An Open letter to Sky

[admin_exported]

Dear Sky,

Tonight I have cancelled my whole subscription - my 2 Sky+ boxes and my 45 pounds/month subscription after a discussion re moving up to HD. You see, after 10 years of loyal custom, I have to admit, I took the hump - and I now feel better for it.

I take great insult in being asked to pay an installation charge to connect a new box I could now do myself with my eyes closed. After all, I have swapped out so many faulty boxes over 10 years, I could qulaify as one of your engineers myself. Send it and I will do it myself i asked. "no" was the reply, "it would affect the warranty". interesting, I have items delivered to my home all the time and it does not affect their 12 month warranty. Dont get me wrong, the content you provide is generally very good. When I call for service it is generally very good - I am never held waiting. When I called to upgrade to HD, I said I would pay the extra 10 pounds/month for the content - even after seriously considering Freesat - but I could not bring myself to pay the 60 pounds installation. Insult to injury that a new subscriber would pay half that. "Remember", said your call centre, "when you joined 10 years ago you would have received a similar discount...." I have to say, he read well from your prepared script re customer objections, but I doubt he was in the call centre 10 years ago.

He at least had the humility to agree with me that he thought it was a rip off himself. He admitted it showed a lack of customer loyalty. Yes, Sky, this is your call center staff agreeing with me. I am sure you are now penning a letter for staff training saying you should 'never' tell the customer they are right..... at least when it comes to Sky pricing policy.

So what is my point ? Sky, I think you have lost the plot. You fail to accept you now have real competition. You have lost the ability to understand true customer service or what it means to retain customers. You will reach this conclusion and try and reverse it - only when you have already handed over the advantage, mindshare and thought leadership to Freesat or companies such as Virgin and BT. Your recent box price drop just does not cut it. You fail to see the Freesat strategists claiming you have just scored an own goal. Tonight I agree. After the call re migrating to HD, and the installation charge, I sat frustrated for some time and ultimately called and cancelled my whole subscription. I will be a Freesat customer in 30 days. Oh yes, I have to pay my final pound of flesh and wait 30 days even tho I am out of contracts for 9 years.

Remember my comment about never being held waiting ? when I chose the 'cancel' option on the phone I was told that I would be held for 18 minutes. It was over 20. You really, really have lost the ball on customer service. You are soon to be a case study in business schools about how a company with such a market leadership position lost it in a matter of a year or two to a brand new competitor.

Feel free to write a suitable response to this, if you care. I am sure it will be bland and generic about how Sky believes it offers more content and provides a better experience than the competition etc, etc. Here is the catch. I know that - and I agree.

But know this, I still cancelled my 45 pounds a month on principle - and it was soon to be 55 pounds/month. Your 60 pounds installation charge doesn't look so profitable now does it ?

Regards,

Joe G

 

[Anonymous]

I totally agree with what you did. I think the whole point to this matter is simple: "The richer you are, the more greedy and money obcessed you become"!

 

[Alec]

i agree. in fact, a few months ago i was sent a letter saying my suscription (just a cheapo 2 channel mixes on sky+) was going up in order to fund all sorts of wonderful things. guess what? i dont use or care about any of the things that were listed.

however, the depressing fact is that, despite what you say, they dont have serious competition yet. also, they are happy to exploit the fact that most people wont bother to change their supplier unless they see a compelling reason to.

 

[Gerrardasnails]

Galileo:
Dear Sky,

Tonight I have cancelled my whole subscription - my 2 Sky+ boxes and my 45 pounds/month subscription after a discussion re moving up to HD. You see, after 10 years of loyal custom, I have to admit, I took the hump - and I now feel better for it.

I take great insult in being asked to pay an installation charge to connect a new box I could now do myself with my eyes closed. After all, I have swapped out so many faulty boxes over 10 years, I could qulaify as one of your engineers myself. Send it and I will do it myself i asked. "no" was the reply, "it would affect the warranty". interesting, I have items delivered to my home all the time and it does not affect their 12 month warranty. Dont get me wrong, the content you provide is generally very good. When I call for service it is generally very good - I am never held waiting. When I called to upgrade to HD, I said I would pay the extra 10 pounds/month for the content - even after seriously considering Freesat - but I could not bring myself to pay the 60 pounds installation. Insult to injury that a new subscriber would pay half that. "Remember", said your call centre, "when you joined 10 years ago you would have received a similar discount...." I have to say, he read well from your prepared script re customer objections, but I doubt he was in the call centre 10 years ago.

He at least had the humility to agree with me that he thought it was a rip off himself. He admitted it showed a lack of customer loyalty. Yes, Sky, this is your call center staff agreeing with me. I am sure you are now penning a letter for staff training saying you should 'never' tell the customer they are right..... at least when it comes to Sky pricing policy.

