Not a SCAM – Sky Refunds Former UK Phone, TV and Broadband Users

An unspecified number of Sky’s (Sky Broadband) former customers, specifically those who left the provider in 2012 or earlier, are being told to expect a refund after an administrative blunder meant the operator failed to refund the remaining credit on some accounts.

Delayed refunds are a problem that we’ve heard about before from customers of Sky’s service in the United Kingdom, although such matters are usually resolved after a few weeks or, if you’re really unlucky, several months. But recently a number of former customers have also begun to receive letters concerning service cancellations that occurred in 2012 or earlier.

Sky’s Statement (22nd September 2014)

“If you left Sky in 2012 or earlier, you may have recently received a letter from us about a credit on your Sky account. To speak to our customer service team about this, please call 0808 101 4437. This number is free to call from all UK landlines.”

According to a Sky support agent, “The intention behind this letter [is] to let you know that after you cancelled your account, there was still some money left on there and we want to return it to you.” Apparently the average repayment being issued by Sky is less than £10 and this appears to reflect several reports on Sky’s own forum, where figures of £12 or less have been expressed.

So unexpected were the letters that some people initially thought they were part of a scam (as per the above forum post), although Sky has since confirmed that they are indeed legitimate and apologised for any confusion. Apparently customers are more likely to have been affected by this problem if they cancelled mid-way through an existing billing cycle or had credit left on their accounts from other things.

The letters appear to have been issued during the middle of September and related refunds are being handled automatically. However the lengthy passage of time means that some ex-customers may have moved homes again since they left and thus the letters might not reach all of their intended recipients, which could explain why some non-Sky customers received them and thought it was a scam.

As always it’s important to keep an eye on your spending so that problems like this can be chased and resolved sooner rather than later. On the other hand some ISPs wouldn’t even bother going back this far to help customers get their money, so it’s good to see that Sky hasn’t forgotten even though it may still struggle to refund everybody.

It’s not currently known how far back beyond 2012 this problem goes (Sky won’t say).