I’ve been a Sky TV customer for more than 20 years but fear I may have overpaid by thousands of pounds because I’ve been out of contract since 2005.
I recently discovered that, under Ofcom rules, your provider must remind you that your contract is ending, or has ended, and tell you about its best deals.
Sky has not been doing this but, when I contacted it, I was told it had no legal obligation to do so.
I have just signed a new contract, paying £67 a month. But last year I paid £87 a month, and in 2022, £82. The difference between my most recent out-of-contract price and the current cost is £20 a month, an extra £240 a year.
Stretching that back to when my contract ended in 2005 means I must have overpaid by thousands, which, to my mind, is pretty scandalous overcharging.
I have raised this with Ofcom but have not heard back yet.
Can I get Sky to reimburse me?
JR, London
With household bills hitting the roof during the cost of living crisis, we should all be keeping an eye on when discounted periods end and then shopping around for the best deal before recontracting.
When the UK telecoms regulator, Ofcom, brought in the rules you refer to at the start of 2020, it estimated that more than 20 million customers were out of their initial contract period and as a result were paying more for their services than they needed.
Since then, companies providing phone, broadband and pay-TV services have been obliged to tell customers when their contract ends because these are deemed to be public “electronic communications services”.
However, Sky is at loggerheads with Ofcom about having to do this for its pay-TV customers, with the dispute making its way through the courts. While Sky notifies broadband and phone customers, it argues that its pay TV service is not an electronic communication service and so is exempt.
This row aside, Sky countered that it has regularly contacted you about pricing and with new offers, and that you turned down a discounted subscription last year.
The rules only came in four years ago and, given the legal ambiguity, I think your best bet is a complaint to the Communication and Internet Services Adjudication Scheme (Cisas), an alternative dispute resolution service that Sky works with, to see where that gets you.
We welcome letters but cannot answer individually. Email us at [email protected] or write to Consumer Champions, Money, the Guardian, 90 York Way, London N1 9GU. Please include a daytime phone number. Submission and publication of all letters is subject to our terms and conditions.
