Beware of Satellite Direct UK

[Denzamoo]

As anyone will know who has followed my various blogs last June I shifted from Sky to BT Vision and all has been well!
I moved for a number of reasons:

• Cost - £40 is just too much
• Content - what was I watching: well it wasn't on Satellite only
• Picture Quaintly - one of the main issues (Sky told me to upgrade to HD!!!) in fact it is caused by a large tree just off my drive that has a preservation order on it! Sky guys took 4 visits to work this one out. Solution - move to HD and double the size of the dish (only £400).

So we (I) made the choice and cancelled (story in its own right!!) and sold off the kit.
Now to the meat of the blog: I had a repair insurance with Satellite Direct UK of Arundel (www.satellitedirectuk.com). So emailed them to cancel, phoned them to confirm after no reply. Was informed no rebate like real insurance copies give but all was cancelled. Waited for letter, never came and of course forgot all about it!
April 2008 credit card statement arrived with a new entry - Satellite Direct UK - and to add insult to injury for more money than the previous time. So I phoned them up and asked why. You know what's coming....you never cancelled!
Now to the really nice bit - they should have advised me of the increase, but didn't, of course they said the sent me a letter so I must have known, but they didn't - when I asked the customer services bod for the date of the letter he explained it wasn't policy to send them!!
Because I didn't know I was about to be charged I missed the chance to cancel (a second time). Phoned a number of times but no joy not even a 50% refund. And today received a letter telling me my equipment will be covered for another 12 months even though they know I don't have any equipment!!!

 

[phil-uk]

April 2008 credit card statement arrived with a new entry - Satellite Direct UK

I believe if you pay by credit card you can't even cancel this yourself like you can with a direct debit or standing order, so you are really shafted if they want to keep on taking payments.

 

[nil102]

Interesting link to the BBC watchdog program.I believe this to be the same company,correct me if I am wrong
http://www.bbc.co.uk/consumer/tv_and_radio/watchdog/reports/consumer_goods/consumer_20080512_2.shtml

 

[t1m103]

i kept getting phone calls and letters off these for months on end,one month a total of 12 letters and about 8 phone calls i'd had enough so i had to ask to be put thro to some one a bit higher up that the monkey on the phone,eventually i spoke to a guy and told him about the letters and phone calls and he was a bit annoyed that id been getting all these letters/phone calls and would put a stop to them and remove my name off there system.well all was ok for about 6 months then all of a sudden i started to recieve letters off them and phone calls again,this time i phoned them again and threaten legal action,and luckily so far no letters or phone calls for 2 months.

 

[Hi-Def]

I believe if you pay by credit card you can't even cancel this yourself like you can with a direct debit or standing order, so you are really shafted if they want to keep on taking payments.

but if they are taking payments without your consent then your CC company should be able to charge it back and make sure they dont charge it again

 

[phil-uk]

i kept getting phone calls and letters off these for months on end,one month a total of 12 letters and about 8 phone calls i'd had enough so i had to ask to be put thro to some one a bit higher up that the monkey on the phone,eventually i spoke to a guy and told him about the letters and phone calls and he was a bit annoyed that id been getting all these letters/phone calls and would put a stop to them and remove my name off there system.well all was ok for about 6 months then all of a sudden i started to recieve letters off them and phone calls again,this time i phoned them again and threaten legal action,and luckily so far no letters or phone calls for 2 months.

What you can do here is if they include a postage paid reply envelope then save all your junk mail and stick it in their reply envelope and post it off to them. They have to pay the postage for recieving all this junk mail, give them a taste of their own medicine and the beauty is they have to pay to recieve it, nice

 

[t1m103]

What you can do here is if they include a postage paid reply envelope then save all your junk mail and stick it in their reply envelope and post it off to them. They have to pay the postage for recieving all this junk mail, give them a taste of their own medicine and the beauty is they have to pay to recieve it, nice

god idea,lol,i get penty of junk mail thro my letter box,but hopefully these people harrassing me has stopped.

 

[xPositor]

You may want to consider ensuring that nothing with your name or address is on what you send back to them. Or you might not...

 

[Denzamoo]

Yep they are the bandits and even more issues:
And more still:

http://boakes.org/junk-mail-from-satellite-direct-uk/

And in court:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2007/jan/06/consumernews.moneysupplement1

 

[Jonstone]

but if they are taking payments without your consent then your CC company should be able to charge it back and make sure they dont charge it again

Unfortunately it is apparently not that simple when you setup payments in this manner on a credit card

 

[panther100]

My little Satellite Direct UK Litd problem.

Approx 4-5 years ago I took out basic Sky in my old house. About 6 months into the contract the box broke. I phone sky, they sent out an engineer and replaced it with a nice new box which meant (and I checked with them) that I got another years warranty with the new box. No problem.

After approx a year I got A phone call from Satellite Direct UK Ltd (For the purpose of this I will refer to them as 'SDUK') who told me were acting on behalf of Sky and offerring an insurance policy which covered pretty much everything for just £9 per month. I felt this was FANTASTIC and practically snapped their arm off to take on the insurance plan.

