Setanta Sports

At the beginning of the 2007/08 season I subscribed to Setanta. This was partly because I hate myself for getting Sky, and partly because Everton featured in a couple of early games. However with the AFL season over the content wasn't really worth £10 a month, so I decided to cancel.

I telephoned Setanta (during normal office hours), and pressed the necessary buttons to get through to SATELLITE CUSTOMERS > EXISTING CUSTOMERS etc. Having only rung twice a recorded message told me that they couldn't take my call and I should phone back between 9am and 9pm. I sent an email to customer services saying that I was unhappy that I couldn't get through to someone, and I wanted to cancel. The response acknowledged that it was hard to get through but I could only cancel by phone or by post.

I do appreciate that it can be difficult to contact us by telephone due to the high call volume we are experiencing,

I telephoned again, and once more hit a pre-recorded message telling me to phone back later. This was also during the postal strike, so I had no means of cancelling the policy. I instructed my bank to cancel my direct debit, and sent the following email:

I am finding your customer service totally unacceptable. I attempted to cancel by phone and have called your customer service department yesterday and today. On both occasions a recorded message told me that all operators are busy and I must phone back later. Together with postal strikes it seems that you're saying it is impossible to cancel my subscription.

I have cancelled my direct debit on account of the difficulty I am having  in contacting you.

Finally, today I managed to get through to someone, who informed me that my subscription hadn't been cancelled and I had to give 30 days notice. He asked me a number of questions (Why do you want to cancel? What sports do you tend to watch?) without realising that I was unhappy with them, so why would I provide free marketing research? Unfortunately I was unable to cancel without giving a reason: "I don't wish to provide a reason" was unacceptable. Hence I said "I've changed my mind about subscribing", purely to be permitted to cancel.

Evidently my billing date is the 1st November, so the representative informs me that my final payment will go out then, and the subscription will end in a months time, on 20th November. But hang on a minute - if i'm paying for a months viewing, why won't I get it? I assumed that as long as I give a minimum of 30 days notice I would pay the next months charge, and receive that service. Apparently not - I have to give a minimum of 30 days notice, and that is also a maximum notice period unless I want to pay for a service I don't receive. I have to cancel on the precise day of my billing date. This means that you can't cancel by post (unless you can predict the exact day your letter will get processed, and you can't cancel by phone (since their "high call volume" means that on some days they just don't answer).

Whinge over.

Comments

[Jim]

I like the way your very next post solemnly informs us of "the power of the free market economy to continually deliver better quality at a lower price to more of us."

[aje]

This is a bizarre comment. The purpose of this category, "shit service", is to point out that markets deliver sub optimal outcomes from the perspective of individual consumers.

As it turns out, since writing this post Setanta has gone bust and I've switched to an alternative provider that is indeed better quality and lower price. Football matches are sold on a collective basis and there's clearly monoposonisitic practices. But I can watch the full 90 mins of every Everton match this season, compared to growing up when we'd be "The Big Match" maybe twice a season. I for one think that's a good thing (but then again for me watching on TV is a complement to live matches).

So I don't see a contradiction at all. Markets are a creative process. I'm not one of those economists that argue every market outcome is efficient. I just think they have a tendency to produce better outcomes than alternatives, precisely because disgruntled customers are able to exercise their voice and exit.

[Jim]

The problem with the 'markets are best, yay' line is that leaves out the inconvenient fact that it is a mixed system combining markets with selectively interventionist government that has proven most effective at delivering prosperity around the world. Radically reducing the role of government, as you would like, would leave more of our lives, including the more essential bits, open to the Setantas of this world, which is not something to be casually embraced.