How often does a company (such as your bank) call you, and ask you to prove who you are by giving your security password, name, address, DOB etc, but how do you know it is your bank calling and not just a scammer phishing for your details.
Normally I am pretty savvy about this stuff and I never give personal details out over the phone, if someone calls me claiming to be from a company that I do business with and they want to discuss my account or personal details I make them prove who they are or I call the company back on a known number.
But alas this week I let my guard slip and I was scammed out of my debit card details. I have been ill this week, so maybe I just wasn't as with it as I normally am, but either way it just goes to show how easy it is for any of us to fall foul to these evil scammers.
Here is what happened.
I had a call earlier in the week from a company stating they were the providers of my SKY protection plan and that they were calling from sky. This is an insurance you take out when your sky equipment is out of warranty so that you can get it repaired or replaced if something goes wrong. The service is actually provided by a 3rd party not by SKY themselves, but it was SKY who setup the cover so I had no clue who the company were that actually provided it..
They informed me that they had reduced the cost of the protection down to £65 per year for anyone that had not made any claims or had any callouts, and would I be interested in updating my protection plan to this new price.
- They knew my name
- They knew I was a sky customer.
- They knew I had a protection plan
- They knew I had recently renewed it
- They knew I had not made any claims since renewing it
So while this all seemed legit, I still gave my usual answer, stating how do I know who you are, he said he prove this by asking me some security questions about my account (accounts details they do not even have).
He then asked me to confirm which bank my payments usually came out from, which I told him, he then confirmed the first 4 digits of my debit card to me, so it all seems very cosher at this point.
So I then duely gave him the rest of my card details so he could setup a new direct debit for the new amount and he told me to cancel the old direct debit.
No sooner had I got off the phone, then I started to think.
- When someone confirms your card details to you, they give you the last 4 digits and not the first 4 digits.
The first 4 digits are actually specific to your bank and are thus usually the same on all cards issued by that bank, so by confirming my bank to him, he could easily tell me the first 4 digits of my card.- I realised that the offer was meaningless to me as I paid for my protection plan yearly, so it was already paid for for the next year anyway.
- He never gave me his name and actually avoided giving me a contact number when I asked, insisting he would call me back.
- If they already had my card details, why would they need to ask for them again
So I then called SKY to check if this was legit. Which of course it was not, they confirmed that no sales calls had been made to me and they had not heard of the company name before. They then gave me the number of the company that did the payment protection and I called them. Same answer, it was nothing to do with them, and they had actually had a few other calls about this "Fully Covered" company.
I then called my bank and promptly cancelled my card. All this was within 20 minutes of the scam, so they didn't have a chance to even use my card I thought, but I was wrong, they were quick.
I also did a 1471 and got the number of the scammer and passed it on to the police along with the details I obtained from companies house.
The other scary thing is that these people have clearly got hold of SKY's customer details somehow seeing as they did actually know I had a protection plan.
So if you are a sky customer beware, do not believe anyone that calls you with regards to your sky account or protection plan. In fact don't believe anyone who calls you and says they are from ANY company, ask them to proove who they are. Never give out your personal details on the phone to someone who has called you, always call the company back on a known number. If they ask you to prrove your identity, give them fake details, wrong passwords etc and see if they notice, they shgould of course tell you the details are wrong.
NOTE: The company that officially provides the protection plan for sky is "Domestic and General". No other company is anything to do with SKY or is authorised to provide this service. Any other company claiming to be calling you on behalf of sky is lying, and there are several companies known to be selling "sky cover" who just take your money but provide no cover or service what so ever.
Domestic and General can be contacted on 08702 404142
--
UPDATE
It turns out that "FUlly Covered" are a real company and I have tracked down the company and contacted them, and they do actually claim to provide sky cover plans. But as I said above, they are nothing to do with sky and it seems they are taking peoples money and providing no such service. They are also of course obtaining peoples credit/debit cards by fraudulent methods as detailed above. As you can see from the details below, they were only incorporated less than 6 months ago and they have no credit history.
--
UPDATE 3rd March 2007
This is classic.
Fully Covered actually called me again yesterday and tried to convince me to not cancel the order stating that they were a legit company.
They actually tried to claim that they had not fraudulently obtained my card or led me to believe they were calling on behalf of sky, stating that they had recorded the phone conversation and could prove this.
I told the guy he was liar and to play the recording back to me in that case, to which he replied that it is illegal to play the recording to another person, even me. Which of course is not true.
I had quite a lengthy argument with the guy about their ethics and techniques and got some interesting explanations from them.
Their excuse for asking me to confirm my bank and then telling me my first 4 digits of my card is just to confirm that I am using the right card and that it is a debit card and not a credit card. They do not have any of details not did they claim to have.
Hmm, that rather conflicts with the conversation I remember, where they told me the opposite. I actually specifically asked them "if you already have my card details then why do I need to give them to you again", and their answer was that they needed to me to confirm my card details for security reasons, or something along those lines.
I just couldn't believe that the guy was actually trying to convince me that most of the conversations in the phone calls had not happened and that I must be mad or something. I do actually have the conversation recorded as all calls on my VOIP line are recorded automatically.
UPDATE 9th March 2007
---------------------------
I got an email today from GREGORY SEAN KEARTLAND, threatening me with legal action if I did not remove this false information from my blog and telling me that I did not have permission to post their company details and should remove this also. It seems Greg has never heard of Companies House and does not know that anyone can find this information online at any time. Also how odd that a company does not want anyone to know their address and phone number, unless of course they have something to hide or are up to no good. As you can also see he has since posted a comment on my blog pretending to be "Mr Reay" a happy customer. I know this because he then posted again as "Fully Covered" several hours later from the exact same IP address. Unless of course Mr Keatland and Mr Reay just happen to conveniently live in the same house and share the same computer.
As anyone with half a brain cell can clearly see I have made no false accusations against "Fully Covered", all I have done relay the events that led to them scamming my card details out of me, all of which is true.
Company Name | FULLY COVERED LIMITED | ||||
| Registered Number | 05938016 | ||||
| Legal Form | [Private Limited] | ||||
| Date Incorporated | 18 Sep 2006 | ||||
| Issued Capital (Returns) | - | ||||
| Registered Office | 15 GRAFTON ROAD, WORTHING, WEST SUSEX, WEST SUSSEX, BN11 1QR | ||||
| Last Recorded Trading Address |
|
| Current Directors | |
| Name | GREGORY SEAN KEARTLAND |
| Address | 21 AGNES PLACE, CHICHESTER, WEST SUSSEX, PO19 7TN |
| Date Of Birth | 17 Jul 1985 |
| Nationality | BRITISH |
| Occupation | SALES MANAGER |
| Date Appointed | 18 Sep 2006 |
| Name | CARLA LEE KEET |
| Address | 21 AGNES PLACE, CHICHESTER, WEST SUSSEX, PO19 7TN |
| Date Of Birth | 13 Sep 1983 |
| Nationality | BRITISH |
| Occupation | TELE SALES |
| Date Appointed | 18 Sep 2006 |
SATCOV - Another Scammer
On the 22nd Nov 2007 I had another one these attempted scam calls, this time by a company called SatCov, a name you will see mentioned many times in the coments below. This time I was on the ball thankfully and didn't believe them for a second. Again the caller pretended to be calling from sky tv, I even got him to confirm this just for the record. Supposedly my sky box cover had expired (which I knew it hadn't) and did I want to renew it and continue paying monthly as I had been up to now. I went along with him for a couple of minutes and then stated that I have just checked and that cover has not expired and was in fact renewed yearly and even if I was paying monthly how could it have possibly expired as the payments would be taken automatically every month. He then got very flustered, said he must have made a mistake and hung up.
