Sky Screw Up Cost Me £440

[IHateSky]

Last week I called Sky to do my phone upgrade. I was upgrading to a S23 and it was on offer for £24 a month with £100 trade-in and free earbuds worth £209. The order went through fine but he forgot to put through the earbuds so said he'd have to cancel it and put it through again. When he tried to re-order my piggybank data didn't refresh so he said we'd have to wait until the next day. (The piggybank data would have saved me £1 a month). At no point did he mention the prices or offers might change, as far as I was aware the following day's phone call would be simply reading the same terms and conditions and confirming the order. I definitely was not aware that the price could go up to £29 a month and the buds be removed, which is what actually happened. After obviously escalating it, apparently there is nothing they can do other than offer me £40 goodwill gesture - even though they are very clear that they understand it was their error and they are very sorry and that they would also be 'frustrated' if it was them. I had to choose whether to accept the £40 or escalate, I told them I'm extremely offended by the £40 as it has cost me £440 and so will escalate. do not want anything at all to do with Sky any more, which is annoying as they do my tv, broadband and ipad. Is there anything I can do? I'm struggling to believe they are able to treat their (platinum) customers like this!

Why do you keep saying it cost/lost you £440 when it didn't go ahead? You're not any worse off or am I missing something? You missed an opportunity to save £5/month by signing a cheaper contract and getting a set of earbuds for free. But it's just a missed opportunity. You're still in the same position as when you started, are you not?

The order did go ahead, they then cancelled it in order to redo it. I still need a new phone but now that exact same phone will cost me £440 more than it would have done if they hadn't cancelled it against my wishes. Imagine for example you are buying a car for £20,000. You pick the one you want, you agree the price and sign the paperwork. You are expecting it to be delivered next week and are picking out floormats and fluffy dice. Then the seller tells you they've messed up the paperwork and have cancelled your order. They then tell you it's now gone up to £30,000, take it or leave it. They acknowledge it was their fault, they apologise but say there's nothing they can do. They offer you a token 'goodwill payment' of a few hundred pounds. You still need a new car so you have the choice to not have a car and walk everywhere or to suck it up pay the extra £10,000. You don't think you'd be a bit annoyed? If I'd agreed to wait until the following day I'd be kicking myself and chalking it up to a "missed opportunity" but I did not agree to wait, I was not given the option and they cancelled my order without even asking my permission. I did not miss the opportunity, I saw the opportunity and grabbed it with both hands; the opportunity was then taken from me without my consent.

might write to The Times too, can't hurt!

can’t hurt

total waste of time though!

They have accepted your complaint as valid

they have offered you a goodwill gesture

they weren’t obliged to

it is not equal to the offer but they weren’t under any obligation to offer the offer in the first place so 🤷‍♀️

This

UPDATE: They called back and offered me the earbuds, the £100 extra trade-in and the £40, still can't do anything on the monthly price yet but she's passed it on to an even higher team and is hopeful - I should hear back within 72 hours with a final offer, which I expect to be at least the full offer I originally ordered plus the goodwill payment for wasting so much of my time. So I'd like to take it back, I no longer totally despise Sky as the lady I spoke with (and swore at 😬) went above and beyond to escalate it further even after she'd been told she couldn't. Still a stupid system that it makes it so difficult to sort out what should be a simple problem. Very surprised at (and a bit sorry for) those people here who would happily accept being screwed over though, you don't need to just roll over and accept terrible service you know! Thanks to those who offered advice.

Excellent news. :-)

Good news

but you were always going to get the £100 trade in
and you’re still paying the higher monthly rate

so you got the freebie ear buds.

are you can’t get a better monthly deal whereby the saving is more than the cost of the freebie ear buds?

And the £40... she sounds confident that something more will be done on the monthly price - you'd think that would be the easiest thing to change but apparently not! But I am very impressed with her, I really wasn't all that nice to her and after I hung up she put a lot of effort into trying to fix it as she said she felt terrible for me - she spent the whole day dealing with it. So, even though their systems might be crap, and I will still leave if I don't get the deal (I have a 30 day cooling off period where I don't pay anything for the phone if I return it, although obviously I'd lose the trade-in and buds), I am now simply annoyed with Sky rather filled with white-hot rage!