Tags: Scams
Phone Spam from Satellite Direct UK
November 23rd, 2006, by Rich.
I just got another call from Satellite Direct UK telling me that my Sky warranty needs renewing. Oddly enough, nothing has changed since their last call. We are still registered with the TPS so it’s unlawful for them to phone us and we still don’t have a Sky box, so it’s definitely not out of it’s warranty period, which they again suggested. Satellite Direct UK you are not morons: stop ignoring the TPS.
Update: Looks like we’re not the only recipients of their unwanted sales calls: Longrider (also called twice) points out a host of others.
Update: Satellite Direct UK’s business practices have subsequently been successfully challenged in the High Court by BSkyB.
Update 2008/03/10: Satellite Direct UK are investigated by BBC Watchdog (it’s available on iPlayer for 1 week after broadcast).
December 9th, 2007 at 5:07 pm
Just to let you know - this company does appear to be providing
some sort of a service - although not a very good one! I took
cover out last year and recently had problems with my Sky+ box.
Satellite Direct sent an engineer out within 48 hours and
de-fragged the hard-drive. This caused more problems (and I
could have done it myself if they’d talked me through it). I
rang to complain and he came back the next day and replaced the
box (re-conditioned). This worked fine for a week and then broke
down. It was replaced again with another re-con that sounded
like an airplane taking off as the fan was faulty, but he had no
other boxes on his van. I rang up again and he came out 24
hours later with yet another box. This one just will not do any
of the Sky+ functionality. In desperation I rang Sky and have
now negotiated a brand new box to be installed by a proper Sky
engineer. I am going to ask Digital Satellite for a full refund,
but, from the comments above, I won’t be holding my breath!
December 12th, 2007 at 5:12 pm
The service my father in law has had from Satellite Direct has been first class. They have had cause to call them out twice and both times they have got through directly on the phone and an engineer has called that day. the first time they replaced the box as it had gone faulty. The second their television had gone wrong so the engineer moved their television from another room and set it up in their lounge for them (tuned it in etc…)Great service and I would and do recommend them to anyone, even though they purchased the plan from a sales call. Prior to their manufacturers warranty expiring they had to contact SKY and it took 3 days and 3 calls to get an engineer to visit them they had to wait ages on the phone to get an answer. I have since taken out a contract with Satellite direct and have had cause to call them out and called at around 9.30am and an engineer was there at 11am. Great company offering and delivering a great service, I like my inlaws am most definately pleased to have my SKY box covered by them.
It also looks like a lot of you are confusing many different companies on this forum and perhaps a bit more homework should be done to get your facts right before posting reports which are not about Satellite Direct but relate to other companies.
December 14th, 2007 at 10:50 pm
Seems Satellite assured are amateurs no cutomer focus whatsoever. We were duped into taking out cover, but then decided to cancel a month later. Unfortunately they have a 7 day cancellation period (in the small print) and as a result you then get tied into the 12 month contract! In fact it is OK for them to set the contract up verbally but woe betide if you request cancellation verbally as they stated that legally this cannot be done…. mmmmmm sure thats not the case and am seeking legal advise! The first contact i received from them was a threatening letter DEMANDING £54 or else the debt collectors… this was the first letter i received 9 months after the cancellation notification we had given them verbally, apparently they tried to call but are not allowed to leave a message on answer phones….. mmmmmmm i can smell that stuff again…. anyway, contacted them on 3/12/07 asking what it was about, told BY THEM not to worry and send a letter confirming, no further action will be taken. Did this asking for a written confirmation that the matter was closed, and sent an email with attachment of same and guess what??? Thats right received ANOTHER threatening letter on 13/12/07….. this is 2 such letters in the 32 years i have been earning an income threatened with Debt Collectors!!!…. both from the same cowboys. Called them, spent half hour trying to get the point across regarding this to no avail (customer is king? or at least most other companies think so) all i received was arrogant and an ignorant attitude, it took 20mins to get through to a manager who frankly had an atrocious attitude and did NOTHING to resolve the situation. In fact i was the one who had to diffuse the heated discussion!!! And i’m the customer!!! I was offerred an extension to my protection ah! like you would after being treated in such a way??? Sooner these guys go under the better!!! I was offered no apology as they felt they had done nothing wrong (remember the first letter/ contact i received and request i made for confirmation on the situation?). However, my issue was with the nature of the letter given which i was trying to resolve! Anyway, ended up paying the £54 but BEWARE, i will be telling EVERYONE i know about my experience. Hopefully it will then cost them SOMETHING??? Given that i work for a major organisation…… and such review organisations/ forums as this??? Isn’t the internet a wonderful voice…. FaceBook and YouTube next :-)
December 15th, 2007 at 8:20 pm
Hmm, interested to read all this as I do have a cover policy with Satellite Direct. I did indeed get a call asking me to renew my policy when I already had one with this company, which had 8 months cover still to go. However, last week my TV dropped off its stand (OK I accidentally pushed it) onto the Sky box and damaged it beyond repair. Satellite Direct replaced it within a day with no extra charges. Could it be that another party is operating a scam using their name?