Now before anyone comments this would have been approx 4 years ago and I was a lot younger and naieve so didn't really look into it any further.

Anyway I digress. I moved house about 3 years ago and telephoned them to notify them of my new address. No problem there. I then upgraded to sky+ soon after and informed them of that fact. Quite soon after that I upgraded to multi-room and informed them and they increased my 'premium' to £10 PCM. I thought "fair enough I'm getting two boxes insured for just £1 more a month"

So many years go by with no problem still paying my premium knowing I have a safety net there 'just in case'

Until Now................

It all began back in July when I noticed that my sky+ box was recording programmes but upon playback chunks of audio were missing. A couple of occasions I watched the programme I was recording (no problems) yet the recording still had audio missing.

Ok, So I telephoned up SDUK and the very nice lady on the end of the phone got me to run through some procedures checking signals etc etc and told me to do a 'hard-drive reset' which I done. This actually cured the problem for approx a month or so.

I have been busy with work, working all funny shifts and never actually getting round to telephoning them again until last week. I managed to get hold of them again and told them the problem was still occuring and again the very nice lady on the other end of the phone ran me through some different procedures. This did not cure the problem and she said she would book me and engineer.

Luckilly she managed to get me an engineer the very next day ( I was working but not until 16:00) I asked her to put a note to try and make it a morning visit as I had work. No problem there.
08:30 the next morning I am awaken by my phone and the engineer telling me that he would not be here until between 13:00 and 15:00. I though "OK fine still got time to get to work etc etc".
The same engineer then phones me at 14:30 to tell me that he would not be able to make mine until gone 16:00 so I had to cancelled.

I then telephoned SDUK again to make another appointment for another engineer for another day and chose a day that I was off from work (Monday). Again rudely awoken at 08:30 by an engineer who tells me he will be here between 11:00 and 13:00. Here starts the waiting game.........
13:00 comes by and my phone goes. "sorry Mr Boulter I'm not going to be able to make yours until between 13:00 and 15:00" So the waiting game continues......
15:30 comes by and "DING-DONG" WOW he is finally at the front door to fix my sky box.

He does some signal tests and checks the wiring in the back of the box and informs me that I was lucky to of has the sky+ box more that about 18 months as they are not very good. And that he has cable as it is much better :roll: :lol: So he is a satellite engineer why then??

He turns around and says "No worries I'll put another box in". Off her goes to his little van and bings in a small white box, just big enough for a satllite receiver. He pulls out a bubble wrapped receiver taped in parcel tape and plugs it in.

I comment on how it was a recon box etc and he was like "yeah it's ok"

He done a few signal tests again and set it all up and done a few test records and everything seemed to work fine. Off he went with my old box and I set up some programmes to record whilst I was down the pub. I noticed a few grubby marks here and there and was a little annoyed but none the less carried on. Then I found another mark. Then I found a chip in the plastic and it went on and on.

I have take some pictures which will be included in the letter to them if they do not come out and rectify this problem.

ABOVE: Notice the black mark underneath the left selection key.

ABOVE: Notice the yellowy/grey/black plastic almost as if it has come from a smokers house (no offence to smokers intended but this is whats happening to your electrical goods if you smoke in the house)

ABOVE: Notice the chunks missing from the side of the box and the fact that the front panel does not actually line up correctly with the metal case.

I keep all my electrical good in tip top condition meaning that my old box that he took away may have had a little bit of dust on top but NEVER looked as bad as the box I have now.

I'm not finished... I came home from the pub ready to sit down surf the net and watch some recorded tele only to find that the programmes that had recorded, when play is pressed the message "recording interrupted, Please wait" is displayed. I wait and nothing.

So not only have they left me with some manky second hand box. They have left me not being able to record programmes which is worse than the last box where I could at least watch some of it with missing audio.

I have read through their T&C's and read the following. I quote:

F: We will carry out such repairs or replacements (as we think fit) of or to the Equipment. In the event of a replacement being necessary, the replacement product may not be new.

This being the case I'm pretty sure they are still not allowed to supply a box that is in of worse condition than my original. Or am I wrong?

Yes I know this is a rant but this is also a warning to you all not to take out a policy with Satellite Direct UK Ltd.

I have done some investigating and Sky do their own insurance package which, once I have sorted this little problem out, will be talking to and taking on their policy and cancelling SDUK.

Si 8)

 

[bumper31]

My little Satellite Direct UK Litd problem.


I have done some investigating and Sky do their own insurance package which, once I have sorted this little problem out, will be talking to and taking on their policy and cancelling SDUK.

Si 8)

Not wanting to be too judgemental but have you done the sums? You can get a sky+ box off a WKAS for 50 quid. Or do a deal with sky to go HD for 100 quid with installation and they would come and swap out the dish and cabling.

I'm not saying insurance per se is a bad thing, when SKYHD boxes were 300 sobs it was worth doing it for 12 months but any longer it defeats the purpose.

 

[anfukf]

That is the error message you get if the card is not paired to the box,ring sky and ask them to pair the card to the replacement box.

