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Philippines Customer Service – SKYserves – Oxymoron of Oxymora?

Customer Service in the Philippines

SKYserves is the customer service department of the Philippines SKYcable digital TV company.

Customer Service in the Philippines operates on a different level to that typically encountered in America or Europe. It takes some getting used to,  but then again …

I subscribe to one of SKYcable’s digital TV packages here where I live in Bacolod.

When I first subscribed back in June of 2015 I was attracted by the Philippines wide advertising that promoted the fact that SKYcable held the franchise for Bein Sports. Bein Sports in turn hold the broadcast rights for Barclays Premier League football (the EPL).

Disappointingly, after I had signed up, I learned that the Bein Sports channels were only available in Manila. I was relaxed about that as I was told it would soon be available through SKYcable in Bacolod and thus my digibox in my home.

Now almost six months later I am tearing my hair out (not that I have a lot to tear) as I just cannot get a sensible reply from SKYcable as to when it is likely to be available.

Nearly six months and the EPL football season is almost halfway through the season schedule! I am missing my fix of not only English football but also watching my team Liverpool Football Club.

I felt like sharing with you the stupid, anodyne responses to perfectly regular customer questions that I posed to @SKYserves (Twitter handle).

Stephen Bentley ‏@StephenBentley8 Aug 10

@SkyCable_PH do you ever reply to emails? When is bein sports coming to Bacolod?

Please note that the reference to emails is that they do have an email Contact service on the mysky.com.ph web site. I submitted the contact form but to date have not received a response.

 

Stephen Bentley ‏@StephenBentley8 Aug 11

@SkyCable_PH @SKYserves do you ever reply to messages? When is bein sports coming to Bacolod?

A further reference to my email contact.

 

SKY ‏@SKYserves Aug 11

@StephenBentley8 Hi Sir Stephen. As of now, Bein sports is not yet offerred [sic] in Bacolod bur [sic] hopefully soon. Thanks 

 

Stephen Bentley ‏@StephenBentley8 Aug 11

@SKYserves wow! Someone replied. Why can’t you tell me when? What’s the problem?

 

SKY ‏@SKYserves Aug 11

@StephenBentley8 We don’t have the update on that as of the moment, Sir. We’ll keep you posted. Thank you.

 

Stephen Bentley ‏@StephenBentley8 Aug 11

@SKYserves please hassle the bosses for an update. 1000s of foreigners in Phils want to watch EPL @premierleague

I used the Barclays Premier League Twitter handle in a vain attempt to attract its attention.

SKY ‏@SKYserves Aug 12

@StephenBentley8 All right, Sir. We’ll surely let you know once it’s available already in your area. Thank you. 

 

Stephen Bentley ‏@StephenBentley8 Sep 27

@SKYserves By the time it comes to Bacolod the EPL season will be finished #disgruntled customer

 

SKY ‏@SKYserves Sep 27

@StephenBentley8 Our apologies for the inconvenience Sir. We already forwarded this to our programming team.

 

Stephen Bentley‏@StephenBentley8

@SKYserves OK thank you but why not ask the programming team for an answer #simpleissimpledoes #aintrocketscience

 

SKY ‏@SKYserves Sep 28

@StephenBentley8 We already relayed this to our team, Sir. We’ll let you know once we get the update. Thank you.

 

Stephen Bentley ‏@StephenBentley8 Sep 27

@premierleague @beINSPORTS @SkyCable_PH no EPL coverage outside of Manila whywhtwhywhy oh why? Starved EPL expat

A further vain attempt to attract the attention of the Barclays Premier League, Bein Sports and the corporate arm of SKYcable.

Stephen Bentley ‏@StephenBentley8 Sep 27

@beINSPORTS why is SkyCable.ph only making your channel available only in Manila? #nothappy #LFC

 

Stephen Bentley ‏@StephenBentley8 Nov 30

@SKYserves any update on Bein Sports coming to Bacolod

 

SKY ‏@SKYserves Nov 30

@StephenBentley8 We are now coordinating to our concerned team for checking, Sir. We’ll get back to you as soon as possible.

 

Stephen Bentley‏@StephenBentley8

@SKYserves you said the same thing months ago

 

SKY ‏@SKYserves Dec 1

@StephenBentley8 Our apologies for the inconvenience, Sir. We’ll coordinate this concern. 

 

Stephen Bentley ‏@StephenBentley8 Dec 2

is @SKYserves THE oxymoron of oxymorii? 🙂

 

Stephen Bentley ‏@StephenBentley8 Dec 11

@SKYserves pls ask skycable why they can’t tell me when Bein coming to Bacolod 🙂

 

SKY ‏@SKYserves Dec 11

@StephenBentley8 Hi Sir, we’ll keep you posted on this. Thank you for sharing your inputs. 