Surprisingly he had not witheld his number either, so I called it right back and got through to SatCov.
There are many of these companies about using the same illegal practices. Check out these reports from BBC weatchdog on the subject.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AmohLJc00i0
and
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKgMFJnDmNA
---
NB: I am now disabling comments on this blog post as it is clealry just attracting abuse from idiots and screwballs. I think there has been more than enough now anyway.
Unless I call them I will not speak to callers about anything.
You just can't be too careful these days. Too much social hacking and phishing going on.
Subsequent other abusive posts were also been made under various different names , and all the IP addresses tracked back to the same place. These have been deleted as they were simply abusive and had nothing to do with the topic.
This blog entry is in no way accusing "Fully Covered" of anything or making any claims about the conduct of their company with other people, I am simply stating the facts of what happened to me.
What you should do is send both conversations to the Office of fair trading, or the trading standards, or even Watchdog.
I'm pretty sure that what they did was illegal under some legislation. I wonder what sky would think if they new also.
Guys, you maybe a legit company, but your selling techniques suck big time!
I for one would never use you. Smarten your act up or close down.
I'm going to put a copy of this thread on my blog.
The police have also contacted me to say Fully Covered is now being investigated by them and sky.
I received an unsolicited call from a company calling themselves Sky Repair Services. The guy on the other end spoke with a Midlands accent. He made small talk attempting to build a rapport, saying he was from Nottingham also and had lived nearby. He mentioned a street and the area name. But apparently he now lived in sunny Bournemouth. He went on to say that I was being charged too much for my Sky Repair cover and that they could offer it for less and went on about the other benefits of switching to them. Apparently, they wanted to bill me quarterly instead of monthly to reduce their admin, but the cost would remain the same and so it went on.
He then asked what bank I was with. And said that he needed me to give my name and bank number as they only had my wife's name. I told him that I was not comfortable giving these details without verification of knowing who he was. He said that he would get his manager. Another guy came on the phone, this time with a Southern accent. This was his manager. He told me nothing useful and did nothing to convince me that I should hand over my details. I voiced my concerns and he said that I could call back after I had visited their website and checked that they are a real company etc. I said that I would do this.
The website name the manager gave me did not exist (www.skyrepairservices.co.uk). Not a good start for them. I called the first guy back on his supposedly direct number but got through to his colleague. When I asked what the website was, he had to check and said he thought it was www.skyrepairservices.com. I thanked him and said that I'd check it out. Before I hung up, I asked for their physical address. He gave me an address in Bournemouth with a BH1 postcode.
The website (with the .com domain) was there but very basic and unconvincing. The address was different to the one the guy had given me. It was a BH9 postcode.
This one appears to be using the name of another company. If you check companies house, there is a "sky repair services Ltd" who are in Bournemouth, but the site you were given above lists their name as "Sky Repair Services UK Ltd" which appears to be a different company with a different address.
We're ex-directory, so they shouldn't have been able to trawl the phonebook for us. Sounds like our details have been sold on by some unscrupulous individual. I think I'm going to report it to WatchDog and the OFT. The more awareness about this the better. No reputable company should (or would) be able to obtain and use your details in this manner.
It was created by btconnect's simple sitebuilder software, it was product order pages inviting you to enter your credit card details but is not secured by https and submits the details in plain text via email to sales@fully-covered.com - I did like the little lock image at the top of the page that links to NatWest Streamline page.
The mailing address differs completely to the company address (as above and on whois) - this time it's Customer Contact Centre, Fully Covered LTD,Grafton Lodge,Grafton Road,Worthing,BN11 1QR
Every additional complaint posted here is legitimate.
Anyone can call SKY or Domestic General directly to inquire about fully covered and their reputation, and I would encourage anyone to do so rather than simply believe what is written on my blog. As stated above Domestic and General can be contacted on 08702 404142
I am also more than happy to provide my crime number to anyone else who wants to contact the police and add to their investigation.
They agreed to send me a FREE HD box by way of an apology if I would take this blog entry down, I did actually agree initially, but of course they never sent it.
Now that I have evidence and other complaints showing that that they have been doing this to other people, I would not be bribed into taking it down now anyway.
Any further comments by David (or whatever his real name is) are now being deleted as despite my previous warning he continues to post more silly lies from a fake email address in his futile efforts to try and deny the facts by arguing with me.
This guy isn't the sharpest knife in the drawer is he. He just can't grasp the fact that anyone can just call SKY or domestic and general to find out that everything written here is true. Clearly someone else must be pulling the strings for this poor muppet, he can't even keep his lies consistant.
His last comment which I have just deleted said
"Our company has never bribed anyone to my knowledge but i did see a e-mail from you informing us to send you sky HD box for the trouble"
which totally contradicts his previous post above which says,
"We offered to give him a free Sky HD box for the trouble but he refused".
What a plonker. If your going to be a bullshit merchant, at least learn to do it properly.
On another interesting note, I was checking my stats the other day and there are quite a number of search engine results showing people arriving here from searches on things like "fully covered scam" and "fully covered rip off", and the very fact that this article has been viewed over 1200 times tells you something.
Russ thanks for setting up this blog and if you can pass me on your crime number this will be useful as we will be contacting other outside agencies so every little bit helps.
I just had another call from them today, from Greg, asking why I cancelled my card payment and claiming to be totally unaware of all previous conversations, emails and of this blog. Denying that they would post on this blog etc etc. Oh you must have spoken to another greg in another office. They can't seem to decide how big their company is can they. I have emails from Greg whinging about how they are only a small company with one office and my actions are severely affecting them, and another where he claims they are a big company with multiple offices. As I said before Greg, if your going to bullshit, try and keep it consistent.
He then proceeded to say that they would be putting their debt collectors on to me for cancelling my payment. Quite funny considering they actually sent me a cheque and refunded me the money.
