The SKY's The Limit...
Three letters to SKY? Were they all necessary?
Well first of all, this is an edited collection of my communications with SKY and yes, as it turns out, they were all necessary...
SKY (or BSkyB – Bristish SKY Broadcasting) are the leading pay TV provider service in the UK and many choose SKY over a free service such as Freeview, primarily because of the range of channels or services they can provide.
As a Television Service they are actually pretty good – as a Customer Service they are unfortunately the worst I and many, many, others have ever come across...
Sent: 5th March 2009
F.A.O. June Anderson and/or Donald Chalmers, Customer Relations Department/ Service Excellence Departments respectively.
(Or whatever poor shmuck gets stuck with reviewing this and the subsequent "thank you for your email... I trust my actions meet with your approval" response).
I thank you for your response on 17th December 2008 to my own letter of complaints detailed on my email of 5th December 2008, but would highlight two points in the short and succinct response received:
"Unfortunately, you have not supplied me with your Sky account number."
Doesn't matter, as I passed on my name, location and post code.
If you wanted to confirm who I was you could check your records with one quick click of a mouse.
And, more significantly, if you wished to discuss further, see how you could help or deliver some sort of compensation (via reduced SKY subscription charge or channel offers for a particular length of time) you could have raised such with a follow up email to establish communications (and not the standard "comments have been duly noted and passed on..." response I received two weeks after initial complaint).
Well, initial complaint email as regards the concerns detailed on the 5th December, because it's not the first time I have complained about the SKY service received or dreadful lack of genuine sympathy shown by any SKY personnel via either telephone or email (there are a few exceptions I duly acknowledge).
Secondly as regards that very "your comments have been duly noted and passed to the relevant department" response, I doubt it, or if they have it's disappointing to note that no department felt it was worth getting in touch to discuss the complaints or enter dialogue to see how my concerns could be addressed.
"I trust my actions meet with your approval."
They do not.
But rather than get back to you to say so (obviously pointless) I left it to see if any further response from those "relevant departments" would be forthcoming – nearly three months later the answer is pretty clear.
And so to the present, and my annual SKY event of downgrading from the Entertainment + Sports package to the standard Entertainment.
Imagine my joy when the MYSKY part of the SKY website actually allowed me to add SKY Sports within 42 seconds back in September of '08, and yet when I returned to downgrade it took me nearer 42 minutes.
Firstly, as I now know, there is no mechanism to downgrade or cancel subscriptions/ packages on the MYSKY page, so in effect I cannot do what I want to do with SKY on MY very own, personal SKY page.
I trust you see the irony.
On checking the webpage thoroughly, and then moving on to the options presented on SKY services itself via the television, it was apparent no phone numbers were provided for this type of service and, again, no downgrade option on-screen.
See a pattern yet?
On checking the rag you call SKY magazine (one of the many earlier complaints) it seems all the phone numbers you used to provide are surprisingly now missing, with the great MYSKY internet option promoted and presented as the way to go, along with a few phone numbers – all to upgrade to SKY+ or similar more costly options.
Now, that's fine if that's what you are looking for, but that's not what I was looking for and in this Credit Crunched Recessional UK Blues that we are all singing and living in, I'll bet I'm not the only one.
Not by a long way.
But surprise surprise, by using the phone and dialling the number for an upgrade option I could get through to a service department quicker than you could say "press 5 to be disconnected."
However the department I wanted - for cancellation or downgrading - turned out to be just that - a "press 5" option that was on the third circuit of many options before it.
In other words I passed by 14 other options before the scum-of-the-earth 'they shall not be named' punters who want to downgrade are catered for.
But I was, eventually, by a very nice girl called Susan or Suzie (after being redirected, again) who was, miraculously, in the same country as me and had English as her first language.
She acknowledged my plight, yet even she had to do her job and chant the SKY mantra first:
Could we interest you in... NO.
We are currently doing a deal where... NO.
Is there anything else we... NO.
The call took around 6 minutes, not including the time to listen to the automated options and "Press 5" three times and, all-in, from coming in from a long day at work and hitting MYSKY to try and downgrade was around 40 minutes of my time.
