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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

Nearly 96 hours and counting and still no further response from NowTV after I responded to their message asking for more info on the DSAR and to the second message asking for my account details to credit the 1 month credit they have agreed to.

 

I have lodged the DSAR so the clock is counting and I'm therefore content to wait but I am really very unhappy at the cavalier attitude they have displayed with regards this situation.

 

Richard

Anonymous User
Not applicable

So I received the SAR data today. It is missing pretty much all the information I requested. It also is addressed to an account I did not know I had (it has a 2 at the end) .

 

As this is all about the fact that I unknowingly had 2 accounts and unknowingly had active subscriptions on one of them. I need to understand how this happened so asked for the following information for any and all accounts registered to this address:

 

  • Billing Information
  • Service History
  • Booking Information
  • account set-up and changes details including payment details, dates, times, IP addresses and any other pertinent information about these activities
  • details of successful and failed logins to my accounts on the website/s
  • dates and times of any access to the services I am alleged to have ordered (I contend that I did not access them as I did not know I had them)
  • details of any automated or manual decisions taken about me or involving me or my accounts
  • any other information NowTV has collected about me or my accounts including identity details, and other data and metadata

All I have received is 18 pages of my emails and other communications trying to get answers to this complaint and trying to arrange the SAR - and one page showing the various debits. In short, most of this is information I already had and therefore did not request.

 

They have also not confirmed that ALL my alleged accounts have now been closed or disabled and that any subscriptions have been cancelled.

 

Frankly, I'm not sure what to make of this - is it just incompetence, or is it a tactic to try to make me give up?

 

Anyway, I'm going to ask again. If they still give me the runaround I'll have to take a complaint to the ICO.

 

Richard

RoyB
Legend

@Anonymous User 

 

Oh dear. Thanks for the update anyway. It was indeed, as we suspected, a ‘second account’ problem, but it does sound as if NowTV could have handled it better ☹️

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

This rumbles on and NowTV continue to obstruct all my efforts to get clarity. I am becoming convinced that this is part of a strategy to make it so difficult to get clarity that customers just give up. Well, if that is their approach they have a surprise coming. 

 

I now have enough evidence for a GDPR complaint to the ICO (failure to deliver my data as requested and failure to address the resulting complaint) and have two complaints that have failed to be handled properly and now qualify for independent dispute resolution.

 

This ain't over, NowTV - I've just started!

RoyB
Legend

Never ascribe to conspiracy that which is more easily ascribed to male chicken-up.

 

Like me being unable to use a perfectly innocuous expression above.

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

Fair enough - but if this is not wilful it negligent!

 

This is the current state of a Twitter Direct Message exchange between me and the Now TV Help Twitter agent. It seems that their front line staff are absolutely ignorant of the GDPR, so I have to wonder if they have made any effort at all to educate their front line staff about GDPR?

 

The ICO makes it very clear that companies that meet certain requirements must appoint a DPO and that their contact details must be published (see https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/guide-to-data-protection/guide-to-the-general-data-protection-r...) and provided when data subject personal data is collected - to the best of my memory they did not do this (see first point here https://gdpr-info.eu/art-13-gdpr/). They should also provide it when providing data subject information under Article 13 or article 14 - they did not do this.

 

If this is not wilful it is a massive male chicken-up! 😉

 

I'm trying to sort this amicably with NowTV but they are making it so difficult to deal with anyone that can help that I reaching a point where I will have no choice but to make my case to the regulators - in the mean time NowTV seem to be intent on deepening the hole they are in!

 

Me
Can you please provide contact details of your Data Protection Officer? For whatever reason you do not seem to publish this information on your website where normal mortals can find it, if at all.
11:09 AM

 

Twitter NowTV Help
Good morning, as we are unable to access accounts through social media please pop over to our live chat team who can look into this further for you https://help.nowtv.com/gb/get-in-touch/now-tv-account-payments/cancelling-or-renewing-now-tv-passes 🙂
11:19 AM

 

Me
All I need is the contact details please. I plan to contact him / her directly in a registered letter and email. You don't need my contact details for that, do you?
As I said months ago I can't access the chat as it doesn't work.ive been forced to work through email and your team told me today they had closed my complaint.
11:48 AM

 

Me
Hello, just wondering if you will be able to provide the contact details of your DPO please? If not, why not?

12:14 PM

 

Twitter NowTV Help
Hello, please let us know what you mean by this.
12:20 PM

 

Me
I need the contact details of the NowTV Data Protection Officer please.
12:38 PM

 

Twitter NowTV Help
We do not have those on hand here, please use the live chat facilities for more information on this.
12:49 PM

 

Me
As I've said a few times.... Chat does not work for me, it does not load. You don't take phone calls so all I have left is email and you have cut me off there so I have no option to push this.

