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Anonymous User
Not applicable

Billing problems - unauthorised debits

I have discovered 6 debits on my credit card. NowTV has billed me nearly £70 yet my account shows no (zero) bills and no upcoming bills. I have also not knowingly signed up to any services but did try - and fail - to get a particular series working a few months back.

 

I have tried all day to get a sensible response. The call centre will only speak about broadband (which I don't get through NowTV), the online chat refuses to load on my PC or mobile (both fully up-to-date and patched) and your Twitter NowTV Help was pretty much useless as they just kept redirecting me to the chat service and did not seem to understand that it was not working. I sent an email but have had no response.

 

I cannot believe this is so difficult! How do I get to speak to someone who can help or do I just dispute the charges on my credit card?

 

Thanks.

 

Richard

23 REPLIES 23
Anonymous User
Not applicable

Hello my internet going down 

Anonymous User
Not applicable

I can make a payment tomorrow but i need internet today what i can do? 

RoyB
Legend

@Anonymous User 

 

Make a payment today. 

Set a Payment PIN on your account so that no-one but you can buy memberships on it. Check your bank accounts monthly for any other unexpected payments to Now. That way you can at least nip them in the bud, while you and Now figure out whose fault they are.
RoyB
Legend

@Anonymous User 

 

Assuming you gave NowTV your credit card details, and you aren’t a victim of identity fraud, then you will have given them authorisation to debit it at that same time.

 

So did you, yourself, ever give those details?

 

As the account you are using shows no billing, you probably started a second account on which the billing is taking place,

 

Can you rack your brains for what it might be?

 

if you can’t get Live Chat up, try a browser you don’t normally use, so it runs plain vanilla, or your current browser in stripped-back mode (e.g. on Firefox, load it without Add-Ins).

 

Disabling Popups or third-party cookies, or indeed any cookies, or using an Ad Blocker can all prevent Live Chat from loading.

 

But you definitely need to speak to them, no alternative to that.

 

And best not dispute the credit card charges; you will get the money back at first, but NowTV will likely dispute the chargeback, and likely prevail.

Set a Payment PIN on your account so that no-one but you can buy memberships on it. Check your bank accounts monthly for any other unexpected payments to Now. That way you can at least nip them in the bud, while you and Now figure out whose fault they are.
Anonymous User
Not applicable

Thanks, @RoyB 

 

I have been in the US so the time difference made sorting this out with NowTV even more frustrating than it was but I am now in contact with them through email.

 

What I KNOW about this situation is that a few months ago I signed up for an account with NowTV to watch a TV series. I went through the process of registering my details and payment card and then tried watching on TV but it did not show the series. I spent the next 3 or 4 days trying to figure out what was happening but never did get to the bottom of it and gave up - making 100% sure that I cancelled the trials and ongoing debit instruction.

 

NowTV insist that in this process I created more than 1 account with the same payment details. I have to take their word for this but I am very surprised - I work in Cyber security and Privacy and am always very careful so am not easily caught. The fact that their their website recommends checking for multiple accounts makes it fairly clear that this is a frequent issue so I can only conclude that they have significant User Interface issues on their site. I'm also astounded that it does not make you aware when creating a second account, that there is already an account at that address, with the same subscriber name and payment details as this would surely be an unusual intentional situation. Most other websites are more helpful in this area.

 

The upshot is that they have offered to refund one month as "It would have been easy for us to get this resolved for you if you would have contacted us within 4 weeks of your first incorrect charges on your account." All well and good but this card is only used for a very few subscriptions normally and as I KNEW that I had cancelled the subscriptions I only checked it after 3 months.

 

As I really want to understand how they enticed me to create a second account I have lodged a Data Subject Access Request for all information relating to me and my accounts. I want to understand the timing and sequence of events so that I can decide what further steps to take as I am deeply unhappy with this situation.

 

While I acknowledge that I must have created multiple accounts I am annoyed and frustrated that NowTV provide a website that makes this possible and then, when it does, are so unhelpful and dismissive.

 

I have also notified them in my DSAR that I exercise my right to be forgotten as soon as this current situation is resolved.

 

Will update here if/when I have progress to report.

 

Richard

 

Anonymous User
Not applicable

Oh, I forgot to mention that I have also asked for records of my viewing because I know that I have not accessed their service since cancelling the subscription. I would have expected this to add to the probability that one of their systems would have picked up an anomalous situation - multiple accounts, same address, same name, same bank details and no viewing at all over a 3-month period.

