Contracts Don't Get Done Get Dom

I'm Dominic Littlewood and I'm here to champion your consumer rights.

Could you let her know that I tried to call?

She's probably quite keen to speak to me.

Any problem, no matter how big or small,

I'll help you get the service you deserve.

I'm getting the impression you don't want to answer any of the questions now. Is that correct?

Whether it involves getting your money back...

We've never had the phone so we're not going to pay for a phone we've not had.

..or taking on your contract conundrums...

If you book a holiday with that company,

that company should be the one that you complain to.

..I'm here to help.

One of the benefits of buying from a big company is it's a name you can trust.

But what happens if they break their promise to you?

I feel quite angry that they've let us down, to be quite honest.

And I help out a fitness fanatic whose gym left him reeling.

I thought considering I was being investigated for a heart condition, there wouldn't be an issue.

And I give you the lowdown on those tricky T&Cs.

I'm taking on your consumer problems to make sure you don't get done.

Television, internet and phone lines are the sort of items

you would find in every single household in the UK,

so it's little wonder there are vast amounts of companies

offering entertainment and communication packages.

But does this multi-billion-pound industry really offer the level of service that we expect?

Well, not according to two families who have contacted me.

Both went to Sky for their TV, phone and internet

and both feel that the company hasn't delivered what it said they would.

It was roughly three months from when we moved into the property

and actually had the keys to actually having a phone line.

I was a new customer. You would think they'd be bending over backwards for us and they haven't.

Matthew and Jane Bramwell live in the seaside town of Skegness in Lincolnshire.

Like many people, the couple had their TV, internet and phone with one company

but had been thinking about changing providers

when they got a knock at the door in October 2013.

The rep came to our house and he says,

"You're on the database as a good customer with good credit rating

"and I've got this deal for you for a great Sky package."

It seemed the door-to-door salesman had called at just the right time.

I've never had Sky. It's always been a luxury for me.

Now I'm in a better job, I started thinking, "Yeah, OK, I'll have Sky."

The salesman sat down with the couple and explained

that he could offer them a deal that included their broadband, their phone and a TV package

for a very reasonable £31.75 a month.

I felt that it was such a good deal that it was silly not to take it.

The couple agreed there and then.

There was going to be a one-off £5 initiation fee

and the rep gave them a copy of the contract

which detailed everything that they had signed up to.

Inside the Sky rep put stars next to the package that we would receive.

They were thrilled to have got such a great offer

and within a couple of weeks everything had been installed

and they were enjoying their new service.

I had no issues with it. The internet was fine, the phone lines were working great.

And there were other advantages to their new service.

My wife had gone into a local department store with a Sky desk

and they were offering Sky Movies for free for a month as a trial basis

so we were like, "Yeah. We've now got Sky. We'll try Sky Movies for free."

The free movies trial lasted for a month

and it was when Matthew rang to cancel that things began to go wrong.

Sky had said over the phone that there would be a payment of £108

coming out of our back account.

They said that Sky make you pay for a month and a half or two months in advance.

I thought, "OK, fair enough, but £108? Considering I only pay £31.75 a month?"

So cogs started turning and I thought something's not right here.

Even with two and a half months' fees paid in advance,

that was still over £30 more than they were expecting to shell out.

So Matthew called Sky back and asked why his bill was so high.

They said, "Because that's your contract."

I went, "No, it's not. I've got my contract in front of me.

"It says one-off payment of £5 then a monthly payment of 31.75."

And they said, "I'm sorry but there's no such deal."

I said, "Well, I've got the evidence in front of me.

"I've got the contract. This is what I've signed for."

Matthew was told that he had actually signed up to a contract

with monthly payments of £58 which came as a nasty surprise to the couple.

We could comfortably afford to pay £31.75 a month.

That's why we signed up to it because that is what we could physically afford to pay out.

But they couldn't afford to pay £58 per month,

so after lots of toing and froing, they had no choice but to give Sky an ultimatum.

I said, "Either give me the contract that I've signed and agreed for

"or you come and send an engineer down and rip the Sky out."

And they came down and ripped it out.

The whole experience has left them feeling pretty bitter.

