Glad its sorted.... that bloke is going to hate me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I must have been one of the lucky ones then !!!!!

Ok i had an issue with another company with regarding a promotion similar to sky's M&S vouchers, and they did not want to pay out, what I did was contact the local trading standards, they say any promotion that encourages somebody to purchase a product HAS to be honoured, be it a £100,000 car to a Mars Bar.

So give your local council a call and ask to be put through to the trading standards department, the more people that call with the same complaint, the better, what happens next (well this was the procedure when i did it) the file is created when they take your details, they send it down to the trading standards department where their head office is registered, then they send them a formal warning by letter, if that is ignored then it is taken to court.

Dont just let them off with it, It was their marketing department that came up with that promotion, if unhappy that you did not get your vouchers, and dont want to go along with trading standards, let them know that like their offer subject to availability that your subscription was based along the same lines, They did not send you the vouchers which formed part of the agreement, to not send them is a breech of their own terms and conditions which you have a right to cancell without penalty.

Hope this helps.

An update to my post earlier:

The letter to the address in Scotland worked! As well as receiving £50 of vouchers, I also received a credit for £30 to my sky account, so this suggests a polite written response will do the job.

Having written the letter, I also submitted it through Sky's website, and received an apologetic response through that route too.

So I suggest, if you get fobbed off by telephone once, save your blood pressuere from further calls and just put it in writing.

vics:

Dear Patsyann, thanks so much for posting the advice about contacting advertising standards agency. I waited over 100 days for my vouchers then followed your advice and contacted the ASA on 14/1/08 and received them today (22/1/08) - fantastic service from ASA - would recommend anyone else experiencing problems to do the same as the process is really simple. Good job there are companies like ASA out there protecting us consumers from cowboy companies like Sky!! Shame that Sky have to be threatened by companies like these though before paying up what we were due in the first place! Thanks again for the advice, would probably have been waiting forever if I'd done nothing.

patsyann\vics did you fill in the complaints form on the asa site? it seems to be for complaining about an advert?

http://www.asa.org.uk/asa/how_to_complain/complaints_form/

is this what you filled in???

hi crackyabones, all these tips are valuable, their customer service phone line is a complete wind up! thanks

thanks patsyann, how did u actually file your complaint with the ASA though? i think i have the wrong part of the website.....please help!!!!

you will have the right site, look at how to complain, or contact us. keep looking around their site, they are very quick to respond and helpful. this is unusual eh! good luck patsyann.

Hi, sorry for not getting back to you sooner, haven't been on this site for a while. Yes the link you have is the same form I filled in as sky were advertising the fact that they would pay £50 for introducing a friend. I put in my complaint details that sky's terms & conditions stated that vouchers would take up to 60 days to arrive and the deadline had passed and I had not received them so they were not honouring their promise. ASA responded by email the following day asking for my consent for them to contact sky on my behalf & the matter was resolved within a week. I've also since received a letter of apology from sky + £30 credit on my account as a goodwill gesture. Hope this helps if you still haven't received them!

thanks, i emailed jeremy.darroch AT bskyb.com and got them by special delivery the next day! no credit to my account or apology though, at least i can now cancel sky (dont want to be with them now i know what they are really like). thanks again

I didn't receive my letter of apology & £30 credit til at least a week after the vouchers arrived so might be worth sitting tight for a week or so b4 cancelling your contract and see if you get a month's free viewing from Sky (or equivalent) - after all the last laugh's on them - all you did was recommend a friend who probably would've joined anyway!!!

OFFICIAL UPDATE FROM SKY: 'INTRODUCE A FRIEND'

Our ‘Introduce a Friend’ offer has been massively popular – we’ve given away millions of pounds of vouchers in the last year.

We had a stronger than expected response in the last two months of 2007. Unfortunately, this meant that some customers waited longer to receive their vouchers than we’d have liked.

We’re sorry for any inconvenience this caused and we’ve brought in extra staff and increased stocks of vouchers to handle the high levels of demand. All eligible customers will receive their vouchers.

Operations are now running normally and customers who register for ‘Introduce a Friend’ should receive their vouchers within 28 days.

