misc (7 out of 7)

Sky stole £50 from me

Here is my tale of trying to get it back.

£50 isn't a large amount of money to a massive organisation like Sky. But for me, it's two to three weeks food, or a train ticket to visit my mother, or about half of my Christmas shopping (yeah alright, I'm not very extravagant with that sort of thing).
Following is an account of how a relatively small mistake on their part, which I thought was resolved well and quickly, then led to an agonising four month back-and-forth of:
a) Lies

b) Broken promises

c) Incompetencies

d) All of the above.

May: Attempted cancellation

I messaged through Help & Support to cancel my broadband and phone line, because I was going away a lot over the summer and it wasn't worth keeping it on. I was told it was sorted. I went to Australia for a month.

June: Apparently failed cancellation

I got back to Edinburgh and discovered I'd been billed. I turned on my router to see if I'd managed to mess up the cancellation myself, and saw no sign of broadband. So the services were cancelled, just not the billing.

18 July: Good customer service

I finally got round to contacting Sky about my bill; by this point I'd been billed for July as well.
I spoke to a couple of people on the phone who made me feel like it was my fault, then finally to the lovely Rachael who dug deeper, discovered a human error had occurred as a result of (we think) the two ways of writing the first line my address: 2F2 35 or 35/5. As a result, I had two account numbers... one had the services I guess, and one had the bills. It was very confusing, but once we found the two numbers Rachael properly cancelled my mysterious second account, and very kindly applied £50 credit to make up for the overbilling. I was told to contact again in a few weeks to initiate the refund process.

16-26 Sept: Being blown off

I tried several times to contact customer services via help tickets to ask for the refund but got told (by a human, not an automated error message) there 'system error' with my bill, or something totally unhelpful (telling me something I didn't ask about) in response.

29 Sept: Actually, no

I'm told the £50 credit can only be spent on Sky services, not refunded directly to a bank account.

29 Sept: I damn well disagree!

I protested the unfairness of this, since I have moved somewhere with an existing broadband provider and actually probably wouldn't be going back to Sky after all this even if I had a choice...
I was told that actually they can refund it after all, and I should expect it in 48 hours. I pointed out that I'd heard this before. I was told not to worry, it'll be fine! I relaxed.
48 hours later... no refund.

Social media

Throughout September and October I started tweeting about the problems. I liked to do things like compare Sky's customer service to that of Virgin Mobile (who have done wonderful things for me from time to time). I hoped 'public shaming' might speed up a resolution. I got encouraging responses from the social media team at Sky, who actually seemed to care (which is their job, I suppose) but really I only ended up opening more tickets and talking to other advisors in the end.

21 Oct: A change of tune

Following another help ticket chase up, I'm told credit was incorrectly applied in the first place, and has been removed. I'm not exaggerating (just paraphrasing) when I say this was done "for reasons".

21 Oct: You what?!

Oh, hey guys, how about... no? I didn't just suffer through months of torment for you try to tell me the only competent member of staff I have spoken to was actually incompetent after all!
So I had a very long live chat to William (I think; I've named him, because he didn't leave a follow-up note like he was supposed to) who "carefully reviewed my account" and agreed with the verdict that the credit was incorrectly applied. I protested. He "carefully reviewed my account" some more, and then said he could see that an explicit reason was left for the application of the credit to my account in the first place... so it should have been there after all! Yay.
He said it would be refunded to my bank account in 78 hours. I told him I'd heard this before. He said not to worry, it'll definitely be fine this time.
Guess what.

31 October: It wasn't.

So far, no refund, no re-application of credit to my bill, and not even an update to my help ticket about the conversation. It was like it never happened. I stupidly didn't think to copy the chat as evidence, although I assume they have a transcript of it somewhere.

