Sky Complaint Letter

mleonard79

Hi Everyone,

I wasn't sure where to put this so feel free to move if it's not in the right place. I'm just about to write a letter of complaint to Sky. I was wondering if anyone here either works for Sky or knows their policy. Basically during a phone call to their customer service I asked the member of staff I was speaking to for his name and he gave me his first name (which unfortunately I can't remember!) and so I asked for his second name too but he said that he couldn't give that to me due to the Data Protection Act. Is this true or did he just not want to give me his name? I've never heard this from any other customer service agent and my friend who trains bank centre call staff says she's never heard it either so that makes me think he was just at it. I'm just looking for some confirmation of this though before I put it in the letter too! Thanks for any help.

Regards

Michelle

eyelinerprincess

I'm sure I was told that they can't give their second name by a friend who works in a bank.

C_Ronaldo

when i worked in sainsburys who asked me for my first and second name, i gave her my first name but she was insistant on knowing my surname but i was very adamant on not giving out my surname

hollydays

Nothing to do with Data Protection IMHO.You could ask people for their staff number.I dont blame people for not wanting to give this info out though.Many call centre staff wont give out their sirname.

mleonard79

Hmm interesting. I really don't see what the problem with giving their name out is to be honest - if people work in a branch of a bank for example they usually wear a name badge with their full name on it so I don't see what the difference is betweeen this and someone working in a call centre. How, otherwise, can they be made accountable for their actions if the customer cannot identify them when they need to complain about their conduct? I've never heard of it before but I guess from the replies that some people do refuse to give their name - If the member of staff has done nothing wrong though then they shouldn't have anything to fear from giving their name. I'm still unsure as to whether it's Sky company policy though. I think I will mention it in the letter and simply make it clear that this person's conduct was unacceptable and I, as a customer, find it unacceptable that I am unable to identify this person to their superiors due to the fact they refused to give me information that would identify them. I guess that's the best I can do and perhaps they'll be able to identify them from call records. Thanks for the replies.

Regards

Michelle

iceicebaby

The (very large) comapny I work for, call centre staff are told not to give their surnames out. If customer persue this they are told to tell the customer that a full note has been put on the account which also captures the time and date of the call and that all calls are recorded (which they are!)

Also. with call centre software, if as a customer you want a call you have made listened to, then if you can give the time and date of when you called and the number you called from it can be traced even if the person you spoke to did not put a note on your file. So there is no need to have the persons name as a back up really as the person concerned will be able to be traced.

Data protection regs and Fianancial services regs (if applicable) say that all calls must be traceable.

reehsetin

all you should need is the extention number surely, what would be the need for the surname, i would never give my surname to a customer. if they want to pursue my manager for it - go ahead, but i wouldnt agree to it

uktim29

This all came about around 10 years ago when both the first name and surname of employees was printed on some supermarlet receipts.

A few times this lead to stalkers being able to trace where a member of staff lived. So quiet rightly people shouldn't have to give their surname.

At the time some act was passed, Data Protection does ring a bell to allow staff to keep their surnames private.

I think a lot of the public who are adamant they want a surname just do it because it makes them feel authoritative whilst complaining. The risk of someone not being able to be identified by a company because they don't know the surname is virtually non-existent. Personally I do wonder why an issue of giving surnames should be raised by some people anyway. It really is just trying to find things to complain about.

mhendo

uktim29 wrote:

This all came about around 10 years ago when both the first name and surname of employees was printed on some supermarlet receipts.

A few times this lead to stalkers being able to trace where a member of staff lived. So quiet rightly people shouldn't have to give their surname.

I think a lot of the public who are adamant they want a surname just do it because it makes them feel authoritative whilst complaining. The risk of someone not being able to be identified by a company because they don't know the surname is virtually non-existent.

Agree with the above, when working for Argos I was unfortunatly a manager at the time. I never gave my last name to a customer when wanting to complain to head office, I always game my first name + store number + job title.

As you can imagine I and customer service staff in the store were always receiving threats of a personal nature when a customer didn't like my desicion.

Astaroth

A fair number of companies advise their staff never to give their surname out but normally something like their sign on or extension number etc.

Certainly in our claims functions we have people who have to tell customers who have just lost their home etc and potentially £300,000 or more that we wont be paying them... unfortunately there are people out there who will try and take "revenge" either on the company as a whole or try and find the person who has told them we have declined cover (even if it probably isnt that person that has made the decision) - on a number of occasions we have had people come into our offices with knives etc to try and pursaide us to change our decision.

With ourselves, once you hit manager grade you do have to give your full name out and so I guess our salary also contains "risk money" - our former MD did have to call the police out after one disgruntled third party (not even one of our policyholders) tried to break into his home after emailing to say he was going to "gut him and his family"