Sky TV

Some time ago I received PANTS service from my Digital providor Sky TV> They really wound me up and I'm not sure that I got that message out to enough people. So I thought I'd post it here.

Hello,

I am writing to complain about the level of service I have recently received from your contact centre.

As a customer of almost four years, I have found your technical staff to be a total nightmare, however having been up to date on all payments, and generally ahead, I have never had to deal with your customer service staff before.

Last year I moved into a flatting situation and began to pay my Sky bill from a group account which we use for rent bills etc. On Thursday, 30 March, I paid the money intended for our Telecom bill to Sky. This was my mistake and I accept that. I called Sky immediately to advise that I needed the refund as we will otherwise have insufficient funds in the account to cover our fortnightly rent. The very friendly customer services person I spoke to advised that as it hadn't shown in the Sky account yet it could not be refunded until Monday, 3 April. She took my home and mobile phone numbers so that she could call me if there were any issues. I paid the money I owed to Telecom on this basis although that bill isn't due for weeks.

On Thursday, 6 April I called again as the refund still had not appeared in my account. The customer service person I spoke to advised the request had been sent to a team leader and that she would have the original representative call me back. She again confirmed my contact numbers. I asked if this meant that the money would be refunded. She iterated she would have someone call me but would not commit to that.

Having received no follow up, I called again today (7 April) and spoke to a third representative. Although I asked to speak to a team leader she didn't seem to want to allow that. Commendable - happy to take ownership (and as I was about to find out - it wasn't going to make a blind bit of difference anyway). She advised that Sky was never going to refund my money on Monday as promised as you have to wait five working days. I do wish you'd said. However five working days (or at least according to my understanding of a working week and not the working week of Sky satellites) would have meant that the money was available for refund on Wednesday, or Thursday at the latest, assuming that it's five working days from when the money shows in your account. So why, on Friday, I asked, was it still not in my account?

Apparently it will then take your Finance team three to seven days (where do you get these SLAs and is it possible your Finance team are simply having a laugh??) to refund it back into my account. So instead of Monday 3 April as originally promised we are now looking at April 19 before I can have my $116 back. The representative pointed out that it is not Sky's fault that I overpaid my account. I agree. I pointed out that it is, however, Sky's responsibility to their customers to manage their expectations and keep them accurately informed when they have an issue.

Then it got worse.

I asked again to speak to a team leader and with a succinct, "Cool" I was put on hold. From the outset the team leader was absolutely intent on being of absolutely no use. I did point this out to her. She didn't disagree. She advised that in fact it is SEVEN working days before you can authorise a refund. Presumably then, Finance sit on it for a further seven days and finally somewhere around mid June I can expect to see my money.

That's ace.

Nice work.

So after four years of Sky service, during which I estimate I have paid you in excess of $13,000 including installation ($600) and technical assistance each time I've moved ($70) and in return received a reasonably decent digital service (with some notable and well publicised gaps in this service) and one free pay per view movie as a thank you (lads, take it easy- I'm overwhelmed) I am now treated with contempt, rudeness and inconsistent service.

I look forward to your response to this situation.

Yours sincerely

Lorraine Breheny


About three weeks later- they sent me a CHEQUE.