Unacceptable.
When I asked Susan about the fact the cancellation/ downgrade option was not available anywhere except by phone, and the fact you cannot find a direct number without a degree in advanced logarithms for such, she stated (I'm paraphrasing): "SKY tried it for a short time but it didn't really work."
Unacceptable.
In this day and age of equality, equal opportunities and fair trade, I would highly recommend you look into this because although calling it illegal is probably not accurate, giving your paying customers multiple ways to upgrade or spend more money whilst making it damn near impossible (or at least far more frustrating and time consuming) to cancel/ downgrade is bordering on unethical and pretty shaky moral ground from where I'm standing.
The customer is always right, a wiser man than me once said.
You'll notice I mentioned work earlier, and that brings me to the sorry conclusion to this tale.
My work is not guaranteed due to the current financial climate, and my wife and I are already feeling the financial pinch.
Through misguided loyalty and our fondness for a few programmes available only through SKY (and the aforementioned American Football between September and February) we still stick with SKY, but this whole escapade was the final straw.
The moment I have to go part-time, on further wage restriction or when luxuries become unaffordable, I will be cancelling SKY and happily go with a Freeview option form another provider, which will be a more affordable solution, and will happily accept the fact will be missing certain shows/ programmes.
That time could be weeks, months or a distance away but the nano-second it happens, expect the phone call – let's hope by that time it doesn't take me 42 minutes.
I acknowledge I am, along with a number of like-minded friends and others, in what we call The Vocal Minority as the (silent) majority of people receiving any sort of service within the UK (not just SKY) have the unfortunate habit of just accepting what is provided, whether it is value for money, sufficient for purpose, poor quality, or a total rip-off.
Better not to complain and be thankful for what you get.
Unfortunately I'm pretty good at complaining without shouting or becoming vitriolic, to such a degree that I write many such letters both professionally and to assist others.
This one, by the time you read it, will be circling the globe, and by the time you respond to it, will quite probably have made it to many of those fine Great Rants of Our Time websites that host such epistles.
You should be proud. I know I am.
Your paying customer,
Ross Muir
Three letters to SKY? Were they all necessary?
Well first of all, this is an edited collection of my communications with SKY and yes, as it turns out, they were all necessary...
SKY (or BSkyB – Bristish SKY Broadcasting) are the leading pay TV provider service in the UK and many choose SKY over a free service such as Freeview, primarily because of the range of channels or services they can provide.
As a Television Service they are actually pretty good – as a Customer Service they are unfortunately the worst I and many, many, others have ever come across...
Sent: 5th March 2009
F.A.O. June Anderson and/or Donald Chalmers, Customer Relations Department/ Service Excellence Departments respectively.
(Or whatever poor shmuck gets stuck with reviewing this and the subsequent "thank you for your email... I trust my actions meet with your approval" response).
I thank you for your response on 17th December 2008 to my own letter of complaints detailed on my email of 5th December 2008, but would highlight two points in the short and succinct response received:
"Unfortunately, you have not supplied me with your Sky account number."
Doesn't matter, as I passed on my name, location and post code.
If you wanted to confirm who I was you could check your records with one quick click of a mouse.
And, more significantly, if you wished to discuss further, see how you could help or deliver some sort of compensation (via reduced SKY subscription charge or channel offers for a particular length of time) you could have raised such with a follow up email to establish communications (and not the standard "comments have been duly noted and passed on..." response I received two weeks after initial complaint).
Well, initial complaint email as regards the concerns detailed on the 5th December, because it's not the first time I have complained about the SKY service received or dreadful lack of genuine sympathy shown by any SKY personnel via either telephone or email (there are a few exceptions I duly acknowledge).
Secondly as regards that very "your comments have been duly noted and passed to the relevant department" response, I doubt it, or if they have it's disappointing to note that no department felt it was worth getting in touch to discuss the complaints or enter dialogue to see how my concerns could be addressed.
"I trust my actions meet with your approval."
They do not.
But rather than get back to you to say so (obviously pointless) I left it to see if any further response from those "relevant departments" would be forthcoming – nearly three months later the answer is pretty clear.
