Suspicious BSkyB Warranty Telesales
We just got a telemarketing call. Regular readers will know we’re registered with the TPS, so such calls are unlawful. The call went like this…
Sam: “Hello, can I speak to Ms Reeves please?”
Me: “Sure, what’s it in connection with?”
Sam: “We notice that your Sky warranty is about to run out and … blah blah blah.”
Me:”Right, so who would be providing the cover?”
Sam: “Oh, Sky Engineers … blah blah blah.”
Me: “Right, so who, which company would be providing the cover?”
Sam: “Satellite Direct. Sky don’t do warranties so they subcontract them to companies such as ours.”
Me: “Right. We don’t have a Sky box.”
Sam: “Oh; must be a system error, we’ve been getting a lot of them today, we get all our names and numbers from Sky.”
I took the guy’s name and the company’s number (08702 402 483) for good measure.
Satellite Direct say they got our number from BSkyB. We do not have, and never have had a contract with BSkyB!
And they called using Emma’s maiden name?
Satellite Direct are Telespammers.
I’ve mentioned their call to the TPS.
Update: Satellite Direct UK’s business practices have subsequently been successfully challenged in the High Court by BSkyB
87 Comments
hi just received a letter from satellite direct telling me my warranty has expired got a bit suspicious so went on to the web glad i did won.t be seeing my 60quid thanks
I too, recieved a call from the hoax company “Satellite Direct uk” quoting my “Warranty” had Expired, I hear that they have recenty lost a battle against ‘Sky’ in court, and have lots of trouble with Trading Standards! They are also found to be using other names apparently, like, Satcover, Homecare, Skycare service agreements and probably loads more! I’m with an independant warranty company “Satellite Assured” ,they have Sky approved Engineers, I’ve been with them for 3 years now, 6 callouts, with 2 replacements,I havent had any trouble with them at all and am only paying £65p/y, really good! I know quite a bit about the company if anyone wanted some info, every little helps! email me christyn_121@yahoo.co.uk
Many thanks, hit on your website as there was definitely a bad smell from the letter ex Satellite Direct. They’d tried a phone call previously under a different name. What made us suspicious was that they did not get my wife’s name right!
Having been caught out by Satellite Direct previously and got a refund and cancelled all dealings with them,they have now charged my credit card again for extended sky warranty – not happy and seeking way of putting a stop to these people, any advise welcome
I’m trying to get a refund from Digital satellite warranty company Ltd of Kirkby (same as satellite direct?) but no luck so far. How did you get your original refund Audra? Does anyone know who to complain to? I have emailed knowsley trading standards but got no reply. I’ll try phoning on monday.
Hi Rose,
“Digital Satellite Warranty Company Ltd” (DSWC) are a separate company. There’s a little more information about them here:
‘Tis nowt but a scam
we had a phone call to say our sky equipment was out of warranty and would we like cover for it they said they were phoning from sky, we agreed and found several weeks later that we our account had been debited £90 with a telephone number quoted, we realised after phoning sky that this was nothing to do with them, and luckily were able to cancel the direct debit and get our money back immediately.Our equipment was not out of warranty having only been purchased 6 months ago.What would be the chances of getting any repairs done if needed? pretty slim I imagine. so watch out
I did get a refund, but only £24.99. Was told £35 deducted because of administration charges and it was out of 7 day cooling off period. I’ve written again and yet again informed them that as they sent no paperwork, gave me no contact details and i thought they were Sky originally I could not cancel within 7 days. Only when i got my credit card statement was i able to find contact details through google searches and unhappy customers on forums like this.
I work for a Sky sub-contractor. I have just received a call from an elderly customer whose system we serviced several months ago. He had received no fewer than 12 “demands” in just two weeks from Digital Satellite Warranty Cover Ltd. Thanks to this site, I was able to tell him that this is a scam and to send the letters to Trading Standards.
Digital satellites based in Kirby is the old nation
wide company trading on a different name. Dont give
any of these companies your card number as they take
money out at there leisure
Seems I also have been ripped off with this company. I send a cheque for £59.99, to no avail, Digital Satellite Cover of Kirby . Anybody get phone nos or better still address, then I can knock a few doors. Cheque cashed 17/04/07
Like many others I have just received a letter telling me that my initial manufacturers warranty on my digital satellite (Sky TV) system has now expired. I live in Port Talbot, South Wales. We Don’t have a sky system, our tv, internet and phone are on a cable network with Virgin Media. Satellite Direct Uk are yet another bunch of marketing crooks. Shame we can’t put them through the shredder, which is where their letter and brochures are going. Second thoughts I’ll pass it onto X-Ray@BBC Wales, the program that helps us to avoid scams like these in Wales.