December 18th, 2007 at 11:49 am
This is clearly someone connected to,Satellite Direct or Satellite Assured ,I am not referring to the service as my parents sky box has not broken down.What I am complaining about, and the authorities are investigating, is the extraction of funds (£600 in one year) from their bank account. SATELLITE ASSURED is the offending company,but satellite direct seem to have an awful reputation.Perhaps they are trying to improve thanks to this blog.
December 28th, 2007 at 2:06 pm
“Alan Says:
May 22nd, 2007 at 8:14 pm
Satellite Direct are in the process of buying up several companies who offer cover on sky equipment. I have worked for Satellite Direct since day one as a service engineer, its the best cmpany I have worked for including several years with Sky.”
Hm, in which case it could be time to think of leaving Sky and getting a conventional satellite receiver and motorised dish installed, escape the clutches of Murdock and be able to receive loads of different satellites and channels.
December 28th, 2007 at 2:31 pm
“tracy Says:
July 12th, 2007 at 9:15 pm
At the end of the day it is not wrong to ring someone to cover them with a service
agreement. If they don’t want it they don’t have it. If we weren’t aloud to ring
people the courts wouldn’t have allowed it. I’m sorry someone rang and pretended to to
be us. It would not have been us. ALL our calls are recorded and listened to
so If that was the case the person would have been fired. I don’t think they
would have wanted to lose there job.
You can’t make every single person happy it’s impossible.
We offer a very good same day service unlike any other Satelitte warranty company
that is in business at the moment.”
And we are supposed to believe a representative of a company that many of us have direct experience of them lying to us? Do you really think all these people including Sky and other official protectors of consumers are making all this up for fun?
January 7th, 2008 at 3:54 pm
I recived a call from the above mentioned company but without answering the phone to them, instead I made a note of there number and found this site.
The easy thing to do if your needing to cover your Satalite box ect… is to phone SKY when your waranty has expired and sign up for there Sky Repair Plan, Sky Repair Plan is provided by Domestic & General, they are the ones who carryout the repairs on SKY’s behalf.
January 10th, 2008 at 2:45 pm
Another company who are on this scam is one calling themselves Satsupport Ltd. They pull the same “your sky equipment is about to run out of guarantee” scam. However these people get extremely abusive if you tell them they are scammers and have nothing to do with Sky. Worthwhile if you like a good wind up,
January 10th, 2008 at 7:29 pm
I have been with satellite direct ltd for nearly two years and have never had a problem with them. I have had no lump sums taken from my account or any phone calls from them. In the first year i paid them six pound a month by direct debit, in the second year i received a phone call to say that as it was my second year and had not had to call anyone out that i was entitled to three months free and my payments went down to four pounds a month. From reading what others have put both the large payments and the installment amounts seem wrong for it to be this company you are talking about.