Possible SKY scam?

Swampyseifer · 27 Jul 2010 at 08:29

Hey all,

I had a call last week from a guy who introduced himself by name, but not company. He asked to speak to the SKY account holder, which is me. He said, "is that MR <surname> living at <address> who has SKY+ and broadband.......so he knew all my details.

I said yes it was so he said that our first year of SKY cover had run out, which normally would be £99 but there was a deal on currently where it was only £60 for the year. I thought it was a good idea, and thought nothing of it so I paid it.

My partner was concerned that he didnt say he was from SKY so this morning I called SKY up and although I had an arse of a worker who was not that helpful he did tell me that SKY do not use 3rd party companies for support and the person who called me was in no way affiliated with SKY.

He did say that its possible the company could have got my details from marketting data and they are a legit company who offer support and repairs to SKY customers....just not with SKY's approval.

I tried questioning him more and asking if he'd heard of them before but then he started to clam up and tell me that all he could say was they are nothing to do with SKY and I should call this other company up and speak to them.

As a precaution, I have already reaquested new bank cards so that they cant take more the the £60 they've got already...

The company is called L & C Support, Bognor Regis and the phone number is 01243 827453.

I was wondering if anyone else on here has had dealings with them and also thought this might warn others of a possible scam.

Duke · 27 Jul 2010 at 08:33

This was on Watchdog and similar programmes a while ago. They are (as you found out) just a 3rd party warranty/repairs company that were caught trying to act a bit too much as if they were Sky themselves. I don't think they are dodgy as such.

Greebo · 27 Jul 2010 at 08:33

Loads of scams like these. I get them all the time. Although strictly speaking they are not a scam as AFIK they do offer the service/supply repairs so you get what you pay.

The dodgy bit is they make out they are SKY without actually saying it.

Swampyseifer · 27 Jul 2010 at 08:35

Cheers dudes...so at least I havent paid for absolutely nothing then! But then, if they're not affiliated with SKY does that mean any repairs they make to the set-top or anything will void warrenties with SKY I wonder.....

Well, with the bank card cancelled they cant take anymore at least!

ShadowMan · 27 Jul 2010 at 08:37

You paid something over the phone to someone who called you? Call them up and cancel it. As it was over the phone you should be able to cancel under DSR if you want your money back.

Morgoth · 27 Jul 2010 at 08:53

Swampyseifer said:
But then, if they're not affiliated with SKY does that mean any repairs they make to the set-top or anything will void warrenties with SKY I wonder.....

No, in the first year of your contract your repairs are covered by sky warranty, you would go straight to sky to get things fixed. Thereafter you can do anything you like with the equipment.

Abraham · 27 Jul 2010 at 09:00

They've called me 3 times now I think, fed me various different bs stories the first time, the second two as soon as I've realised who it is I've said I'm not interested

stoofa · 27 Jul 2010 at 09:20

OK, first thing to note is that it is not a Scam.
A Scam would be if you paid something and received nothing.
Alternatively you agreed to pay a particular amount and they took more.
Those would be scams.

What you've done is received a call from a company offering you maintenance on your Sky system for 12 months for £60 and you have accepted.
You will now pay the £60.
Should you have any problems with your system then this company will send out an engineer and if any equipment is found to be faulty then they will replace the equipment free of charge.

The company will not have introduced themselves as being Sky.
However many of the companies that sell these warranties do have the word "Sky" in their name, so it can sound like it's from Sky.
They will also use phrases such as "Sky Authorised" etc.
They are not anything to do with Sky - with the exception of them usually being authorised Sky repair centre.

The only thing you need to worry about is if the £60 was money well spent or not.
Sky+ boxes can be purchased for that amount on EBay - so if it's Sky+ you have then a replacement could have been purchased should yours fail.
SkyHD boxes are more expensive, but they aren't exactly prone to failure.
Dish issues can be annoying - so you could argue the £60 was well spent incase something happens at the dish end of things.

You've not been scammed - you've basically been convinced to buy into "Extended Warranty", something most people in shops will say no to.

utajoker · 27 Jul 2010 at 09:24

my gf gets a call once a month from these, they ask for your details but since you with sky they should already have it... but they dont give up so she just hangs up now. dont see the point in them as sky offer their own cover for cheaper.

Swampyseifer · 27 Jul 2010 at 09:24

stoofa said:
You've not been scammed - you've basically been convinced to buy into "Extended Warranty", something most people in shops will say no to.

Well I mostly agree, the fact that I was under the impression I was talking to SKY....and wouldnt have paid for the service if I knew it wasn't SKY is a little scammy!

Tho I fully admit it was my bad to assume they were SKY

Peño · 27 Jul 2010 at 09:42

We've not had a lot of calls from Sky third-party companies, but we've certainly had a lot of extended warranty letters in the post from them. They use a lot of scaremongering tactics.

Lately we've been called up under the same pretense and offered discounted Sky Sports and Movies packages. When I request to think about it and call back, they claim it is only an "outbound call for selected customers only". I did think about it, and they indeed did call me back, but there was too much suspicion for me to accept.

Abraham · 28 Jul 2010 at 15:20

I had a call from sky this morning, woke me up from my lie in, was actually from sky, but as soon as the answer phone picked it up it put "me" on hold, the hold music was blaring out the answer machine so I went and answered it to hang up, when I left the house half an hour later I picked the phone up and it was still on hold :/