If you introduce a friend to Sky, it’s important that you register with us to receive your vouchers. We’ve seen some queries about the correct process, so here’s a reminder of what you need to do to help us to process the rewards for you and your friend:

1. Once your friend has joined Sky, you should call the ‘Introduce a Friend’ helpline on 08702 412 939 to register for your rewards. The lines are open from 8:00am to 8:00pm between Monday and Friday and from 9:00am to 6:00pm on Saturday and Sunday.

1. To register, you’ll need your Sky Account number plus your friend’s Sky Account number, full name, address and postcode.

1. Once the registration is complete and we’ve checked that both you and your friend are active Sky TV customers, we’ll send your rewards. This can take up to 28 days from validation.

If you registered more than 28 days ago and have not received your rewards, please email IAFQueries AT broadsystem.com and we’ll try to resolve this for you. To help us, please include your Sky TV account number.

If you don’t know your account number please call 08702 40 40 40 or visit www.sky.com/mysky

Best wishes

Sky Team

Although I appreciate what has been said by 'Sky Team' above, this does not excuse the shameful way you have treated your customers.

I think it woeful that your own staff don't even know what is going on, when I was trying to sort my vouchers, I was passed from one department to the next because no-one actually wanted to take any kind of ownership of the problem! I was lied to, messed about, and one member of staff thought his survey was more important than my complaint, and thought he was best to do his survey first!!!!!! Not only this, but he wouldn't even transfer me to a supervisor, and when I told him I wanted to lodge a complaint, he told me I was speaking to the wrong person!! Its was customer services I was speaking to... am I being thick, but I would have thought they were the perfect people to speak to!!!!!!

Anyway, that ws just one of the fob off's I received. Rant over, the rest of the service I have received from Sky has been great, so long as you don't have a problem, that are fine, if you do.... good luck!!!! Sky seem to think that they do not need happy customers, and that customers need them more than they need the customers! (sorry, that was more ranting wasn't it!!)

Sort it out Sky, people really expect more from a company of your size!

We eventually received our vouchers after contacting Trading Standards. We had tried to contact Sky numerous times by phone and post to ask for the vouchers but got no response to the first few letters we sent, and when we rang the Introduce a Friend line were just cut off. Trading Standards were great and we received our vouchers quicly following contacting them. Since then, we have introduced my brother using the free Sky + box offer. My brother got his Sky + box straight away but we were told we would have to wait for an activation letter before we vould get our's. This letter arrived today, informing us that we would have to pay a £60 set up fee for our free Sky + box. As we already have a Sky + box, we were going to give this free box to parents to replace their old Sky box. Having contacted Sky to inform them of this, they have said there is no way to do this, and the box has to be installed and can;t just be 'delivered'. In the original offer there was no mention of fees, just a free box for you and a friend, and now they are trying to make more money out of customers by this unfairness. Has anyone else had problems with this new offer of Sky's? Why can't we simply be given a free Sky + box like the offer said? I think Trading Standards may be helping out again...

Journea:We eventually received our vouchers after contacting Trading Standards. We had tried to contact Sky numerous times by phone and post to ask for the vouchers but got no response to the first few letters we sent, and when we rang the Introduce a Friend line were just cut off. Trading Standards were great and we received our vouchers quicly following contacting them. Since then, we have introduced my brother using the free Sky + box offer. My brother got his Sky + box straight away but we were told we would have to wait for an activation letter before we vould get our's. This letter arrived today, informing us that we would have to pay a £60 set up fee for our free Sky + box. As we already have a Sky + box, we were going to give this free box to parents to replace their old Sky box. Having contacted Sky to inform them of this, they have said there is no way to do this, and the box has to be installed and can;t just be 'delivered'. In the original offer there was no mention of fees, just a free box for you and a friend, and now they are trying to make more money out of customers by this unfairness. Has anyone else had problems with this new offer of Sky's? Why can't we simply be given a free Sky + box like the offer said? I think Trading Standards may be helping out again...

sky are basically just a pretty terrible company, a friend of mine has had major problems with them. have you considered leaving, tiscali do great tv packages cheaper and the broadband and phone is great too. and they treat you with respect.

Sorry if this has already been answered but i was recomended by a friend to join sky and they had 2 ring up 2 claim their vouchers, do i need 2 ring them aswell 2 claim mine? i really dont see the point in my friend gettin cards 2 hand out 2 people with her account details if everyone needs 2 ring up seperately, it should be automatic.