Sky customer service a joke
02-September-2010
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Sky customer service a joke

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For those of us who are subscribers to the digital television services offered by Sky, take note and be prepared for a long wait when you come to cancel your subscription.  The following email was sent to one James Murdoch of Sky on the 26th March 2006.

Dear Sir, I telephoned your Sky television and broadband Customer Services department this evening at 21:05 and had a whole customer experience that does your organisation no credit.

I have been left with a definite feeling that Sky is ill equipped to deal with volumes of calls from customers (which isn’t new as I have experienced the same delinquency of response in all my time as a subscriber), and that the Sky customer service staff I spoke to were of very low competence levels which was demonstrated in their inability to deal with my enquiry or answer my concerns satisfactorily.

Also, the process which took me from my first point of contact to the user dealing with my enquiry was flawed, time consuming and utterly without point.

- 21:05 - I telephoned to cancel my subscription as am moving house.  Asked to identify myself using touchtone keys to input my home telephone number.

- 21:24 - Customer Service Advisor comes onto the line and asks me to identify myself again, collects bio data, takes password and checks the nature of my enquiry.  I state that I find the amount of time it takes for Sky to deal with an non-sophisticated enquiry to be entirely unacceptable for an organisation of it’s size with such a large customer base.  He asks me to hold which takes 4 minutes then comes back to me advising I would be put through but would have to hold for approximately five minutes.  Why was I put on hold initially for him to put me through to another department and have to hold again?

- 21-36 - I came through to a Customer Service Advisor called Helen.  I said, quite seriously, "I assume you know my name and the nature of my enquiry." She answered no.  I asked if she could explain why I had gone through the previous process and she replied no.  I stated once again that I found it entirely unacceptable that I had been forced to be kept waiting throughout a process for no conceivable reason.  I then had to provide full bio data details again. She then dealt with my enquiry with the minimum of charm that tested my patience further.  The fact that there was no reason to this elongated process caused me to ask if Sky made revenues from customers dialling the 0870 number.  She replied I don’t know.  I requested I speak with a manager or someone who was her superior and she said the manager was at home and there was no-one more senior than her and they were leaving in twenty minutes.  I demanded that she allow me to speak to a colleague of hers to corroborate her statement on three occasions, I was then cut-off.  Not once did I use bad language or raise my voice.

This was a straightforward enquiry, one which could have been dealt with so simply but one which actually served to raise my levels of disbelief at the poor level of customer service and the feeling that a large corporate organisation really had no empathy or consideration for it’s customers.  I have been a subscriber to Sky TV since 2000 and have enjoyed the output of programming and the flexible pricing structures you offer however I believe it is only fair to you to point out the severe failings of your Customer Service people, process and supporting infrastructure.  I would very much like these questions answered directly to me.

I have forwarded this email onto various consumer and media organisations, as I will not accept any organisation that I am a customer with dealing with me in such an unprofessional, uncaring manner.

Yours Sincerely

Rob Williams


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I tried to cancel my sky tv package today and they told me that the line rental that I also have with them will become a standalone product an thus be subject to a 12 month contract! they stink.
*gavin young  01-Sep-2010 17:14

 
Standered digital box broke down on 4th August 2010 as of now still awaiting for it to be repaired. just one failed promise after another.
Sky, could piss them
*steve.  01-Sep-2010 16:54

 
Sky customer services should rename themselves "Sky we do not have a clue breakdown of customer relations department".
Absolutely terrible experience for what was essentially a very simple query--every call is transferred to an Indian call centre and all the staff are given British names (how cute) even though they are all as Indian as Mahatma Gandhi.
I'm told they do this because British people wouldn't be able to pronounce their names.
The most frustrating thing is there is no way you can lodge an official complaint with anybody in authourity as they withhold e-mail addresses and they are all under instructions to try and stiffle complaints without it being passed on to the relevant personnel.
The trouble is all the Sky top brass are blissfully unaware of the problems within the organisation because they are totally insulated from all the complaints being levied against them.
They should all hang their heads in shame as running a business isn't all about making money it should involve looking after their valued (joke) customers.
*Jimbo1122  01-Sep-2010 10:56

 
Boke down at 8am made call to VW Shrewsbury thay said thay would call me back, 12 mid day I called back. I was told to phone RAC. We took the car to VW Telford thay said thay would call back. no call back. The car hire company took my card number and licence number. I was told some one would call me soon, no call. 4pm I call them told 6 pm car would be deliverd to my house. I phone them again to be told its now going to be 11pm. I tell them to stick the car were the sun dont shine.Would never buy a VW again.All day lost on a scale of 1 to 10 VW customer customer service is - 1000. 50K car and not one person called me back all day.Back to Merc for me and the 5 company cars my people drive.
*NIGEL J HOWSE  31-Aug-2010 17:51

 
I have to disagree about time it takes to cancel subscription to Sky. I have been with sky for over 12 months and in spite of lengthy phone calls(which have been costly to me) I have been unable to get a decent broadband signal. The best I have ever had was 1.5 Mb which lasted for a day but usually the download speed has been around 45-55Kbps in spite of paying to to upgrade to 20Mb. Finally, last week in frustration at not getting a reasonable reply from Sky I decided to cancel the whole package and transfer. This was done within a matter of minutes by phone. Probably glad to get rid of me if they can't sort my broadband in over 12 months It would have been nice during that time if they had got an engineer to call. Everything else was tried, including installation of hard wiring of the wireless router to the computer. At my expense of course.
*telbel9  31-Aug-2010 10:26

