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.
March 18th, 2008 at 2:04 pm
I had a cold call from a company called SatSupport yesterday - like others, I’ve had telephone cold calls banned for years and this is the first cold call I’ve had. I recently had a Sky Plus box installed.
Fortunately I’d seen the BBC’s Watchdog programme the previous week, so I put the phone down on them (the number was 08716641482) . I think the only answer is NEVER to agree to anything on the phone from a company that calls you cold. Ask them to send you information so that you can take time to make a decision. No decent company would refuse this.
April 18th, 2008 at 4:03 pm
Does anyone else here recal.You have to give your name ader,for their garentee when you buy from COMET.This is where I think they got my details from.
April 29th, 2008 at 4:35 pm
We’ve had three calls from them over the last few days, on each of our two phone lines. The 2nd line is only used for a sky broadband connection, and they are the only people ever to have been given the number. (Although the main line is down as contact number, they insist on phoning us on the broadband line.) Since we get warranty calls on that number, it strongly suggests that Sky are themselves releasing the number.
April 29th, 2008 at 4:59 pm
Here’s an interesting link:
http://www.asa.org.uk/asa/adjudications/Public/TF_ADJ_43603.htm
re Digital Satellite Warranty Cover Ltd (merged with Satellite Direct UK)
The ASA were unhappy with their activities. I suggest that anybody who received anything in the post from them, especially when they don’t have Sky, forward the letter to them.
May 2nd, 2008 at 5:57 pm
I have just been conned by this firm, they contacted me even though I am a member of TSP and told me they were the company I already have a sky repair plan with but were informaing me of a price drop! even though I asked lots of questions about the call and the plan and why it wasn’t automatically renewed as it is every year, the caller was plausible and unfortunatley I was dupped. I am now trying to get my money back. The company are overdue with accounts but it will take time to for them to be struck off the Companies House register. My next step is to report them to trading standards and the police.