Teles SkyDSL threatening me!

mumhaabu

Around the beginning of last year I was living in a more remote location and I was badly stuck for high speed internet at the time so I subscribed to Teles SkyDSL which is a one way satellite internet service which didn't work very well. I since moved to an area with DSL and kept paying it up until October when I de-authorised my credit card from the account and replaced it with a defunct 3V voucher which expired the following month as they wouldn't stop taking payment otherwise

I asked them repeatedly via email to cancel my account as I didn't use it anymore as I didn't need it and as it was very slow often around 25KB (Kilobytes)/sec for a 1meg 100KB(kilobytes) connection.

I have been sending them emails instructing them to cancel etc. since October as I don't use it and even offered to send them back the hardware a dish and SkyDSL Box (box with built in modem and satellite receiver). But they wouldn't hear none of it and today sent me a bill for €515 and have cancelled the account but are still looking for the entire sum. It was the only internet option I had available at the time as I was on 33kbps dial up (3.3KB Kilobytes) I got the dish installed by a local Sky installer and despite its slowness it was miles ahead of dial-up but still well behind real Broadband.

So basically they are demanding €515 because apparently I was in a 24 month contract and are threatening to send it onto a debt collector! I have no intention of paying as I have stopped using it and never got much speed out of it.

Their company is German based in Berlin (according to the site) so I wonder what is the best course of action to take?

I was wondering would a solicitors letter sort them? or should I get on the Irish consumer association? I have a perfect credit rating so don't want any blemishes against it. I don't want ignore it despite they being based in Germany, so is their some sort of EU law allowing them to pursue me in Ireland or am I better off counter sueing them??

This is a pain in the proverbial and I just want it to go away, and I do not feel like paying them for 24 months for a crappy service I now won't even use!! :eek:

Any Ideas????

Sponge Bob

the EU Consumer office deals with cross border scams like one way sat services that provide no service . Contact them .

Simple stuff like not providing a service , unfair contract as they do not intend to provide a service , etc etc .

Link

http://www.eccdublin.ie/

They also seeem to have shut down their operation

http://teles-skydsl.de/

http://teles-skydsl.co.uk/

and cannot therefore prove they provide any service at all ...in fact .

boomer_ie

First of all you need to find the original contract and see if it says 12 months or 24 months.

Secondly did they advise you when you tried to cancel that it was a 24 month contract?

mumhaabu

Sponge Bob wrote:

the EU Consumer office deals with cross border scams like one way sat services that provide no service . Contact them .

Simple stuff like not providing a service , unfair contract as they do not intend to provide a service , etc etc .

Link

http://www.eccdublin.ie/

They also seeem to have shut down their operation

http://teles-skydsl.de/

http://teles-skydsl.co.uk/

and cannot therefore prove they provide any service at all ...in fact .

Thanks very much Sponge Bob for that link I will talk to them tomorrow first.

boomer_ie wrote: »

First of all you need to find the original contract and see if it says 12 months or 24 months.

Secondly did they advise you when you tried to cancel that it was a 24 month contract?

I was originally in no contract and paying more and asked to be moved to their €25 a month tariff and this was a 24 month contract, and yes they did advise when I tried to cancel and have now proceeded to bill me for the remainder of the contract.

Welease

Did you ever officially complain about the low speeds in advance of wanting to cancel?

Most connections are sold as speeds up to X not a guarantee of max speed... and without an advance complaint, and the chance to fix the issue i doubt they will be interested in your complaints about wanting to cancel..

I would imagine your are going to be liable for the full 24 mths which you signed up for ..

eth0_

If you didn't give them any chance to rectify the problem then i'm afraid you'll have to pay that 515 euro.

It could have been something as simple as re-aligning the dish.

the_syco

mumhaabu wrote: »

I was originally in no contract and paying more and asked to be moved to their €25 a month tariff and this was a 24 month contract, and yes they did advise when I tried to cancel and have now proceeded to bill me for the remainder of the contract.

They asked you, or you asked them?

mumhaabu

I had complained about the speed (I still have the emails) and they advised I move to the new package which I did and got roped into a 24mth contract without signing anything or specifically authorising them to sign me up for it, they automatically transferred me onto it in request for better speeds and bandwidth, the new package incidentaly made things worse as their fair usage policy actually threw my speeds down to practically dialup speeds.

Sponge Bob

Unfair Contract 101

Welease

mumhaabu wrote: »

I had complained about the speed (I still have the emails) and they advised I move to the new package which I did and got roped into a 24mth contract without signing anything or specifically authorising them to sign me up for it, they automatically transferred me onto it in request for better speeds and bandwidth, the new package incidentaly made things worse as their fair usage policy actually threw my speeds down to practically dialup speeds.

Isn't the fair usage policy generally enforced when you go over your download limits? i.e they are contractually allowed to do cap you speed until you fall within their acceptable use again.

From what you say, it sounds like you were advised to move to a different package, and you agreed. You don't necessarily need to sign anything.

mcdrogo

I had been using SkyDSL satellite broadband for a year. Before I signed up they promised me that I would be able to connect all 3 of my families networked PCs to the internet. I was able to do this with my previous service provider, Mediasat, for nearly 2 years.
When they installed the equipment I found out this was a lie. I would have to buy a SkyDSL box, similar to the sat modem I had with Mediasat, for a further €200. This worked for a few months and we were all happy. Then the box would not function and I had a terrible time getting them to replace the box. When the replacement arrived, I found that this was faulty straight out of the box. It took nearly two months of arguing with their technical support before they would agree to take it back and refund me the €200.
At this point, in June, I decided to cancel my subscription as my 6mth contract had expired. I was told that as my contract had not been terminated before its expiration, it was automatically renewed for another 6 mths, to the end of September 2009, and I would have to pay them for the rest of the contract term. I was not happy with this but I should have read the terms and conditions. Then I sent a reminder of my original request to terminate the contract and they tried to add another six months to my contract as the reminder was sent less than a month before the expiration of the contract. I told them that the original request was sent 3 months before expiration but to no avail. I have emailed and written letters to them which have been ignored. I refused to pay and now they're also threatening me with debt collectors.
These little German Hitlers will not get another cent out of me.
So Beware! You've been warned! Avoid SkyDSL!

mcdrogo

Sorry, it should read "to the end of September 2008" and not "to the end of September 2009" .

Kintarō Hattori

Wow these guys should like they are best avoided.

OP if you agreed to a 24 month contract and then tried to leave it early I don't think there is much you can do I'm afraid.

mcdrogo

Contract was for six months. You have to give minimum of 1 months notice of cancellation or contract is automatically extended for another six months whether you use it or not.
Three months into my second contract I requested my contract to be cancelled. They informed me that I have to complete the full six months before cancellation. A couple of weeks before the end of the contract I sent a reminder that the contract was to end and to stop deducting from my credit card. Despite my previous request, which gave them 3 months notice, they insist on using the reminder as the request and say it did not give the minimum 1 months notice to cancel. They will not even check or acknowledge my original request or the reply they sent to me.