Are they now charging £100 a year for your card.. basically blackmail!!!!..

Ok, Weve had our sat tv for nearly 2 years. Yesterday we received the message that we need to pay £1 a month more to receive any channels were already receiving. IE we can still recieve channel 5 and fiver etc also we are still recieving music channles.

It seems like the channles that we now cannot get are the ones we pay for.

our satellite man seems to be of the opnion that the people who we got the card from are now going to blackmail us £100 per year to keep the card running. This is extra to what we pay for our satelite channels!!

Anyone else having this problem or are we being conned!?!?!

(costa blanca area)

if you are not using a uk address of your own then you will get charged for the use of the card suppliers uk address.

this has been normal practice since i have been in the business, which is why i say to all my clients save money and use your own (a friend or relatives) uk address...themn you control the card.

if you pre pay for your sky card (ie pay 12 months in one go) then sky increased their prices by about £1 in september so mayby this is also what is happening...

unfortunatly your post does not give much informaiton to go on so i can only guess as to how you pay for satellite tv and the use of the card...

Thanks Sat and TV guy. We are using a UK address and its actually a house we own so no problems there.

We pay monthly for our sky however we did notice a £1 increase in January and after checking Sky website i noticed that the price had increased by 31 so no prob there.

We paid for our reciever and card in Jan 2007 and have had no problems. Then yesterday we recieved this message on the channels that we subscribe to (discovery, certain entertainment channels) but we recieve 5, fiver, music channels, and various others that i assume are free anyway.

Message we are reciveing on tv

'Sky tv subscribers can get this and more for £1 extra per month. to upgrade press red button or call........'

We rang our sky man who installed it and he said that the company in the Uk who he gets the cards off have started charging an annual fee of £100 for handling the card.

We cannot understand how these people would have access to our sky card and subscription???

Any advice is muchly appreciated

Thanks in advance

thanks for more info.

quick question to confirm something...does the uk address get the monthly sky magazine in your name...if it does not then the sky card is not at your address.....and therefore the handling charge is applicable....if it is at your address then you really need to query this with your installer / agent as to what the charge is for bearing in mind that the card is at your own address...

it sounds like your installer / card supplier have cancelled the cards and "holding you to ransom" to pay the 100 quid...which if you are using your own address and uk bank is very unusual.

if they arranged your card for you in the first place then they will have access to all your details.

at least you have had notice that they are starting to charge...i know of many people that the installers ./ agent just took then money directly form the acccount.!!

Thanks again for the reply.... i feel like your a lifeline at the min :)

As far as we were aware the agents used a uk address we supplied. After speaking to them again today we have found that they never used the UK hence were we are getting the charge!!!

They have since said that the agents that they used to supply the cards are the ones doing the charging. They have now stopped using that agent (due to the sudden charging) however we must now pay them for a new card!!

I questioned the timing considering we have had the card nearly 2 years and considing its an anual charge beg in feb 07 wouldnt they take the money on the anual feb when we began the service. there reply was along the lines of the agents are working through the list of card holders starting from a year old and working there way back (extremley coincidental being just before christmas and as the credit crunch hits big time in the UK).

Basically our satellite agents have said that we must either pay the 100 pound or buy a new card for 80 euro!!!

Any suggestions???

Ps i did mention that other companies do not seem to be having this problem and thus they have started to blame the supplier of the cards!!!!!!!!!

so the two choices are....

pay 100 euros each year and have the card at the agents address and pay sky each month for hte channels you want

or pay 80 euros and have the card at your address and only pay sky each month for the channels you want.

as i said in my previous posts best to get a card at your own address where you have control of the account....and can gaurentee that you will get the new sky cards when they are changed (rumoured to be around easter 2009)

As you have a system, why don't you:

a) Get a new free to view card from Sky directly for £20? Put it in your box at home and activate, then spirit it off to Spain yourself.

b) If a subscription card, why not take yours from the UK when you go on holiday? Most of your subscription channels should work (although I believe movies and sports don't).

c) Get a card from Sky and get is sent to a relatives address. They can then activate it at their home for you and send it on (assuming you are full time in Spain).

Mark

Thanks very much for your reponses :O)