FOXTEL are thieves

Way back in May 2009 I went overseas for some time, and rang up Foxtel to terminate my account. FOOLISHLY I agreed to instead 'suspend' my account, until my return, when I would call them and reactivate my service.

Upon my return, finding I didn't miss FOXTEL at all, I decided to not bother, and to cancel the service. However, it wasn't high on my list of priorities. The FOXTEL set top box sat unused and disconnected.

Sometime in Feb 2010 I noticed FOXTEL had taken several bites from my credit card, over 200 bucks of bites. I rang them up and discovered that they had reactivated my account automatically.

I decided then to terminate our business relationship.

FOXTEL however, took one further bite from my credit card, so now they had taken over 300 dollars from me, without my permission. I called them on 9 March 2010 and they agreed to refund my money. I had to send my set top box back. I did, happily.

About a month later, I received a letter advising me that they had 'credited' my account with 305.54c. not refunded my credit card, note, they continued my account - with a 'credit'. Despite my request to terminate our business relationship.

Being somewhat preoccupied with other things I didn't immediately follow this up.  Recently I have been going over all my paperwork from last year, and found the credit letter from FOXTEL. Today I called them and chatted to the accounts department.

Apparently, although they agreed to refund my money, when this was passed to their accounts team leader area, that decision was overturned. They never told me they had changed their mind, just sent me a 'credit' letter.

They are adamant (according to their notes) that I never asked for termination, which is why they are justified in keeping my money. Part of their problem is that when I called in Feb 2010 to cancel my service, nothing happened. When I was billed again that month, I was furious, and called up on 9 March 2010 and had the service terminated ASAP. Best case - They could rightly claim I owed them one months service, not the three months of fees they have STOLEN from me.

I would counsel all who have FOXTEL accounts to closely monitor your credit card statements. They have stolen my money, and may steal yours. The FOXTEL accounts department are thieves. I would never  use their service again.