A family who asked Sky to lower the £113.50 ($152) monthly television bill of an elderly relative with dementia say the company instead spent the call trying to sell him more. Quoted a budget plan at £18 ($24) a month, they were then pressed to authorise a £77 ($103) direct debit, and had to ask six times before Sky would let them cancel.
The account was set out in a letter to The Guardian's consumer column on 15 September, from a reader identified only as EH from Kent. Their father, who has dementia and Parkinson's disease, has failing eyesight and a shortened attention span, and the family had rung with a single request: the cheapest available package, to free up money for his care.