A hint of sarcasm?

 

Stephen Bentley ‏@StephenBentley8 Dec 12

@SKYserves but you are not updating me just the same old tired answers every time

 

At this point I gave up trying to communicate, or rather to seek answers to my very simple questions, via Twitter and now turned my attention to Facebook –

Facebook Dialog on the SKYcable Community FB Page

Okay let me see if I get either a reply or any sense from anyone at SKYcable. I am a subscriber in Bacolod and as a Brit and big fan of Liverpool Football Club and the EPL I was disappointed to learn that Bein Sports was only available in Manila.

The EPL season is almost half way through and I am missing watching it on TV. I have now asked @SKYserves four times on Twitter to tell me when Bein Sports will be coming to Bacolod.

On every single occasion I receive the same anodyne, scripted reply – sir, we will update you accordingly. Then I respond by asking why it isn’t available and never receive a reply to that query. Your contact system sucks as it is so difficult to make any meaningful contact as you appear to treat customers with disdain!

The email system on your web page clearly doesn’t work as I never receive a reply! I am sure that when the EPL granted the broadcast rights to Bein and Bein granted those rights to you, that they expected you would maximize subscriptions by making it widely available throughout the Philippines.

This is my last effort to get any sense out of SKYcable before I raise this issue with the EPL, Bein Head Office and with your majority stockholders. So once more – when is Bein Sports to be made available in Bacolod? What is it exactly that prevents its availability here in Bacolod? They are not complex questions are they?

 

Skycable then deleted their answer (usual stuff about passing it on to another department)  and my response (asking for a telephone number of someone but not customer service)  – but I then received this response on Facebook –

Sir Steve, we can feel how eager you are to have this added in your plan. And much as we would like to offer this in your area. Please understand that there is a process we need to follow so we have this offered in your area.

I understand there is a process but as a customer why can’t you tell me what the process is?

If I knew what was going on then I could accept it. I take it you are not going to give me the telephone number that I asked for? How would you feel if every time you went to the car shop and asked if your car was ready they just told you that there was a “process” to go through and they would notify you in due course?

I then turned to the Messenger app in Facebook –

Messenger Dialog

Our apologies for the inconvenience you’ve had, Sir. This has already been relayed to our concerned team and we are still waiting for the update. We are also looking forward to have that available in your area soon. We’ll surely get back to you Sir as soon as we receive a feedback from our team. Thank you.

Thank you for a reply but that is exactly the response I had from @SKYserves in Twitter and received yet a further 3 times since July 2015.

Please give me the telephone number of senior management in your company and I don’t want to speak to a customer service manager as I am getting nowhere talking to customer service. @SKYserves is a joke. You are not serving the interests of your customers.

Our apologies for the inconvenience, Sir. You may contact our customer care hotline in Bacolord [sic] at (034)4320051 for further assistance. Thank you.

Thank you for the response. I plan to call the Bacolod “customer care hotline”, however, what makes you believe that Bacolod will be privy to the information I seek when you at Sky Cable Head Office are unable to help?

I then received this notification from Facebook on Messenger –

Sky Cable

This message was removed because the app that it’s being sent from is blocked from sending messages.

Yes, that’s right. A large company that uses Facebook, Twitter and Messenger to communicate with its customers uses an app that is blocked by Facebook and Messenger!

My response to the blocked message –

Your reply was blocked by Facebook. This is the FB message –

This message was removed because the app that it’s being sent from is blocked from sending messages.

Can you please send me your reply to my email – stevexxx@xxxx.com

Thank you.

I received the same blocked message once more in response to my last message –

This message was removed because the app that it’s being sent from is blocked from sending messages.

So undeterred, I sent this message –

I know you are doing your best to be helpful but I am sure you can understand my frustration. I received the same message from you at customer service several months ago.

Why can’t someone ask the programming department for an answer then communicate that answer to me?

Surely you have inter-departmental meetings when this could be raised?

It seems like this is a fairground ride just going round in circles non-stop!

The Messenger response from SKYcable was this –

Sky Cable

We understang, [sic] Sir. However, we are still waiting for an update from our programming team, Sir. Once update is given, we will contact you as soon as possible.

Write a reply…

 

Now, where have I heard that before? No use flogging a dead horse with SKYcable as clearly the people who work in @SKYserves are not people at all, merely robots!

So, two avenues left – Bein Sports and the Barclays Premier League.

I discovered that Bein Sports is a bit like the CIA in Langley, Virginia – impossible to penetrate! There simply is no contact information!

I have now contacted the Barclays Premier League.

Merry Christmas!

 

 

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