Advice needed for gran please

[mummy2sons]

Hi there, my gran has been diagnosed with alzheimers recently. We all knew the diagnosis was coming but now it is officially here. She has her days totally mixed up, has started making dinners for my grandfather who died 22 years ago and in general is just completely confused at the little things in life.

My issue just now is that a neighbour set her up with Sky TV, yes the neighbour got her £50 bring a friend discount! Gran cannot understand it whatsoever, she can't work the remote and doesn't understand anything about it. So today I had to pay £300 to get Sky taken out and a new aerial installed on her roof so she go back to watching basic 1-5 channels. Now she only has one remote and I am hoping this will be much easier on her as she hasn't been able to watch TV properly since it was connected. My mum called Sky and tried to explain this situation to them for them to ask the password! Gran didn't have a clue and they refused to process the call or help at all because of this, even though we explained her situation.

Does anyone know what I can do? This was a lot to pay out weeks before Christmas but I'm trying so hard to make life easier for her where I can. For her to pay out the rest of the contract on Sky when the box is now lying in a cupboard seems unbelievable. Thank you so much

 

[LynneMcV]

Last year I took control of my husband's Sky account, so that I am in a position to change it or cancel it as and when the need arises. I have POA for him, which made it reasonably straightforward, once I had battered my way past the hard-selling front-line staff.

As your gran has been diagnosed with Alzheimer's, it might be worth contacting their Accessibility Customer Services (it by-passes the selling team) to reiterate the problem and ask them to look into it further, copy your gran into the email if she has email access.

It might be that they require you to hold POA before talking about the account with you - unless gran is still at a stage where she can satisfy them herself in writing or over the phone that she wishes them to deal with you - some organisations will do that but I don't know if Sky is one of them.

Their email address is accessiblecustomerservice@sky.uk and they say they respond within 24hrs.

 

[mummy2sons]

That's great thank you so much. My mum has POA so if she called could that help the case to get it cancelled? Although my mum has POA she was not aware whatsoever about gran joining Sky, as I say her neighbour just done it all which has annoyed us massively.

So if we call and ask for the accessible customer team they will be better placed to help us?

 

[LynneMcV]

@mummy2sons it's definitely worth getting in touch with them. They asked me to email a copy of my POA across to them, then, once they were satisfied with that they added me to my husband's account and I can make decisions on his behalf, including cancelling the membership if I want to.

 

[Rosettastone57]

That's great thank you so much. My mum has POA so if she called could that help the case to get it cancelled? Although my mum has POA she was not aware whatsoever about gran joining Sky, as I say her neighbour just done it all which has annoyed us massively.

So if we call and ask for the accessible customer team they will be better placed to help us?

Most organisations want a certified copy of POA before they deal with you and I suspect Sky won't be any different rather than taking your word over the phone. Ask Sky what their protocols are re POA. A lot of customer service staff don't know this because they don't deal with it on an everyday basis. I would be telling the neighbour the situation this really beggars belief how this has happened

 

[LynneMcV]

I was just looking through my paperwork and the direct line for the Accessibiity Customer Services team is 03442 410333.

 

[Fullticket]

I too had the situation with Sky and mum not understanding what was going on. A 'friend' bought her the box one Christmas and she had to pay the monthly subscription... Trouble was she never actually plugged it in to the telephone line (and then she took out five Sky repair subscriptions, but that's another story). It took me months probably nearer a year - to get it all sorted out and Sky were unfortunately less than helpful. I did have POA but that doesn't make them answer your calls, letters, emails etc. In the end I let the whole thing go, just got the subscription cancelled so no, we never did get any refunds for subscriptions paid. Also, that did not stop them phoning her to reinstate her Sky subscription.
All I can say is keep plugging away at it and good luck!

 

[mummy2sons]

Oh my goodness that seems too good to be true! I called that direct line you gave me Lynne thank you and got through to someone right away. The lady seemed really sympathetic to what had happened when I said that the neighbour had done this to gran. She said that if I scan and email them a copy of the POA that they will locate grans account and call us within 48 hours to get it cancelled!! I cannot believe (after the nightmare my mum had when she tried to speak to them) that it will be so simple, I was waiting on the big argument on the phone!! Well I have spoken to mum and she is looking out the POA docs for me to collect and scan tomorrow so fingers crossed!!

First post on this site and can't believe how helpful you have been. Thank you so much ~x~

 

[LynneMcV]

Oh my goodness that seems too good to be true! I called that direct line you gave me Lynne thank you and got through to someone right away. The lady seemed really sympathetic to what had happened when I said that the neighbour had done this to gran. She said that if I scan and email them a copy of the POA that they will locate grans account and call us within 48 hours to get it cancelled!! I cannot believe (after the nightmare my mum had when she tried to speak to them) that it will be so simple, I was waiting on the big argument on the phone!! Well I have spoken to mum and she is looking out the POA docs for me to collect and scan tomorrow so fingers crossed!!

First post on this site and can't believe how helpful you have been. Thank you so much ~x~

Fantastic news - I am so glad it has worked out. I found them extremely helpful when I contacted them too

 

[gene genie]

That's great I'm so pleased for you.

 

[mummy2sons]

Just an update to say that I sent all the required documents to Sky and true to their word they cancelled her account. They have been really helpful and it's a huge weight lifted from gran and my shoulders.Thank again x

 

[Jo Sutton]

Brilliant! It's so good to hear some good news and that there are helpful people out there.

Hugs

Jo xx