I feel frustrated with Sky. I feel let down.

I feel like they haven't kept to their end of the bargain.

But Matthew and Jane are not the only disgruntled Sky customers who have been in touch with me.

Alan Dukes from Stoke-on-Trent already had a Sky package

including TV, phone and broadband

but his troubles began when he moved into a new-build home.

We rang Sky to enquire how easy it was going to be to move everything

because we wanted to keep everything pretty much exactly the same.

They turned round and said, "Yeah, that's really simple. Let us know the date of your move."

So that was one thing Alan didn't have to worry about.

Sky would have it covered for him.

On the move day, the engineers all turned up.

And the Sky TV was installed without a hitch,

but there was a problem with the phone line and broadband.

He turned round and said,

"Look, the underground cable hasn't been put in so there's nothing we can do at the moment."

It turned out that Alan's new-build house hadn't been connected to the network

so the phone line and broadband couldn't be fitted.

Sky told Alan that he wouldn't have to pay for the phone line or broadband services

until the connection was sorted.

They told him that they would work with Openreach,

the division of BT which installs cables, to get the problem fixed.

They couldn't give us any dates as to when it was going to be resolved

because they were relying on a third party.

All they could say was that it should be done within two weeks.

But two weeks turned into two frustrating months

during which Alan found himself on the phone to Sky on an almost daily basis.

And because he was left without a landline,

he ended up calling the 0844 number from his mobile at a considerable cost.

Alan felt like he was getting nowhere.

I was getting very stressed out.

Every conversation I had with someone

was contradicting the previous conversations that I had.

Eventually enough was enough and Alan spoke to a manager

and said he would like compensation for the costs and disruption he had incurred as a result of the delays.

I was very clear about what I was looking for. I said to him,

"This is what I will accept by way of compensation for the problems that you have put me through."

Like a man after my own heart, Alan aimed high

and gave them a list of requests including free Sky TV,

half-price line rental

and half-price broadband for a year. Good on you, Alan.

The manager on the phone said, "That's not a problem. We can arrange that."

And surprisingly, when Alan did the sums,

the deal amounted to £1,255.

It was one heck of an offer and no bad thing

considering it was another month before the family's phone line was finally installed.

But when Alan chased up the compensation, there was a problem.

The manager said he was going to have a look into it and see what they could offer.

I explained that the offer had already been made by a previous manager that I had dealt with.

I explained that they had offered me the free Sky TV for a year,

the half-price line rental, the half-price broadband.

The manager I was speaking to said that there was no way

he could offer that level of compensation.

It seemed the company had done a U-turn

and now the best they would offer was £350.

Bearing in mind that 200 of that would only cover my phone calls,

it was a real kick in the teeth.

I'd agree. Alan felt his only option was to cash the £350 cheque

but he remains unhappy that the company went back on its previous offer.

I think it's absolutely appalling that a company of Sky's size

can offer one of their customers something and then just take it back.

I've got two unhappy families who were both offered great deals by Sky

only for them not to happen.

I need to get to the bottom of this.

Sky is Britain's and Ireland's leading home entertainment and communications provider,

serving almost 11 million homes.

It's also a broadcaster which makes programmes,

but we'll be talking to the part of the firm

which supplies phone, TV and internet services.

And I get straight onto them.

I've sent an e-mail to Sky outlining each of the family's problems.

Now I just need to wait and see what they have to say about both of the cases.

INAUDIBLE

It seems these days we have to sign a contract for just about everything

- from mobile phones, gym membership, even childcare.

But it is important to know what we're actually signing.

Sometimes those T&Cs and small print can be a little bit confusing.

And fortunately I know just the man to help navigate us through

the choppy waters of contract law, a former head of Trading Standards.

When you're entering into a contract where there are terms and conditions,

don't do as most of us do and blithely tick the box

or put your name to the document. Actually read them.

Read the terms and conditions.

That is tip number one, tip number two and tip number three.

Very wise words indeed,

and ones that a few more of us could do with taking on board.

I tend to skip over terms and conditions

because everything is speeded up and you want everything to go quickly.

You tick the box because you can't be bothered to read it.

