Sky TV's channel upgrade promotion lands it in hot water
"Sky needs some competition in NZ. They charge way too much for their service."
Featured commentSky TV is now nearly $56,000 lighter in the pocket after a warning from the Commerce Commission for "potentially misleading customers".
A paying customer complained to the commission earlier this year after being overcharged for upgrading to a selected premium channel.
At the time, Sky was promoting the upgrade for just $1, with the proceeds to be donated to Auckland's Starship Foundation.
The customer complained that after leaving a message with Sky's interactive voice recognition service, the full retail price of $25 was charged.
The commission's manager of competition, Greg Allan, says another 2633 subscribers were found to have been overcharged.
"Sky established its [interactive voice recognition] service had not been updated with the correct pricing information.
"Sky has admitted the mistake and credited affected subscribers to the tune of $55,990. They've also donated the correct sum to Starship Foundation."
He says the commission has issued a warning to Sky and that "Sky's prompt response to the issue is commendable".
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Comments and questions4
Sky needs some competition in NZ, they charge way too much for their service.
I totally agree Anon #1 by cunning channel combos and overpriced post DVD release movies Sky rip New Zealanders off left right and centre. We need someone like Foxstar or DirectTV to purchase some capacity, rights and cover NZ to give some competition to the consumer. The largest barrier is the rights to rugby and without those you can have the best channels in the world but Sky will trump them.
I think the issue here was that SKY was waiving their install price and donating it to Starship Hospital. Let encourage our Corporates to be more like SKY.
1) Sky was wrong to charge $25 for something they were advertising as $1
2) Sky was wrong to tell the customer when he called that they couldnt do anything about it
3) Sky was wrong to ignore the complaint letter sent to them
Sky only took action once commerce commission was involved, that says a lot.
We need competition and we need it now!
I know this cause I am the one who had to take the above actions