At this rate I’m going to have to take legal action against them for harassment.
the way we sell a repair service is completely legit and legal at the start and end of the phone call we tell your our name
and where we are calling from so to think we are calling from sky even though thay do not provide a service and is a different
company called d+g so for some one
to think other wise and think we are calling from sky they must be stupid sorry
just becouse we are not sky{approved}this means that d+g pay alot of money for sky to pass them on to them so you pay more for your repair
plan than you should
all our engineers are approved by sky and can carry out work on all equipment
and also if russ had a recording he would of listened to it back and realised that it was his fault for taking up the policy because we allways
state the name of the company and leave you with full contact details in case of any problems
there are a lot of companys selling cover and are called mostly names like satcov, sky sat, satalite direct ,sat assured, homecare,satlink services
sat repair groop,satalite support so obvously it can get confusing but for some one to think that the company fully coverd was sky stupidity thats wat it is
The only thing I will say is that I have called Fully Covered several times since pretending to be a potential customer returning their call, and they haven't tried to scam me again yet, so hopefully they have learnt their lesson.
you russ must be really bored for spending your time with this
And no i'm not bored. Like most people taking 2 minutes out of the 1440 minutes there are in a day to post this reply doesn't really take me away from anything important, especially considering I was sititng in front of the computer anyway.
But being that you think someone would have to be bored to do this, must mean that your very bored or very sad and lonely to actually be reading this and posting comments then right?
If you have nothing constructive to add to this dicussion, please do not post anything further.
There must be a lot of people being scammed by these sky repair companies, or perhaps even by "fully covered" as most of these views are coming from google searches.
gaining you information and bank info from sky some how and
doing a customer service call for sky, checking you are still at
same address etc...
then months down the line, bang money is out of your account!!!
if this happens phone you bank straight away and they will do
their best to sort this out and cancel the direct debit
Wife has reported them to the bank, am going to report them to Sky, trading standards and the police now that I've read this blog!!!!
Spoke to them again tonight and they seem to be under the false impression that they can keep this money without providing any evidence that we authorised it. If this happens to you, dont phone them (it's an exprensive phone line!!) just report it to your bank who WILL refund your money - if SATCOV cannot provide your bank with supporting documentation your bank will recover the money from them. I have confirmation of this from my bank, do not enter into discussion with them, let your bank do it - they have good legal departments that know their stuff, we dont!
called them. but the are looking further into this as i also had
£6 taken out 4days previous but bank are unable to refund this
straigh away as the £72 was taken out after.
i think everyone who has been affected by this should take this
further!!
any ideas where we can go about doing this.
We (as in the family) have just been affected by this, Satcov have just taken £72 out of my partners account with no authorisation - we don't even have Sky and havent since May!! It was only through a Google search that this came up, otherwise we would be none the wiser.
The bank haven't been very helpful apart from cancelling the DD, and telling us we have3 to prove we didn't sign up for this!!
Anyone got any advice about this.
Thanks
Marc
So they have now setup a DD on the 6th September, and supposedly sent us a letter informing us that they had setup a DD on the 14th of September (which we have yet to receive).
They are also saying that it is all on tape, and if we send in £10 we can have a transcript of the conversation - but I don't won't trust that - I want to hear the tape and they don't seem to think that it is possible.
I have reported them to Trading Standards, and my partner has a meeting with the bank to find out what they can do about it.
This company are dodgy as fook, youy'd imagine quite a large call centre etc, but we got through to the same person twice and there was a time difference of 45 minutes between calls (coincidence?)
Satcov is also a trading name for Satellite Direct UK Ltd - but supposedly this service we 'requested' was under the name Subscriber Services (or something similar).
Thats just great!
I have posted this link onto a couple of car forums (one I am a member of and one I help run), hopefully this will spread and will stop others being ripped off too. Between the forums they probably accumulate somewhere in the region of 5,000,000 hits per month ;)
Lets stop this horrible scammers.
our box goes, We just get another one on ebay!
So glad she didn't hand over our details!
Dodgy fookers!
Similarly to posts above I have reported the problem to my bank and asked them to stop any further direct debits. I doo feel there is a hole in the banking system if bogus requests for direct debits can be set up without official authorisation from an account holder.
I have contacted SATCOV - Satelite Direct UK Ltd by phone and got an unsuccessful answer form them. They said that I authorised the payments in 2005 and that they had only recently invoked the direct debits and that if I had a complaint it would have to be submitted in writing.
I have therefore Emailed them and have since spoken to Trading Standards and the Information Comissioners who are concerned with data protection.
I do not believe that I have ever given my bank details over the phone. The trend of this Company seems to be targeting Sky Customers who have a Sky Protection Plan. I would like to know where they have got their information from, in particular banking details. I would tend to point the finger in the general direction of either one of 2 Companies who would have this information, which I may suggest has either leaked or been given by either the satelite provider or the protection plan Company.
Either way I am far from happy. I may get my money back through the bank but the information issue is greater and far more important.
Please keep listing your own experiances and thanks to 'snake' for raising the initial words of caution
But back to the money - it is back with us within 5 days it came backinto the bank account, now from what I gather SD-UK have to give the bank authorisation to give the money back - we've had no contact from bank or SD-UK and money has just re-appeared.
And now we have a letter stating it is all cancelled.
I think they must have got scared by me using proper terms like 'Data Subject Access Request' from the Data Protection Act, and Agreements from the Consumer Credit Act etc.
Have told the OH to leave the money in the account 'incase' anything happens and are going to be checking the bank account around 12th October to make sure they havent setup a direct debit without our say so.
I also think there are enough complaints on my blog alone to warrant reporting them to watchdog.
insurance company or other financial institution, always ask for their
Financial Services Authority registration number. Any reputable company will be registered and they are required to provide their number when
requested. If any company is unwilling to provide this information
or claims that they are not registered, then do not give them any
details. The FSA's website, to check on any company is
www.fsa.gov.uk
My bank have refunded my direct debit.
I am now concerned about the information issue with Satelite Direct (UK).
Questions as to how they are getting people's bank account details still need to be answered and I have Emailed them twice now on the advice of Trading Standards and the Information Commission. I have had no reply, but Trading Standards did tell me give them 'resonable time' - Whatever that is. I have given them 11 days to-date. Does anybody know what the definition of 'reasonable time' to reply is in these cases?
According to them, my subscription was due for renewal shortly and they were "pleased to offer me a reduced fee" if I paid a single annual payment.
They wanted me to confirm my banking details - seemed to know that I banked at HSBC - wanted me to confirm my Switch details ... and I was suddenly suspicious.
I said that I wanteed to verify things - would they send me details of my current cover etc etc as I was sure this had recently been renewed.
He REALLY wanted me to sign-up there and then - I told him to give me details of his company, his phone etc (he actualy obliged).
THEN .. I found this blogpage ... and phoned the "sales manager" - another Dave!!
Talk about defensive ... tells me his staff work to a script so he knew exactly what Dave "salesman" had said - that he had not lied or attempted to
mislead - that they were entitled to offer their service ... that they usually said they could offer a reduced fee ... that they listened to what the customer said and
changed their story to suit ... AND WAS NOT HAPPY WHEN I SAID THAT I WAS GOING TO TRADING STANDARDS!!
Keep up this blog - it does GOOD
After questioning some more Emma confirmed it was SatLink Services (but that Sky give them the information) and she was based in Littlehampton (they all seem to be in the same area). Emma then simply put the phone down as she realised I had rumbled the scam.