It shouldn't be in small print. It should be in big print like everything else.

Usually you think how can these terms and conditions ever really affect me anyway?

But if you end up in a dispute with a company,

failure to read the small print could come back and haunt you,

especially if the contract you've signed isn't actually fair.

There a number of areas that make a contract unfair.

Sadly there are sectors of business that still produce contracts

which are prejudicial to consumers' interest.

I think understanding the terminology first of all.

Do you actually understand what you're signing up for?

Secondly, the size of the print, the font size.

Are you able to read and understand the terms and conditions?

Do they place unreasonable burdens on you as a consumer

and exempt the trader?

I've been contacted by John,

who believes he's ended up with an unfair contract

after buying some external French doors.

The company states the doors must be treated before hanging them,

yet they state any work carried out invalidates any returns.

But further down, the contract states:

Protected from sun and rain? Doesn't that defeat the object of external doors?

The terms and conditions are a contradiction of terms and are unreasonable.

No court faced with that problem would ever find in favour of the trader.

I think the consumer should act reasonably.

Draw the trader's attention to the nonsense of those terms and conditions,

and strike them out and agree new terms and conditions with the trader.

Changing the T&Cs? I bet you didn't know you could.

Changes can be made to contracts.

Revisions can be made and introduced into contracts that you've already entered into

but of course you've got to prove that both sides have agreed to those changes.

You need some written proof of that fact.

Signed and dated is the most obvious example.

There you go, John. Remember that next time you're buying doors.

Now I've also heard from Carol who spent £2,000 on flooring for her conservatory

which came with a 20-year guarantee.

But soon after installation,

her lightweight furniture started to scratch and mark the floor.

Turns out the guarantee was based on manufacturing tests

that had only lasted two hours, not 20 years.

Oh, and the warranty excluded damage caused by footwear, furniture and cleaning. What?!

In these circumstances it would appear that the trader almost acknowledges

that there is an issue with the goods that he has supplied

and acknowledges that the goods are not fit for the purpose

and seems to continually provide some redress or compensation.

It defies belief that they should continue to do this.

In such circumstances, I think it's advisable

for the consumer and the trader to enter into some form of mediation.

What is an agreed outcome?

What's an agreed form of redress in these circumstances?

If you're in a situation like John or Carol,

what can you do to dispute a contract?

Where you consider a contract term to be unfair,

in the first instance draw it to the attention of the person

that you have contracted the goods or services from.

See what they have to say.

Make sure that you understand what the contract term actually means.

Tell the person that you do not feel that that's a fair contract term.

You may wish to continue with the provision of the goods or services

but not subject to those terms and conditions.

If you cannot achieve what you set out to do

by rescinding the contract term,

you should give notice to the trader and seek redress.

Wise words from the contract king.

Just remember, what you're signing is on paper, not cast in stone.

Matthew and Jane Bramwell could barely believe it

when a door-to-door salesman from Sky

offered them TV, phone and internet for just £31.75 per month.

The deal was really good.

I would say I kept my calm and clarified with him three or four times

if that was the correct price and that there were no hidden charges.

But it turned out the deal they were offered really was too good to be true.

I feel that they've let us down. I feel they haven't held their end of the bargain.

Alan Dukes had to wait three months to have phone and internet installed

and was told he could have products worth over £1,200 as compensation.

When Sky cut that offer to £350,

he wasn't going to take it lying down.

I sent an e-mail of complaint over to the fix and learn team

asking them to pass it on to the executive's office,

knowing that that's the highest level it can go to.

In both Alan, Matthew and Jane's cases,

Sky has told them it won't honour the original offers.

Sky have wasted no time at all and have sent me an e-mail saying

they're looking into all the cases and information I've sent them.

Hopefully they'll get back to me soon, then. Right.

In the meantime, I'm heading to Ofcom

which is the independent organisation regulating the UK communication industries.

Although Ofcom doesn't deal with individual consumer complaints,

they know everything there is to know about our rights as consumers

when we buy phones, internet and TV services.

So I'm keen to hear what Lynn Parker,

their director of consumer protection, thinks about our cases.

I've heard from some people who aren't very happy with Sky.

