ASK TONY: Sky charged me £2,597 for TV I didn’t watch when I was ill

In 2017, I cancelled my Sky television and broadband. I was told not to cancel the direct debit because we would owe money during the switchover period.

We returned the Sky box in November that year -but Sky didn’t stop taking the money, and I failed to notice until recently because of ill health. 

It is now refusing to refund this money.

E. H., Widnes, Cheshire.

I always advise leaving direct debits open for a couple of months after cancelling a utility service to allow companies to take money you may owe, as well as pay any refunds.

Now, I must emphasise how important it is to check bank statements monthly, to ensure no firm you have ditched is still dipping into your accounts.

Sky admits that its records show your broadband and phone services were transferred to another provider at the end of 2017, but it cannot find a record of you cancelling the TV package.

You are adamant that you did so, and there is no reason to disbelieve you. Might the Sky operative have misunderstood you, or the wrong button have been pushed?

Sky agrees that you have not used your TV since 2017.

Although you returned your box so that it could be recycled, this is done via a Royal Mail returns system: Sky cannot see whether a customer has done this.

Sky has agreed to refund the £2,597 it took from your account over two-and-a-half years.

Some people may wonder why you allowed this to go on for so long but, as you explained, you had health issues. 

Sky took this into account when deciding on the refund. It says it looks at such requests on a case-by-case basis.

A spokesman says: ‘We would encourage customers to keep an eye on bank accounts, and to contact us as soon as they notice any payments they don’t recognise.’ That’s a statement I endorse wholeheartedly.

You have YOUR say 

Every week Money Mail receives hundreds of your letters and emails about our stories. Here are some about our special investigation into the financial toll faced by working parents struggling with childcare.

When you have kids you organise your life around a schedule. They tend to go to camps or stay with grandparents over the school holidays — but these options aren’t available.

M. H., London.

I am lucky to be able to work from home, but it’s hard juggling my job with home-schooling. 

However, it’s lovely to be able to spend more time with my son, and it’s great that I don’t need to pay for after-school clubs.

A. N., by email.

I am a childminder and, as of June, my business has been open to all. Some parents want me to hold their place until September. This isn’t possible, but not all parents understand that.

O. N., Aylesbury, Bucks.

My wife and I managed to work from home and look after our child. Our companies have been very supportive, but not every employer is as understanding.

S. K., France.

I have been furloughed, and one child can’t go back to school because it couldn’t make social distancing work. 

I’m paying more for food now my children are home all day. My ex stopped paying child maintenance, too.

R. B., York.

Let’s not forget education is not simply ‘free’ childcare. Our ‘new normal’ might involve far more work flexibility, meaning people can vary their working hours to look after their children.

S. T., Halifax, W. Yorks.

My partner works 50 hours a week and I work 50-60. We work hard to pay for our children, rent and bills — and have very little left over to spend on anything else. Without schools, this wouldn’t be possible.

I. D., by email.

I was employed by George Wimpey, now Taylor Wimpey, in the 1980s.

The firm transposed digits and paid my National Insurance contributions using the wrong NI number for nearly five years. It tells me this doesn’t matter.

However, my state pension is lower than that of my friends, and my company pension doesn’t appear to be that much higher to reflect the loss of contracted-out contributions.

C. A. R., Plymouth, Devon.

I spent some time discussing this with both HMRC and Taylor Wimpey — and the simple answer is that your state pension is all present and correct.

The more complex answer is that you have been a little light on the details of the contact you have already had with Taylor Wimpey.

Your NI number was transposed between 1984 and 1988.

However, a Taylor Wimpey spokesman says the firm had done its best to help you before you contacted me.

The company’s pensions team checked the historic records on the Government website. These show that you had been credited with contracted-out earnings throughout this period.

This means you paid lower NI because you were in the Taylor Wimpey occupational pension. As a consequence, you would not have earned a second-tier state pension, which at that time was the State Earnings-Related Pension Scheme.

The accounts indicate that the NI record was corrected, so you would have been receiving credits for the basic state pension.

Data protection restrictions prevented Taylor Wimpey from digging deeper. Only you can check the finer details of your records with HMRC.

Taylor Wimpey says it told you this a number of times, and promised to help if HMRC highlighted a problem.

I have contacted HMRC, which has sent you a letter showing your full state pension contribution record. This notes when you were contracted in and out of the second-tier state pension.

It confirms that while you were employed by George Wimpey you were being credited with a basic state pension. In fact, your state pension of £593.24 every four weeks is more than the old full basic state pension of £537. You have therefore also accumulated some second-tier pension.

On March 28, I sent £500 to the wrong account but I was unable to get through to Santander on the phone.

I used the bank’s online Chatbot three times to register my complaint, but never received any acknowledgement. 

I know I was in the wrong, but I am an OAP with a limited income and it is hard when you lose £500.

P. H., Warwickshire.

When I make an online payment to someone new, Mrs H usually reads the number and I type it in. I then read back what I have typed so she can check it.

Even then I will usually only send £1 the first time and ask the person or company to confirm it has been received before sending the remainder of the money.

Santander confirms that you contacted the bank on March 30 and April 15 via the Chatbot — a sort of digital banking assistant.

A spokesman says you were advised of the next steps to take in your attempt to recover the funds. 

I didn’t find these especially helpful, as they included advice to phone Santander — which, like most organisations at that time, wasn’t answering the phone particularly efficiently.

But there is some excellent news. Santander contacted the receiving bank, which contacted its customer… and the money has now been returned to you. Thank you to that unknown person for their honesty.

And when making online payments, please check and recheck the account number.

• We love hearing from our loyal readers, so ask that during this challenging time you write to us by email where possible, as we will not pick up letters sent to our postal address as regularly as usual. You can write to: asktony@ dailymail.co.uk or, if you prefer, Ask Tony, Money Mail, Northcliffe House, 2 D erry Street, London W8 5TT — please include your daytime phone number, postal address and a separate note addressed to the offending organisation giving them permission to talk to Tony Hazell. We regret we cannot reply to individual letters. Please do not send original documents as we cannot take responsibility for them. No legal responsibility can be accepted by the Daily Mail for answers given.