Emma's number is 01903 718296 but is engaged (no doubt with other outbound calls) everytime I try to call back to say take me off your records.
Oh well, just filed a complaint to the Telephone Preference Services and directly to Sky's corporate HQ.
Has anyone alerted Watchdog or Rogue Traders yet?
confirmed all my details, etc. and then cancelled the other direct debit since this cover plan was cheaper. I received confirmation from Sky Repair Services UK.
I have a minor problem with Sky and wondered if it was coverved by this plan. I cannot get through to Sky Repair Services UK and it's an 0844 number and I wondered if they were keeping me a hold (not professionl and doesn't state the company name) to make money. I've discovered 0844 is charged at 5p per minute from landlines and should not really be used for customer service numbers. So they've got a double scam going on there which I'm going to report to Ofcom. I doubt very much my call would ever be answered and I'd simply rack up telephone charges as well as wasted £20 every quarter.
I'm going to phone the bank and cancel the direct debit and phone the legitimate cover plan organisation as stated above.
I thank you for this blog or else I'd be none the wiser and I'd be continuing to hold.
I did have the number but no one answers and it's not a local number so you're giving them more of your money by phoning. Your best bet is to cancel the direct debit. I've doubled checked with Sky and they have confirmed that no other company other than Domestic & General are approved to support/repair their equiment. My bank also told me to visit the branch and fill out a claim form so you may be able to retrieve the money already lost.
I hope this helps.
Regards,
Tara
part of sky.Thanks to seeing what you wrote, I've canx my DD
And contacted Sky.Thanks for you posting
One final thought. You don't actualy NEED extended cover with sky! If they try to charge you for a repair visit you simply argue and ask to cancel your sky subscription. say you've found a better deal (with free repairs) from cable. The charges will quickly halve and if you keep going, be reduced to zero.
I do not have Sky and, thanks to your blog, will not be calling them back
Have a phone number 0871 664 1400 which presumably is a premium line. Am sending the letter to BBC Watchdog office
I to have been totaly had.
I recived a call in early Dec 07 from satassured.co.uk they asked for my husband(by name) and said that he was behind on his payments and that our cover would be affected. My husband was away on buisness at the time so i said that i would pay the £18.00 outsatanding to bring the account up to date.
I have just recived my bank statement and they have taken a 2nd payment on the 4th march.
I have phoned them ( 08700 600250) they said there was nothing they could do, that it was my fault i gave them my details, i explianed the situation again and Billy the head collection man said tough!!!!(by this time i was very angry and raised my voice) I then asked to cancel the cover with out refund and he said that because i had raised my voice i had no chance and he was going to report me,
I have worked in Customer service and sales for the last 16 years and have never come in contact with such a terrible customer service department before before, I have since spoken to my bank and cancelled my card, I feel silly that i have fallen for this scam, is it to late to add my details to the police enquiry please could you send me details?
3 months ago so cancelled my card and the D/D losing £25.50
which could have been a lot more. Unbelievably, this company
phoned me this morning saying they had been unable to collect
the qtrly payment and wanted the new card details. Said they
would need to ring me back about 5.30. I am now eagerly
waiting to tell them what I think of them and that the calls
have been recorded. Be warned, they will try again if you
cancel!!!!!
I've also reported them to my banks fraud office. They will investigate further. Better to be safe. Thanks for the blog and the info. Cheers.
my sky broke I telephoned the company and they said that they
would send a engineer out which they did'nt and still have'nt,
yesterday I get a phone call from fully covered to say that if the
other company do not come today they will cover usfor £99 per
year and they were saying that sky repair services have 187 pages
of complaints against them I wish I had seen this blog earlier
I will contact the bank on tuesday and trading standards,.
thank you so much
Pauline Goodie above...the sickening thing is that my dad set
this up after a cold call. He was terminally ill and wanted to
eliminate any problems my mum might have to deal with.
He's not long died and now we've discovered this.
stinging me for £65. I am surprised they have not been nailed
by now but we live in hope. Next port of call the Police
and Trading Standards.
I haven’t yet checked his bank account to see how long this has been going on but I know in the last 50 days he has paid out almost £160 for insurance cover for his sky equipment. I have of course immediately cancelled his card to stop further payments from his account. Note Domestic & General was the only one that was done by Direct Debit and not by card.
I only hope there is some way we can get his money back but alas I hold out little hope. I would like to thank the blog owner as my initial check up was on line and as soon as I put the first company name in the search bar up popped the blog with as much information I needed to find out which was the genuine Sky insurance out of the four.
Its disgraceful that these people can take confused pensioners money with such ease.
offer of cheaper cover. The female caller said they were Domestic
& General and took my debit card details. They took £ 15.00.
pounds from My Bank of Scotland account. I have reported
them to B of S,D & G and the police.
I have read this thread with great interest. I have recently been dealing wi
sorting out my Mothers financial affairs. She has been very ill for a long time &
no longer able to deal with things. I noticed a £60 DD from SATCOV
but could find no paperwork. I was looking for their details when I
discovered with horror that my Mum had been victim of a Scam.
What should I do? I will contact her bank. I have no idea how long this has been going on they may have been taking money for years.
It makes me sick that therre are people out there doing this kind of thing.
Having read this blog, a lot of people who have been caught are
ill or old. People who need protecting not ripping off!
If anyone has their details or how I should proceed I would be most grateful.
comprehensive cover package than other companies. I personally would not work for any company that I felt was offering a sub standard service or was 'scamming' customers. Our job
is made increasingly difficult by other unreputable companies and by claims such as this. I have not had any complaints about our services by any of my clients. Not all of us are criminals.
ALL the companies have phoned my father and told them that up until now he has been covered under guarantee. He uprated his sky box in November 2007 and got another spate of phonecalls.
I got a member of staff at Sky Repairs Services UK Ltd to cancel my fathers cover without further charge... they rang him AGAIN this morning and demanded more money from him. It makes me sick. How many innocent old-age-pensioners are being covered by more than one company for their sky equipment?
place without my consent. My so called cover with them was
until Dec.08. On the 24th Sept they withdrew the money from
my card. This is theft and deception. Needless to say no reply
on the phone No.given. Getting in contact with my card now.
withdrawn from his account without authorisation by Fully
Covered Ltd. As pointed out by J. Chapple, this is theft and
deception. Numerous phone calls have been unanswered. If this
is not a scam by Fully Covered Ltd. then answer your phone and
return the money.
Just to make anyone aware reading this, I too have recently had a phone call from a company calling themselves Satellite and Homecare Services, same scenario as all the above, slightly different patter, they said they were reducing my cover down to £5.00 per month as I had had no call outs in the last year (funny that as I have only had my plan for 7 months and I have had a call out in that time and had my box replaced). I was really suspicious but at the same time, it was sort of believable. I did part with my card number, however I knew damn well that the card expired that day, Chris said if he had a problem with the card he would call back the following week. Once off the phone I did some checking with Sky, found out my plan is with Domestic and General and then contacted my bank, moved my money, canceled the card just to be on the safe side and took out extra protection on my bank account, they have not managed to get any money out of me thankfully!! So yesterday, Chris phoned back, saying that he had had a problem with the card and that is was expired, I said yes I know, he said did I have a new one? I said yes thank you, he said would I give him the number, I said no I don't think so, Pause...Silence....He then said, but we need it to update your account, I said What account? He said your Sky Repair account...I said why on earth would he need my debit card number to confirm an account that I didn't and never had as my plan was with domestic and general? Pause....Stutter....He then said, Well it's been switched over, I said, switched by who to what? There was a rather large humfff, and the phone went dead!