One of the people I'm trying to help had an offer made over the phone from a representative at Sky,

however later on they came back and said,

"No, we're not going to honour that because he's not actually authorised to do so."

But the agreement had been made verbally. Surely they have to honour that?

It would depend on the type of things that were offered.

If the sort of thing offered was by form of compensation,

then it's not subject to contract law

but there is still the right to have that honoured.

And I agree, Lynn. But unfortunately for Alan, Sky hasn't done that

and it's left him wondering where to turn.

I would suggest that if you've been offered compensation that is then reneged upon,

then go through the complaints procedure with the provider

and if you don't get it resolved to your satisfaction after eight weeks,

then you can go to the ombudsman and they will consider

whether they think it was a binding compensatory offer.

That's good to know and of course Matthew and Jane

were also made an offer they thought was binding.

He was visited by a door-to-door salesperson

who gave him a very good deal. He was chuffed with it.

Then Sky headquarters, when they saw the deal, "Ah, we won't do that."

He'd got it in writing, he'd got a contract.

They even took a £5 charge to initiate the process.

If you do have an agreed contract, that contract should be honoured.

It doesn't matter if it was done on the doorstep or over the telephone or in a shop.

What's important is that if you've agreed to a contract

and you've signed up to it, then you should have that deal honoured.

Lynn, as always, lovely advice. Great to see you again.

So if Matt and Jane's contract is a valid one, they are entitled to the deal.

But the couple were given a special offer by the rep.

Maybe it was just that - an offer and not a binding contract.

Where it says "Your Sky package, Entertainment Extra+ Pack,"

he's crossed out the price and put URN,

which I believe stands for unique reference number.

Further down it's put Sky broadband unlimited, £7.50.

He's scrubbed that out and put URN.

It seems this unique reference number was something the sales rep

could use to show that he'd given them a special deal.

But when the couple pointed this out to Sky,

they seemed to distance themselves from what the rep had said.

They said the rep who came to my door,

they have nothing to do with them. You need to sort it out with him.

Thankfully Matthew had a mobile number for the rep

and left a message for him explaining the situation.

Eventually he sent a message back saying,

"Don't worry, Matt. I'll sort it for you."

OK. The next day I rang Sky again,

and they said they'd had no contact, no phone call or anything from any Sky rep.

And Sky was adamant it couldn't offer what the rep had promised.

I've got the evidence in front of me. I've got the contract.

This is what I've signed for. They said, "No, there's no such deal."

The point here is that Matthew and Jane were told by a representative of Sky

that there WAS such a deal, so what we need to know

is whether the contract the salesman left them with is legally binding.

To find out, I've asked Matthew and Jane to go and see Tim Miller,

a solicitor with over 30 years' experience.

Have a seat, please.

I understand, Matthew, that you're having some problems with Sky TV.

That's right. We found out that they were actually

taking more money out of my account than what I'd signed up for.

So I rang up Sky and explained my contract,

and they said they've never heard of such a deal.

They said they don't understand what URN stands for

and they can't honour the contract because they don't have such a deal.

After explaining the situation, it's time to find out what Tim thinks.

There are two types of contract, a written contract, which this is, or the oral contract.

The advantage of a written contract like this

is that the terms are set out in writing.

So you've signed this. You've been asked to read it through carefully

because that's what it states on the contract,

and it says your ongoing commitment is 31.75 a month.

You've relied on that representation

and you've entered into that contract based on those representations.

As you no doubt would say, if you'd been told it would be £108 a month, you would have said,

"I don't want to pay that amount for this type of entertainment. It's too much."

You would not have entered into the contract.

Mm. This sounds pretty promising so let's cut to the chase.

Is that a valid contract?

Yes, it's a contract entered into by Sky.

They have an agent who may be employed by them or self-employed,

and he's asked you to sign it. You've signed it.

They are contractually bound to provide you this package at this price.

That's why they should provide you with that package.

So you're entitled to have this 12 month package at 31.75 a month.

Simple as that.

Tim, that's really helpful. That's really cleared it up.

-Thank you.

-My pleasure. Nice to meet you.