1 November: Hope

I DMed the social media team a bit, and scheduled a time to live chat with one of them, directly. While I waited, I typed out a timeline of everything that happened so far so I could paste it straight to them.
Three quarters of an hour later, I have hope once more following a chat with the most human member of Sky customer services I have spoken to so far.
He found actual reasons for things that had been done for "reasons". For example, my initial refund was never successfully issued because goodwill credit must be issued as a cheque, not a bank account transfer, so Finance just rejected it. A silly rule, but that's the way of it. (In my case the response was just to not issue it though, so Finance can't even follow their own silly rules).
I'm still not entirely sure why the credit was totally removed though, or why on my bill its removal shows up as a charge for Sky TV.
He treated me like a person by not making vague promises, or holding back particularities of how the organisation works. He told me he believed I should be receiving a refund based on what he knew so far, but he'd have to talk to his manager. He talked to his manager, who agreed. But he didn't then just tell me everything would be fine. He told me it still might get rejected by Finance (for "reasons", I presume).
What he is doing is speaking directly to someone in Finance to get a cheque sent out. He's manually changing my address to make sure the cheque goes to the right place, and he's going to get in touch with me again on Wednesday night to let me know what the progress has been.
I asked him what the next step is if Finance reject the refund request, and he implied threats of violence. (NOTE to Sky managers who might read this: I don't believe he meant he would really commit violence on the Finance team. He was doing his job well and using humour to relieve me whilst promising he would make an effor to follow up).
He also gave me permission to verbally abuse him if he doesn't get in touch on Wednesday night. I appreciate this sentiment, though it's unlikely I'll get into capslock territory with this guy any time soon. I would tweet a gentle a reminder of course.

6 November: The Wednesday follow-up

I got a Twitter DM with a link to a live chat... After just under an hour of waiting in a 'queue' for the live chat I had to leave, and DMed @SkyHelpTeam back to ask if they'd let me know when there was someone there, so I wasn't waisting my time refreshing a page. They responded and sent the details to my MySky help tickets instead. And the result?

A cheque is in the post!

Please allow 28 days for it to arrive.

I sure hope that's true. And that it's coming to the right address. I might send a letter to my old flat, just in case. So I guess I'll update in 28 days whether or not it actually arrived. I'm hopeful, but they've promised me that money is on its way in x amount of time before...

Conclusions

If your problems aren't fixed immediately, pester the social media team (@SkyHelpTeam). Get everything in writing, record every conversation, keep track of dates, names of customer service people, and what you were promised. Don't give up. For every semi-competant and sympathetic customer service person, there are four or five lazy/useless/uncaring or possibly even malicious ones. Just keep trying, and you'll get through eventually...

Recommendations for Sky

Following my unfortunately extensive experience with Sky help ticketing, I'd like to make a few suggestions for its improvement.

Tickets should be marked as resolved by the customer. I have so many tickets that I don't consider to be resolved, sitting in my 'resolved' tickets column.
I should be able to reply to tickets. I post a request, I get a response that is marked as resolved that I don't agree with. I then have to follow up by opening a new ticket, which inevitably goes to a different person, and I end up going around in circles.
If I'm taking the time to type out messages to you, it probably means I don't want to talk to you on the phone. It doesn't matter why. Take the time to write messages back. (Related: telling me it's free to call customer service on a Sky line is really unhelpful when I'm trying to contact you about a recently cancelled Sky line. The fact that I never physically had a landline phone, line or no, is irrelevant here).

🏷 http://vocab.amy.so/blog#Done http://vocab.amy.so/blog#Done customer service life misc money rant sky

Fri 1st of November 2013 at 3:26pm (Z)

Last modified: Thu 7th of November 2013 at 2:58pm (Z)

Autobiography

I magicked Autobiography to my Kindle, but I haven't started reading it yet because I'm worried I'll cry from beginning to end due to the sheer beauty of the prose.

I'm looking forward to a spectacularly written yarn, designed explicitly to incite scandal and speculation.

I'll read it as fiction and fantasy, inspired by, but not based upon, real events.

I might relate too much, or regress back to my teenage years. I think I'd enjoy/despise it best shut away from the world until it's over; always the case with the first listening of a new album. I don't know when I'll have time or understanding of peers for that. I'll try to schedule a few days. Maybe I'll run away to Kerrara for a weekend on my own.

🏷 http://vocab.amy.so/blog#Todo http://vocab.amy.so/blog#Todo book lame misc reading

Sat 19th of October 2013 at 12:36pm (+00:00)

I touched my toes!

I touched my toes in yoga today. It happened in the heat of power yoga, and I didn't think I'd be able to do it cold. But I can! That's my goal for the end of the year met then..

(This may sound trivial, but I have short hamstrings, and anything that involves bending in the middle and straightening my legs at the same time I find extremely difficult. This the main thing I'm aiming to overcome with yoga).

Another first from today was binding without help in a spinal twist. I managed to do this again at home an hour later, too.

