Sky User - The unofficial support forum for everything Sky!

neilshorthouse · #1 22-02-09, 05:52 PM

I am putting a letter below in the hope i get a response this is now the 3rd time i have sent this letter to Sky, all my other letters have never received a responce and as you can probably pick up i have had enough. The story of how bad SKy Customer services have been are with in the letter and can't wait to see if i am the only one to suffer like this. If this is what happens to customers of big (we are to big to care) companies then god help us all. Please do read my saga below.

22/02/2009
First letter 29/11/2008

Neil Shorthouse
######
#####
######

Account Number: ###########

Sky Customer Services
PO Box 43
Livingston
West Lothian
EH54 7DD

Dear Sir/Madam
This is now the third time I have sent this letter, can I please have confirmation when it is received and the can I have an appropriate answer to this letter. If this doesn’t happen I will be contacting BBC Watchdog and ask them to take this up, mainly the lack of customer support.

Original Letter below;

I am writing as this now seems to be the only way to communicate with Customer Services at SKY. I have had a long standing problem which if you read through all the notes on my file you will understand. A week ago I spoke with an Amanda on the phone and she has helped arrange a refund that I have been trying to get for months and months. When I spoke to her I told her that, as said in my online emails, I would like compensating for the disruption and waste of time you have caused me by continually causing me to chase the return of my money. I have had to make more phone calls then I can remember, as well as e-mails and online web page communication, I will come to my dissatisfaction about this shortly.

The letter I received this week has now given me back £110 of my own money which you have had for so long now. In fact the letter makes a statement as if you’re doing me a favour, stating.

“In view of the problems you have experienced, we have credited your account with £110.”

I’m sorry but it is as if you are giving me a £110 when you are actually giving me back what is mine and you took without the right. Firstly in this letter there is no mention of the compensation I have asked for and secondly it states that if I need further help to phone customer services.

Today I have phoned customer services to tell them I still would like compensating to be told they can’t do anything about this and I need to email or mail customer services?!? Why have a telephone number to customer services if they can’t help the customer and there then turns out to be another customer services?

I am now sitting down again to try and get this resolved to a level that I believe I deserve. And as I have said today on the phone and will state again I would like a new sky + box sending to me as a way of apology for such a poor service from you as well as for the amount of my time that you have wasted. I have received numerous advertising post from you, one in front of me now, offering £50 for me and a free sky+ box for anyone I can get to join you. As you find it so easy to give this away to get a customer I think it is the least you could do to keep one. I used to be with the company that is now Virgin and I would not hesitate in the slightest to move both my television and my telephone away from you and over to them. I can assure you this is no ideal threat as this is the level of frustration you have caused and are even still causing now.

As for your email communication system it is the poorest I have ever experienced. When you email a company you don’t want to be limited to 1000 characters, it is very hard to describe complicated situations with such limitations. I then found that when your customer adviser (Jean Clark) emailed me to tell me she didn’t understand the problem and to email her back to the address above. When I tried that I had an email back telling me I had to use the online form! I tried to do this, again with my limitation on characters, and still I never heard from Mrs Clark again. I ended up having to phone customer services again and they had to internally email her to ask her to ring me. Following a conversation with her she informed me she couldn’t help me and would email the Broadband department and ask them to ring me, I informed her that this had been done twice before and they haven’t contacted me, she then promised me she would ring me the next day to make sure they phoned, I haven’t heard from her since or the broad band department!! I hope you can now understand my frustration.

With all that I have told you and after reading my notes on your computer I will look forward to hearing from you as soon as possible.

I feel that this story is so long and protracted, and so obviously shows up your poor service to me, that it would be of interest to a consumer protection programme such as Watchdog. It would almost be comical when you read through the above paragraphs and see the to-ing and fro-ing that I have had to do just to get back what has been owed to me all this time, and the lack of access for customers to any legitimate customer service for such a well-known company such as Sky.