Whether Sky would normally have offered this deal or not,

they made a legally binding agreement with Matthew and Jane

and they should have honoured it.

Sky has been in touch with my team

and it's clear they are taking these cases very seriously.

They want to do the right thing by both sets of customers

and I'm confident they will.

There are still plenty of things I'd like answers to.

Time to call the lady at Sky.

I've left a message on her landline. She wasn't there,

so I'm going to call her mobie.

There's been plenty of e-mail correspondence between us

but it doesn't look like I'll be catching her today.

Hi, it's Dominic from Don't Get Done Get Dom.

I've left a message on your landline.

I was hoping to speak to you about the cases which I think you're familiar with.

I look forward to speaking to you. Bye-bye.

I follow up my call with another e-mail

and I ask whether someone from Sky

would be prepared to meet me for a face-to-face chat.

I'd love to hear why in Alan, Matthew and Jane's cases,

they have given with one hand but taken away with the other.

But Alan's case is more about the compensation he didn't receive.

He had to wait for three months to be connected to a phone line.

They couldn't give us any dates as to when it was going to be resolved.

All they could say was they were going to raise the job

and it should be done within two weeks.

Alan's problem was that there was no cable

connecting his home to the network.

As the property is a new-build,

it's not clear why the phone line wasn't installed in the first place.

But as the service provider, it's Sky's responsibility to

arrange it to be fitted by Openreach, the company which provides

and maintains the vast network of cables that carry phone

and internet services to our homes.

Sky told Alan his new line would be fitted underground.

Yet all his neighbours had overhead cables.

As you can see, virtually every single house all the way up

to here is fed off this pole.

Hoping it would be mean a faster installation,

Alan repeatedly asked if he could have his cables fitted overhead.

Every time I spoke to Sky asking them to get it done that way, they were just saying it's

not possible to get it done.

It's quite obviously possible to get it done from everyone else who had it done.

And it took weeks for Alan's request to be granted.

Eventually I got copied into an e-mail from BT Openreach to

a team within Sky called the Fix

and Learn team. It was an eViper reference number, which means

it had been escalated to the top level within BT.

I instantly rang Sky and she said, "Leave it with me for 24 hours and I'll come back to you."

She stuck to her word. Within 24 hours she had come back to me

and said, "You will have your phone line fitted within 48 hours,"

and it actually got fitted within 48 hours.

Finally, he had his phone line connected through an overhead

cable, just like he'd asked for in the first place.

Now, I asked Sky if they would consider meeting me to talk about

the problems experienced by Alan and Matthew and Jane and guess what...

They've only gone and said yes. I've been waiting a long time for this, so let's see what happens

I've come to meet Danielle Macleod, Sky's Director of Service Operations.

Danielle, I'll start off with a big thank you for agreeing to meet me.

I very much appreciate that.

Let's start off with Matthew Bramwell - what happened?

Dom, before we start I just think that it's really

important for me to firstly say sorry. With these cases we haven't

done the right thing by our customers and we're sorry for that.

OK, apologies are great, now what actually went wrong?

In Matthew's case this started with a really simple clerical error.

Our sales agent forgot to put a unique

number into our systems, which meant that the offer that Matthew

was looking for didn't come through to our systems.

After that, Dom, I must be honest, I was as baffled as you when I looked at the case.

This is not how we would normally deal with these circumstances.

I would have hoped in these circumstances we would honour the offer.

'This unique reference number is obviously important to them,

'so I want to make sure I know what it is.'

When an offer is given, it's given a code and for that offer to be

initiated that code has to go into a system, is that correct?

-That's correct.

-In layman's terms. Obviously it's a lot more

complicated than that and you're saying that the code that was

given that didn't work, is that right? It should have been given?

So the offer was legitimate,

the sales advisor put the wrong code into the system, and therefore,

when it got through to the contact centres, it didn't marry up

with the offer that Matthew thought he'd been given.

We have a variety of different offers that work for our customers

and in Matthew's case, the code that went in for him

didn't show any offer at all, so he ended up being charged as a full contract.

'I want to know why Matthew's contract wasn't honoured

'when he explained he had been put on the wrong tariff.'