So beware a new name on the list! I would be curious to know if anyone else has had this company call them.
on my Sky equipment, when i returned home I phoned this company and said that i wanted this cancelled, they said they were unable to do this and that when i received the paperwork i
should return it and then the money would be refunded. a couple of days later a charge of 25.50 got taken out of my account for SRS i contacted them and they agreed to refund the
money which they finally did 10 days later, this was in August. Now today November 11th they have decided to take another 25.50 out of my account even though i never actually signed
up with them, does anyone know who i can take this to and what my next step would be to stop this.
(1) SAT SUPPORT LIMITED - who later wrote a letter to me to confirm cover. At the back of the letter are details of terms and conditions and reference is made to a service agreement which I have not received yet.
(2) SAT COVER Limited - who are assigned to collect payment by Direct Debit (SAT COV on the bank statement)
(3) SATELLITE DIRECT UK who are assigned to provide the service (customer service call 0871 664 1400).
So far SAT COV have collected £44.50 from my account. I am furious to learn that its all bogus. Is it really? I have cancelled the DD to find out. Thanks for your blog.
All the comments added to my concern so I checked my bank payments and found I am covered by Sky Protect who are part of Domestic and General
so will stick with them. I have received several calls regarding my Sky maintenance but always told the caller to put the info in the post but never received anything - now I know why.
Thank You for making all this information public, you have done many people a good service.
one for £56.49 these have put her over her limit and she has had bank charges added.
When she phoned sat support ltd (thats the name on the letter) on the 26th Jan 2009 she
was told that since it was their fault that they would refund the money.
Its the 5th today and they haven't. She was also told that they would refund the charges
if she writes to them with copies of the charges. My partners bank have been unhelpful
to date.
We have written to them detailing this all out to them and will keep this blog updated
as to our progress.
Incidently Satsupport ltd letter states that all payments are processed by their
appointed collection agency Satcover Ltd.
Also on the back of their letter it states that;
To contact us or give notice under this agreement.
Please write to the customer care manager at;
Satellite Direct UK Ltd,
Imperium House,
Ford Lane,
Ford,
Arundel
West Sussex,
BN18 0DF,
Tel: 0871 664 1400
Fax: 01243 556304
its 01243556000 I've just checked it out and it works. Its a similar number to their fax number. Dont use their premium line and give them any more of our hard earned money.
watchdog programmes on the company and David Reynolds whom watchdog attribute the companies to.
I'll be writing to watchdog since they said they will be keeping an eye on the companies. As above I will let you all know how I get on.
I called their customer support on 01243556000 (don't call the premium number) and they were actually quite helpful and apologetic. They agreed they made a mistake and are refunding me the £49.99.
What worries me is that they had access to take this money out of my account without my permission and if I hadn't checked my account, I might have missed it.
into some scrotes pocket!! So if there is anybody from from Sky Pro plan out there reading this, please feel free to get in touch so we can discuss this clerical error. Thank you Russ for getting your your blog out
there. It is selfish, but it is of some comfort to my mother that she is not the only one out there to be ripped off by these faceless leeches.
£6.50 on 9th Feb 2009.I phoned and was told it was for a
broadband package I had signed for which was news to me!!
They said it was their mistake and I eventually got a refund on
5th March.Needless to say I have cancelled my DD. Other
complaints sites are showing that there are many others who
have suffered the same "mistake"
Great blog by the way
I have just read this blog, I was given a link for it from the satcure website monthly newletter.
I was very interested as I have not been approached by them but I do know of them, I have a policy with them that I have had for years for appliance cover this is cover for all my kitchen appliances, I have used the policy many times and a date for repair has always been set and they do turn up and sort the problems, on one occasion they replaced my washine machine as it could not be repaired, I have always had very polite and helpfull staff on the phone and the engineer is always helpfull. They have never been pushy regards renewals and are very cheap.
I would consider a policy withthem for SKY but dont need it as my equipment is so new at the moment.
As you can always see there is two sides to all stories so make your own judgements.
I would like to see this newsletter you are referring to, as I find it rather bizarre why they would purposefully link to this blog and show everyone what they have been doing.
http://www.satcure.co.uk/reviews/review127.htm
Well you will not beleave it but I have received a written letter from the company fully covered today and they are trying to sell me the warranty as mentioned in this blog. Thing being as you have mentioned how did they know I have sky installed and how do they think they know when my warranty expires. They have this wrong as I upgraded to HD and then that has given me a full year warranty so they dont have the correct facts. I have not as yet experienced the phone call but will add a comment if I do.
Russ maybe you are correct the fact that I have a policy with them and have had no bad experiances has nothing to do with this blog. I do support what you say and will keep you updated if they do in the future.
I was also contacted by Fully Covered yesterday just before 5pm, they stated who they were and that my sky box cover was out of date. How wrong can they be...my cover is not due for almost six months.
It is not hard to understand how this might work:
1 Sky TV boxes have the dish in full view from the road.
2. BT sells list of numbers to companies for legit reasons. I would guess as computer files.
3. Put the address of the box against the list of numbers, names and addresses provided by BT and bingo.
It would be
Dial number, can I speak to X and so on.
As I have been contacted before by other scammers I simply told them that my cover is in date and that I only deal with SKY directly or Domestic and General.
As a rule I NEVER give personal details to anyone OVER an open telephone line, one can never be sure who is listening in.
Paranoid, you bet, just because you do not think they are out to get you doesn't mean they are not!
But it's more worrying than that. My Sky dish is totally out of sight from the road, but i still get calls from these people (SatCov, Fully Covered, SatLink etc - I think they may all be the same) saying my Sky warranty is out of date. They've called about 4 times in the past year. I am also registered with the Telephone Preference Service. No this company is getting its information direct from Sky somehow, either officially or unofficially via employees taking a back hander. Watchdog has featured the company a couple of times, but even they seem to be missing this vital point - Sky is passing on our details!! For the reports see
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AmohLJc00i0
and
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKgMFJnDmNA
Angus
Thought I had cancelled this Direct Debit 2yrs ago, did notice we were paying it again but thought my husband had restarted it, got such a shock at the amount. My bank have given me it back as I cant get reply on phone, but if bank cant get money from satcov I will have to give it back. Have cancelled direct debitBank also said that satcov can restsrt direct debit at any time, only way round this is to close this account.