 
I have tried to cancell my subscription with sky because my sky box which is quite old and switches its self off several times every evening. They gave me a couple of options to solve the problem, one was to pay £65.00 for a service then a further £30.00 for a HD box and a further £10.00 a month for sky HD which I cannot afford to pay or a £65.00 service plus multi room (even though I only have one tv in the house) which is a extra £10.00 and £30.00 for a new box, both expensive, I refused both options and said that I would cancel my direct debit. I was informed by the customer service advisor that I cannot cancel my monthly payment to sky until my contract ends. I was also put on hold a couple of time during the call.
*Sue  30-Aug-2010 11:41

 
I had issues when they fitted my HD, leaving cabling hanging off my exterior Walls, pulling plaster off the interior wall and leaving a mass of black cabling across my skirting board in a coffee and cream coloured lounge- when I rang to complain ( god bless my husband hadn't checked the work) I was told I "could not expect installers to be colour coordinated". After a couple of afternoons, letters with photographs of my damaged property they sent another installer round. His comment was"they made a right mess here"- so it wasn't just me then. Now I have a tag on my account as a difficult customer! So when I rang about the fact I had no Internet and could not hear anyone on the phone, I was patronised with "we can work together as a team", a) it's bank holiday weekend so I am not working and chose this job so I don't have to do shifts b) I am paying them for a service, apparently this involves me unscrewing the phone line- which has passed their line test!! However BT has a major fault in the area they are trying to resolve. My neighbours phone is out. I should mention when I rang and could not hear them I asked the question" can anyone hear me several times- the lad eventually shouted ( so I could hear him) " yes I can bloody hear you". I did not swear once. Very poor and now I am looking to leave.
*Jugs  29-Aug-2010 10:18

 
No surprise with all your comments - I have experienced poor service unproffesional staff, poor understanding of the english language, abuse, phone put down in the middle of a coversation, +emails and recorded letters ignored to the CEO and other Directors of Sky!!!. However I'm sad to say i'm still reluctantly with THEM. In the process of chasing provider. Last year we moved what a performance, if it could go wrong it did big time. up until 6 mths ago we swere getting sky bills from the current owner of our previous address. This was a nightmare trying to sort out with sky, hence all the complaints, which have never been dealt with. By the way I'm also a long standing disgruntled customer 15 yrs in total!.
*Dee  28-Aug-2010 19:02

 
I find sky are very happy to take your money and constantly increase payments, supposedly to invest further in their service, which just seems to actually get worse and worse! I am getting seriously fed up with their unhelpfulness and couldn`t care less attitude when it comes to customer care.
*sarah  28-Aug-2010 15:34

 
Your statement and complaint is wholly justified, although the only thing I am genuinely surprised about is that it has taken you 10 years to realize this and leave this shoddy outfit. To say their customer support is unprofessional and uncaring is an insult to other companies that are only that! Unfortunately many of us have been in the same frustrating position as yourself and eventually you become fed up of passing your bio information to morons that share brain cells between them. SKY need to 'wake up and smell the coffee' as more and more customers are leaving especially now other companies are offering similar or better deals. Having said that, I would rather pay an extra couple of pounds extra a month to a company whereby I can make a genuine inquiry which is resolved in minutes rather than days or even months!
*Scotty B  27-Aug-2010 11:36

 
I spoke to Customer Services on Sunday and found the service very poor. I wanted to update my package to Sky Movies but I could not understand the lady because she was in India and her English was poor. I asked to be put through to someone else and the next person was the same. I gave up in the end dso you lost the chance of some added busines.

Henry Harris

hha7139783@aol.com
*Henry  25-Aug-2010 15:17

 
I too am furious with Sky's absolute incompetence. I have called 5 times now, been on the phone for in excess of 2 hours, been put on hold and passed around. I called to relocate and set up TV, Broadband and phone. ! hour and 20 minutes I had assumed I had finally achieved this. When I hadn't heard anything, my order wasn't on the system and I would need to wait another 3 weeks for an instal date. On the 3rd call I found they still hadn't updated my address and told me to keep checking my old address for post!! 200 miles away, surely updating my address on there system would save me a 400 mile round trip each day? I sit here now awaiting an engineer as the previous man couldn't instal the phone line, I have had to use a days holiday as apparently BT don't instal at weekends or evenings, heaven help us all who are lucky enough to have a job and might find waiting in all day a slight inconvenience. So after 1 month and 2 days, I still wait patiently. I have been told incorrect prices and when I challenged this, they said they would listen to my original conversation to which I said, make sure you're sat in caomfy seat as it might take a while. I was informed a manger would call me back with the findings, this didn't happen and when I called back to enquire got put through to a different department, then got cut off. I tried to complain on line but their system is a perpetual cycle of code entering and telling me I don't exist so have written to them, as yet, no response, I really am not surprised. They are an absolute joke of a company. If I am bound to a years contract, that is all they will get from me. I am glad I'm not alone, I feel for all of you.
*Linz  25-Aug-2010 14:58


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