Listen as an employee of the “scam” company that rose was unfortune to not get the service that she required, but if your stupid enough to sign into a 12 month contract and not read the terms and conditions then it’s your on fault! Also a message to terry i will be the first to admit that sky digital boxes very rarely go wrong. But sky plus and +160 go down more than paris hilton, so if you want to slag anyone off complain to sky, or watchdog as they have had up to now 25,000 complaints if anyone wants to e-mail me with a response it’s pmaisgood@yahoo.co.uk
Also a message for G.M CAMPION just so you know it takes 14-21 WORKING DAYS to
process a check, so if you havent’t recieved your confermation then it’s because you sent a check. and i tell u what mate if you wanna knock on my door there will be a
f***in hidin for yeah pmaisgood@yahoo.co.uk, if your interested
The above messages from pmaisgood are published unedited. The affiliation of the author to any company is unproven.
rich, in the words of virgin mary, come again
Just picking up couple of previous comments; until last week have had no prob at all with Sky Plus for four years other than a couple of ‘switch off to reboot issues’.
We are with Satellite Assured, which also cold-called. My problemm with them is the lnegth of time it takes to get any response, let alone any engineer to come. – we called for one Sky box problem in Jan, took around 2 weeks, from memory, with many many phone calls to them and to the admin number; and now had fault on Plus; phoned Thusrday night, left message, no reply call; left message again Friday; Sat/Sun fault line closed – emailedthem , which bounced back (I sent it to faultS@mdtv rather than fault@mdtv…). Mon morning phoned faults again; waited ages and got cut off; phoned admin who “would send email message and was sure someone would call by 5pm”; nothing by 5, so I then phoned admin back; someone else “sure that engineer would pick message up early that evening”; nothing by 8pm so I phoned admin agin. Finally received call from engineer this morning, and agreed a time of 12-3 on Thursday, almost a week after initial report. Engineer confirmed could take up to 2 weeks, one week standard. Luckily with two boxes we are OK (though we DO miss Plus!). Would advise anyone taking up contract to get something in writing indicating how quickly repairs would be made. Sat Direct do at least say 95% wihtin 24 hours…
Jon I had a lot of problems too you want to stop paying them but report them to sky first check this out : http://www.satellite-assured.blogspot.com/
Hi
My 83 year old mother took out a warranty with these people over a year ago because she thought she should. She was contacted again at the beginning of the year and advised her warranty would expire soon but I told her not to renew. Unfortunately she must have paid by direct debit or something because now she has got her bank statement and sees that they have taken £110. I have written to Sky and asked them to refund the money but she has had a phone call from them today to say it is nothing to do with them. Has anyone got and advice or a phone number or better still an address I can write to on her behalf.
Thanks
Christine
Having changed from one of these companies to another, I can confidently say it is not really a scam.
Having been covered by a plan that was put to me as being from Sky TV themseves, as it turned out it was Domestic and General. I was called by another company suggesting that I reduce my premium by switching to them, they were honest with me and did not give me the impression they were from Sky TV.
This caused me to do some research into what this was about, all these companies provide cover for the Sky equipment as they use local engineers, as for Christyn (Above) saying Satellite Assured use Sky approved engineers, that is sheer coincidence as they just sub-contract out local TV men. In my experience having called them up with an enquiry, i found them the most unhelpful of all the companies I tried.
It seems to be certain companies suit the needs of high level Sky viewers, and other companies suit those people who just want it there for peice of mind.
I have finally tracked this company after ringing constantly for 3 days but no answer to my request for a refund reported to trading standards(lot of good that will do)
http://www.satassured.co.uk/
i too get a letter from this ake company last week so in a panic i contacted them and gave them all my details without hesitating.They told payment would be due by today’s date which is 3/09/07 and every month from then on for a toatl of £5.So i checked to see if the money had been taken out my account but it wasn’t,luckily.So when i came home i tried to contact them using thier web address which was not on thier letter,when i fianly traked them down i got thier web page so i emailed them,but when i tried to use the things on thier page such as info,about us home page i couldn’t as there was nothing else to acsess.I called my bank and cancelled it straight away and while i was on the phone my bank told me a company had activated my account and the company was called SAT NAV.So i started searching the net and found all these awfull things out about them.When i contacted Sky they gave me a very reliable source whom they deal with all the time.God only knows my family have been through enough this year with the death of my kids dad and my partner.
