sky broadband connect fraud ?!

[Razglaws]

Dear all

Can someone please offer some advice or help on my issue, I know it's more of a customer service and not a technical issue but really need to see if this has happened before as I'm at the end of my tether !

Ordered sky broadband 3 weeks ago, along with my new sky hd box, upgraded from sky+.
Broadband wasn't an issue to begin with, rang up and ordered the £5 a month one, there was an issue with it at first they said I could only have the connect version but they managed to sort it out and told me the £5 deal was in place.
wireless router sent out, managed to get it connected and off and running, all good so far.
I have just been advised that my monthly payments are £x amount, which shows that they're charging me the monthly broadband connect fee of £20 or whatever it is.
So rang them up, complained and they said that is what I ordered and they won't back down even tho I explained what I was promised.
This sounds like very dodgy sales practice \ fraud and to say I'm annoyed is an understatement.
As it's now in and working, my good lady is happy with it, are they working on the fact that I won't cancel and so stay on the over inflated price !? Even tho their sales person basically lied to me ! & what is my legal pposition on this ?
Why is this price over inflated anyway ?! Surely if they can get the service to me, they can get it to me at the £5 price and not the £20 a month price ?!

This is on the back of 2 new HD boxes in 3 weeks and nearly 18 hours on the phone to sky customer services in 3 weeks !! I'm not exagerating about 18 hours, I'm actually close to tears with sky.

Any help would be gratefully received !

[fihart]

My flatmate had a similar "over-enthusiastic" sales person when she rang merely to enquire about the broadband product range in 2006.

After we had discussed the options and she decided on mid-range she rang to order it -- only to find that she'd already been signed up for the most expensive Max package.

When she protested she was told that it would take 14 days to cancel and re-order (even though the two conversations were less than an hour apart and it's hard to believe the order had somehow been processed irrevocably).

Anyway, I then rang and made threatening noises and obtained a promise of a year's discount equivalent to the cost of the lower priced service. Needless to say inertia prevented my flatmate from downgrading the service after a year -- so a good result for Sky.

One might wonder whether this whole nonsense seen as a legitimate way of closing sales of the premium product. But it seems a strange way to behave in a business which depends on customer loyalty (frankly I can't see why she wants Sky TV as it seems overpriced and mostly looks like drivel to me).

[PaulSky]

Best be would be to ring cust services and tell them due to what has happened you want to go through to cancellations. You should have been told that Connect is £5 per month if the exchange is due to get capacity or LLU upgraded and if not it is full price.

[Devil_Spawn]

Originally Posted by Razglaws

Why is this price over inflated anyway ?! Surely if they can get the service to me, they can get it to me at the £5 price and not the £20 a month price ?!

Wrong. The connect package is wholesaled from BT.

the cheap packages require sky's equipment to be installed at your exchange.

Chances are, you simply cannot get the cheap package because of where you live

[Isitme]

Check your account, a while ago when I was on Connect, the account showed £17 for Broadband, but there was a discount of £12 shown against the charge for TV. You will not normally be offered the £5 deal unless your exchange is due to be upgraded within a few months. Has the charge for Connect been increased to £20? Some hard talking with customer relations may be required if you are actually being charged for something you did not agree to. Almost all phone calls to Sky are recorded so you should be able to force them to check by quoting the date and time of the call.