Please help 'SKY'
 

I hope someone can offer me some help. When we left the Uk we stupidly cancelled with Sky over the phone (which they accepted), this was 23rd February. They then started sending bills to us (mail redirected to my mums). My mum phoned them and explained, no problem they said, then more bills. My mum then agreed (cause she worries) that she would pay them on our behalf up until 3rd April which was all put in writing by Sky and the account closed. My mum has phoned me today in a terrible state after worrying all night that apparently we now owe them £195 and the debt has been given to a debt agency who have contacted our old address 3 times now wanting payment. The people in my old house have (very kindly:curse:) given them my new telephone in Oz but they havent contacted us yet. Sky will not listen anymore saying the debt has now been given to someone else even though we have it in writing that the account is closed and paid up. My mum has made an appointment with the citizens advise on Monday to try and get some advice.
Anyone know what I should do?

S xx

Re: Please help 'SKY'
 

I used to work for a debt collection agency. You are just one of thousands on their database, do not take anything they send you to heart.

Firstly, get a copy of any correspondence from SKY confirming your account will be closed. Get a list of dates of telephone conversations (with names if poss) too. Send copies of these to the debt collectors and tell them to not send any further demands.

If you only owe 195 quid, don't panic. They would not pursue this further as it would cost too much money for their client.

Re: Please help 'SKY'
 

You should ring them, tell them to send the debt collector to Australia and then you will pay it :D

Citizens advice should sort it out. I wouldn't worry about it, at least not until you have spoken to them anyway. Just make sure she takes all the letters etc with her.

Re: Please help 'SKY'
 

sorry no advice but same happened to us .... finally threatened to go to uk local papers ... wonders upon wonders, an apology!

tiscali were as bad but i gave in and paid that one!

Re: Please help 'SKY'
 

I wouldn't mind but my poor Mum is trying to deal with it all, she is a real worrier and of the generation that believe debt collectors will come and bash her door down in the middle of the night and make her homeless!!! (because she had to give them her details when sorting it all out for us)

Thanks for your help guys I'm a bit calmer now

S xx

Re: Please help 'SKY'
 

They wont come and bash her door down. Tell her not to worry about it. At the end of the day, if she has paid it can can prove that she paid it, there is nothing to chase you for.

I would imagine that a conversation with the debt collector company will resolve it. At the end of the day, the debt would have been yours anyway and, like you said, are they going to come and knock on your door for it?

Re: Please help 'SKY'
 

I had the same with Tiscali. Tried to charge me for calls I made 3 months after I left the UK. Muppets!

Re: Please help 'SKY'
 

Contact the Debt Collection Company immediately, personally. For evey letter your sent, you'll receive additional charges to your "oustanding Account", ask them to freeze the acccount charges.

Every Payment made to the Collection Company will not clear your 'Debt' for example.. every £10 paid to account, £7.50 of it, will go towards costs and fees, incurred collecting the debt, so your debt will only reduce by £2.50.

It's a Debt Trap, you need to clear quickly, and if nessesary get a Lawyer onto them, and it'll be frozen as 'Disputed Debt'.

But, you need to get them to freeze the Charges ASAP, no matter who owes who what, the debt will incurr 'expenses' daily.

good luck

p.s. Don't think for a moment they will not pursue this, they now have all your mothers details, and know she contacts you, they will pursue this.

Re: Please help 'SKY'
 

Sky (and NTL) do this all the time. I used to work for our local Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) and we actually had a file just for Sky and another one just for NTL. At our CAB we would write letters to companies on behalf of people. Hopefully your mother's local CAB will do the same.

As for collector's bashing down doors: they are not allowed to do this. They are however allowed to come in if you open the door to them or climb in through a window that's left open! And once they are in, they are allowed to take things (there are some rules about things they are not allowed to take, but they don't always follow the rules). As it's you who "owes" the debt and not your mother, they shouldn't come round to her at all. But again: debt collectors do not always play by the rules.

At my CAB we would therefore advise people to only open the door to people you know personally. You may want to pass this on to your mother, just in case the debt collectors come round before CAB manage to sort it.

Gina

Re: Please help 'SKY'
 

Don't they need a court order or something?

Re: Please help 'SKY'
 

Court Order, County Court judgements etc, can be applied for, without your knowledge, or even notification.:curse:

Therefore, they would have one, before climbing into your open window..

BUT!! the fees for applying for these 'Orders' will be added to YOUR "outstanding Debt"

Good Luck :thumbsup:

Re: Please help 'SKY'
 

Actually they do have to give official notice of impending action...usually 21 days. You're quite right about the costs being added though.

However, they will not do this as the legal jurisdiction in Australia completely differs to the UK and it would cost them a fortune to enforce judgement if it came to that. Trust me...we wouldn't even go for 1000's of pounds owing in Ireland as the enforcement costs were so high, so what the heck they'd be over here...???!!!!

Anyway, it's all irrelevant as the debt is paid, all she needs to do is prove it to them.