And I've noticed that going into Chatarunga between sets of postures has become a reprieve, a chance to catch my breath and rest for a second. Chatarunga is essentially holding yourself in the middle of a pressup, and when I started this class that was not something I could do, or ever though it might be a good idea to do; with the fast pace of the class, it was easy to collapse down onto my chest and skip over it. But over the past few weeks as I've got used to how the class progresses I've slipped into doing the Chatarunga properly - or as properly as I can without having time to stop and think about it - and not having trouble at all. I just tested that theory at home, and held myself in it for a good ten seconds.

I haven't seen such fast progress in any of the other yoga I've done. This class is exciting me, and filling me with hope.

It's taking a toll on my wrists though. By the end of the semester, they'll be strong :)

🏷 http://vocab.amy.so/blog#Doing http://vocab.amy.so/blog#Doing exercise misc self-improvement yoga

Mon 14th of October 2013 at 4:20pm (Z)

Last modified: Mon 14th of October 2013 at 4:20pm (Z)

Yoga progress

I haven't blogged about yoga yet, but now seems like as good a time as any to start.

I started yoga-ing towards the end of 2012, with on-and-off classes at the Commonwealth Pool, then joined two beginner classes (with very different teaching styles) in January that ran for a semester as part of Edinburgh Council's Adult Education Programme. I was hooked, and since the start of this semester I've been doing four classes a week:

Monday is Vinyasa 'power' yoga, one of the classes held by the University's Yoga Society. It's fast, sweaty and intense, and I'd never have been able to handle it - or enjoy it - as a complete beginner.

Tuesday is a really relaxed beginner class running this term through the University Chaplaincy, mainly for relaxation. Great for the final hour of the 24 hour recovery from Monday's class.

Wednesday and Thursday are post-beginner Adult Education Programme classes, in Cameron House Centre and Nelson Hall respectively, with one of the teachers from my first semester of regular classes before the summer.

But what I really wanted to say, is that today I got myself into a full backbend unassisted (the last two weeks I've had help) and got substantially closer to reaching my toes with a straight back than I ever have before.

Go me.

(I definitely have shorter hamstrings than is normal, and my main aim with yoga is improving on that).

🏷 http://vocab.amy.so/blog#Doing http://vocab.amy.so/blog#Doing exercise misc self-improvement yoga

Mon 7th of October 2013 at 2:32pm (Z)

Last modified: Mon 7th of October 2013 at 2:32pm (Z)

Cujo

Blew.

My.

Mind.

🏷 http://vocab.amy.so/blog#Done http://vocab.amy.so/blog#Done book review misc reading

Mon 30th of September 2013 at 9:36pm (Z)

Last modified: Mon 30th of September 2013 at 9:36pm (Z)

Angel of Death (J. Robert King)

I have a thing where I can't not finish reading something. There's a very short list of books I never finished, and they all date from when I was about 8 to 13, and are because I was to young to follow them or too young to bear them, and just haven't got around to picking them up again. They haunt my subconscious.

These days I feel I have to get at least half way to have given it enough of a chance, and once I'm past half way I feel I might as well finish it.

By the time I had wrenched my way through the first half of Angel of Death, I had started to come round to it. By the end I guess I'd enjoyed it in some ways.

What I struggled with through the first half was the erratic jumping between persons and, worst of all, tenses. You experience one character's perspective in first person present tense (something I dislike anyway), plus second person directed at another character. And sometimes past tense. Other perspectives were usually third person past tense. I guess I got used to it, but if someone had told me before I started that it was written in this way, I probably wouldn't have picked it up.

I'm starting to figure out that I prefer character-driven narratives. This is the pattern with things I've enjoyed lately, anyway. The premise of Angel of Death was kinda interesting. But the characters were utterly flat and often behaved unbelievably or in a very contrived manner, given how they'd been set up. It was all tell and no show. THIS IS A BAD EVENT IN HER TROUBLED PAST, OH BOY, NOW YOU KNOW HER MOTIVATIONS. Totally wasn't enough.

The twists and turns throughout are, I suppose, well done. The reader is convinced of the state of the world and, just as you're absolutely certain that that's the way it is, you're being convinced of the opposite. This happens not quite enough to feel like an indecisive cop-out, but isn't far off.

There's gory horror, but it feels appropriate and not over-done. Kudos.

If there were deeper levels of meaning or metaphor intended, which I suspect they might have been, I missed them.

Conclusion: meh, don't bother. But if you've got nothing else to read, you could do worse. If you want my copy you can have it, get in touch.

