Tags: Scams
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.
November 29th, 2006 at 8:48 pm
I just checked the website stats for the last week and “Satellite Direct” or it’s close derivatives were the second most popular search term for people arriving here.
November 30th, 2006 at 10:23 am
I think that what this company will claim if reported to TPS and MPS is
a) clearly mailing and phoning non-satellite users was an error, and one that could not be of any benefit to them.
b) the people they were supposed to be writing to are their and Sky’s customers. TPS and MPS does not stop a company writing to its customers, and it is just possible to argue that although the equipment came from Sky these people are the licensed agent of Sky for this product. TPS and MPS might find against them on this argument, but I doubt it.
November 30th, 2006 at 11:14 am
Having talked to the jolly helpful Theresa from Sky (General Enquiries 08702 40 40 40) I’d be very surprised if it’s possible for Satellite Direct UK Ltd to get away with claiming they are acting on behalf of Sky, because they’re not.
Theresa stated that Satellite Direct UK Ltd are “not a sky approved company“.
What’s more she informed me that Sky employs Domestic and General to provide the “Sky repair protection plan” - more details are available by calling
08702 40 41 42and selecting option 3.That leaves option A (Satellite Direct are telephoning and mailing people by mistake), which is the excuse they gave when I notified the TPS after their first call.
December 3rd, 2006 at 7:10 am
This has to go down as one of the CRM howlers of the century so far. Given Rich’s background, I wonder what tips he’d like to give on how telcos should approach customer relationships?
December 3rd, 2006 at 7:15 am
December 3rd, 2006 at 11:54 am
Hi Dennis, I think the key word here in CRM is “Customer”.
So my tips are quite simple:
Think of the TPS and MPS (or their equivalent in other countries) as really fierce guard dogs with frightening teeth and red eyes. If you’re calling or mailing nationally or internationally, check if you’re breaking any of those laws before you go wasting money on a marketing campaign that might result in a nasty bite.
Use search tools to ensure your campaign is not going awry. On a daily basis plug a few key phrases into a search engines such as Google BlogSearch and Technorati - if there’s a spanner in the works this is a good way to spot it early - you can bet if one person blogs it, hundreds more are thinking it, and thousands read it, so if the experience described is true and honest, it’s bad publicity that will be around forever.
December 5th, 2006 at 12:08 am
I used to work for satellite direct and they are a complete stitch up. They really use and abuse staff there. They are not professional at all! This company goes to whatever lengths to get customers and it is pathetic and desperate! No one should ever trust this company what so ever. I now work for a different company who are nothin’ like sat direct!!!
December 5th, 2006 at 12:23 am
Hi Foxy, can you elaborate a little? Just saying “use and abuse” is a bit vague, and not fair on Satellite Direct. If you can discuss specific issues then we’re all ears. When you say they go to “whatever lengths to get customers” can you give examples beyond what we’ve seen ourselves?
December 6th, 2006 at 10:13 pm
Rich,
Sky themselves also make these calls, as I recently found out myself. (here )
That said, anyone, and I mean anyone, who buys anything from someone who calls them at home deserves no sympathy.
December 8th, 2006 at 3:43 pm
Interesting comment made by all