seems like they have both struggled to find out exactly what they are paying for.
We contacted Sky.
In connection with our first story a spokeswoman said Sky is “committed to supporting all of its customers. In our efforts to provide fast and efficient customer support, our billing teams have maintained an average call response time of just 58 seconds year-to-date.”
“The customer in question regularly availed of promotional offers as a long-time customer with Sky. However, now that we are aware of the customer’s health condition, we believe he would benefit from Sky’s dedicated accessibility service, which provides tailored care and alternative contact methods to support customers who may need additional assistance. We have since outreached to the customer to support with this.”
And when it came to the second story she said the company was “sorry to hear about this customer’s experience, which was unfortunately due to an initial miscommunication while resolving a technical issue. We have since spoken with the customer to apply the due credit on their account and ensure they are set up correctly.”
