Junk Mail from Satellite Direct UK

November 29th, 2006, by Rich.

It’s been a long time since I’ve seen complete mindless determination in the face of utterly overwhelming odds, but Satellite Direct have shown a lack of comprehension that is quite staggering in their recent marketing campaign. Today, they have raised the bar of ineptitude.

The Odds against Satellite Direct

The odds stacked up against Satellite Direct are not just high, they’re positively gargantuanly mind-bogglingly insurmountable; but this plucky little company won’t give up.

Satellite Direct want to sell us a warranty for our Sky satellite television receiver and they don’t give a stuff that we don’t own one.

It matters not a jot to them that we’ve never had one – why let a trifling little detail like that get in the way of a good marketing opportunity?

Disregarding Things

If you’re disregarding important things like checking that your ~~victims~~ potential customers have a need for your warranty then a few other forgetful moments won’t go amiss either, like forgetting to check if your ~~victims~~ potential customers are registered with the TPS.

We for example are registered with the TPS, so it’s unlawful, for Satellite Direct to call us and even try to sell us anything, but that’s not stopped them calling us twice (1,2) already, and comments are starting to arrive from others who have also been tele-spammed.

Satellite Direct Junk Mail

So if your tele-marking operations were facing repeated TPS complaints, what do you do?

Well I was most impressed today to hear from John Campbell whose 96 year old mum-in-law received a letter from Satellite Direct informing her that she too had an expired warranty on a Sky satellite receiver which has (like ours) never, ever, existed.

So that’s what Satellite Direct do, they switch to junk mail. We’re also registered with the Mailing Preference Service, so it’s also unlawful for Satellite Direct to directly send us junk mail.

It will therefore come as no surprise that we too have received a letter from Satellite Direct UK which opens:

The initial manufacturer’s warranty on your digital satellite (Sky TV) system has now expired and this leaves you open to expensive call out charges and repair costs should anything go wrong!

Profiting from Dishonesty?

If Satellite Direct can repeatedly badger us with this specious nonsense about the expiry of a warranty on a device which has never existed, then we must question how many real Sky customers are buying unnecessary warranties on machines that are still covered perfectly well by the original warranty?

Add todays letter to the call I received earlier this year telling me I’d won a flight to Turkey thanks to Data Partnership Solutions and One4Travel – which work in partnership with Satellite Direct UK and that makes four occasions when they’ve ignored the TPS and MPS and contacted us, then attempted to mislead us.

Countrywide that could scale up to a lot of unsolicited and unlawful telephone calls and junk mails, and a lot of unhappy customers.

Update: Satellite Direct UK’s business practices have subsequently been successfully challenged in the High Court by BSkyB.

Update: Someone claiming to be an employee responds.

Michael Purches says:

20/03/2009 at 09:44

THANK YOU for your warning! As of March 2009 that number has just started calling me.

John Doe says:

09/04/2009 at 10:43

Just to say we have had a call from these people , so they are still operating. Very persistant and dont actually listen when you tell them you dont want to hear from them again.

Simon Jayes says:

14/04/2009 at 16:26

Well – I have just been scammed out of £145 by these leechers. They took 10x the monthly fee out of my account, blaming a wrong decimal point as the reason – have not refunded, now all known numbers fro them do not work. Looking on the net, this is not the first time they have pulled this trick, been doing it for 4 years. Bank gave my my money back but think that as they will not be able to get thier money back from SD, I will have to give it back to the bank anyway. oh well, goodbye £145. Just a note, sky’s insurance service is leagl and general

Jackie Harris says:

22/04/2009 at 14:06

Sent 220409

I too have been stung by this Company by them taking 10 x my monthly payment of £12.99. My Bank has also refunded me, after me being stupid enough (and I work in the Finance Industry) to give them time to reimburse me,(I have also been advised by the Bank that if they cannot get their money back then they will also have to take it back)I made 3 phone calls in which on each occasion I was advised it would take 28days for me to be reimbursed. 2 e-mails have been returned advising they are having problems with their e-mails – yea right! After contacting Consumer Direct, part of Trading standards, I have now sent a letter, enclosing copies of my e-mails, recorded delivery to the Managing Direct at the address in Ford, West Sussex, BN18 0DF. I have also checked BBC Watchdog site and they were investigating this Company over a year ago so nothing changes! The phone no quoted on the “cannot accept” response was 08716641400. I have not phoned as I have no wish to deal with this Company again.

Georgina de Graaff says:

07/05/2009 at 14:05

Astounded to read the above, cannot believe that no action has been taken about this company. I was called in January by someone saying they were from Sky and that my warranty had expired, very foolishly I gave my bank details and they set up a monthly direct debit without my signing anything. They do not answer any of the phone numbers given and in fact there is no number registered for the office in Bognor. I am reporting them to the local trading standards office. But simply cannot believe that nothing has been done about this blatant scam.

Gary Kennedy says:

21/05/2009 at 17:01

Has anyone got a telephone number other than the 0871 or 08702 prefixes that this firm use?

The firm has taken my annual direct debit amount four times in under a year. I am kicking myself for not checking my outgoings more closely, but curiously enough the emphasis is on credit card fraud. All these payments were taken via direct debit, which is supposed to be guaranteed, however my bank were less than impressive on my first visit. I’m returning tomorrow with a prepared letter of complaint based on the template provided on the BACS.co.uk website.