Honestly, we have human beings who work for us

and they make mistakes, and in this scenario

our advisors are allowed to use their own judgment.

Listening to the call, it seemed to me that person wasn't quite sure what to do.

You're probably aware of this but you should have honoured it

legally as well as morally, would you agree?

Absolutely, but for me, this is as much to do about commitment as well as contract.

For me, once we've made a commitment to our customers,

we need to do everything we can to honour that.

'Danielle has put her hands up and agrees that they did the wrong thing and should have

'honoured Matt and Jane's contract, but that's not all I want to find out.'

Alan Dukes, what happened?

Dom, that phone line took far longer to install than any of us would

have thought was reasonable. I completely understand Alan's frustrations

and I'm really sorry for the inconvenience that was caused to him.

When we got to his property, our engineer was really

surprised that in a new development nobody had laid any cables

and we needed to instruct BT Openreach to lay those cables into

the property so that we could put his phone and internet on. That

took far longer than any of us would have liked, it wasn't good enough.

Whose fault is it?

So we worked really hard to work with BT Openreach to try to

get the timescales through faster. We just weren't

successful in this instance and it wasn't good enough.

Openreach has told us that it

tries to serve customers via underground ducting where

available but...

And it seems in this case there was no ducting,

and if so, this would have meant complex engineering to resolve.

But for Alan, the installation delay wasn't the only problem.

What happened with the compensation?

So our advisor that Alan spoke to

rightly made an offer an offer of compensation.

They made an unauthorised offer that was far over and above what

we would normally offer in loss of service circumstances.

We wanted to do the right thing by Mr Dukes,

so we had a lengthy conversation with him

to discuss what we believed would be a reasonable offer.

This was less than what he was originally offered.

It was, yes, and we came to an agreement.

We believed that he was happy with that agreement, we sent him

a cheque which he cashed. We believed he was happy, clearly he wasn't.

In Alan's case, I don't think he would be upset for me to say,

when he was unhappy with the service,

he asked you for compensation, and I think to a certain degree,

you were happy to give him some compensation.

I don't doubt Alan pushed his luck, as a lot of people would do.

But what he asked your advisor for was something, give or take, around £1,200-odd.

-It was a huge amount, wasn't it?

-It was.

You're saying under

normal circumstances he wouldn't have got it. I'm going to give

you that one because I wouldn't have given it in your shoes, either.

But the problem lies herein. Your advisor said yes.

Surely at that point you

should have honoured it and realised this was your problem, not Alan's.

I agree with you. I think when we make a commitment to our customers we need to see it through.

So why didn't you, like a big boy, take it on the chin and say,

"Right, this member of staff..." who, don't forget, is trained and employed by Sky,

made an offer he wasn't able to honour and therefore we're

going to take this one on the chin and send him off and retrain him.

Do you know what, Dom, I think that's exactly what we should have done.

It seems Sky want to play ball and is admitting it was wrong

but what is going to stop this from happening in the future?

I can't possibly say to you that sometimes our people won't make mistakes.

What I can promise you is that I personally will never rest

until we get everything right for our customers.

Otherwise you'll have me on the phone, won't you?

Hopefully not!

-Danielle, I like you, you're ever so nice. Thanks for coming down again.

-Thank you.

It's a rarity in my line of work for a company to come in, meet me

face-to-face, be big enough

and bold enough to say, "You know what, Dom, we got it wrong and we're

"going to put it right." My message to you at Sky is "Good on you."

We all know how important a work-out at your local gym is for you.

But trust me, we are inundated with complaints about membership contracts, especially

when you want to cancel one, as we found out from one of many fitness fanatics.

Paul Hazell from London is crazy about keeping in shape.

I've worked as a personal trainer for many years. Usually I'm

a very, very fit person. I've run the marathon twice. I'm also

interested in wrestling, body building, football.

Keeping fit is very important to me.

Paul was a member of Fitness First but in February 2012 his branch

closed down so he moved to another one nearby.

It was local to me and a lot of my friends trained there.

It had pretty much everything in there that I needed.

Paul signed up to a one-year contract at the gym

for £50.95 per month, and for seven months everything was hunky dory.

But then Paul's life took an unexpected turn.