I do not know if this company is a scammer or not or simply follows the pattern set by these other similar companies who take money at will and offer no real services...I do know this though, they are suspect in their methods, they were rude, impatient, aggressive and it seems are following a pattern set out by other so called companies working the same 'business', my advice, be very careful about this company and any other company who claim they need your card details over the phone from an unsolicited call...
1st we only recommend Domestic & General (sky protect plan)
2nd most other companies are scammers as most people will by now have read or seen on watchdog
3rd I had to laugh at the comment from Fully Covered:
"Also we are in the process of becoming a ASA a authorized SKY agent so surely they would not allow this if we were being investigated?"
NO you're not...... naughty people
4th If any company calls you EVER regarding your warranty ignore them & call either any of the advisers at SKY on 08442 411 411
Or
D&G directly on 08444 810 444 option 2
Hope this helps out.
I'm pulling my hair out with this issue not to mention that every time I call i'm on hold for an average of 28 minutes a time, costing me more money!!!
how i felt when cold called and told my Sky warranty was about to expire, and
would I like to take out a warranty. I assumed (gulp) that they were from Sky
as they knew so much about my Sky warranty.
They took the first payment, then I decided
to cancel the contract and direct debit. I called and informed them. All well and good....
You would think! 5 years later (today) £65 has randomly been direct debited out from
my bank account to a company calling themself satcov.
I didnt set it up, I don't know who these ppl are, and the phone number my bank has for
them just rings and rings and rings......
Trading standards contacted, bank contacted...
I hope i am as lucky as some on here and get my money back.
£65 is a lot to lose when you don't got it in da first place!!!
I told him it sounded like a con then I found this site which confirmed my suspicions.
They called back today , he told them if he had any problems and Sky would not repair it for free he would just switch to Virgin the lady on the phone did not have an answer to this and gave up.
He forgot to get the name of the company but the number is from Shrewsbury
01743 453 140
01743 453140
01743453140
Three versions to make it easier for a goggle search
to set up DD's over the phone, which I did not do anyway. I am to go to my banks local branch to sign an imdemnity form on Monday to get my money back but now I need to check my account every month
to see if they set it up again. You mentioned you had a crime number after reporting it to the police, but how did you report it and under what crime? ie theft ect as I would like to do this but would like to
hear from you first so that I can be forewarned as to what to expect etc. Thank you in advance, Michael todd.
Reported it to Bank fraud squad.
Dont know how they got my details.
Bank has been fairly inundated with complaints about SatCov.
Cant ring them as line is always engaged
Anyway - I phoned Navco on their real number, and spoke to someone who apologised and refunded my money. I told them I had cancelled the contract because of this and she asked me to put it in writing. So I have got my 99.98 refunded and so far its stayed put. Wish me luck and good luck with yours. But Banks and Coppers, what a bunch of wazzocks!!!
Turns out a friend in work has also had £65 taken out if her account from Satellite Direct last month & she hadnt agreed to anything. She hasnt had a refund. And the policy wasnt for £65 but for £6.50 - similar to ALL the other stories.
you. They are just taking money out of your bank account
by Direct Debit. There phone number is a scam it is rigged
to be engaged all the time So if you have sky check your
account and instruct your bank never to accept a withdrawl
or DD in there name. I think it is time the Police were involved
with SATCOV
This company got my details several years ago when I had a Sky Freesat box and dish installed and contracted the installer, Satellite Direct, to maintain ti. I cancelled this after the last payment in September 2008 because I had managed to install my own Humax HD Freesat box and dual cable, and raliesed I didn't need maintenance. They phoned me learlier this year asking whay I had cancelled, and seemed to accept my explanation, but then this month they set up this new DD without even contacting me! They are clearly working a good scam, and THEY MUST BE STOPPED!!
back the 4 payments of £19.99. I had paid I began to be suspio
us of Satcov as I could not remember giving them any details of
my bank account and how could they produce a direct debit when
I had not signed anything. I was amazed at the number of complaints
against this company in Google. I informed my bank not to pay
any more yesterday and later the same day had a phone call from Satcov
to ask me to renew my subscription. When I said NO the phone was slammed down and I am just hoping that will be the end of the matter.
but i told them that i would think about it and speak to my
partner about it and they said they would phone me back next
week it wasnt until i got of the phone my partner thought
there was something dodgey about it luckily i never gave my
bank details out, so we phoned sky and they said they didnt
know anything about it and gave us a number for sky protect
and they also said that they hadn't phoned us either they said i
had to try and get details off them when they are suppose to
phone back next week and pass the details onto them
i used to have to deal with complaints about companys like this, however when i had one of there calls the other week, there was abosolutly
nothing wrong with it! They gave me all the details the phone number and extension and website address, i tried them all before i rang back
and it all worked absolutly fine they, told me straight up that i was with another tird party company and that what i could get was a lot and
cheaper and a more comprehensive cover and it was true as my sky equipment broke down last week, i called up the number and had a engineer
with me the next day, the equipment couldn't be fixed so they provided it for me brand new with no exess like i was told on the call.
I have no idea why you people start up the blogs when it is clear that you were not listening to the call... i was told "i understand you have the one
standard sky system and you pay between 6 and 8 pound per a month for the maintaince and repairs is that still correct?" i am guessing that the person
whos has done this blog replied yes, well it is your responsability to you how your paying and whether it is monthly or annualy so how have they conned you
if you awnsered the question wrong!! you should think about what you did wrong rather than what they did before you slag off a company who are trying to save you money...
however how have these companies got the correct details for your correct account if you haven't given them out as its not comon knowledge
as to whos banking with who and what peoples account numbers and sort codes are. ill happily admit i work 4 sky repair serivces UK and
when people do swap there cover to us they understand what im doing and why and if they dont then i happily answer there questions with
the truth. i have herd what sat cov and satelite direct UK have been doing with peoples direct debits and im not excusing that all im saying is
that just because there are compaines out there that are conning people does not mean that everyone is doing it. if you get a call ask questions
don't just assume and hang up. and rember yes sky will only recomend domestic and general and proberly always will but thats because they
pay to have them selves re-comeneded just becasue others don't does not mean that they wont provide you with a better cover.
before i called them back as i wasn't in the first time they called.
The guy wasnt too happy when i told him i knew who they were and i wasnt giving them my card details. Thank god for this blog or id have been scammed also.
spoken to has been very sympathetic and willing to pass it on to someone else as its 'not their fault', 'not their company', 'not a big deal'. WELL IT IS TO ME!!!!
My mum rang me in tears this morning because Sat cover had taken £6 out of her account. She was upset in case the bank thought she was senile as she does not have satellite TV.
My dad died in Aug 07 and I cancelled his service with Sky and with Sat cover who, my dad believed, was his 'sky insurance'. since then my mum has received a number of phone calls from
Sat cover and she has repeatedly told them that she has no longer got Sky and asked them to remover her from their list. (incidentally my mum has the telephone preference service)
The last call from Sat cover was on 15th June at 19:17. Once again they were informed that mum did not have satellite TV. this time however they decided to set up a new direct debit
from mums account on 16th June and take money out of her account on 19th June. The bank refuse to refund the £6 as the direct debit seemed appropriate as they no longer have to
be signed and it was payed out in 'good faith'. The police stated they are unable to do anything as they would have to prove 'intent to steal' but in this case the company would probably
claim it was an error. I did point out that this company appear to make dozens of 'errors' daily but was informed that there is nothing the police can do. So I'm back to square one!!!