So what is my point ? Sky, I think you have lost the plot. You fail to accept you now have real competition. You have lost the ability to understand true customer service or what it means to retain customers. You will reach this conclusion and try and reverse it - only when you have already handed over the advantage, mindshare and thought leadership to Freesat or companies such as Virgin and BT. Your recent box price drop just does not cut it. You fail to see the Freesat strategists claiming you have just scored an own goal. Tonight I agree. After the call re migrating to HD, and the installation charge, I sat frustrated for some time and ultimately called and cancelled my whole subscription. I will be a Freesat customer in 30 days. Oh yes, I have to pay my final pound of flesh and wait 30 days even tho I am out of contracts for 9 years.

Remember my comment about never being held waiting ? when I chose the 'cancel' option on the phone I was told that I would be held for 18 minutes. It was over 20. You really, really have lost the ball on customer service. You are soon to be a case study in business schools about how a company with such a market leadership position lost it in a matter of a year or two to a brand new competitor.

Feel free to write a suitable response to this, if you care. I am sure it will be bland and generic about how Sky believes it offers more content and provides a better experience than the competition etc, etc. Here is the catch. I know that - and I agree.

But know this, I still cancelled my 45 pounds a month on principle - and it was soon to be 55 pounds/month. Your 60 pounds installation charge doesn't look so profitable now does it ?

Regards,

Joe G

That is a joke. However, you should have had the last laugh. You can pick up Sky HD boxes on ebay for cheaper than Sky sell them (well you could when I did it and they have gone down in price since). You then just unplug your Sky + box (which of course you then sell on ebay - I got £60 for mine) and plug in the Sky HD box. Call Sky and tell them you have bought a Sky HD box from online and would like to sync your card an upgrade to the £10 a month extra HD package. Job done.

 

[Anonymous]

Hmm, I'm impressed. But I dont know what impresses me more - your creativity - or the fact they actually had no issue with upgrading your package only.

So they did not take a position that since they did not provide it, they would not offer you HD....

What am I thinking about, you offered to pay them more monthly without the need to offer a warranty on the box....

How could they refuse.... ?

Nice thinking tho.

 

[Messiah]

I am now with Virgin after quite a shocking experience trying to put my account on hold whilst I moved. Sky's customer service is simply awful and Virgin's whilst not perfect is much better!

 

[belker]

Did you send this to Sky customer services as well or just post it on here ? Be interesting to see whaty reply you got from them

 

[Gerrardasnails]

Galileo:
Hmm, I'm impressed. But I dont know what impresses me more - your creativity - or the fact they actually had no issue with upgrading your package only.

So they did not take a position that since they did not provide it, they would not offer you HD....

What am I thinking about, you offered to pay them more monthly without the need to offer a warranty on the box....

How could they refuse.... ?

Nice thinking tho.

You could buy a box from a company that offers a warranty and Sky would still happily upgrade without argument. There was a short delay for me when they had to pair the new box with my old card but that was it. No problem whatsoever. I bought my box brand new for £180 when they were retailing at £300 and Sky wanted £60 to instal. If you have Sky + already there is nothing to install! You just literally unplug and then plug the new box. Upgrading from bog standard Sky box would be different as you need two lines in. The best bit for me was selling my Sky + box for £60! Total outlay £120 (basically two free years of HD - £10 a month) for what Sky wanted. Once you try Sky HD, you won't want anything else by the way.

 

[Anonymous]

I too have been a SKY Loyalist for the last 6 years but recently cancelled my £38 a month subscription even though I too had to give 30 days Notice and have one last payment falling due in two weeks of £14.00 and then I will be rid of all utter rubbish that's on offer from SKY

Changing to FREESAT was the best thing I did and it's all FREE

 

[Anonymous]

TallyHo, good to see I am in good company.....

Belker, I had not sent to Sky Customer Services, I decided it would be a waste of time. But your post prompted a rethink. I have sent on - after a hunt on their website trying to find contact details - lets see what they say.....

 

[D.J.KRIME]

Got My HD box 2nd hand on EBAY for a very good price, then installed a 1 TB HDD as the 160GB that you get to use on the standard 300GB HDD does not take long to fill up with HD content. The unit also runs much quieter that the standard 300Gb HDD.

 

[Anonymous]

Galileo:

TallyHo, good to see I am in good company.....

Belker, I had not sent to Sky Customer Services, I decided it would be a waste of time. But your post prompted a rethink. I have sent on - after a hunt on their website trying to find contact details - lets see what they say.....