I was out for Sunday dinner with my fiance at the time

and I felt a little unwell after it. I crossed the road

and suddenly I was getting chest pains, shortness of breath.

I called 999. The paramedics turned up, they took me to the

hospital. They ran all the usual tests - blood tests, ECGs, X-rays.

After 12 hours, I was given the all-clear and told it was probably a one-off event and I was sent home.

But unfortunately it wasn't.

Paul soon suffered further episodes

and while doctors tried to get to the bottom of what was wrong,

he was signed off work and told to take it easy.

They advised me not to do any physical activities

until I'd got it sorted out.

One thing was for sure,

Paul wouldn't be going to the gym any time soon.

Trouble was, he was committed to Fitness First for a year

and still had four months left to run on his contract.

It was something he hadn't really thought about when he'd signed up.

I always read my terms and conditions and the small print, and at the time I was fit and healthy

so although I probably read all the terms and conditions about health

and stuff, I probably wasn't as worried about that

because my health was very good at the time.

Fortunately though Paul was in luck.

The Fitness First small print made it clear that he could

cancel his membership if genuine

and relevant health issues prevented him from attending the gym.

When I went to see the manager of my local branch,

I explained what was going on and I took relevant paperwork

and then I was told that I would need to send that off and speak to the head of

Fitness First because they couldn't deal with it there.

Paul e-mailed head office and was then told he would have to

post them documents from his doctors explaining his condition.

I sent the documents in good faith at cost to myself

because at the end of the day I knew they needed proof

and I was hoping with the information they had, it would back up everything that I was telling them

And it did. In January 2013, Fitness First told Paul

they would freeze his account and refund him

the £101.90 he had paid for November and December 2012.

Paul thought that was that, but in May 2013 he got a nasty surprise.

I noticed when I got a printout of my balance that there was two

payments taken out of 50.95. They were both from Fitness First.

Paul had assumed that his Fitness First contract had ended,

but in fact his account had just been temporarily frozen

and was now active again.

I was under the impression that I was getting a full cancellation.

The freeze was mentioned, but I told them that

because of what was going on, I would like a cancellation.

In e-mails and letters, Fitness First had told Paul the account was

going to be frozen until the end of March.

He'd failed to contact them before this date

and so further payments had been taken.

Again he tried to cancel but as his original doctor's notes were

now out of date, Fitness First needed further medical evidence.

Although it was stating everything that was there

and they were saying to me

that I would need to sign one of their medical certificates.

Paul agreed but felt he had given them ample proof of his illness.

In the terms of the contract, it said if there was a genuine

and relevant reason for cancelling that contract it can be cancelled.

Clearly this gym member was very poorly, was feeling dizzy,

had chest pains, wasn't able to continue to exercise,

and produced a doctor's note to prove that.

So, within the terms of this contract, they should have been able to cancel.

Paul sent over the forms and waited to hear back.

The response that I got from Fitness First was a final e-mail

telling me that I was not getting my money back.

From my understanding, the contract was then cancelled.

But, sadly, that wasn't the end of it.

After three months of not hearing nothing from Fitness First,

suddenly I get contacted by them, telling me

that I'm outstanding and I owe them money.

The letter stated that

if I did not pay that money within a certain period of time

that they would get in contact with a debt-collecting agency.

Incredibly, Paul's contract still hadn't been cancelled

and Fitness First now believed he owed them three months' worth of fees.

Exasperated by everything that had happened, Paul turned to yours

truly and so I contacted Fitness First to see

if I could help resolve this once and for all.

They have come back to me and told me that the account is now

definitely cancelled and that any arrears have been written off -

good news - but what about the two months' worth of fees Paul's charged with?

Well, Fitness First have written to him.

"Dear Mr Hazel, Please find enclosed a cheque for £101.90

"relating to the refund due.

"We apologise for this issue and any inconvenience caused. Best wishes."

It's taken a while but Paul can now finally

but his gym troubles behind him.

I'm kind of happy that I got a refund on the two months.

It's quite nice to know when I put this in my account that I'm

finally going to get the money back.

I didn't think I was ever going to get this

so it's a little bit of a victory.

