This topic

Elderly relative switched from Sky to BT but still be billed for Sky TV packages

Frankie8 — Sun, 10 Mar 2024 20:50:30 GMT

I have an elderly relative (aged 79 at the time) who was won over to BT TV because of their competitive pricing. Last June (2023) she phoned up BT and explained that she was with Sky for her TV, phone, and broadband. The BT customer service presentative told her that they would do all the work in switching her over to BT. Her primary reason for switching to BT was the TV, but the switch also included the phone and broadband which was happy to do.

I only found out this month that Sky has still been charging her for the TV packages, which is now represents a sum of about £1,100. This has been a great shock to her as she was told that everything about the switch would be taken care of by BT. In my own research I discovered that the Ofcom 'one-touch switch' doesn't include TV packages.

What I find troubling is how the BT representative hasn't explained to this elderly woman that she needed to contact Sky and cancel the TV package herself. This has caused a lot of distress in an elderly person, not to mention being at a loss of about £1100 for a service she no longer receives.

Can anyone in BT help explain how such a treatment of elderly customer can be permitted and what can be done to rectify the losses she has incurred?

Thank you in advance.

Re: Elderly relative switched from Sky to BT but still be billed for Sky TV packages

Keith_Beddoe — Sun, 10 Mar 2024 20:59:18 GMT

@Frankie8

This is just a customer to customer help forum, everyone here, including myself, are just customers.

The only BT Employees are the forum moderators.

BT would have cancelled the Sky broadband, but Sky TV is totally different, and could still continue without broadband.

Your relative would have needed to call Sky to cancel the TV service, which would have nothing to do with BT.

Re: Elderly relative switched from Sky to BT but still be billed for Sky TV packages

Frankie8 — Sun, 10 Mar 2024 21:40:07 GMT

"BT would have cancelled the Sky broadband, but Sky TV is totally different, and could still continue without broadband.

Your relative would have needed to call Sky to cancel the TV service, which would have nothing to do with BT."

When an elderly woman contacts BT about switching her Sky TV package, which did when she ordered the BT TV package; why didn't the BT customer service representative explain to her that she would need to cancel the Sky TV package herself?

BT helpfully switched the phone, the broadband, and signed her up for BT TV, but they don't tell her that she has to cancel the Sky TV herself, so how can BT not have any responsibility?

Are some BT customer service representatives deliberately misleading elderly customers?

Re: Elderly relative switched from Sky to BT but still be billed for Sky TV packages

imjolly — Sun, 10 Mar 2024 22:20:58 GMT

If the switch happened in June 2023 I can't understand how your relative did not notice the significant DD going to SKY each month when all SKY contract was thought to have ceased

Re: Elderly relative switched from Sky to BT but still be billed for Sky TV packages

Frankie8 — Mon, 11 Mar 2024 00:56:19 GMT

"If the switch happened in June 2023 I can't understand how your relative did not notice the significant DD going to SKY each month when all SKY contract was thought to have ceased"

You clearly haven't dealt with the elderly before. When someone says that everything is taken care of, they assumed that this is the case. This is why elderly customers should be treated with more care and attention, something which is lacking in this case, and maybe many others.

Re: Elderly relative switched from Sky to BT but still be billed for Sky TV packages

iniltous — Mon, 11 Mar 2024 08:05:43 GMT

Although it’s unfortunate, your claim BT are responsible for your relative continuing to pay Sky for TV after joining BT because BT said they would do ‘all the work’ in switching , is not really fair, that statement only ever applies to broadband and telephone, your suggestion that it was deliberately stated that it included TV begs the question, why ? , in what way would BT or the BT agent possibly benefit ? , the organisation that benefited, if any , is Sky .

You can only speculate what was actually said ( you were not on the call ) and TBH , even putting the tiniest amount of thought into it should have identified a big problem, if your relative has Sky TV , either delivered via a satellite dish or over the internet , how could ‘BT’ possibly stop a direct debit to Sky from your relatives bank account ? …..broadband and phone are different in that they both ( in your relatives case ) are delivered over the same Openreach infrastructure, so in switching to BT , Sky are notified that BT are taking ‘control’ of the Openreach ‘line’ , and doubtless Sky will have sent a communication along the lines of ‘sorry to see you leave’ to your relative , including instructions if they didn’t want the migration to proceed, Sky send this when they were notified of the migration by Openreach , this is only ever the broadband and phone , TV has nothing to do with Openreach.

If your relative has paid £1100 in around 8 -9 months , that presumably is quite a comprehensive TV package including sport and movies , as it’s well over £100 a month , didn’t they notice that the Sky TV continued delivering all the channels they had previously, if anything depending on how Sky originally billed for three services ( phone , broadband and TV ) reducing to one service ( TV ) then the payment to Sky reduced, why wasn’t it noticed that it didn’t reduce to zero rather than reducing from presumably something like £130 a month to £100 a month .

Re: Elderly relative switched from Sky to BT but still be billed for Sky TV packages

imjolly — Mon, 11 Mar 2024 08:00:42 GMT

@Frankie8 wrote:
"If the switch happened in June 2023 I can't understand how your relative did not notice the significant DD going to SKY each month when all SKY contract was thought to have ceased"

You clearly haven't dealt with the elderly before. When someone says that everything is taken care of, they assumed that this is the case. This is why elderly customers should be treated with more care and attention, something which is lacking in this case, and maybe many others.