Well they seem to have upped their ability to extract money. I had a new direct debit of 6.00 taken from my account in Sep.
The company was satellitedirect. They said i had taken cover 2yrs ago and due to a system error they had forgotten to collect the payments! I have never had cover I have always had a sky plan direct with sky..
I’ve just had one of these calls from “Satelite Services” on a 01243 number. The ysaid they were calling about a warranty on a Sky box. I’ve never had Sky.
Where on earth do these people get their info?
Hi responce for Rose. Good luck in trying to get a refund. I have the same issue except they took off two payments for my credit card not just one, cheeky bastards. The person I am dealing with is Laura tel 0151 5475250 e mail:laura.sheilds@satwarranties.co.uk
As I said good luck I have had to go the legal route and have reported them for fraud. The whole this started because sky broadcasting gave over my credit card details, so check that out with sky
I have received many letters (on 4 occasions 8 letters in 1 day) and many phone calls from Digital Satellite Warranty Cover Ltd. I have called lots of times to tell them to take me off their database to which they always say they have done, but still the calls and letters come. I have now registered a complaint of harassment with the police and have added to the log everytime they call or send me a letter. The police have called them on my behalf three times now to tell them to stop and the last time was done by a police seargent who issued them with an official warning under the harassment act and any further calls or letters will result in court procedings being taken against the company and directors. The point I’m making is that if we all register a proper complaint with the police and keep adding to the log reistered with the police they will get fed up and help you by calling DSWC Ltd and giving DSWC Ltd an official warning under the harassment act and with enough warnings the CPS will prosecute.
Received a call from Satellite Direct informing me that the policy I had with them was about to run out. Told them I did not have information to hand but asked them whether they were absolutely sure it was with them that I had my Sky warranty. They confirmed this (I mean like FOUR TIMES I asked – to be sure!) Renewed contract, checked paperwork afterwards, only to discover that contrary to what they confirmed, I did not have a warranty with them, but with someone else – and the contract was not even up for renewal until another 3 months’ time. Rang them straight back, outraged; explained why was outraged and demanded they cancel contract entirely. They assured me they would and assured me they were not legally obliged to send a written confirmation of cancellation. they then rang two days later to ask why i had cancelled – i explained quite clearly, again. Today #55 has been deducted from my account – incidentally 3 weeks earlier than they said they would, even before i cancelled – DODGY DODGY company.
I wouldn’t take out any sort of cover with satellite direct as tbh its a con i used to work for them we received no training and were told to sell by any means nessary and activly encouraged by members of staff to impersonate SKY. Anyone who has cover with them I would recommend cancelling and make sure you tell them before the 12 months is up or they will renew it without warning.
If your going to take out protection I would use the sky repair plan as its under written by domestic and general and is the only plan approved by sky.But even this is waste of money as its cheaper just to buy a new box when the old one fails.
In general my advice is if called by one of these companies just say “I never want to be contacted by your company or any of its subsidiaries again i want to be taken off your data base and this call is recorded so if my demands are not met i will ask for this recording and see you in court” failing this ask for the supervisor and yell at him.
All the information used for this is gathered form out of date sources that’s why they use the wrong names etc. Information relating as to whether you have SKY or not came form the survey department of the same company which was previously called DPS (data partnership solutions). This part of the company has now closed down to my knowledge due to a law suit from SKY they now operate a sales department which sell Play TV.
So in short my advice is never buy off telly sales people, warranty is always a con the only things you should insure are your house and car.If you do want the product telly sales are offering ask for information out in the post and don’t impulse buy on the spot.
Just a side note the guy who owns the company is called David Reynolds if you ever want to track him down.