From experience sending something along the lines of your letter may prompt very little, or no response. Moreover most of the responses I have ever received from their illustrious customer services department over the years could well have been written by martians

When I cancelled my subscription a few weeks ago....my goodness....it was like trying to unshackle myself from slave ship in attempt to make my escape. The only way out was for me to go into Victor Meldrew mode for a few minutes and just give it to them ................straight

I do admit I do like to watch the occasional football match depnding of course on who is playing and a good film, but then again I am more than happy to watch football occasionally whenever ITV or BBC ( now in FREE HD) cover certain matches and if I particularly want to see a good film I will go out and buy a DVD for less than a £5 in most cases

FRRESAT is a great medium for watching TV and I dare say soon there will be other channels going down the route of FREE HD The BBC and ITV have also already said that more and more programmes will start be made in HD

If you are really serious about calling it a day with SKY just telephone their cancellations department in Scotland ( not India this time..thank God where you would have to ring to get so called technical advice such as...if your Picture is freezing Sir please switch off your SKY Box and and after 30 seconds turn it on again) and cancel your contract

 

[D.J.KRIME]

My Daughter would kill me if I canceled SKY as She would miss out on the latest episode of Hannah Montana!

But I dont think anyone on here is HAPPY with the cost of SKY's TV packages but if you do want to watch Sport most of the main events are exclusive to SKY and I am not just talking about Football.

It all comes down to personal choice at the end of the day and I will continue to pay SKY for the full-up HD package until a true alternative that meets My viewing requirements comes along, and at this point in time IMHO FREESAT is not it.

 

[Anonymous]

I thought Setanta now have the rights to all the England world cup qualifying games? Certainly, since Setanta came onboard, Sky's coverage hasn't been as good. The loss of MNF was a big one for me and enough to cancel my subscription. I don't mind paying a decent amount but I think £50-£60 a month is way too much (IMHO) especially when Sky are notorious for not offering loyal customers any benefits. How much would it hurt to offer pay-per-view events at half price to customers already paying for a full subscription? Personally, I like to get outside for a spot of running/walking etc so while I enjoy my time in front of the TV, I wouldn't want to feel like I have to watch it all the time to get my money's worth. Each to their own and if you can afford it, then great but I don't think Sky are particularly good when it comes to customer service and a bit of competition is welcome.

 

[Thaiman]

I salute you sir. As much as I would like to do the same I afraid I couldn't live without the sky box! It's a very expensive outlay per month consider what you could have put in your shopping trolley in this credit crunch time.

However there are many "sports mad" people like myself that couldn't miss "the" football match, Hatton fights or Tiger Woods doing his stuff in US open! SKY already know that, of course! therefore they are not going to do anything about any problem whatever it may be.

It's just like goverment know that people who smoke will pay for cigaretts at whatever the tax cost may be! People do take advantage of others to make money - it's just the fact of life....and as one great man once said "life is suffering!"

rant over

 

[Gerrardasnails]

Thaiman:I salute you sir. As much as I would like to do the same I afraid I couldn't live without the sky box! It's a very expensive outlay per month consider what you could have put in your shopping trolley in this credit crunch time.

However there are many "sports mad" people like myself that couldn't miss "the" football match, Hatton fights or Tiger Woods doing his stuff in US open! SKY already know that, of course! therefore they are not going to do anything about any problem whatever it may be.

It's just like goverment know that people who smoke will pay for cigaretts at whatever the tax cost may be! People do take advantage of others to make money - it's just the fact of life....and as one great man once said "life is suffering!"

rant over

It isn't an old concept - monopoly. However, in Hifi sound and vision, I can't think of another. We now have bluray but there is a similar concept in dvd which appeases most consumer. Sky (HD) offers something that the others don't - simple as that.

 

[evo6tme]

I cancelled my sky last year and now have moved to freesat hd. as for all the sport i stream any football match i want on my pc live and it cost nouhgt... even sky dont allow you to watch any game you want live. and its also an excuse to go down the pub to watch the occational match (as if i needed an excuse

).

But sky are never getting anymore of my money

 

[Anonymous]

evo6tme:
I cancelled my sky last year and now have moved to freesat hd. as for all the sport i stream any football match i want on my pc live and it cost nouhgt... even sky dont allow you to watch any game you want live. and its also an excuse to go down the pub to watch the occational match (as if i needed an excuse

).

But sky are never getting anymore of my money

I'm definitely gonna follow the same path. I'm only interested in seeing football matches on Sky Sports when "my team" is playing, i.e maybe 5-6 matches a year... Otherwise, I won't miss any of Sky channels.

 

[Anonymous]

There's a couple of articles in the news at the moment stating that Sky are struggling to hit their target 10 million mark by 2010 which means they might be feeling the pinch soon. Hopefully, it'll make them drop the £10 HD fee and then I might consider the move. I don't want to bash them too much as they do offer some good services but there's definitely room for improvement, starting with customer service.

 

[Anonymous]

Setanta have just told me that they are increasing the price from £9.99 to £12.99 per month (30%!!!). I am going to phone today to cancel. I'll let you know how easy it was. Last month I cancelled my Sky multiroom sub to save £10 per month. They were very matter of fact about it. They just plugged the broadband/phone options for a few seconds.

If there was any way to watch Super League online then I would move to Freesat. Otherwise I am stuck with them for a while until the Rugby contract has to be renegiotiated!