Satellite warranties

[Sky Team]

We are very concerned that some of you have recently posted about being approached by companies offering satellite warranty products using misleading selling tactics. We hope this post will answer your questions, update you on what we are doing to try to prevent this from happening and explain what options are open to you if you are affected.

What is Sky doing about it?
There is only one extended warranty product that is approved by Sky and operates under our brand – this is the Sky Repair Plan and is provided on behalf of Sky by Domestic & General.
We are aware of a number of other companies offering extended warranties on Sky equipment. Some of these companies actively misled customers by passing off their warranty products as being provided or approved by Sky.
Last December, Sky won a High Court victory against 2 such companies – Satellite Direct Ltd and it’s sister company Satcover Ltd – after an 18 month legal battle. In his ruling, the Judge described some of the sales techniques used by telesales staff at Satellite Direct and Satcover as “a blatant lie”. The Judge also ordered injunctions to stop these companies passing themselves off as Sky.
We continue to pursue these matters where possible and take companies to task who are acting unlawfully to protect our customers. We are also trying to raise awareness of our approved Sky Repair Plan – for example by advertising in our customer magazine, so that it is clearer which plan Sky endorses.

How are these companies able to contact Sky customers?
Independent companies can legally offer extended warranty products to protect digital satellite equipment and it is your choice as a customer whether you take a product which is approved by Sky or one from an independent provider.
However, you should be aware that:
• These companies are not connected to Sky or in any way endorsed by us.
• We do not provide customer data to these companies
• If these companies do call you, remember that you are within your rights to ask them how they obtained your details under Section 7(1) of the Data Protection Act.
• It is unlawful for them to state or imply that they are approved by Sky to sell extended warranty products
• You can register with the Telephone Preference Service and Mailing Preference Service to stop cold calls and mailshots.

What should you do if you think you have been missold to?
• You should first complain directly to the company that contacted you.
• If this does not resolve the matter, you should complain to your local trading standards office

We are very concerned that some of our customers are being misled and want to do whatever we can to prevent this happening in future. You can help. If you have been missold to, please email us at mysky@bskyb.com with a complete account of your experience and we will assess whether we can use the information to take any further action.

Thank you.

[newskyBOd]

wow i was with sat direct 1 year ago my sky+box broke and when i asked them to replace like the insurance promised they kept making excuses saying there computers were down or they had a big buisness order pending and wouldnt help me for over a week i cancelled the direct debit and im now with the sky plan which is cheaper anyway if i remember at the time i signed up with them they told us they were sky

they got a years insurance out of me

[Shadowman]

i am not sure if i still have the letters laying about but a few months ago now we were getting contacted though pestered is more approphate
(not the approved one) by a componie about sutch things and getting phone calls, oh in a month your sky will be out of warrienty bla bla sine with us and well provide you with 3 years or so of extra cover--i dont know or like how they obtained my data or how at 11am, 3pm, 5pm, 8pm even a few times at 11pm were calling in the end after so many times of telling them to get lost it is a privet number call again and ill be doing more than reporting it they gave up

ps the real odd thing was the warrienty if i rem right had 3months left not the 1 they said

[adlams]

very very strange this, I had a letter the other week form the company up in liverpool.

They seem to have a lot of my personal data, even knew I had a normal & Sky+ box. How are they getting this has someone in sky customer services been paid a few bob extra to pass on details.

Also how do they get my phone number when it is ex directory.

[geo48]

I would like to confirm what the previous posts have reported I was phoned numerous times by at least 2 companies, one of which was Liverpool based and both new to the date when the box came out of warranty both had my name address and phone number this information is either coming from an employee or from sky, what I was told was that only DG had the Box/sky number, forget which.
I then had a payment dispute with sky, which by the way I was proved right in that instance but only after a long drawn out battle during which I contacted DG to explain and they agreed to cancel the policy then refund the DD as it was too late to stop it ,this never happened and once the errors with Skybb were resolved and due apologies received I called DG explained the promised months overpayment had not been received but as the conflict was resolved could the policy be classed as suspended and so as to not make the initial larger first payment just carry on with the normal monthly payment. To my surprise they denied ever saying they would refund the payment(essentially calling me a liar) and said I would have to start over again as I'd received cover for 2months, not the 2 weeks I had in reality received.
Therefore in my opinion it seems all concerned with this insurance / extended warranty are "bent" to some degree so from now on I'll take my chances until I can find an Honest company. But why has there to be only ONE approved company what is the problem that Sky has with competition surely there could be a choice of at least 2 approved insurers?

[MrStabby]

I've had two calls today from a company calling themselves "Full cover" or something, no mention of "Sky Repair Plan". The guy said that all their engineers were Sky approved and that the scheme was backed by Domestic & General. The CLI was 05601157197.
The guy still sounded dodgy. In addition to that, he was asking to speak to the 'not a real" name we use in this house for junkmail.

[jimmycobra]

Do sky call you to ask if you want an extended warranty,
i have had three in two days now.

all say they are calling on behalf of sky.

if sky officially call how do you tell the difference?

[NewsreadeR]

If they say on behalf of Sky, that's a good indication they are not Sky.

Ask them to read your Sky account number to you so you can verify, they probably will not be able to give you that information and end the call.

Also tell them that if they do not stop ringing you, you will report them to TPS.

Then do this bit:

We are very concerned that some of our customers are being misled and want to do whatever we can to prevent this happening in future. You can help. If you have been missold to, please email us at mysky@bskyb.com with a complete account of your experience and we will assess whether we can use the information to take any further action.

[jimmycobra]

they open up with big long speech about sky+ box, and do i use all the functions they also ask what programs i watch and record. then after five mins go into sales mode of extended warranty 12 months £99 includes accidental cover and all cables and dish.I wish i had been more on the ball and asked who exactly they were now, but it was tea time and kids running round like headless chickens.

[Hammerbear]

I got this call yesterday, and although it sounded ok I just told them that I don't do business over the phone and to send me some information.

Ted