I'm leaving an email for watchdog and posting a warning on facebook, I know this seems pathetic but I encourage everyone out there to do the same in the hope that if there are enough
of us then somewhere someone might just be able to help us stop these b#$%#&#d's.
faith'
and psychologically harm others, especially vulnerable people.
Lying to customers and pretending you are from sky, fraudulenting charging creditcards and setting up directs without customers is all illegal activity and against the law no matter what excuses you use and try to explain it.
We get given details from marketing companies that show how much Sky customers pay for their maintenance and repairs services, normally £6-8 for standard sky systen, £9-11 for Sky+ etc. For a standard sky system our cover is £5.50 a month, debitted quarterly, no risk of losing details in the post after the initial paper work, we don't take a sort code or account number, only 16 digit and 3 digit code on reverse of card. The cover is far more comprehensive, covers the box, dish, controls and cables for all eventualities including weather should it re-align your dish. We don't cover for deliberate damage. We have engineers based in every post code area and aim to get someone out to you that same day or the next working day whereas D+G (Domestive and General) who are Sky's recommended service aim for within 72 hours. So even saving 50p a month is still £6 a year which basically works out as a month's free cover per year. If you have a fault with your system which cannot be fixed we will replace it with new for old or like for like, in other words a brand new sky box. So us using details provided by various marketing companies with consent from the potential customers, there is NOTHING Sky Repair Services is doing wrong.
We're contacting people who we believe are paying above what we can offer and giving them a better deal. Just because to you it sounds too good to be true, doesn't mean you can slate it because you or someone you know may have had a bad experience.
At Sky Repair Services in Bournemouth, we DO NOT know if you have recently renewed, we DO NOT know if you have made any claims since you last renewed.
All we know is the name, address and telephone number of Sky customers who willingly gave their information to marketing companies in which we used to contact these people to cut down their costs.
Argue your case as much as you like, there is no scamming, there is no fraud.
Ring Sky Repair Services yourself tomorrow in Bournemouth, 0844 800 9577, ask for their company registration number 5927936, we have 0844 BT Secured lines being monitored constantly, and all information is handled and processed by Barclays EPDQ.
http://skyrepairservices.com/
You have no case in trying to defend yourself. If you had such a bad experience, maybe look to see if there was any way it was your own fault. under 1% of customers who take out our cover plan call to complain, because they realised that since they'd submitted the information to a marketing company, they've found cheaper cover not realising that ours was a little more expensive, and we're not the cheapest because cover plans offered for annual payments are often cheaper in comparison to paying 4 quarterly payments and a lot of people don't like to pay such a large amount at one time because they're not sure whether they'll have Sky in 12+ months time. Other than that it's because they've forgotten to cancel their other third party cover plan and been debitted for 2 policies, which is their own fault as our closing statement and part of our dialogue says that you must cancel other policies.
Don't have much of a leg to stand on now do you? Making a huge fuss over nothing.
I am a customer of Skyrepairservices and I am willing to support them as a genuine and very helpfull company. I have got cover for my sky system and have had a few problems recntly, I called them up and a engineer came the next day and sorted the problem, they did replace the box with a new model which was great. There was no messing around and the engineer did know what he was doing.
I work for a company who sells car warranty, we also buy lists of people from various marketing companies, again this gives us the basic contact details, no credit or bank details. Check the small print of most contracts you sign, be it BT or car insurance, it normalt gives you the option to opt out of having your details sold to marketing companies, if you dont tick the box then your details will be available to companies to call you up regards their products. It is really no different to you getting various car insurance quotes before taking the one of your choice. Why should you only go with skys recomended company. They pay sky a percentage for every policy taken out.
So like all stories there will be complaints, but then consider the fact that errors can happen, it does not make the companies a scam.
I am more than happy and will stay with this company.
by as its likley to be the same person who will fix or replace it? secondly i did say russ that if you could prove to me that sky repair services UK (were i work) was a conn then id leave them and also
publically apologise on your blog thing and i still havent herd anything so does that mean that they not a conn? (well i no there not so a stupid question really) again people that are on here saying
that these compaines have set up dd with out there concente i do have to keep asking how are compaines able to do that if you havent given them your details? you must of somwere weather its a
mistake or not.....you cant just go online and type someones name in and find out all there banking details can you? also yes it is illegal to take money out of peoples accounts with out there permission
but youll probly find that its normally put back in there....or its not been taken illegally otherwise something would of been done. every company has its flaws and compliants even banks do but if
we were doing things wrong or lieing and what we are doing then we would of been shut down buy now. also when we phone most people dont listen anyway and only what they want to here for example i
had a customer ask me earlier "Are you actually part of sky?" and i replied with, " no sky themselves dont deal with maintence and repairs its done through third party compaines such as us." she then
still then said "well yes then you are part of sky." i had already said know at the start of my reply.......listen to what these people say and if you dont want them to take money out of your account
make sure that somewere you havent given them your details. and i look forward to hearing from you russ
As you can clearly see in my blog post I have only mentioned Fully Covered and Satcov as these are the companies who have called me
and tried to scam me.
£66 a year with unlimited call outs and even aim to send you out a new remote the next working day if yours breaks, and they're normally £25 brand new.
If a company is legit, you can obtain the callers full name, extension number, website address, company registration number you can use to search on companies house, the company telephone number (0844 is BT secured line).
Sky Repair Services UK in Bournemouth is a legit company, if you would like to get cover for everything including your box, dish, cables and remote, then give us a call on 0844 800 9577.
I strongly suggest you actually read the many hundreds of comments posted here and elsewhere on the web about what these companies have been doing
as your own comments are clearly ignorant of the obvious facts or you are simply another blagger. If you think defrauding people is legal then I would suggest you contact your local police station and discuss this with them,
were authorised to repair Sky equipment because I had already checked. He said that they were not specialists and used re-conditioned equipment unlike Sky Repair who use new boxes etc. I said I would not give him any details until I had checked the company out. What is scary is that we have no repair contract
and I would like to know how they got my details.
"when we phone most people dont listen anyway and only what they want to here for example i
had a customer ask me earlier "Are you actually part of sky?" and i replied with, " no sky themselves dont deal with maintence and repairs its done through third party compaines such as us."
Abbie that's a BIG lie there.........
I Work for SKY in TECH so i book s/c i speak with our SHS (Sky home services) engineers & the outsource partners we use, we have & never will use sky repair services.
ALSO some GOOD news (in away but bad in others)
Satelite Direct have gone into administration, for those who are not familier with them they also pulled these nasty tricks to get customers.
http://www.littlehamptongazette.co.uk/news/500-job...
Check this out it seems that one of the dodgy sat repair companies has gone bust, It is a article about Satellite Direct LTD. Well at least that is one of the scammers gone, just need the others to go now and we will all be ok.
