MANY Islanders are still having problems with getting VAT taken off their Sky subscriptions, but one reader who refused to pay the company the tax ended up being pursued by a debt agency.
Kelly Harvey subscribed to Sky in January but says that despite several attempts to get the VAT taken off her subscription, it never happened. As a result, she cancelled her contract with Sky and subsequently received an invoice for nearly £90 which covered a three-month period.
‘The bill included VAT, and every time I phoned to ask them to take it off they said it would be done, but it wasn’t,’ said Mrs Harvey. ‘I was willing to pay the bill minus the VAT, but I shouldn’t have been charged VAT, so I don’t see why I had to pay it.’
She was still waiting to receive a new invoice from Sky minus the Vat when a debt recovery agency, Wescot, approached her for the money. Understandably, Mrs Harvey was distressed by this and in desperation got in touch with Fair Play.
The first thing we did was to call Wescot and explain the situation to try to stop the situation from escalating. The Hull-based company were very understanding and put the account on hold while we sorted out the problem with Sky direct.
It wasn’t long before the company put things right, and as well as instructing the debt recovery agency to stop any action on Mrs Harvey’s account, they also offered her a compensation package.
A Sky spokesman sent us the following statement:
‘We were very sorry to hear about Mrs Harvey’s experience. We contacted her to apologise and resolve the billing issue. We have applied a credit for the VAT offer, the invoice charge and the calls made to our contact centre.
We have also ensured the debt agency withdraws their action. Mrs Harvey’s account is now reinstated and she is happy with this.’
Article posted on 16th July, 2008 - 1.54pm
4 Article Comments
The best way to contact sky to get the VAT back is to write to them. I sent them one letter and received a reply less than 2 weeks later and voila vat gone
i have just read your article and am in the same situation. i have had sky since december 2006 and am still waiting for VAT to be taken off my sky bill. i contacted sky on 16th july to see what was going on and was told that the VAT claim i issued in march was being refused and that i could not claim the money back and was told they would take £9.63 off my next statement and the VAT is just goodwill offer from sky. i am very unhappy about the whole situation and surely if sky head office was doing there jobs properly the VAT should of been taken off when we first subscribed….
Everyone seems overly concerned about a little bit of vat and yet we get ripped off by local retailers every day and no-one complains - how strange !!!
it’s not just a little bit of money they owe people and i am owed £200 for the 2 years i’ve had sky and to me thats 2 months worth of shopping for me and my child. do people not realise jersey is a VAT free island and were entilted to our money back.