Regards
Neil Shorthouse

indefatigable · #2 22-02-09, 06:47 PM

I dont know if you realise, but by the manner of your post, you seem to think that this forum is run and operated by Sky.

SkyUser is a 3rd party forum, not affiliated with Sky. They offer impartial advice, from an outside perspective.

With regards to your actual problem, you have only mentioned compensation. Is your issue with Sky actually resolved?

Was it a broadband issue? if it was, then you are highly unlikely to get a Sky+ box as compensation. You may have the cost of a box refunded to you, but that would be the limit.

If you are looking for compensation because the issue affected your work, then you will not get this. If it is broadband, then Sky broadband is not for business use, and Sky wont refund any costs incurred due to loss of income or business. If it is TV related, then you should have a Sky Business account.

If it is just compensation that your looking for, then you are going to have to keep on at Sky for it. You should get something. However, I have personally found that if you do not ask for something specific, they will normally give you something good. Otherwise, they are generally more likely to offer money (less money than you hope for) rather than an item.

Ned Ludd · #3 22-02-09, 07:26 PM

Well, I'll be the first to speak up FOR good Sky customer service!
1) Sky BB resolved my problem and stayed on the line until I was happy!
2) Using the KANA form I got my discount within 48 hours!

I can't fault 'em!

The secret to resolving this kind of dispute is to state clearly how they have failed, what they said they'd do, what you now want them to do, and give to them a reasonable time scale to do it.
Threats rarely get you anything!

IWasNotTheEnemy · #4 23-02-09, 09:24 AM

I actually have NO idea what the issue is - it's just a rant wanting money from what I can gather...

Smithy99 · #5 23-02-09, 04:29 PM

His post reminds me of another poster Maximous or whatever his name is. I have read it a few times and am not sure what the issue is or was.

Something to do with being overcharged I think but not sure.

neilshorthouse · #6 24-02-09, 09:50 PM

I will try to answer this in a quick statement, then you can ignore my rant and i wont bother agian.

Sky provided a broadband service to me when they first started. After a lot of technical support the connection speed was below that of a 56k modem.

After some discussion they agreed to cancell my account with them, refunded my money i spent up to that point. Fine

They then continued to take £10 each month for nearly 11 months, then took me 3 more months to actually get them to stop taking the money. Then nearly 6 months of trying to get all of my money refunded, constant phone calls then emails and letters. People promising to phone back which they dont. Emails not returned. Then emails could only go through the online webste. which meant when someone emails you and asked you to respond you couldnt unless you go through the website, limited to 1000 characters.

Since then i had my money refunded but after a year and a half of phone calls and emails. And now i right a letter to complain how bad thier customer service has been and they have ignored my last two letters, maybe ill get an answer from the third.

If you find you have had good service then thats fine, but im very sorry if you don't like my RANT but then maybe you havent gone through the hassle i have for the last two years.

Smithy99 · #7 24-02-09, 09:58 PM

Well that is pretty poor of them but we can all learn lessons from this, one is make sure you cancel any D/D's when you cancel a service, don't rely on the supplier doing it and the other is more valid to this case, check your statements to see you are not being overcharged.

I can only assume you didn't do either.

Ned Ludd · #8 24-02-09, 09:59 PM

If they have been taking money for 11 months without authority then why didn't you cancel the Direct Debit?
If you were paying by Credit Card then you should have reported the card lost and asked for a replacement!

neilshorthouse · #9 24-02-09, 10:04 PM

Our tv phone and at the time internet comes out ouf one Direct Debit, the amount variouse because of the phone. At the timer i wasnt aware how i could check the bill through the telly so i wasnt aware of the money coming out. This is how it was taken with out me being aware of it.

shaunybhoy · #10 25-02-09, 07:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by neilshorthouse

Our tv phone and at the time internet comes out ouf one Direct Debit, the amount variouse because of the phone. At the timer i wasnt aware how i could check the bill through the telly so i wasnt aware of the money coming out. This is how it was taken with out me being aware of it.

So you didnt check your bank Account in 9 months to see whats coming out going in etc ? ?