It's something I was told would mean I wouldn't be charged should I need to call them.
I've read the comments on this site and while I would definitely say there are scammers on the net, Sky Repair Services have sent me all the documents for cover and I've recently had an engineer out!
I think it's important to be fair and when a company is taking money fraudulently then that's fair enough, but I've recently had a look at the FSA site as Sky Repair Services are regulated. This means I am protected and that they are under an extremely
important body who it is impossible to be scamming with.
I haven't had any experience with the other companies but I've saved a bit of money and I'm happy.
Just thought I should let you know as this blog seems to have been going on for some time.
pay a fee for the recomendation fee. however this does not mean that any over company who deals with maintence and repair would not do what they say they do. even if you did stay with us or kept
your policy running if you needed an engineer you would still get a sky approved engineer as most engineers are self employed anyway which means they dont just work for sky. yes that is our address
we are based in bournemouth in kingsland house thats not sometihing were asshamed of...were doing something good for people. were not suspisous at all if you read the posts on here in depth you
would find that hardly any of them are about sky repair serives UK. sky insurance is the same as most other thing. would you always get your car insured with the company you brought it from? no you
shop around first and see whats best....it doesnt mean that becasue you didnt get your insurance off the company you brought your car from would be a bad type or insurance or a conn so why is it
that if you dont go with sky for your insurance then your with a conn? i will admit there are conns out there but im telling you for a fact that sky repair services UK isn't ive worked there long enough
to know that. and i will keep coming on to this site and correcting you as you coment on here about this company because what your all saying is wrong and the worst thing is none of you have
actually recieved a service from us or an engineer or anything like that so you cant really comment on what were like as a company.
You seem to be missing the fact that the people who post here are for the most part the victims of fraud. Perhaps your company is legitimate, but any bad press you are getting is not the fault of the people posting here, it is the fault of all those other sky repair companies that are calling people pretening to be from sky, pretending they have your account details, claiing your insurance is about to expire, and conning people into giving over their card and bank details, and is thousands of people reporting this activity all over the internet. So if you want to point the finger of blame or have a rant, then you should be directly your complaints at those companies, not at the people who are simply trying not to get ripped off.
indefinately from her credit card - only discovered because of
My Fathers recent death and sorting out affairs etc. Tried ringing
their 0844 number - guess what a voicemail service for which you
need an access code!!
I work for a call centre that provides comprehensive insurance cover for sky equipment. I learnt that to provide any kind of financial service, such as insurance, you need to be regulated by the Financial Services Authority, the FSA, any company offering a 'waranty' or 'extended' warantee'. It's amazing how many waranty companies up and dissapear after moving the decimal point in their customers direct debit!
Just for reference everyone, a direct debit only uses the sort code and account number, which is fully protected by your bank, if this amount changes you are legally allowed to get a full and immediate refund of the total amount paid if the amount does not equal exactly what is stated in the initial agreement!
I didnt know any of this before I started working for them.....
l had a phone call from sky repair services today apparently l have had a policy with them for a year, its a shame they didnt send me the policy
documents because l never actually took the policy out, they now want payment arrears but are willing as a "good will gesture" to reduce the payment
to £5.50, l have since researched this company and they are fsa registered (l am writing to the fsa as we speak) My advise is to stick to the company's
sky recommend at least you know they are legit.
several calls from SatCov and eventually set up a DD. It wasn't
until I got a call from 'Paul from Sky' offering me the same thing
with a very pushy attitude that it got me thinking. How stupid
to give out my details like that. I then found this blog.
I will be onto my bank in the morning. I hope it's not too late!
I understand people would be wary of giving there details out over the telephone I am, because you can’t trust everyone! But when you don’t know the facts and u haven’t bothered to ask questions and listen don’t stereotype all of these companies because most of them are trying to get your business and a completely legal fashion. I hope this has help some1 make up there mind for themselves.
My auntie received a call from Sky Pro Plan Ltd (0845 130 8278) in August and she took out a £65 contract, but has not received any documentation. It now looks a bit wottying as I sent an EMail requesting the paperwork and received the following reply:-
My auntie received a call from Sky Pro Plan Ltd (0845 130 8278) in August and she took out a £65 contract, but has not received any documentation. It now looks a bit worrying as I sent an EMail requesting the paperwork and received the following reply:-
postmaster@3uk.blackberry.com
Delivery Status Notification(Failure)
Your message:
To: sky-proplan@3uk.blackberry.com
Subject: RE: Missing Paper Contract !!!
Sent Date: Mon Oct 12 17:24:21 2009
has not been delivered to the recipient's BlackBerry Handheld.
The return receipt is not what I would expect from a 'proper company'?
i visited this blogg because someone at work told me about it i couldnt belive how bitter people could be i am sorry to hear that people have been ripped off and yes you should always be careful about who you give your details to i know i always am and i have never been a victim to fraud, and as a telephone advisor i am very complient in making shure the customer understands whats going on and that we are chaninging there thrir party cover to our firm and that they do need to cancel the other direct debit quote"with the other third party company at the bank" also if they do feel pressured i help them relax and tell them all the details they need to know like company reg number fsa regulation number website and tell them if they would like to ring me back that is fine so y dont you all do better research and get on with your life
However, some days later I received a letter from them setting out the details of the plan which I had supposedly taken out. I immediately rang them and the lady explained that nobody had reorted to their head office that I did not want to proceed. My details had been removed from the local database; she apologised and said that she would inform the head office to stop the plan. Imagine my anger when I checked my bank account a couple of days later and found that a direct debit had been set up against my instruction! Again I had to ring them. I got another apology, a cheque has been recieved to cover the first payment but I am still waiting for writen confirmation from their head office that the plan has been stopped. What a way to do business! To cap it all, my bank can stop an individual company from setting up a direct debit but they cannot put a blanket hold on any more direct debits being set up. I have a meeting with them to find out why not and to sort out what to do with an account that has had two companies set up direct debits without my authorisation. How safe is your banking?
if im honest i probably didnt listen and i just wanted to vent my anger at myself for being so stupid!
the compay that got me actualy sent me paper work and they said they will refund my £8.79 we will have o see if they stick to their word!
anyway guys this site has actualy left a bad tast in my mouth worse than the bloody phone call i got.. come on guys, F##K UM!
On contacting them to find out where my refund had gone they put me onto their FINANCIAL MANAGER, they seem to have a lot of managers. Chris the finances man told me that the bank had already stepped in cancelling the payment and actually taking a £7 fee off the company leaving them out of pocket. need less to say the bank was very interested to hear all of this information and were very pleased when I gave them contact details. They are now dealing with it for me at the moment
want to get conned by companies that you beleive or know are going to conn you then dont give any details out...its simple! if you think that what they have told you on the phone is a lie....then dont
give out details! if you recieve paperwork before or after you have set it up then its likley you have swapped to a better/different company.
guys stop negging your selves out on here and do something about it! or stop giving out your details on the phone!