Sky have cut us off, WTF?

[Upwiththisiwillnotput]

Looking for consumer advice please.
Woke up this morning to no telly or WiFi. Checked the sky account and they have cancelled our account! There is nothing outstanding.

DH called this evening and apparently we missed a payment in February which we did but paid it asap, the said they sent a cancellation email but DH assumed as we were up to date we could ignore that.

They are now asking us to pay a reconnection charge of £400!! But we don’t owe them any money!!

Advice welcome please.

Go to utility warehouse for broadband

Work from elsewhere today and order a dongle. Dont go back to sky out of panic! Not for £400

Why do you need to go badly to them
though?

Use your mobile as a hotspot for now. Everyone has unlimited data these days.

Go with someone else for broadband. Get nowTV (it’s sky, but a hell of a lot cheaper).

Maybe this reconnection charge is a charge for breaking the contract, it could be that much if OP is only a few months into a two year contract, I couldn't possibly see any other reason for this £400 charge. Without Sky telly you will still get all the normal freeview channels anyway.

That £400 reconnection charge would pay for NowTV for a couple of years. It’s exactly the same as sky. You get all the same channels and content and can watch live.

Have you actually logged into the Sky account to see exactly what has happened, all the payments and contract details will be on there, if you haven't got the log in details ask DH for them.

Virgin are no better tbh. I left as they wanted to double my package cost to over £70 a month and when I cancelled they charged me even though I’d returned my kit immediately, had proof they had received it and I had spoken to someone to explain it. They are all shit tbh, people like plus net seem to be a bit better but they fuller service ins are just looking to scalp you.

I can’t understand paying £400 to them. Go with someone else!

Get bt or another free to connect broadband. Then add sky package if you want it

This just seem really odd because as @FrogsWormsandButterflies says this isn't generally how Sky work.

I'm having the opposite bloody problem with them...was out of contract and switched to Virgin...was told by both Sky and Virgin that I didn't need to do anything and that the switch would happen automatically (this is also on Sky's website). This was in Feb.
When full March payment was still taken, I assumed it was just the final payment but gave them a call to check. They confirmed they had noted the switch as taking place at end of April? I said no, it was at end of Feb and I no longer need Sky, please cancel. They said they couldn't change the date now that it was in progress and that I'd need to get money back from Virgin after April payment taken. I told them I wasn't paying it.
When I didn't pay the April payment, they sent an email threatening debt collection agencies and court. I was physically unable to contact them by any means until I paid the fees outstanding. Every time I phoned any of the numbers, it was a message to pay the balance in order to proceed to speak to someone. If I phoned from a different number, it said sorry we can't link to your account, please enter phone number linked to Sky account and then we got back to the late payment message...absolute fly bastards!!
Even after them saying they had a note of the switch as end of April, guess what? Still not cancelled!
Now mid-May. Official complaint logged but it is being investigated account being kept active until they complete. No timelines given for how long this may take. They have a double payment scheduled to come out on 1st June and I actually don't know what to do because if I don't pay it, then I would be unable to contact them if not resolved?
I JUST WANT TO CANCEL MY OUT OF CONTRACT SERVICES!!!!

Just get a dongle or hot spot your phone until you can organise another supplier.

Your dh didn’t read the email, does it say you are being cut off for non payment? Why should they give you more than one communication? Trust me, they don’t give up customers that easily so I’m guessing it wasn’t one single payment made up quickly?

Don't pay the robbing gits another penny.

Go elsewhere for your broadband. I hotspotted off my phone for months when I moved house and the laptop ran smooth. Do you have unlimited phone data?

You get a cancellation notice, it means a payment has failed- you have to respond. Assumimg you are up to date is daft- they wouldn't have sent the email.
It's an expensive mistake, I'd change providers to avoid the charge- if they will accept you.

Now have stopped broadband and direct you to sky .

I had the same experience as you.

I just can’t understand why Sky have suddenly done this after a missed payment 3 months ago when op’s account is now up to date. It doesn’t make sense.

@SqueakyFromme thank you, its been a while since I used them

You need to understand more about what happened to understand what your position is and how to engage with Sky.

Sky are all about customer retention and upselling - it’s a saturated market already where there aren’t many “new customers”. My suspicion is that either what you understand happened is not the whole story (it was more than one late payment, there were unpaid late payment charges etc) or there was a lack of communication between different departments and now that the disconnection has taken place no one you are speaking to is looking at this holistically and able to address a minor oversight on your account that shouldn’t have led to you being cut off as, per the above, they’re all about retention.

I would get clarity from your husband. If the story really is as you suggest, I would try and get on to complaints / customer retention team, not the first line customer services person who picks up the phone, and press them as to why, as a long term customer, you are being asked to pay such a hefty charge when you were up to date.

UPDATE DH spoke to them this morning:

£400 cancellation fee cancelled and £16.50 a month bill decrease for VIPs. Go me!💪😁❤️

Thanks all the help/advice. I’ll try and find out what he said when I get home x

@shellyleppard I had to swap over to Now 'Fulfilled by Sky' when i renewed a while ago but it is actually better faster and cheaper and a much updated router

Sky own NowTV

Talktalk did this to me, despite never missing a payment. I contacted them and they left me hanging for a week without telling me anything. I contacted them again and they told me the account had been disconnected, and a new account needed to be set up. I decided to go with BT and haven't looked back since. Did you have one of those sky glass TVs?