And so to the present, and my annual SKY event of downgrading from the Entertainment + Sports package to the standard Entertainment.
Imagine my joy when the MYSKY part of the SKY website actually allowed me to add SKY Sports within 42 seconds back in September of '08, and yet when I returned to downgrade it took me nearer 42 minutes.
Firstly, as I now know, there is no mechanism to downgrade or cancel subscriptions/ packages on the MYSKY page, so in effect I cannot do what I want to do with SKY on MY very own, personal SKY page.
I trust you see the irony.
On checking the webpage thoroughly, and then moving on to the options presented on SKY services itself via the television, it was apparent no phone numbers were provided for this type of service and, again, no downgrade option on-screen.
See a pattern yet?
On checking the rag you call SKY magazine (one of the many earlier complaints) it seems all the phone numbers you used to provide are surprisingly now missing, with the great MYSKY internet option promoted and presented as the way to go, along with a few phone numbers – all to upgrade to SKY+ or similar more costly options.
Now, that's fine if that's what you are looking for, but that's not what I was looking for and in this Credit Crunched Recessional UK Blues that we are all singing and living in, I'll bet I'm not the only one.
Not by a long way.
But surprise surprise, by using the phone and dialling the number for an upgrade option I could get through to a service department quicker than you could say "press 5 to be disconnected."
However the department I wanted - for cancellation or downgrading - turned out to be just that - a "press 5" option that was on the third circuit of many options before it.
In other words I passed by 14 other options before the scum-of-the-earth 'they shall not be named' punters who want to downgrade are catered for.
But I was, eventually, by a very nice girl called Susan or Suzie (after being redirected, again) who was, miraculously, in the same country as me and had English as her first language.
She acknowledged my plight, yet even she had to do her job and chant the SKY mantra first:
Could we interest you in... NO.
We are currently doing a deal where... NO.
Is there anything else we... NO.
The call took around 6 minutes, not including the time to listen to the automated options and "Press 5" three times and, all-in, from coming in from a long day at work and hitting MYSKY to try and downgrade was around 40 minutes of my time.
Unacceptable.
When I asked Susan about the fact the cancellation/ downgrade option was not available anywhere except by phone, and the fact you cannot find a direct number without a degree in advanced logarithms for such, she stated (I'm paraphrasing): "SKY tried it for a short time but it didn't really work."
Unacceptable.
In this day and age of equality, equal opportunities and fair trade, I would highly recommend you look into this because although calling it illegal is probably not accurate, giving your paying customers multiple ways to upgrade or spend more money whilst making it damn near impossible (or at least far more frustrating and time consuming) to cancel/ downgrade is bordering on unethical and pretty shaky moral ground from where I'm standing.
The customer is always right, a wiser man than me once said.
You'll notice I mentioned work earlier, and that brings me to the sorry conclusion to this tale.
My work is not guaranteed due to the current financial climate, and my wife and I are already feeling the financial pinch.
Through misguided loyalty and our fondness for a few programmes available only through SKY (and the aforementioned American Football between September and February) we still stick with SKY, but this whole escapade was the final straw.
The moment I have to go part-time, on further wage restriction or when luxuries become unaffordable, I will be cancelling SKY and happily go with a Freeview option form another provider, which will be a more affordable solution, and will happily accept the fact will be missing certain shows/ programmes.
That time could be weeks, months or a distance away but the nano-second it happens, expect the phone call – let's hope by that time it doesn't take me 42 minutes.
I acknowledge I am, along with a number of like-minded friends and others, in what we call The Vocal Minority as the (silent) majority of people receiving any sort of service within the UK (not just SKY) have the unfortunate habit of just accepting what is provided, whether it is value for money, sufficient for purpose, poor quality, or a total rip-off.
Better not to complain and be thankful for what you get.
Unfortunately I'm pretty good at complaining without shouting or becoming vitriolic, to such a degree that I write many such letters both professionally and to assist others.
This one, by the time you read it, will be circling the globe, and by the time you respond to it, will quite probably have made it to many of those fine Great Rants of Our Time websites that host such epistles.
You should be proud. I know I am.
Your paying customer,
Ross Muir