Re: Please help 'SKY'
 

an update

It appears that Sky are adamant that they did not receive the final closing cheque amount. The bank are now involved as they have confirmed from their records that the cheque was indeed made out to Sky and has been cashed. Hopefully it will be resolved very soon. Thanks for your thoughts and support everybody.

S xx

Re: Please help 'SKY'
 

What a complete pain in the R's

Re: Please help 'SKY'
 

#

Unless I'm missing something there is no way they can do anything in connection with you mum, be it forced entry what ever - the dept is yours not hers and she cannot be held responsible. As you no longer have any attachment to the UK they would have to chase you in Aus.

Get your "proof" together, find the direct contact details of a director of Sky and "scream blue murder" in a written complaint including the fact that you Mum is being harassed. I had similar problems with Orange - they dropped it like a hot potato. Good luck.

Bruce.

Re: Please help 'SKY'
 

So what do we need to do to officially break away from Sky....we are out of our initial years contract and now paying monthly DD, can I just tell them in writing that we are leaving and cancel the DD?

Re: Please help 'SKY'
 

I think your advice is a little OTT.

Actually the addition of "costs" by debt collectors is unlawful unless the debt is one prescribed by statutory regulation which would allow a table of charges to be applied. A private debt to SKY does not and any letters would just be mentioning "costs may be incurred of.." which will be the costs for a judgement application they may or may not make.

For 195 my money is on a series of 3 letters and then it will be written off.

Whilst a judgement may be obtained without your knowledge the applicant is still required to serve a summons which will the last address in the UK. However, if you have genuinely had no notice (such as mail not reaching you in Australia) then you can have the judgement removed in the even it would get to that stage.

Personally I wouldnt even bother to reply to them. NTL did the same thing to be and I certainly didnt pay them and wasnt going to spend my money phoning call centre monkeys who cant understand a simple concept.

Re: Please help 'SKY'
 

I worked in Debt recovery for many years, but if your happy to advise people to ignore debt, then OK...

I'll keep my advise to myself.. and I'm bowing out of this topic..

Good luck and best wishes :thumbsup:

Re: Please help 'SKY'
 

BB - unfortunately, I also work in Debt Recovery in the UK at an international level though and I agree with centurion on this one, it was a little over the top your advice. As its a 'care of' address, the dca cant touch the family member. Working in the field you would have already known this though. Other regulatory factors would also lead this to harrassment if the family member was to be persued (OFT guidelines).

There is a recipricol agreement in place between the UK and Australia, but as previously stated, wouldnt be enforced due to the added costs of collection and also now it has been updated to reflect the fact that the payment was cashed as already stated.

wannabeaussienurse, we have had it in writing back from sky that our sky subs will be cancelled 2 weeks after we fly out and cant claim the extra back, therefore we should have cancelled our direct debit and made a final billl payment to them.

Re: Please help 'SKY'
 

Correct info again. It is illegal not to give notice and they cant give notice to a UK care of address whereby they know the customer isnt resident.

Re: Please help 'SKY'
 

A similar thing happened to me, but with Orange mobile phones. Told them we were leaving for OZ so cancelled our contract once it was up. Moved to OZ and got 20 or more letters asking for 250 pounds for new contract. We told them acc was cancelled but they still wanted the money. Obviously we didn't pay it.
Next thing we were getting debt collectors letters (we had re-directed mail from UK to OZ) saying that we now had a CCJ against my name. Then the mail just stopped.
So if i ever do go back to UK, i am not sure where that leaves me. But i know one thing for sure, i will never use Orange again:curse:

Re: Please help 'SKY'
 

If you dont pay the debt for 6yrs it will become 'statute barred' and will be written off if its at that stage already. Plus after 6yrs it will have dropped off your credit file anyway.

I tell you what, its making it a lot clearer for us to get our 0bal bills in place quite quickly. We have been wrapping our accounts up this last week and didnt realise that there were sooo many outstanding problems.Learnt a bit off this thread for sure.

Re: Please help 'SKY'
 

I never renewed the contract, so thats why i didn't pay it. I also thought it was around the 6 or 7 year period when debts get dropped. Still damages your ability to get credit though inbetween those years.

Re: Please help 'SKY'
 

Bless you Cath'n'Paul, help these people start again, without this unfortunate error of Sky.....

and someone please get the 'mother' a calming massage..

love BonnyBute :wub:

p.s. didn't mean to terrify anyone xxxxx :o

Re: Please help 'SKY'
 

Good Point BB - will do that now

They would need to write to experian/equifax to make sure that their credit file is corrected once its proven that it wasnt their fault. The OP needs to go from two angles, they need to put their complaint in writing to sky for their credit file to be corrected to show no late payments, but also to write to the credit reference agencies (experian/equifax) to have a notice of correction added to their file and also asking them to investigate the inaccuracy for them.

