A Notice to Sky Customers: Read the Fine Print

I advise this since I got a letter from Sky today informing me of a price hike on their line rental and call tariffs. I get notified this in my second month of being a customer. When I looked up online after to see if this is legal, I found this from the official Sky website:


Sky's contract clause, justifying price increases

"Under your 12 month Sky contract you are entitled to protection from any price increases in the first 60 days of your subscription. During the first 12 months of your contract you are also protected from price increases to your Sky package that are greater than 10%."

Ahh that explains being hit with the price increase letter two months into being a customer. Great marketing/sales technique guys. Not underhanded at all.

You do get the offer to cancel without being subject to the exit fee, within 30 days of your notification letter. That’s really considerate and all, but I end up still being out of pocket having shelled out for installation/router costs…are they planning to reimburse me for that? Thought not. Plus, I now have the hassle of finding another service provider.

Not ideal.

It’s still one of the cheapest broadband options available, it’s just annoying that I’ll be paying more for the part of the service that I won’t even use – the cheapest broadband available was one that included a landline. I don't really use the landline since I get lots of minutes though my mobile phone deal. If I ever need to ring 0800 (free from landlines) or 0845 (NOT free from landlines) numbers, I search for their geographical number listed on Say No to 0870 and then call that number using minutes from my mobile.

The thrifty person’s guide to life ;-)

If you think I’m cheap, I resent that: I just don’t like to throw my money away on things that are undeserved, such as premium rate numbers.

In all honesty, the price hike isn’t THAT much and neither were the initial costs. But on principle it’s sneaky, underhanded and wrong. You expect better from one of the largest media conglomerates in the world.

How do you get away with luring customers with promotional prices…just to increase the price two months into the contract? It’s not like them deals that have a *promotional price for the first 6 months disclaimer. I have honestly never encountered a price hike a couple of months into a contract before.

If you look on the internet, people have been complaining about this since July, so they obviously roll-out the notification letters as soon as your 60-day protection period is up. And although they have covered their asses by including a clause into their multiple-page contract (let’s be honest, the majority of us don’t meticulously read the terms and conditions), at no point was I warned about price changes for line rental so early on into my contract when I signed up.

Technically, they aren’t in breach of contract so I know a lot of people might miss this, as I did, which is why I’m pointing it out. I’m sure a lot of potential customers will be reluctant to choose a service provider with the knowledge that they could face a random price increase a couple of months in, but it's not right to omit that information, especially when you had a Sky sales rep waxing lyrical about joining them, but conveniently forget to mention it.

But hey, at least now I know to research a company’s history of price changes beforehand. And to always read the fine print/terms and conditions.