If you don't know who or what I'm asking for please show this link to your manager. NowTV is legally obliged to have a DPO and I want his or her work contact details https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/guide-to-data-protection/guide-to-the-general-data-protection-r...
1:02 PM

 

Twitter NowTV Help
(Link to https://help.nowtv.com/article/gdpr-and-now-tv)
As we have mentioned we do not have those details, GDPR is outlined here: https://help.nowtv.com/article/gdpr-and-now-tv if you require further assistance access to live chat would need to be required.
1:06 PM

 

Me
Look, I don't know how to make this clearer - NowTV is obliged to provide this information by law and can be fined 4% of global turnover for not doing so. All I want is those details that you are obliged, by law, to provide to me. Nothing more, nothing less.

Please pass this to your management or give me a phone number to call so that I can get these details.

I say again, for whatever reason chat does not work for me.
1:11 PM

 

RoyB
Legend

Wow - you can’t expect these guys to go off-script, but you do expect them to know when they have run out of road, and to escalate the issue.

 

Do you know if a company has to provide those details whenever and however asked, or if there being published somewhere public, no matter how hard to find, counts as complying?

 

(Since I have now ferreted out the details for you, cunningly hidden in plain sight, if only we knew where to look).

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 know, right? You'd think they would at least brief their front line staff that GDPR exists and how to handle any GDPR-related query. The transcript continued:

 

Me (1 hour 10 after my last post)
Is there no-one in your management chain that you can escalate this to? I am taking a complaint forwards for arbitration so want to give NowTV all the opportunities possible to redeem itself - by ignoring me you are not helping their case.
Yesterday, 2:22 PM
 
NowTV Twitter Help
Hello this has already been escalated and will be seen by management on Monday
Yesterday, 2:24 PM
 
Me
Thank you - it would have been nice to be told that. Should I expect a reply from management?
Yesterday, 2:28 PM
 
NowTV Twitter Help
Yes.
Yesterday, 2:36 PM
 
Me
Thank you. Have a great day!
Yesterday, 2:37 PM
 
NowTV Twitter Help
You to
Yesterday, 2:38 PM
 
Putting aside the level of understanding of GDPR, it is soo good to see real customer service shining through - NOT! 😑
 
 
What details do we have to publish about the DPO?

The GDPR requires you to:

  • publish the contact details of your DPO; and
  • provide them to the ICO.

This is to enable individuals, your employees and the ICO to contact the DPO as needed. You aren’t required to include the name of the DPO when publishing their contact details but you can choose to provide this if you think it’s necessary or helpful.

 

Given that the first point is to publish them "enable individuals, your employees and the ICO to contact the DPO as needed. " I have to say that any reasonable interpretation would probably require that such publishing has to make it easy for people to find them - which is clearly not the case with NowTV!

Anonymous User
Not applicable

Well, another week of absolutely no useful response from NowTV.

 

Despite the assurance from the NowTV Twitter help team that I would get a response to my request on there, nothing. Mid-week I asked again and was again assured that I would get a response and still no useful response. 

 

Last weekend I also sent the NowTV DPO mailbox an email, explaining the situation and asking for them to step in to help so that I can save both of us the trouble of going to the ICO and CISAS. Again, absolutely no response.

 

It is almost as if they believe that if they ignore complaints and problems they will go away. Oh, well, I think I've given them enough rope and they have carefully crafted a noose and placed it around their neck!

 

I'll be preparing a complaint to the ICO covering repeated failure to provide requested information under DSAR, failure to adequately publish DPO contact details that work, no response to complaint to DPO, and perceived wilful practice to reduce my ability to claim for the unauthorised debits that caused this situation. I'll also use their approach to the actual billing issue as potentially part of a campaign to prevent me asserting my Rights under privacy and payment law. 

 

I'll also be preparing a complaint to CISAS covering how I was billed for service not received and due to duplicate accounts that I did not even know I have and then complete failure to engage in a meaningful way to my attempts to get information to claim the illegally billed money back. This complaint reinforced by their abject failure to meet the requirements of the GDPR in a number of different ways.

 

I plan to send a copy of the ICO complaint to CISAS and vice versa so that they both can see what I suspect - that NowTV is either breathtakingly ignorant of the law and consumer rights or simply does not care.

 

 

RoyB
Legend

@Anonymous User 

 

As ever, it is more likely the third option, a right royal rooster-up 🙃

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.