Setanta Sports - Writing a complaint help please

GeneAZ

Hopefully people are still reading this thread, if so. setanta JUST like any other company have T & C, that all people must adhere to. ie all consumers are screwed by all companys, because they are a company not a charity! Basically you will always get straight through to Subscribtions and not customer service, as queries or complaints always take longer to solve than a simple subscribtion. If you are a Satalite customer you have to pay (at the moment) 14.99 connection and your first months viewing 9.99. If you wish to cancel asap, you have to ring exactly 30days after you subscribe, you do have to speak to customer services first (to check every thing is in order with the account) then to the accounts team, who can process the cancellation, this is to reduce call times for the cancellation team! It is a 30days notice period from the day you call, if there is a payment due you will have to make the payment, as per T & C, the best time to cancel your subscribtion is 1)if by CC 2 days before payment date (Check your statements!!) 2) DD a 10 working days before the payment due out. Not due to Setanta but as banks require that amount of time to process a DD. As its NOT a contract, there is a 30days notice period, as in contracts if you wish to terminate early they would charge you for the remaining months in that term or penalty. As for 0870 numbers 1) use the say noto 0870s as with any company, but pick the right department! 2) the people answering your calls do not benefit from the money spent on these numbers, do you not think they would rather have all the authority to handle a call without putting you on hold etc as it would save all the irrate customers?? NOBODY LIKES GETTING YELLED AT! End of the day all companies have these commucation problems from the council to schools to especially call centres! To be honest as staff of a call centre you are treated horrible from customers and 10x worse by managers! REFUNDS,i know its frustrating but, be logical, just because you ae saying, i cancelled on this date, your agent said this etc, or your agent said nothing of connection fee etc, doesnt mean equal honesty with all people! Therefore the call would need to be listened to by someone with the records, (i.e The Head Office) and the time to trace and do so! therefore not someone on the phone listening to these complaints, i.e no telephone number for the Head Office of any company!! Emails, are not llegally counted as per the data protection act, thus not vaild way to cancel or discuss account details, (I cant even downgrade my bank account online and thats after a million and one security features!!) And also to give the company the chance to rectify any problems, and resell product! I Hope this gives a little logic to your complaint/future cancellations!

shah06

I too have encountered problems with this company. As I was a TalkTalk customer, my set top box was issued to me with free subscription for the first two months and thereafter @£9.99 p/month. Though the viewing card and letter was sent on 11th September 2007, my set top box was delivered on 23rd Sept. (T&C:2a. Unless otherwise agreed you will be carged for the service from the date your Viewing card is enabled to receive the Service under this contract) On 14th October 2007: I sent an email requesting them to cancel my subscription thus giving them more than one month notice in advance. In reply to their email made a phone call on 21st October cancelled the subscription and same day my set top box was de-activated. 12th Nov:Debited my credit card (2x£9.99)£19.98. 15th Nov: Emailed and Contacted Setanta and lodged the complaint. 11th Dec 2007: Again debited £9.99. Contacted Setanta Sports numerous time and sent emails to confirm. No Luck. 25th Jan 2008: Contacted Setanta managed to speak to Team Leader Thomas Stewart and got confirmation that their records shows that I did cancelled my subscription on 21st Oct 2007, but their system did not carry out the cancellation of my subscription. He promised me that he will contact their finance department and request them to refund the money as soon as possible. Made numerous phone calls since then. 5th April 2008:Received a phone call from setanta saying that the cheque for £29.97 was posted on 31st March 2008 and will take 5 days to receive. Made numerous phone calls (Premium rate calls) since then been told that the cheque was not posted and they will look in to it. Letters sent to Head of customer service department 0n 21st March and 21st April by recorded delivery. No reply.
28th April 2208. Letter sent to Steven McDermott, Customer Service Director, requesting him to look into the matter and resolve it urgently. Also, copies of the letter sent to 1.Michael O'Rourke and Leonard Ryan, Joint Chief Executives. 2.Michael Bucks, Cheif Financial Officer.(London Office) with a warning them that If I do not receive the refund by 2nd of May 2008, then I have no other option but to take the following action: a)Report to BBC Watchdog programmer @ WhiteCity, Wood lane, London W12 7RJ b)appropriate legal action to recover the money and my expenses under the Fraud Act 2006 Section 2. (Which came into force on 15th January 2007) Received 3 phone calls but no money. Meantime registered with Money Claim Online (MCOL) is Her Majesty's Courts Service. 8th May 2008. Sent a Final letter Before Action giving them Seven Days notice from the date of the letter that if I don't receive the payment then I will institute legal proceedings without further notice. 9th May 2008: Received 2 phone calls from Accounts Department assuring me that the cheque for £29.97 has been posted by recorded delivery. I am going to wait until Wednesday before I take further action.

shah06

Good news.
On Friday 16th May, I received a cheque for £29.97 from Setanta Sports. For me the matter is closed but for those who are still pursuing for refund, don’t let Setanta get away with your hard earned money.
:j

mrbash23

hi, i am trying to cancel my setanta subscription but dont seem to be having much luck(surprise, surprise!), i have now been told to send a letter tendering my 30 day notice period to the following address: setanta sports, department 8544, sunderland, tyne and wear, SR9 9XZ...is this the address i actually want or is this a fake address? What do you suggest i try if this letter is ignored?