 

[so99]

I would ask for a replacement debit/credit card (damaged) and this stops people using the card.

 

[loraine]

They have just taken £129.90 from our bank account!!! without prior authorisation!! I did join them in 2007 for £9.00 per month and then switched to sky.......they must need the money now!! like all of us. I have contacted the bank and they gave me several contact numbers.....non of which reply!! They do not respond to emails either......keep off them!!

 

[satmanbasil]

Hi m8s

Same here they taken £75.00 without consent and unable to contact them by phone on any department wonder if they taken monies from users accounts and done a runner.

regards
satmanbasil

 

[fernandez]

Same here they taken £75.00 without consent and unable to contact them by phone...

Try for a chargeback with your bank or card company

APACS: Retailers and Cards: Chargebacks

Possibly worth a try and good luck

 

[SuSat]

They have just taken £129.90 from our bank account!!! without prior authorisation!! I did join them in 2007 for £9.00 per month and then switched to sky.......they must need the money now!! like all of us. I have contacted the bank and they gave me several contact numbers.....non of which reply!! They do not respond to emails either......keep off them!!

They've done the same to me, £129.99 for March & April.
I've contacted them today and although the help desk guy was very friendly and apologetic, I'll reserve judgement until I see the refund on my bank statement.

I had spoken with my bank (HSBC) first and they advised me that if I had any trouble getting it sorted I could request the bank to submit an Indemnity Claim on them.

I'll keep you posted!

 

[melroseman]

They have taken £65 out of my account instead of £6.50 - when I eventually got through they admitted "Oops our error" - 3 weeks later still no refund. Called them again and had "attitude" from Customer Services - would not pass me on to accounts dept as they dont take calls! Hmmm how dodgy is this co. Finally contacted my bank again who advised that this co is notorious for doing this. Money refunded by my bank under DDR guarantee (if they'd done this in the 1st place when I asked.....) I would advise everyone not to go near this co, and if you do deal with them cancel DDR's and pay using cheques.
In addition they do not reply to emails, they write back and say they are having problems....

 

[Member 354643]

Scamming BA******S!

 

[Ms-Pacman]

theyve taken 50 out of m account instead of 5.
just googled too see if I could find anything and found the below on another website.
don't know how accurate it is though...

janey says:
30/03/2009 at 17:13
You are all correct in what you are saying. They are con artists.
They try to offer a good service when it comes to technical support & do have engineers for faults that can’t be solved over the phone, but this part is probably the only good thing about the company.
The selling of the agreement & the administration however is just a plain joke.
At the moment, you will find you are on hold for about 1/2 an hour before someone pics up.. this is because the service line is mega busy due to the following issue -
At the moment there is a big scam going on where the bosses have decided to take far too much money out of customers accounts, if you are paying £6.50 you will find £65 has come out, if you are paying £12.99, you will find £129.90 has been taken & so on. They have done this deliberately, not because of ‘a decimal point has some how been moved due to computer error’ as they are told to instruct customers.
It has been/will be happening to anyone that pay’s via direct debit, so be warned.
They will refund you the money, but only after keeping it for at least 28 days (if you’re lucky), thus gaining a mega amount of intrest. If you think about it, with the amount of customers they have.. close on a million, the intrest on the money gained by the ‘mistake’ runs into the thousands.
The only way to get the money back quicker is by raising an indem claim with the bank.. the more people that do this at the bank will eventually cause the company to loose their DD facility, and with about 80% of their customers paying via this method, it may just well cause the company to become bankrupt.
There are also issues with a £49,99 payment being debited for a phone & broadband service… again ‘accidently’ taken out from customers accounts - people that haven’t signed up to it!! Its just mad!
They NEVER send out price increaswe letters - this is fact. If anyone actually went through our computers, you will find proof that these were never printed - Thus breaching the direct debit guarantee.
As for their sales… well nothing legit there either.. Satellite Direct provide aftercare for sales offices that dont share the company name.. eg, Satlink services & sat support - this is how they get away with miss selling, because they don’t actually sell them under the company name.. But funny how the md of Sat-d ownes a majority share in those companys!! very clever & sneaky stuff!!

 

[Ms-Pacman]

this number works to contact them.
01243 556000
cheaper than the 0870 one

to give them credit the lady was very friendly and said it was due to a computer error over a digital point and that if I went to the bank to get the money back under dd guarantee then there would be no charge for this month and I would get my money back quicker as their refund process takes 28 days

 

[newboy2008]

I am shocked by this.It may be worth contacting a Sunday paper about this.

 

[SuSat]

I am shocked by this.It may be worth contacting a Sunday paper about this.

Too right! I've just submitted it to Penman & Sommerlad, investigators for the Daily Mirror.


Here's the link
- Investigations

 

[nicho]

Satellite Direct - what a great service! They wrongly took money from my account in May. After trying to get through by phone, I wrote and got a phone call from a really nice lady promising to refund my account - still waiting for this to happen a month later! Phoned today and was told that the refund could be made quick, but as I was sarcastic (wouldn't you be if you had been ripped off!) I would have to wait! Beware before you enter into anything with this company.