I've been helping two families who both feel let down by Sky.

They were both promised deals, only to be told that Sky wasn't

going to honour them.

I felt quite cheated, to be honest,

because we had taken this in good faith.

In my opinion, it's the wrong way to do business.

If you want to run a successful business, you put

the customer at the heart of your business, you don't turn round

and say, "We aren't interested in what you're saying."

Now, although I have two very unhappy customers,

I have a funny feeling that's about to change,

because Sky have admitted to me, face-to-face, where they went wrong

and what they'll do to try to fix things, which is good news in anyone's book.

And I'm not the only who's pleased.

Let's start with Alan, who had to wait

three months for a phone line and then had

an offer of compensation worth £1,200 reduced to one worth £350.

Well, since I got on the case an executive from Sky has been in touch.

I've had a phone call, they basically said

that I can either have a cheque for the full amount of compensation or

they can give me the free Sky that was originally offered to me.

They've also offered to add another £100 on there

by the way of a gesture of goodwill.

Gordon Bennett, that is quite a good result. Alan has gladly accepted

a cheque for a total of £1,355, which is in addition to

the compensation he'd already received.

I've got to say, hats off to Sky for honouring the original

and extremely generous offer.

I am grateful to Sky. It's taken a lot longer than it should have

done but they've finally made good on the promise, which, at the end

of the day is all I wanted from the beginning of all of this.

I agree, Alan, and a promise is a promise so I'm glad I was able to help.

If I could pass a message on to Dom it would be a massive thank you.

Really, really happy that you got involved

and I'm really glad you managed to sort this out, thank you very much.

That's one happy customer.

But what about Matthew and Jane, who were offered a Sky

package for a monthly price that really seemed too good to be true?

Well, I have news for them too, so I've made my way up to sunny Skegness.

-Come in!

-Thanks very much.

'Understandably, Matthew and Jane are still not best pleased with

'the way that they have been treated by Sky.'

If I asked you right now how you feel about Sky, what would you say?

If they just held their hands up and said, "Yeah, we made a mistake,"

I'd be happy with that. I think the customer service skills

-have gone out of the window.

-Really disappointed, really let down.

It caused us a lot of grief and heartache, really, so I'm not best pleased.

No, and I think you are quite right to feel like that

about them. When I looked at what happened, I've got to be honest,

I was actually quite shocked. You had a contract there,

signed by you, signed by the sales rep,

with each and every box you'd selected ticked, with the price

at the bottom, £31.75, whatever it was. How can they argue about that?

Well, they have...quite strongly.

'Well, the arguing is over now because Sky has given me

'an offer to pass onto Matthew and Jane.'

How would you feel

if I said that they are offering you £100 worth of vouchers?

-And give me your honest answers.

-Is that for their products, or...?

-No, it's for a high street store.

-I don't know, what do you think? I have no idea.

Tell me honestly, what do you think?

At the end of the day, I didn't come to you to try

and fleece money out of the company. As a goodwill gesture,

-I think that will be a reasonable sum.

-So you would be happy to put it to bed and accept that?

-Yeah.

-Yeah.

-OK.

Hang on a sec. How would you feel if they also

said they are going to honour the package you signed up for

for 12 months, which you can start any time you want,

-as well as the vouchers?

-Definitely.

-Definitely.

-You feel happy with that?

Yeah, that's all we wanted in the first place.

Well, that's what they are going to do. You're happy...

Yeah, I'm happy. Thank you so much.

My job's done,

and I hope they've learnt a lesson from this.

Yeah, definitely.

Because all these big companies need to keep hold of their good customers.

Right, I'm off to the big smoke. I like Skegness,

-but I miss the big smoke.

-Thanks ever so much.

Who's going to show me out?

-I'll take you out.

-Lead the way.

Thanks ever so much. Cheers, bye.

Finally it seems everyone is happy and I think that's my job done.

To get £100 vouchers and the contract that

I signed for to begin with is amazing. Really, really happy.

-So, thank you.

-Yeah, good job, Dom.

You know, I get a lot of satisfaction sorting out people's problems

but there is a moral to this story and that is it should

never have happened in the first place, Sky.