Trixxie

Pay the extra 80p approx for recorded delivery so that they cannot deny that they have received it!

Malsiluk

Just read most of this thread - cos I'm having problems with a bunch of crooks called Setanta.

I joined Racing UK a few years back and paid for a year in advance, because at that time, you got a full year for price of 10 months. (Money-saving!:T) Did the same again following year and last year, after they hounded me with letters and text messages, I did so again, but only after them again (reluctently) agreeing a discount for paying the year in full. I told them that if there was no reduction, I'd just pay it monthly. I paid them £150, as at that time it was still £15 a month. This was done over the phone, giving them my bank debit card details for that £150 payment. Just after that, they dropped the price to £9.99 a month, but I just put that down to bad luck/timing.

Anyway I knew the year was about up, but was not sure exactly when. I felt sure they would contact me when it was due. However, nothing like that happened. Instead, these crooks just used my Debit Card details, that they must have kept on their records and took £180 from my bank account! No contact, no receipt, I just saw the debit entry on my bank account!

Rung their (no) helpdesk and after about half hour at 10p a min, they told me I'd have to write to their head office in Newry. Took the time to write them a letter and three weeks later I got a phone call from a lady from there. She firstly tried to justify it, then looking back at my records, agreed that I had a case and said she would put it up for a refund, although she said that decision was not her's to make. She was unable to explain why they had charged me £180, or why my card details had been used without my agreement.

Anyway, today I had a call from somebody else, to tell me I wasn't getting a refund, because I had an annual contract with Setanta, until such times as I cancelled it! She could not answer why all the RUK/Setanta adverts say £9.99 with NO annual contract. I suggested I might ask the trading Standards people if this was legal. Anyway, I said I was not accepting this decision and I wanted the contact details of the Setanta Chief Executive and also her name, so I could write and complain. She went off to get these and after a lengthy delay, she came back to say that she was going to 'escalate' my complaint and that somebody would ring me tomorrow.

She finally agreed with me, that if she were in my shoes, she would not be happy with the situation. I also pointed out to her that if she cared to put the words 'Setanta & complaints' into Google, she would soon see what the public thought of this nasty company.

I feel that I have been robbed by this bunch of crooks.

Even if they should finally agree to refund me, I'm still very unhappy about their business practices, hence I have posted this here, as yet another warning to people who might be thinking of joining Setanta.

TheSetInsider88

mrbash23 wrote: »

hi, i am trying to cancel my setanta subscription but dont seem to be having much luck(surprise, surprise!), i have now been told to send a letter tendering my 30 day notice period to the following address: setanta sports, department 8544, sunderland, tyne and wear, SR9 9XZ...is this the address i actually want or is this a fake address? What do you suggest i try if this letter is ignored?

First off, is this on freeview or sky?

Second, to my mind, it helps to send the cancellation letter to more than one place, so send one to Sunderland, one to Newry and (if you have the address) one to Kirkcaldy.
It will get done. Eventually.:mad:

javaman_2

shah06 wrote: »

28th April 2208. Letter sent to Steven McDermott, Customer Service Director, requesting him to look into the matter and resolve it urgently. Also, copies of the letter sent to 1.Michael O'Rourke and Leonard Ryan, Joint Chief Executives. 2.Michael Bucks, Cheif Financial Officer.(London Office) with a warning them that If I do not receive the refund by 2nd of May 2008, then I have no other option but to take the following action: a)Report to BBC Watchdog programmer @ WhiteCity, Wood lane, London W12 7RJ .

My mate mentioned doing this, but surely a BBC Watchdog programme can't broadcast an investigation into a rival broadcaster's practices due to conflict of interest and the likes.

I'd be happy to see it go ahead, but I don't think they could ever broadcast/publish results because they operate in the same market. :mad:

Empl01

Hope people are still reading this thread. I work for the customer services in Setanta. I can completly understand why these people are so upset at the way things are dealt with by setanta. Believe me the staff are so frustrated with the company aswell. But unfortunatly as we are employed by Setanta we have to follow the guidelines the company set out for us. There have been many complaints put forward to Managers about changes that NEED to be made.

To clarify for people we can no longer take cancellations over the phone. You have to put it writing and send it to the Newry address. Under the new T & C's you must give 60 DAYS NOTICE!!! Customer services have no control over refunds at all. A request for a refund must be made in writing to the Newry address.

All i can say is please go easy on the agents you are speaking to. They are doing the best they can with what little Setanta allow them to do. Sorry if you have had a bad experience. We will continue to put pressure on management to get the changes needed!!!

pen1

Hi Empl01,

Setanta's customer service is an active topic on various forums. The most active Setanta thread on this site at present is http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=648941&page=14&highlight=setanta . You may be aware that's it is also a particularly active topic on the "Digital Spy" forums.

As a Setanta customer with an unresolved issue spanning 2 months, I think it's quite clear that the system/processes are not working effectively, and I have to say that if Setanta insist that various issues can only be done in writing, then the most fundamental requirement, is that they answer the correspondence when it is received.

Judging my the number of complaints on various forums I don't believe my experience is that dissimilar to many others- that I have sent recorded letters to Setanta and never received a reply to any of them.

What is happening to all this mail? How large is the backlog, and do you know if Setanta is taking any steps that are likely to improve matters?