SKY TV Box Insurance Scam?

Have you had someone call you to say that your SKY TV box is about to run out of warranty and that you can take out insurance to cover it? Then you might have been subject in the worst case to a credit card scam, and at the very least, persuaded to take out extended (and expensive) product warranty insurance with a third party insurance company.

Here´s how it works:

Caller: "Hello, can I speak to [insert name here] about your SKY TV service?"

You: "Yes, that´s me. [Or your surprised response if you do not have SKY TV]"

Caller [hearing that you are not surprised]: "I´m calling to let you know that according to our records the warranty on your SKY TV box will expire on [add a future date here]. And should your box go faulty outside the warranty period then you will be charged a £70 call out fee."

You: "[add your reaction here, which at first is often a thought about having to pay out lots of money to get the damn thing fixed]"

Caller: "We are offering SKY TV customers insurance to protect them from any problems with the SKY box."

And here is where the call will diversify, as next comes either the credit card scam, or a ploy to get you to sign up to an extended warranty insurance policy.

With the credit card scam, the caller will tell you that you can get immediate cover by giving them your credit card details and your cover will be automatically activated. Now what´s wrong with this you might say? Never, give anyone your credit card details over the phone if they cold call you saying they are such-and-such - how do you know who they are?

The other direction will be to get you to agree a contract to purchase an insurance policy for extended warranty. And this in itself can be expensive. In addition, it could be you are not speaking to SKY TV but to a contractor. It is also likely that any insurance taken out will be to provide you with service and support by a third party contractor, and not with SKY TV directly.

Question: If this is a credit card scam, how did they know I have SKY TV?

Answer: Often they don´t. If you said I don´t have SKY TV at the first instance then they will ring off and go to the next call. Chances are that they will find a number of SKY TV subscribers during a working day. It´s also possible that they have obtained information from other sources, you have no way of knowing.

There is no suggestion whatsoever that SKY is involved in anything deceptive or illegal in any form, but taking out any extended warranty insurance policy is often expensive. Remember, companies like Comet and Currys greatly increased their profits using this tactic. Extended warranty insurance is profitable to the supplier and often expensive for the consumer. SKY TV are offering extended warranty insurance (possibly through Consumer & General Insurance) for £6.99 a month. Doesn't sound much does it? But should you be the onwer of a SKY TV box and the box goes faulty outside of the warranty period, then the simple solution is to threaten to cancel your SKY subscription saying that you will sign up with Virgin Media (for free). This often illicits a response to negotiate, and at best, if you hold out, gets you a replacement box for free. However, be careful, as often the replacement box might be a refurbished unit, not a new one. Again, insist that any replacement is new, and not something they have repaired in the past which is being shoved onto you. Who knows what else is likely to go wrong after someone has fiddled around inside?

Increasingly, and especially in this period of financial squeeze, companies are on the lookout for any way they can lift their sales and revenues. Unfortunately in business seeing revenues reduce is always called a loss, and they seek to bridge that loss with something else. In the UK in particular, consumers have been subjected to higher than normal prices, charges and other add-ons which, compared to the USA and some other European countries, simply do not exist. If they do, they are remarkably less in comparison. The UK has a history of consumer acceptance, that pressure groups do not come together in order to say collectively "enough is enough". And until the compulsive shopper and supposed "bargain hunter" has their credit card surgically removed from their hand, then their will be sufficient fools available to be parted from their money.

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