NowTV cancelled my F1 subscription when I didn't ask for it (card problems)

[JuneH]

Someone got hold of the card details and began charging things to the card. So a new card was issued by the bank. I forgot to update the NowTV account with the new card details and now I get an email saying that my subscription has been cancelled.

The Formula 1 offer comes once a year - I obviously did not want this to be cancelled half way through the season.

The card details being stolen somehow was outside of my control and I simply did not think to update the card details here. I have now added the new card.

When I check the payments section, I see that the payment failed on 2 August. I got an email last night, the 6th August, saying I'd "cancelled". Presumably the payment would have been retried in the days between.

My questions are:

1. Why did I not get an immediate email to tell me the payment had failed? I could have figured this out very quickly and added the new card so that the payment could have been retried and everything could have continued as I expected.

2. Now that I've added the new card details, can I continue the Formula 1 special offer subscription that I had no way of knowing that NowTV were going to cancel? As it is, the only option I can see is to get a whole new subscription for £34.99, as opposed to £19.99 with the special offer. That £15 difference might not seem much to a lot of people but for me - I am being priced out.

I was given zero opportunity by NowTV to fix this by myself. Can you fix this for me now?

Also, in the future - *give* people the opportunity to fix this by communicating with them before simply going ahead and cancelling subscriptions. I can't even do live chat with a human because you've automated everything. Surely you can send an immediate automated email to let people know there's a payment issue? There was no communication with me to let me know. It was just: Cancelled!

[gavs82008]

@JuneH 

My understanding is that NOW will keep trying with the same payment method for 2/3 days before giving up. 

Also you’re never going to get staff replying on here when it comes to payment and account issues. This must be handled by yourself to contact staff directly via live chat or email.

For live chat you need to click ‘chat online’ within the green box. Don’t hit ‘get help quicker’ as this is a bot.
https://help.nowtv.com/article/how-to-submit-a-complaint

Email address for support
customer services @ now tv . Com (ensure no spaces)

[JuneH]

Yes, in that 2-3 days I had no communication about the payment issue. I could have fixed this practically immediately had I known about it. On the other hand, I got an email saying I'd logged into my NowTV account - immediately. Then I got an email saying I'd won some sort of 'badge' for making my first forum post - again immediately. Neither of these I care about. But the one thing I would have cared about getting an email about - I did not get.

I did try live chat but not the 'submit a complaint' way. Why would I? I was trying to fix a problem - not make a complaint. I wouldn't think that that would have been the way to get to a human.

Anyway, I clicked through that link and the button to 'Chat to an advisor'. Almost half an hour later and I'm still sitting looking at 'Waiting to chat' and three animated dots. No indication that I'm in any kind of queue. Either I'm in a long, long queue or chat to a human is broken. So I still can't get through to a real live human.

I'll try the (seemingly vanishingly few) option of emailing them. I see there's a 'submit your complaint by web form. If that doesn't work, I'll try the email address you provided.

It's incredibly difficult for a paying customer to get support from the very people who are being paid.

I appreciate the pointers, though.

[gavs82008]

@JuneH 

Try another browser with live chat. As i got in straight away using safari. Edge or chrome should work fine.

Hope you get it sorted.

[JuneH]

It wasn't that. I'm on Linux in a live session booted straight from disk so it's a completely fresh Firefox with no modifications and definitely no cookies. If live chat can't work on that - a commonplace, clean browser at its default state out of the box - then it's up to them to fix. I shouldn't be expected to install another just to get support for something I've paid for. Or trying to pay for - that remains to be seen. Besides, some people wouldn't know how to do that or would not have the credentials in order to do so.

[gavs82008]

@JuneH 

If you won’t try another browser then you’ll be stuck. As many other forum users have moaned about live chat not working on Firefox.

When you try another browser definitely have a go at them for not having live chat working with Firefox.

[JuneH]

Like I said - I'm using a live CD Linux distro. This means I can't install any other browser even if I wanted to. Firefox is the default.

The reason I'm using a live session is because I don't want my main computer to sit all day with the VPN disabled just so I can get support for the product I've paid for. And I'm seriously not going to install anything Google or Microsoft on my main computer anyway.

[gavs82008]

@JuneH 

Sorry not familiar with Linux so couldn’t possibly comment. 

Do you have a mobile that you could try another browser outside of Firefox?

That said feel free to use the complaints form and email address. Just to warn you that it won’t be an instant response unlike live chat.

[JuneH]

A mobile? Yes. However, I'm not in the mood to type all I need to say on a fiddly little keyboard when I have a full sized keyboard attached to a computer. Plus, my phone also has a VPN I'm not willing to disable - and a VPN makes it impossible to even load up nowtv.com. Also - guess which browser I use on mobile.

I'm basically listing all the ways that Sky has made it as difficult as possible to get support.

I've already sent off the web form. Whether or not that even works remains to be seen.

At least this has happened mid-season during the Formula 1 summer break and not the day before qualifying or a race.