Hi,
I too got a call from Satalite Direct and they gave me the blurb about their fantastic offer and that my warranty had expired. I asked where they got my number from and they said Sky gave it to them? I said that I would not agree to any warranty over the phone so asked for their web address which they gladly gave me :
http://www.satellitedirectuk.com/
I then looked at the site and it all looked ok. So being suspicious I thought I would check it out with Sky and they said that they always recommend Domestic and General
http://www.domgen.com/ but there were other 3rd parties out there. I’m going to give Sky another call re them potentially giving my details out which I asked them not to do when I took out the sky package……
Really glad I stumbled across this web site today as satellite direct will not be getting a penny out of my £6 though I must add that its showing as £5 on their site.
Its really good that there are these sites and forums where we can all warn about bogus or unreliable companies !
Cheers
J
I have had two calls this week! One was on my home number & todays was on my work mobile! I am an employee so the phone is not registered to me but they still managed to get it! The only person tthat would have had that number would have been, sky! How confused.com am I ?
i think that all your comments about Digital Satellite Warranyt Cover are all un true, as i have been a customers with them for 6 years and i am indeed a very happy customer and very pleased with there services. I first dedcied to set up a warranty when my SKY box broke down only after 14 months of having it. I then spoke to SKY who told me that i had to pay a charge of an £88 call out fee on top of parts and labour. I was in utter shock with this comment as they never explained it too me when i agreed the contract. I ended up paying which cost me and my parnther nearly £200. Then after a few months i got a phone call from DSWC and i agreed to take out the cover. The person was very pleasant and explained to me that they were not SKY and she even manged to lower the price and giving me 3 months free, which was great. Since then the company have saved me lots of money as in that time my SKY system has broken down 4 times which with out the cover would of cost me £800 but has only cost me £100 saving me £700. So any one who is slatting the company have no right at all the compnay is great and very helpful. So i will now always make sure i have cover with DSWC as they are so realiable and i have no bad things to say about them so thanks to that compnay i have saved lots of money and still have my SKY. Thanks DSWC and to all you out there dont slat a company if you dont know the facts or havnt been a customer your self Claire
I HAVE A WARRANTY WITH DIGITAL SATELLITE WARRANTY COVER LTD AND I HAVE NO PROBLEM WITH THEM THEY ARE A GENUINE COMPANY MY SON JOINED SKY A FEW MONTHS LATER HE SHOWED ME HIS BANK STATMENT WHICH SHOWED £5.75 FOR SKY REPAIR PLAN HE HAD NEVER SIGHNED UP FOR WHEN WE LOOKED INTO THIS SKY HAD GIVEN MY SONS BANK DETAILS TO D&G WITHOUT HIS PERMISION IT SEEMS D&G PAY SKY A PERCENTAGE FOR EVERY CUSTOMER THEY SIGHN UP THATS WHY SKY RECOMEND THEM SO I DONT THINK SKY OR D&G ARE VERY HONEST
Digital Satellite Warranty Cover have cold called me for the last 2 or 3 years, letters usually follow their phone calls.
I have verbally and in writing asked them not to contact me with their offers, I have sent replies to them by recorded post AND also copied them to Information Commissioner and passed information to BskyB solicitors.
The more people that complain WILL result in action against them, the evidence is building up and sooner or later some legal eagle or police will take that action . Of course they will be OK as they have Sky TV in prison !
Received a call from Digital Satellite Warranty Cover Ltd today, offering me warranty on my Sky equipment. Was told that without the cover I would be asked to pay £80 before parts and labour were charged from Sky.
I told the lady on the phone no thanks and that actually the cost of an engineer is £65 including parts and labour. Before I told her that I work for Sky she hung up on me.
Before taking up these offers check them out and check out Sky’s prices…
my elderly mother-in-law was conned into this companies warranty, they actually called 3 times to get her payment details, i actually work for sky and am an engineer and this company are a shower of cowboy scam artists
I’ve just had a call from a bloke who said my warranty had run out. I said it ran out ages ago, mate.
I had to ask him who he was calling for etc. He sounded a bit coy so I asked him to call back next week while I check his site out.
The site he gave was skytouchtv.com and the number on my phone said ‘unavailable’.
It might be legit but like someone here said ‘boxes last a long time now’. I got the money for a new box so I’m not worried. I’m more worried about getting my card details ripped off.
I thought the bloke that called about the warranty had jinxed me cos my hd box was stuck in standby.
I left it unplugged overnight and left it for an hour after plugging it back in. It works ok now
i used to work for this company it has 7 difrent names very dodgie
ndws /nationwide digtal /south west sats /sat direct / sat services uk ltd /a tel number / right rip off dont pay by credit card , check your bank statments
Are Satellite Support and Satellite Direct one and the same company?