 

Surely that should have triggered some action especially as it is apparent that others have been similarly caught by multiple accounts?

 

Richard

RoyB
Legend

Hi @Anonymous User 

 

You used to get a Sky/NowTV Account number with an Account (I still use mine) but this changed to email address a while back (and I can use either Account number or email address).

 

So any attempt to accidentally create a second account now, using the same email address as the first one, should fail. Unless NowTV think the unique identifier is Account/Password and you give a different one? I do hope this isn’t the case. I will enquire.....

 

There are a number of reasons why people want more than one account; mainly to get over the devices limit (now 6 with 3 changes a month, but it used to be 4 with 1 change, which was a lot more restrictive) and the streams limit (2, unchanged), by having an Account for each Pass.

 

So it needs to be allowed, but I agree it should be queried. Also, NowTV do not validate the email address you give, and I think they should really be using the pretty standard ‘reply to this validation email’ step here during Account creation.

 

There’s a fair bit to enter when creating a second account, so it’s hard to do accidentally and not notice; I think it must mainly happen when people think their first try at it has failed, but it hasn’t. Though there is the thing where they have an account, then buy a Stick, and when asked for account details, start a new one, as they don’t realise they should give their existing account details.

 

There were also a bunch of people whose attempts to game the system with multiple accounts to get extra free trials backfired when some of those began taking monthly payments, as their creators forgot to cancel them.

 

The (unspecified) measures to combat this should prevent some accidental second account creations as well now, though.

 

Finally, NowTV do know if you have used a Pass at all, and can refund recent ones on request if you haven’t; but you can hardly expect them to go trawling the account database for anomalies whose detection would only serve to reduce their revenues.

 

And if they did, and refunded unused months automatically, then people would just leave their accounts running, relying on NowTV to do these refunds; and doing it non-automatically, on a query basis, would be a nightmare. To say nothing of users varying their addresses slightly, or doing one account off a card and another direct off a bank account, and so on.....

 

The best guardian of your finances is you 😛

 

I expect NowTV are similarly bewildered by customers who don’t check their own bank and card accounts month by month, looking for anomalies like things they did not expect to be spending on. Certainly, my wife and I have nipped a couple of things in the bud doing that.

Set a Payment PIN on your account so that no-one but you can buy memberships on it. Check your bank accounts monthly for any other unexpected payments to Now. That way you can at least nip them in the bud, while you and Now figure out whose fault they are.
Anonymous User
Not applicable

Thanks for that detail, @RoyB - it is very useful.

 

NowTV have expressly said that they will only refund 1 month, not the first two. I asked them, a few times, to refund the original two months or, if they would not do this, to provide to me full details of all my accounts and usage under the DSAR. They chose the second option so I am sticking to my guns - I want full details so I can work out what has happened.

 

To be clear, at no point during the time I was trying to subscribe to the TV series was I aware that I had two accounts, nor that I had inadvertently switched between the two. It is now clear to me that this is what happened (somehow I inadvertently switched accounts - and then switched back so that my account showed no active subscriptions when in fact I had inadvertently created and then subscribed on a second account that I did not even realise I had!) 

 

I have checked my email archives and can find no trace at all of any 'welcome to NowTV' or any other messages for the 'second' account so I am completely confused about how this happened and why I did not receive notification because clearly if I had received an email of that nature I would have known about the second account and been able to take appropriate action.

 

As for checking accounts and being in charge of your own finances, I 100% agree. This is why I usually sign up for any new subscription with a dedicated card and then change it after a few months - I can spot any anomalies easily. When, however, I cancel the subscription from a 'reputable' service like NowTV (and verify that on my account screen) and then don't have any other subscriptions or payments set to go to that account I'm a bit less careful about checking it. This is why when I did see the deductions I was so surprised.

 

I (intentionally) have multiple accounts these with another telco for my broadband - they clearly show both on my account screens so it is fully transparent unlike this situation with NowTV.

 

I'm going to be very interested in their response on Monday.

 

Richard

RoyB
Legend

@Anonymous User 

 

So am I, whatever you can choose to share, either in the Community or by PM.

Set a Payment PIN on your account so that no-one but you can buy memberships on it. Check your bank accounts monthly for any other unexpected payments to Now. That way you can at least nip them in the bud, while you and Now figure out whose fault they are.