I am a septuagenarian and take offence at your comment about the elderly and they are incapable of making decisions

Re: Elderly relative switched from Sky to BT but still be billed for Sky TV packages

licquorice — Mon, 11 Mar 2024 08:02:37 GMT

@Frankie8 You clearly haven't dealt with 'the elderly' if you think that everyone in their seventies is gaga and can't deal with anything.

I'm in my seventies and take exception to your stereotyping and attitude.

Re: Elderly relative switched from Sky to BT but still be billed for Sky TV packages

Frankie8 — Mon, 11 Mar 2024 09:58:41 GMT

@iniltous

While your response in comprehensive in how things are supposed to happen, you're deliberately missing the point of the post. This is post is about an elderly person who was misled by BT into believing that she didn't have to do anything about the switch. The fact that you don't acknowledge my relative as being elderly, only highlights how BT are trying to coverup their responsibilities when dealing with elderly people.

You're correct in that I wasn't on the call. Since you seemed to know everything, does BT keep a recording of such calls? If they do, how would I get access to such a recording?

Re: Elderly relative switched from Sky to BT but still be billed for Sky TV packages

Keith_Beddoe — Mon, 11 Mar 2024 09:51:01 GMT

@Frankie8

This is just a customer to customer help forum, everyone here, including myself, are just customers.

The only BT Employees are the forum moderators.

Try calling 0330 1234 150

Re: Elderly relative switched from Sky to BT but still be billed for Sky TV packages

Frankie8 — Mon, 11 Mar 2024 09:54:51 GMT

@imjolly
"I am a septuagenarian and take offence at your comment about the elderly and they are incapable of making decisions"

Looking at your profile I not convinced you're a real BT customer. If you're a fake BT customer services account, it's not helpful to mock genuine queries about poor BT customer service practices.

Re: Elderly relative switched from Sky to BT but still be billed for Sky TV packages

Frankie8 — Mon, 11 Mar 2024 09:56:55 GMT

@licquorice
"I'm in my seventies and take exception to your stereotyping and attitude."

This is a similar response to the one by @imjolly. Also looking at your profile I not convinced you're a real BT customer. If you're a fake BT customer services account, it's not helpful to mock genuine queries about poor BT customer service practices.

Re: Elderly relative switched from Sky to BT but still be billed for Sky TV packages

imjolly — Mon, 11 Mar 2024 10:02:19 GMT

@Frankie8 wrote:
@imjolly
"I am a septuagenarian and take offence at your comment about the elderly and they are incapable of making decisions"

Looking at your profile I not convinced you're a real BT customer. If you're a fake BT customer services account, it's not helpful to mock genuine queries about poor BT customer service practices.

I am not nor have I ever been a BT employee. I am a customer just like your relative

a typical response from you when customer don't agree with you and take exception to your comments about the elderly

just phone CS as suggested by @Keith_Beddoe

Re: Elderly relative switched from Sky to BT but still be billed for Sky TV packages

NeilO — Mon, 11 Mar 2024 10:16:21 GMT

Hi Everyone,

Please keep it friendly and on-topic. We want everyone in the community to feel comfortable when posting questions and answers.

@Frankie8 The only employees representing BT in the community are the Moderators and Subject matter experts and this is explained in our profiles. The community leaders are not BT customer services and are posting their own personal opinions.

BT don't cancel other providers' TV services, there is no industry mechanism in place to do so. We can however take over broadband and line rental services and I am sorry your relative believed BT would also make arrangements for the Sky TV to stop.

I will send you a private message so you can get in touch with the moderation team and we'll happily look into your complaint.

Thanks

Neil

Re: Elderly relative switched from Sky to BT but still be billed for Sky TV packages

iniltous — Mon, 11 Mar 2024 12:09:19 GMT

I didn’t acknowledge the fact your relative is elderly as it’s a little demeaning to simply equate elderly with senility or someone liable to confusion ( as others of similar ages have pointed out ) .

I’m not blaming anyone for the fact that apparently a misunderstanding took place , simply pointing out that with many conversations the parties involved can have different recollections of what was discussed , you seem to take a somewhat contradictory view of the callers age being arguing that as your relative is elderly , they can easily confused , and should have been handled with kid gloves , and the terms of the migration spelled out in a better fashion, if the result was your relative assumed that Sky TV could be cancelled by BT , ( which is obviously wrong ) , but you don’t doubt this elderly person’s ability to recall exactly what was said on a call from 9 month ago .

I would always look , especially if impropriety is suggested , that who is it that would benefit , in this case no one but Sky would , so why would the BT agent say anything misleading as far as Sky TV is concerned, why would BT say , explicitly , words to the effect , ‘ we will cancel your Sky TV ‘ when that’s not even possible ?.

I would concede that if something was said like ‘ we can cancel your Sky service’ that is open to interpretation , but context is everything, if Sky TV was mentioned specifically on the call , as the reason why they wanted to switch everything, then an indication that BT cannot cancel Sky TV woukd have been helpful, but we don’t know what was said , if there was a doubt , clarification should have been sort , if it were I cannot believe BT would say ‘ we cancel everything for you , including TV ‘ , it possible a recording of the call exists and ( AFAIK ) a transcript can be provided for a small fee.

You or your relative are at liberty to approach Sky , stating that the date the broadband was disconnected from Sky was the date the Sky TV was supposed to also be disconnected, but I would imagine they will say , you , and only you , needed to have told us that you wanted to cancel the TV , separately from the broadband and phone .