OPINION – Back in May my wife and I received a phone call from Sky Television. They were offering an unbelievable deal – we could get their basic package for half price for a limited time. I’ve wanted Sky for a while now because I enjoy watching American sport. Since moving to New Zealand I’ve seen the occasional football (gridiron), baseball and basketball game thanks to the generosity of a few friends. Sky's basic packaged included ESPN which meant that I could get access to all of these sports at home. We didn’t decided to subscribe at the first phone call, but we did ask if ESPN was included in the package just to be sure. We did some research on the website to see what other channels were included. We were able to distinguish that ESPN was part of the basic package, something we confirmed with the sales operator one more time before accepting the “to good to be true” deal.
Sky was installed in time for me to enjoy the NBA Finals on ESPN. It was an exhilarating match-up between the Dallas Mavericks and the Miami Heat. But one month into our ‘contract’ ESPN disappeared. I called Sky to find out what was going on and I was told that ESPN was no longer part of the basic package; it had been moved into one of Sky’s sports packages. I asked the Sky representative why we hadn’t been notified about the change. She informed me that their customer’s were sent a letter in April. I pointed out that we only signed up for Sky at the end of May, and did so only because it included ESPN. She suggested that if I had read my contract I would have known that Sky could change their products at any time without notice. I was pretty angry at this point. I asked to have our subscription cancelled. Before processing my request I was offered a free month of the new Sky Sport package. I refused because I wasn’t interested in all the others channels. I was then told that we would have to pay the early cancellation fee to break the contract. I agreed to pay the fee in order to honor our part in the contract. I also made it clear that I felt we had been misled into entering the contract in the first place; we wouldn’t have signed up if we knew ESPN was going to be removed from the package. The icing on the cake is that they want me to return the equipment to their offices.
My wife and I felt completely let down. We were misled. In our view, the sales representative who sold us the subscription was merely telling us what we wanted to hear so that we would make the purchase. If this were the first time that this had happened, I’d probably just shrug it off. But we’ve had a number of experiences now where the sales person has told us what we wanted to hear, as opposed to what was right. It can be argued that the Sales Representative didn’t mislead us. The fact is that ESPN was a part of the basic package when we signed up. But isn’t it also reasonable to expect, that if Sky had sent a letter to their customers in April informing them of the change that their sales representatives would have been briefed to notify new customers of the change?
There’s not much we can do about this situation. We were duped and we have to pay the price. But I can tell others about what happened. I also plan to use this as an example case in ethics in my future leadership and management classes. What does a company do when the legal thing isn’t necessarily the right thing? If you’re a huge monopoly it appears you hide behind the law. I’m not so sure a small company could do this to their customers and get away with it for long.
Legal? Yes. Right? I'm not so sure
OPINION – Back in May my wife and I received a phone call from Sky Television. They were offering an unbelievable deal – we could get their basic package for half price for a limited time. I’ve wanted Sky for a while now because I enjoy watching American sport. Since moving to New Zealand I’ve seen the occasional football (gridiron), baseball and basketball game thanks to the generosity of a few friends. Sky's basic packaged included ESPN which meant that I could get access to all of these sports at home. We didn’t decided to subscribe at the first phone call, but we did ask if ESPN was included in the package just to be sure. We did some research on the website to see what other channels were included. We were able to distinguish that ESPN was part of the basic package, something we confirmed with the sales operator one more time before accepting the “to good to be true” deal.
Sky was installed in time for me to enjoy the NBA Finals on ESPN. It was an exhilarating match-up between the Dallas Mavericks and the Miami Heat. But one month into our ‘contract’ ESPN disappeared. I called Sky to find out what was going on and I was told that ESPN was no longer part of the basic package; it had been moved into one of Sky’s sports packages. I asked the Sky representative why we hadn’t been notified about the change. She informed me that their customer’s were sent a letter in April. I pointed out that we only signed up for Sky at the end of May, and did so only because it included ESPN. She suggested that if I had read my contract I would have known that Sky could change their products at any time without notice. I was pretty angry at this point. I asked to have our subscription cancelled. Before processing my request I was offered a free month of the new Sky Sport package. I refused because I wasn’t interested in all the others channels. I was then told that we would have to pay the early cancellation fee to break the contract. I agreed to pay the fee in order to honor our part in the contract. I also made it clear that I felt we had been misled into entering the contract in the first place; we wouldn’t have signed up if we knew ESPN was going to be removed from the package. The icing on the cake is that they want me to return the equipment to their offices.
My wife and I felt completely let down. We were misled. In our view, the sales representative who sold us the subscription was merely telling us what we wanted to hear so that we would make the purchase. If this were the first time that this had happened, I’d probably just shrug it off. But we’ve had a number of experiences now where the sales person has told us what we wanted to hear, as opposed to what was right. It can be argued that the Sales Representative didn’t mislead us. The fact is that ESPN was a part of the basic package when we signed up. But isn’t it also reasonable to expect, that if Sky had sent a letter to their customers in April informing them of the change that their sales representatives would have been briefed to notify new customers of the change?
There’s not much we can do about this situation. We were duped and we have to pay the price. But I can tell others about what happened. I also plan to use this as an example case in ethics in my future leadership and management classes. What does a company do when the legal thing isn’t necessarily the right thing? If you’re a huge monopoly it appears you hide behind the law. I’m not so sure a small company could do this to their customers and get away with it for long.