Tags: Scams
Junk Mail from Satellite Direct UK
November 29th, 2006, by Rich.
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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.
December 8th, 2006 at 3:49 pm
Actually Satellite Direct are an extremely professional and hard working company. They have built up from nothing and now offer a fantastic service. I say dont knock it until you try it. If you are registered with MPS/TPS then it may be that they have old data so you can always ask them to remove you from their mailing list. If somewhere like tesco sent you through mail that was offering you cheaper beans, wouldnt you just throw it in the bin!! I think its rather pathetic that you have nothing better to do than have rubbish conversations with random people over the internet, cant actually beleive Im entering into this with you myself!!! what an idiot
December 8th, 2006 at 4:40 pm
Hi Jane Doe (I’ve called you Jane Doe, because you’ve not provided a real name other than in your email address, which we never reveal).
Readers will be enchanted to know that the name Jane really supplied was “shut it”.
Jane, since you ask, I have plenty of more important things to do. That’s why I’m TPS and MPS registered!
QED.
When I get interrupted I write about it. If Satellite Direct UK Ltd hadn’t interrupted me on four separate occasions they’d not be getting all this negative coverage.
Your comment, and the Tesco example, misses the point entirely:
December 12th, 2006 at 5:03 pm
quote:
I’ll pass your comments on to my 87 year old Mum who was tricked into signing up with these shysters on the day she came out of hospital after having had a stroke which left her with expressive dysphasia.
December 12th, 2006 at 10:05 pm
I think the problem with all these telemarketing companies is that there are many companies who are willing to sell your details onto third parties, and who do not give a damn about what happens to that information. All those little boxes that you should tick to not get contacted are always in the small pro print, and who knows what so called ‘reputable’ companies are doing with our details if we do not tick these boxes. I also know that once you enter your details on the internet you are also opening a can of worms as regards to phone calls and letters. Satellite Direct UK are one of these third parties, they have obviously bought your details from a comany and then just endlessly try to sell you their product! but they are also doing something right because they just seem to be expanding! They must have some customers!!
December 18th, 2006 at 4:14 pm
I too just received the letter but my sky warranty has expired. Thought I would just check to see if it is genuine online, I won’t bother with it now.
December 20th, 2006 at 11:44 am
I have just received one of these letters too in spite of being MPS registered. This bunch of morons just can’t get it through their thick skulls that I too don’t have satellite system! Their persistent automated calls, silent calls and telemarketing were bad enough so, having told them to never to contact me again by phone, I wrote to them and also reported them to the TPS. Until today’s letter I had heard nothing from them so assumed they had deleted my details. What gives them the idea that they are above the law?
I found a non 0870 number to call - 01243 867893 but the response hasn’t been encouraging so far. I’ve suggested to them that their continued unwanted contacting amounts to harassment in contravention of the Protection from Harassment Act 1997 especially considering their previous infringements of the Telecommunications Act 1984. I’m waiting from a call back from their head office. I won’t hold my breath.
January 1st, 2007 at 1:44 pm
I received an unsolicited letter from Satellite Direct UK Ltd which started - “The initial manufacturer’s warranty on your digital satellite (Sky TV) system has now expired …”.
This is a blatant LIE.
I checked with Sky and they confirmed that my warranty had not run out at all. Indeed it had several months still to run.
In response to my question as to whether this company was appointed by Sky, Sky responded - “There are a number of independent warranty companies that legitimately provide products to protect digital satellite equipment. These companies and their products are not related to Sky or the Sky Repair Plan.”.
So there you have it. They are not part of Sky, they are not endorsed by Sky, they are just one of a number of independents.
But would you want to trade with a company, or appoint them your equipment maintainer, when the opening sentence on their correspondence is a blatant LIE.
I wouldn’t. Would you?
January 10th, 2007 at 3:24 pm
I to am/have been plagued by this company and I am a sky customer. My telephone number is XD and they ask for me by name, so they cannot say they called me in error. I tell them that I’m registered with TPS and I’ve report them and get a grovelling letter a week or two later, then 6 months down the line I get another phone call trying to extort money from me!!!
This company need to either be heavily fined or shutdown (the latter is preferred). It is my belief that sky initially give their customers details to them, I didn’t have any contact with SD until I called sky about my set top box being faulty and demanding a new one!
Is there legislation in place to stop companies like this????
January 16th, 2007 at 3:25 pm
Regardless of how Sky Digital touts for customers, has anybody actually used Sky Digital Ltd to repair their Sky+ system? What experiences have you had?
January 22nd, 2007 at 12:34 am
Well i actually work for this company, so let me explain a few things to you. Firstly, we are the largest INDEPENDANT warranty company in the uk, providing a fully comprehensive service to over 1 million customers, who may i add, have been very happy with our policy. Now, with regards to us ringing people on TPS, how hard is it to just say you are TPS and request for your details to be removed? They will be. You are all obviously sad old bastards that have nothing better to do than piss and moan about something that, to be fair, really is not that big a deal. I am just trying to do a job, so if we have made a mistake with your details, eg you dont have a sky system, just say it. Instead you all get so worked up about it and whinge about it on the net. All ive got left to say is get a bloody life you sad twats!
[EDITORIAL NOTE: This comment has been published in full and unedited. The email address from whence it came is a free webmail account so we have no certainty in the claim that this is an employee of Satellite Direct.]