Jon Duffy: Consumer NZ CEO on Sky's satellite issues causing headaches for viewers

More and more Kiwi households have noticed an increase in broadcasting issues and disruptions - and the provider has offered up an explanation.

In a recent update for investors, Sky confirmed it had accelerated plans to move from its current Optus D2 satellite to a new satellite after Optus revealed it would die earlier than previously thought.

Consumer NZ CEO Jon Duffy says they've seen a significant number of customer complaints as a result of these disruptions.

"What we're seeing causing frustration is - people are contacting Sky, they either can't get through or they can't get a reasonable answer to their questions, and that is just doubling down on the pain that they're feeling."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Frame Bridge.

Speaker 2 (00:01):
Just gone ten after four News Talk said, b if
your Sky TV signal has been a bit rubbish recently,
if you've noticed that on the tally, I've got a
possible explanation for you. Sky's long serving satellite is on
its way out, so they're migrating to a new satellite
in May. But until then, the old Optis D two
is what they call it has been put into an

(00:22):
inclined orbit to save fuel in its final days. In
the meantime, viewers all over the country are apparently having problems.
Nobody from Sky was available to come on the show
this afternoon. John Duffy is the CEO Consumer. He's with
me now, John, Good afternoon John.

Speaker 1 (00:37):
Can you hello? Hello?

Speaker 2 (00:38):
John? So who's having problems? What have you heard?

Speaker 1 (00:43):
Well? Customers are having problems. Ultimately, it seems that Sky's
the satellite this Sky is leasing from Optus, is getting
towards the end of its life. It's not performing as
it should be, and customers are bearing the brunt of
that through a degraded service.

Speaker 2 (01:03):
I guess how many customers have contacted you.

Speaker 1 (01:08):
We've had more than normally. Don't have the exact amount,
but a significant number enough for us to notice at
least that this is an issue, and what.

Speaker 2 (01:16):
Exactly are they saying? Does it cut out and then
come back in or does it just cut out and
they can't get anything?

Speaker 1 (01:23):
Yeah, it varies between customers, So some people will be
will not have have a frozen kind of piculated image
for a period of time. Others it's intermittent so that
all you know, that situation will appear and then come
back and then go again, which is equally as frustrating.
But I think the biggest frustration that we're getting expressed

(01:43):
to us is how poor Sky's customer service has been
in helping customers who are trying to work out what
to do. I think, you know, in fairness, dis guys,
everybody understands that technology is fallible, and every now and
again the service is going to go down. Sky's terms
and conditions, you know, make that really clear that they
rely on satellites and therefore you can't expect one hundred

(02:06):
percent service one hundred percent of the time. What's happening.
What we've seen causing frustration is people are contacting Sky.
They are they can't get through or they can't get
a reasonable answer to their questions and that is just
doubling down on the pain that they're feeling with the
lack of services they're getting.

Speaker 2 (02:21):
It's annoying, isn't it. So what should they do? I mean,
if your Sky goes out for a minute or two,
do you what? Do you get a discount? What should
they be doing?

Speaker 1 (02:30):
Well? Sky's terms and conditions says that they're not liable
if there's kind of minor interruptions to the service, and
I think you know that that is reasonable. You don't
necessarily get a refund if the bus is ten minutes
late because there's traffic or something like that. That's reasonable.
But where we have sustained failure to provide the service
that people are paying for, we think actually the Consumer

(02:52):
Guarantees Act comes into play here and that either Sky's
satellite has to be deemed not fit for purpose because
it account deliver the service that's required, or Sky is
an exercising reasonable care and skill And these are both
kind of different actions under the Consumer Guarantees Act. Not
exercising reasonable care and skill in providing its service to customers.

(03:14):
People are paying for something, they have a right to
expect that that thing will be delivered at least most
of the time.

Speaker 2 (03:20):
John, thank you very much for that. That's John Duffy
Consumer New Zealand.

Speaker 1 (03:24):
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