John duly sent an email to Sky, attaching Helen’s death certificate.
Things took a bizarre turn with Sky’s response.
After introducing themselves, asking how John was, and apologising for the delayed response, a customer service worker’s letter soon became a mangled mess of words, including mistaking Helen for a man.
“The Sky appears more profound as we express our sorrow for the loss of Helen Clelland and extend our heartfelt condolences to his family,” says the letter.
“I would like to inform you that your cancellation request has been processed, and I have forwarded your case to our retention team for further action.
“Please be aware that there may be additional cancellation charges associated with this request. It will respond within 24 to 48 hours. Take note that the policy for cancelling the account is a one-month process.”
The letter concludes by offering to help with any further inquiries, before signing off: “Ng? mihi nui. Thank you very much.”
When John Clelland posted the response on a Sky TV customer complaints Facebook page, the reaction was swift.
“Insensitive and unprofessional”; ”disgusting”; “appalling and offensive”, wrote various respondents of Sky’s position.
“Firstly, so sorry for your loss. And secondly, that is a shocking reply,” said one person.
“They are terrible at customer service,” said another.
Another respondent said the same thing had happened to her when her mother died 14 years ago. “They asked me to bring the decoder into the store. I was ‘mmmmm no, I’ll send it’ and ‘No, we are not paying the last month’.
“They said we will send it to Baycorp [debt collection]. I laughed so much. I said ‘Good luck with that, I don’t think the Pearly Gates have a letter box’.”
What happened?
Several respondents questioned whether the letter to John Clelland was an AI response that went wrong.
Was it indeed that or even a possible scam?
“I’m not deeply offended by what happened … it’s just I couldn’t believe the lack of quality in their response,“ said John Clelland.
“It was quite odd, to the degree that I thought I had somehow responded to a scam or something. That’s how bad it was. It was like, ‘What are they doing?’
“Even the fact that they said, ‘Oh, and our business retention team will get in touch with you’. It’s like even if somebody passes away, they’re still going to try and keep you connected… maybe they do that, but they don’t have to state it in a response.
“Once again, didn’t bother me; I just found it amusing.”
Sky TV, which has apologised to John Clelland, has confirmed it was indeed a human response.
Several commenters pointed out that Sky now operates an overseas call centre, and that the response might have come from a person for whom English is not their first language.
John Clelland later updated his Facebook post to say it was not a race issue, but more a training and communications issue that “other organisations seem better at responding to currently”.
He is more bemused than upset. “I’m more, ‘Sky, get your act together. That’s just not good enough’.
“When you are finalising a loved one’s existence, money is the least important thing. I have dealt with multiple ‘suppliers’ for Helen’s affairs and everybody else was extremely professional and they are clearly well-trained in these circumstances.
“But this Sky response made me almost laugh in its multiple levels of incompetence, from meaningless phrases, to misgendering a dead person, and not quite being able to type a Māori phrase properly…
“I would also add that not all the responses to my post hit the mark as is usual in these circumstances, as a lot of people infer what they want to infer.
“This to me is not a race thing, in our daily lives we are surrounded by people of all cultures and it has been no different over the last few weeks.
“Everybody has been beautiful and kind, and the communication has been nothing more than excellent, except for this one very weird response.”
Sky’s apology
Sky has been quick to respond, with its head of customer service contacting John Clelland. The company has told him it will refund any charges.
“The response provided to Mr Clelland falls short of the standard we expect, and we sincerely apologise for his experience,” said a spokeswoman.
“Unfortunately, in this instance, information was included in the response by a customer service representative that doesn’t reflect the care and sensitivity we aim to provide in situations like this.
“We have a specialised team who aim to handle these matters sensitively and according to the needs of the individual customer’s circumstances.
“We are reinforcing clear expectations with our team about how to handle accounts related to bereavement to prevent this happening again.”
She said Sky’s head of customer service had reached out to John Clelland “to personally apologise and ensure his needs are addressed appropriately”.
Sky also explained that the “ngā mihi nui” was spelt correctly but can sometimes show up with a question mark if a software update needs to be made.
John Clelland has accepted Sky’s apology.
“I always knew Sky would do the right thing in the long run in these circumstances, but I’ve dealt with quite a few suppliers since my sister’s passing and everybody else got it right, pivoting to a softer and professional response very quickly,” John Clelland told Sky. “I know you will fix this.”
And he told the Herald: “I don’t think this is an isolated situation necessarily, but I also think that they’ll probably get their s*** together and sort things out on the basis of it. I’d be surprised if they didn’t.”
Editor-at-Large Shayne Currie is one of New Zealand’s most experienced senior journalists and media leaders. He has held executive and senior editorial roles at NZME including Managing Editor, NZ Herald Editor and Herald on Sunday Editor and has a small shareholding in NZME.