2 years ago I was caught out by Digital Satellite Warranty Cover Ltd. They rang me and said “your sky repair plan is ready for renewal we need you bank details to renew the direct debit” Stupidly (I realised too late) I gave them – but in my defence I DID have a Sky Repair Plan but with Sky (Domestic and General) and at no point did the salesperson say they were a different company!! When the paper certificate arrived it was obvious I had bought a warranty with this company I had never heard of. My real Sky repair plan was renewed automatically and always is without any phone calls. Amazingly I complained to laura shield 0151 5475250 and got a refund! I asked for my details to be removed from their database and was assured that they were.
Today – 2 years later – I got the same phone call except this time they said” we have your direct debit details but cant process the payment so we need to take them again” If that is not fraudulantly trying to access someones bank details then I dont know what is. I was given a number to ring and complained again. I said they should make it clearer that they are nothing to do with Sky, so people dont get dupped into thinking they are discussing repair plans they already have with Sky. The words Digital Satellite Warranty Cover may be that company’s name but it is also the name of the product people are buying from all warranty companies so it is misleading. The guy asked me what should they call themselves then and I suggested the Sooty and Sweep Show would alert most people to whats going on.
I asked why they still had my details (surely they had promised to remove them 2 years ago?) he said that under the Data Protection Act they were forced to keep them for 3 years. He made it sound like they were doing me a favour. Now I have to watch the bank statement to check they are not robbing me.
Be warned!!
i also cancelled my subscription with this company last year yet they have just taken £89-99 from my account i have now got to try and retreive my money
I hadnt heard of this scam, but was called this week by one such company who told me that my plan had already expired, but it hasnt! fortunately I didnt get them any account/card details, and told them to post the information. Sky confirmed this was a scam when i called them later.
BEWARE Satellite Support and Satellite Direct ARE NOW CALLED “SOMETHING CORPORATION” still based in Ford, Bognor Regis and Brighton all in WEST SUSSEX. You have been warned the staff are all the same too.
they are employing staff if anyone is brave enough.
I would like to cancel my subscription that you arranged with my husband yesterday afternoon with a phone call. I already have this covered with sky services, my reference number is XXXXXX for £64.99 which should be refunded to my visa card as this was the payment method given.
Thans
Mrs. X. XXXXXXXX
Oh dear.
Just looking through my bank statements only to find a payment has been taken off my account from digitalwarrantycar for £17.00 and i did have a call the other week asking if we still wanted Satellite cover and i said we don’t need as we have our own cover, i said we have never had cover from yourselves and don’t need thank you and the guy was trying to say that they covered us last year and this was just an update told him we have never had cover with you. but there you go they have gone somehow and taken this payment. so beware….
Will you be going to the police? If there really was never any contract at all (and obviously the company would have to have paperwork or an audio recording if there were a contract) then it would appear to be a matter for investigation and possible prosecution. Let us know how you get on.
I have just read the comment from D Harvey ref: their call about satellite cover and then finding that money had been taken from their bank account by digitalwarrantycar. I have had the same thing happen to me, The girl who called me said they needed to update my card details as I had a new debit card, I did have a contract with satellite cover but told her that I wanted to cancel it, she told me it wasn’t a problem but I needed to give my new card details as I had to give 1 months notice. I know feel like an idiot because I did give her the information but I was assured by her that they would take just 1 months fee and then stop the contract. When checking my bank statement I found that Sky Protect had taken a fee which I had agreed to but also £18 had been taken by digitalwarrantycar. I have called my bank but they didn’t seem to think it was a fraud, however I will now get back to them telling what I have found out about this company.
On the 21st May I noticed £59.99 had been taken from my bank account.The person who originally had the insurance died on the 12th March.I have been unable to contact Sattelite Uk Ltd at all but have tried to get a refund through my bank and am still waiting for the banks comments
can you all just get a life there are more important things to worry about SAD.
You searched google for “satellite and homecare limited” where this article appears eighth article from the top, and left that comment. Why? In a world where there are, I agree completely, far more important things to do, please tell us all what you were looking for, and why it was important enough for you to leave your comment. What’s your connection?
By the way, I note that your browser signature machine has been “infested” with the FunWebProducts adware that leaks personal data about your browsing habits to third party servers. Windows Defender can help you remove it.