It is possible a default may have already been issued if the account is with a DCA, but then again it may be an internal solicitors/dca trying their luck pre-notice of default.

It is 6 years when it drops off the credit file, but also the statute barred means they cant re-chase you for the debt after that time either, therefore written off. x

Re: Please help 'SKY'
 

Dad just phoned them and said he was going to cancel it because we are leaving the country (and he was sick of paying £30 a month for constant repeats!). Sky phoned back a week later trying to get the business back and tehy were told again 'We.Are.Leaving.The.Country'. Apparently Sky didn't understand it the first time. :blink: DD was cancelled.

Re: Please help 'SKY'
 

Right then,

To everybody that needs to cancel Sky before you go......

Make sure you give them a specific date to cancel 'in writing' and send by registered mail so it has to be signed for.

The latest scenerio is that Sky have claimed they didn't receive the last closing balance letter. It was a cheque sent with a letter with all the details on. We had agreed to pay them until April 6th (although we left the property on 22nd February) because of all the confusion, as we had given the correct notice but we cancelled by phone and it wasn't registered by the call centre staff. They have claimed that they didn't receive the letter although the cheque has been cashed and was in the same envelope. Our bank in the Uk (Barclays) have now taken it up on our behalf (we know the cashiers, but only through having business there) and have agreed to pay them another £34 to close this whole matter. This has been faxed through to the bank who are keeping copies. We have been informed that the debt collection agency have been informed but advised to keep copies. All in all we have paid them nearly £100 which we don't owe because we accepted the word of the kind call people staff we have spoken too when in reality they just put the phone down at the end of the conversation and do nothing. They are complete bullies and we have only paid this because it was really upsetting my Mum and I didn't want to cause her more worry, just as a precaution I have removed her as a point of contact so any more mail should come to us.

So the moral is do not pay the last DD, stop the payment and inform Sky in writing, and ask for aclosing balance to be sent to you in writing and pay that by cheque, and send again in writing that the account in now closed, remembering to send everything by recorded delivery.

Sky are robbing bas*~^ds.

S xx

p.s I would to thank everybody on here for sharing this with me and offering advice and support

Re: Please help 'SKY'
 

Will do just what you have said streaks and will get a letter sent recorded delivery today. Cheers for sharing your experience, knowing our sort of luck it would be a similar scenario.

Re: Please help 'SKY'
 

get a grip of yourself ! your as bad as her mother. she needs advice not the s**ts put up her!

Re: Please help 'SKY'
 

There is a recipricol agreement in place between the UK and Australia, but as previously stated, wouldnt be enforced due to the added costs of collection

Can you explain please what this reciprocal agreement is?

Also, do you happen to know if there is a legal limit on the age of a debt which someone is chasing you for? I have recently had a to do with the DWP as they are claiming I owe them money which was overpaid to me in 1998. I have said, when they can prove it on paper then I'll discuss it but nothing so far!! Just wondering if this is something that would follow me to Oz as I don't want to leave the country owing anyone anything!

Thanks for the professional brain picking:D

Re: Please help 'SKY'
 

I would be very surprised they can provide evidence of that as its over 6years. Not many companies hold onto paperwork over that long.

Have a look at this link and see if helps any:
http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/manuals/IHTmanual/IHTM28384.htm

A reciprocal agreement in the UK means a UK Court can enforce a CCJ (County Court Judgment) using the legal system of the other country. If there is no such agreement in place, a creditor can sell a debt to an agency in the relevant country and debt recovery procedures will commence under the law of that land.

The amount of the debt depends on the relevent company, they have different limits. Plus if a creditor has linked offices in that country it is a lot easier to take matters further. Likewise with using cards when trying to trace people, that is the easiest way of finding out which country the account holder is in.

Re: Please help 'SKY'
 

Thanks very much for that. From what I ca make out, they have no right to demand anything after 9 years then. Surprised to hear about the CCJ being enforceable.

Hope this isn't a daft question but are the govt agencies over here linked to any over there? I have read stories on here about people who have left and been told months later in Oz that they owe tax credits back in UK. Do you know what would happen in that circumstance?

Thanks again.

Sarah

Re: Please help 'SKY'
 

no idea sarah about govt agencies, sorry about that. Not my field.

Re: Please help 'SKY'
 

OK Thanks anyway. Maybe someone else will know.

Re: Please help 'SKY'
 

Similar thing happened to us after we left the UK. Telephoned BT after sale of our house to pay them off. We explained that we were emigrating etc., paid all outstanding amounts by debit card on telephone. About four months later mum sent me a debt collectors letter - they wanted original outstanding amount of 16 quid plus their charges.

I emailed BT and the debt collection agency to explain and received an apology from BT. Not a peep from the agency though.

Good luck :)

Re: Please help 'SKY'
 

Tell em to get lost, they tried it on with me and I never even cancelled it just told em I had.................ignore them and after a while they go away. don't even open the letters just put not at this address on em and send em back.
I did it with a couple of companies when I came over............