I spoke to Geoff Jones at Satellite Direct a few dyas ago, and he confirmed that the almost £300.00 they have helped themselves so is ‘excessive’. Perhaps they grade their levels of maladministration? The refund he offered to get off the same day has unsurprisingly not arrived. Given the apparent scope of the problem I think it’s highly likely the firm will vanish from sight in the near future, so I’m not prepared to await developments in 28-day increments. I would have been disciplined in my workplace for even a degree of this level of incompetence.

If possible, I would like to have a ‘real’ telephone number for the bank to contact the firm on. There are a couple of 01243 numbers quoted earlier in this thread. I tried one briefly and it is working, the other one said it does not receive incoming calls (one wonders why…) If anyone has one, ideally to Mr David Reynolds himself, I’d appreciate it if they could share.

Thanks,

Gary

meadowlane104 says:

22/05/2009 at 15:51

you will be lucky to get hold of these..just a watse of your phone money and time..go to consumer direct with your complaint,they will help you sort it these satellite people will just string you along ..complain..

25/05/2009 at 15:34

Further to my comments above, my Bank have advised me that the Indemnity claim was rejected as the company had reimbursed me – received to my account 13th May, 7 weeks and 5 days after incorrect amount was pointed out to them! They have now had the cheek to write to me asking for me to reimburse them what they had paid me claiming I have been over refunded due to the indemnity claim, which remember they had rejected! Needless to say my response has been been a bit acid. Shambolic is the polite way of describing their Account system – if they have one. It also took them nearly three weeks to respond to a letter sent recorded delivery and which they accepted had been received 30th April 2009 – their letter to me was dated 20th May but at least I got a response!

David Smith says:

27/05/2009 at 11:52

Good to read the above messages. I am part way through this long trail of trying to get my 10 times monthly fee back. (Stolen in January 09) Good to know my bank has some responsibility. It gets almost pleasant listening to the recorded messages from “Accounts” (On my free land line) Looks like I need to write. Reading the above it seems odd that these crooks have not been charged with any crimes they have certainly stolen my money.
I will also go to Consumer Direct as suggested above.

Thanks

27/05/2009 at 17:40

Well, having visited the bank on Friday 22nd May on Tuesday 26th May I was reimbursed the amount ‘purloined’ from my account by Satellite Direct UK Ltd. The bank’s attitude changed markedly once I handed over my letter requiring them to honour the DD guarantee. The template is on the BACS.co.uk website, under the ‘consumer’ section, and I would recommend it to those who have been likewise ‘cybermugged’ as it would appear to have got results, for me at least. I am hoping this will be an end of the matter, but we shall see.

The cheque Satellite Direct UK Ltd promised has still not materialised, and if it ever does I’m tempted to send the shredded contents back to them in an unpaid envelope…the direct debit has been cancelled and I will be watching my statements rather more closely from now on.

All I’m waiting for now is the Skybox to go on the fritz…

03/06/2009 at 17:56

Hopefully a postscript to the sorry saga. Had telephone call from Satellite Direct ‘customer services’ tonight. They told me my refund had been APPROVED! That’s two weeks and two days after they admitted the error and told me the ‘cheque would be out the following day’. So they can take unauthorised debits from my account, but have to have refunds of said sums APPROVED over what must be a long and arduous process.

I informed them that the bank had refunded me under the direct debit guarantee and they would need to make their APPROVED refund to them. Oh, good job I got hold of you, we nearly paid you twice, says she. Brass neck isn’t even close…

Paul Pover says:

16/06/2009 at 16:16

Just found out that this company has taken 2 direct debit payments of £75 & £49.99 out of my 83 years old mother in laws account, for which she knows nothing about. Having read on the net all the damming reports about this firm I will be contacting the bank, consumer direct & local trading standards. I have sent them emails and tried 4 differant phone numbers, including the one on their web page, but no answer.

pat newbold says:

20/06/2009 at 11:18

have just had a letter to-day from this company saying that starting on 18th june they are taking money out of my account and they have all my bank details how does that happen? i shall be following your example to-day and getting in touch and warning others. luckily i do check statements etc all the time but i wonder what would happen if i didnt and if sat link services hadnt bothered to write. does anyone know if the address given is fictitous and if it isnt how come the place hasnt been raided by the fraud squad!

admin says:

20/06/2009 at 13:24

The fraud squad are only going to “raid them” if people such as yourself contact the police and report a crime. If you think you’re the victim of fraud, report it to the police!

Ian Biondani says:

22/06/2009 at 09:02

Well I had an account with Sat Cov about 8 years ago and cancelled it after a year. On June 17th 2009 they restarted my direct debit on a bank account that had been dormant for over a year and was supposed to have been closed but for some reason was left open. Just had to get my bank to refund the charges for an unpaid DD due to this fraud. The bank stated it was setup electronically.

I have reported this to consumer direct and they were interested in investigating this company further. I have said that I would be willing to press charges for fraud. I spoke to my bank about reporting this as fraud to the police and their comment was “the police will probably not be interested”. Well I may just report it as fraud to them anyhow.