368 Responses to “Phone Spam from Satellite Direct UK”

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1. 321
   Rich Says:
   March 10th, 2008 at 11:09 pm

   Hi James,
   thanks for your messages.

   The problem with the 600,000 customers figure you’re suggesting is that it’s tainted by the previous court case. It’s unclear how many of those customers were generated by mis-selling.

   In summing up the BSkyB case Joel Smith commented that Satellite Direct UK was “making six million calls a year to a customer base of 450,000.” and that Sky would be entitled to damages on 80 per cent of sales to the middle of 2005. So if Joel’s figures are correct, BSkyB were compensated for a loss against 360,000 warranty customers (i.e. 80% of 450,000). If we subtract that 360,000 from the 600,000 then 240,000 Satellite Direct customers remain.

   If there was absolutely no mis-selling whatsoever after the court case then this would be 240,000 happy, and not misled customers (also assuming a 100% renewal rate), however, several comments to this site suggest that the mis-selling has continued and the Watchdog programme appears to corroborate this.

   So since 240,000 customers is just 40% of the original 600,000, and since it appears that not even all of those 40% have been sold their policy without some level of deception, the 600,000 that originally spoke for itself may be lower than the maximum of 240,000 “happy” customers.

   You may have an entirely different interpretation of the figures given your historical knowledge of the company - naturally, you or I can only hypothesise on the real figures without the services of an auditor.

2. 322
   James Garland Says:
   March 11th, 2008 at 9:36 am

   I think its like anything these days, theres no such thing as a squeaky clean company, all us minions can do is go by published statistics, as someone else, there are hundreds of cold call companies out there, at least 30 of those are sky related that I know about. Quite possibly the thread about Sat Direct has run its course, everyone knows about the company,everyone knows what goes on, the whingers have had their say, lets just get on with life, Sat direct will be around in one form or another for some time yet, Dave Reynolds has got so many interests that this is just a blip on his empire.ce la vie !

3. 323
   Marc Rossiter Says:
   March 11th, 2008 at 9:56 am

   I am registered with the TPS, and I get calls from mobile phone companies, double glazing companies and companies that drop call and when you call back they route your call to somewhere in India and charge you £5 a minute!!!, the TPS doesn’t work, so who cares if you are signed up to it, IT DOES NOT WORK. And when you try to complain, all you get as a response from them is “The company maybe overseas and we cant do anything blah blah, if you don’t have the company name then we cant do anything etc”.

4. 324
   Rich Says:
   March 11th, 2008 at 10:19 am

   James, by “whingers” should we assume you mean “people who’ve been deceived by fraudulent sales tactics or unlawfully interrupted on their private telephone line and who have had the audacity to point out that they’re are not 100% happy about the fact”?

   Marc, your angst is noted with empathy, the TPS should have more teeth for international telesales companies. In this case Satellite Direct is a UK company with UK call centres, and they unlawfully called UK residents and misled them - so it’s very much a TPS issue.

5. 325
   Stacey Nunn Says:
   March 11th, 2008 at 1:20 pm

   Satellite Direct are operating under 6 other companies still taking monies from peoples accounts. It is a shame really because the product is good and there are a few companies in the area that are operated legally and operate a good service. Just beware - check them out!

6. 326
   James Garland Says:
   March 11th, 2008 at 10:04 pm

   Youre right the product is good, that good that there are at least 3 companies I know of that ring up Sat direct’s customers and pretend to be them ! That information came to us from our customers ! most of them were small companies in the Bognor Regis area, Flattery, desperation or just stupidity, am not sure which, In most cases though Sat Direct’s customers were brighter than these pretenders, and yes ,If one of these companies is reading this,Sat Direct know exactly who you are !

7. 327
   Codename X Says:
   March 11th, 2008 at 11:14 pm

   Hi all
   Well there’s so much to talk about. A lot of what is written and published has part truths attached but the information is murky and inconclusive. People read, watch or experience something and draw their own conclusion. This all gets chucked into the melting pot and 2 + 2 = 5
   Now their is no doubt that satellite direct have had some serious miss-selling problems in the past and that was described by the court case brought to bare by sky. It is also likely from this forum and watchdog that these things are still going on in some capacity. However we must keep this in perspective. The comments made above by pro satellite direct writers are also true. They certainly would not be put there by order of Satellite Direct, believe me Dave Reynolds has no interest in such forums.

   I really don’t know where to stop so I will try and deal with some of the points raised individually.

   • TPS - It must be true that they contact people who are tps registered. This is more to do with sloppiness than untoward intentions. What I find surprising is that if that many breaches of TPS have occurred why has nothing concrete been done. It follows that either not as many breaches are taking place as thought or tps should get a grip on what they are doing.
   • Misleading Sales - Passing of as Sky. This is the biggest complaint and I think it is certainly true that a lot of customers believe for whatever reason they are being contacted by Sky. Now just consider for a moment what is happening. An independent company calls and “Hi its Colin calling from Satellite Direct UK, it’s about your Sky TV equipment” you can hardly expect a company to say at this point “and by the way it’s not actually Sky TV calling” it would be ridiculous. They have introduced themselves said who they are from and at this point its must be up to the customer to listen and ask questions about things they are unsure of. If at this point the customer has not listened and have not made the agent aware that they think they are Sky then there is no reason for the agent to think anything is amiss and so would continue with the call. Now I don’t try and claim that this is the only cause of this problem, but it does offer another angle as to the possible reasons for this.
   • Customer base - With approx 100 sales staff making 500 - 600 sales a day, about 120 - 150 thousand new customers a year it is undoubtedly a minority that is having problems with this company. This minority can still be a large number of customers but again it starts to give a different perspective. As to how many customers they have now its anyone’s guess. Not only are they making a huge number of sales a week but Dave Reynolds has aggressively bought up multiple similar companies adding to his ever growing database.
   • Data - It is absolutely incorrect to suggest Sky or domestic and general are willingly offering data to this company. It is possible that rogue sky employee’s or engineers are selling data but realistically to supply 100 sales people with enough data is going to take in the region of 15000 names and numbers a day. It is also not correct (as suggested by watchdog) that they are completely random calling. The truth is somewhere in the middle. Most data is brought in from data companies who compile lists of information about whatever you want by lifestyle surveys and telemarketing. In this instance the lists would be made up of people who have Sky TV. This, with name, telephone number and address is the only info they will have on you. (These list are only about 80 - 90% accurate.)
   • Training (ref Watchdog) - This smelled to me of a bad manager offering poor training in his own unique style but this is no excuse as a company is of course responsible for its employee’s actions to a certain extent. It definitely shows a lack of control over management but does not prove or even convince that it is something taught company wide (in fact I would be very surprised if all satellite direct managers acted in this way and would hope this individual is sacked.
   • Service - As suggested in watchdog and by comment 325 it is absolutely true that Satellite direct offer one of the best if not the best service in the industry. Well over 50% same day service, engineers employed, equipped and monitored by Satellite direct, state of the art tracking equipment and in house stock repair. This doesn’t make any miss-selling ok but is something and shows the company is not just taking people money.

   This covers a few things better get of now but post any questions and I will try and answer honestly.

   PS I don’t work for satellite direct but did in numerous capacities, I have no vested interest either but can not stand misinformation and guessed conclusions

   Thanks for reading

8. 328
   Rich Says:
   March 12th, 2008 at 8:38 am

   Thanks very much for taking the time to record those wide ranging and interesting comments “X”.

   The one question I have is fairly simple:

   You’ve stated in closing that you “can’t stand misinformation and guessed conclusions” and I don’t think you’ll find many people in disagreement here, so is there a reason why you’ve not disclosed your real identity?

   I ask because potential SD customers will assess what you’ve said, and have to make a decision about whether they believe you: whether they are willing to trust you - but they don’t know who you are.

9. 329
   x Says:
   March 13th, 2008 at 12:57 am

   Hi Rich

   It makes no difference to the reader who I am. I don’t really see any potential mistruths in my statements.

   Maybe to your surprise I have mixed thoughts on the company myself but felt the direction of fraud and rip of merchant is a miss-guided one. It is more a case of unwieldy expansion with insuffiecient organisation. This is by no means acceptable but a long way of from a complete rip of merchant. I actually believe the intentions are sincere.

   Hay, people will take from this what they want believe it or not, it bothers me not but I am pleased to of had my say.

   Sorry if my not being comfortable with putting my name on this website means you are unable to believe what is written.

   Thanks

10. 330
    Helen Says:
    March 14th, 2008 at 1:42 pm

    I had dealings with Satalite Assured last year when they mislead me into believing that I was renewing my sat cover. Usual story taken out of my bank account twice. Rang them up to cancel, said I would have to pay for 12 months as I had taken out a 12 month contract and could not cancel. Wrote to them at 3 different addresses to cancel, all three letters returned not known.I asked for proof of the tape recording they had, none provided. Not heard from them for 6 months, then surprize, surprize a threatening letter saying pay up plus they have added another 3 months payment for this year to it or else they will put in the hands of debt collectors. Has anyone else received this threat in the past and have the debt collectors been involved. I will not pay them another penny.

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