🏷 http://vocab.amy.so/blog#Done http://vocab.amy.so/blog#Done book review misc reading

Mon 30th of September 2013 at 9:27pm (Z)

Last modified: Mon 30th of September 2013 at 9:27pm (Z)

Advice: willful misunderstanding, and audience as individuals

Picked up on some great advice during an afternoon-long course entitled 'How to do an Informatics PhD' a couple of weeks ago.

All through my undergraduate, and probably High School as well, I was told that when writing assignments I should treat the person marking it as if they don't know anything at all about the subject. They're stupid. Leave nothing unexplained. Of course, we were often also told to 'keep things concise' and usually had to do this under the constraints of page or word limits.

Problematically, some people could have interpreted this as an opportunity to try to pull the wool over their marker's eyes, or baffle them with science. Typically, the marker will know something about the subject, so that's probably not a great tactic.

I see where this advice comes from of course, and a couple of weeks ago I heard it phrased in a different way, that makes far more sense.

The examiner will be knowledgeable about the subject, but given to willful misunderstanding of what you're trying to say.

I think that gives a much better guide to how and when to explain things. And also makes them more of an enemy to be conquered, than an inconvenient fool to be deceived.

And whilst I'm recounting advice I like, here's something that has stuck with me since 2010, from my manager at Google at the time.

When presenting to a large audience of people, don't think of them as a crowd. Think of them as many individuals. Make your presentation as you would to a single person. It just so happens that there are lots of single people there all at the same time.

Since letting that sit in my subconscious, nerves before giving a presentation have shrunk to negligible levels. It may be that over the past two years I've become more confident anyway, but I used to be thoroughly terrified of standing up in front of even a classroom of people the same age as me. I wouldn't talk out in lectures for the most part of my undergraduate, and harbored a gut-wrenching fear of being picked on to answer a question. As did most people, I imagine.

I make sure to actively observe how I feel when watching someone else present. I look at other people in the audience too, and note the attitude and techniques of the presenter. (Consequently I probably leave having no idea what the presentation was about). The results are usually that a majority of people aren't listening properly. A vast proportion certainly aren't angrily judging the presenter's every twitch. Things people notice and get upset about include:

If they can't hear you.
If you're just reading off slides, particularly if you try to act like you're not.

That sure is a short checklist of things to avoid. There must be more that can go wrong. Reasons people will stop listening, include:

If they can't hear you.
If you're just reading off slides, particularly if you try to act like you're not.
If they're not interested in what you're talking about. (Pro tip: _make _them interested).
If you're not making any sense at all.
If your slides are more interesting than what you're saying. (I really like presentations without slides. So long as the speaker is engaging, of course. Slides with lots of words are a definite negative, in my book though).

And some of my personal nitpicks include:

Drawing attention to a mistake by apologising for it. From being on both sides of this situation, it usually feels right to do so at the time, but until you do, four fifths of the room won't have noticed, and the fifth that did will forget within the next few seconds. Point it out, and everyone will remember.
- If you say something wrong, just correct yourself and move on (but don't leave it uncorrected, this is usually noticeable).
- If it's a technical problem, keep talking whilst it gets sorted. This boils down to not relying on technology to keep your presentation interesting. I am aware that there are some situations where this is impossible.
Weak intros and outros. I've been guilty of both of these. I plan to pay more attention to upcoming talks in order to fix this. It's something I always forget to notice. But for now:
- Starting with filler words, like 'So, ...', 'Right then...' or 'Okay, ...'.
- If you've been introduced, you don't need to repeat it, especially not in a way that draws attention to the fact you're repeating it.
- Make it clear when your talk is done. Don't trail off with '...and that's that then.' 'Any questions?' is usually okay, but only if it follows a distinctive final sentence. Jumping to that from what feels like half way through a paragraph is a bit rubbish in my head, but in all honesty will probably go unnoticed by the audience. Except me.

Fortunately, my days of feeling agonisingly self-conscious whilst presenting are long gone. On top of that, I find doing as little 'rehearsal' as possible boosts the natural fluidity of a presentation, and in turn my confidence. If I haven't rehearsed, there's nothing to forget to say (and suddenly forgetting what comes next is the _biggest _killer of flow, something I discovered during French oral exams). That only works if you're very familiar with the subject matter. And if you're not, you probably shouldn't be presenting about it.

Disclaimer: I'm very early in my academic career, and haven't presented a whole lot. The biggest audience I've talked in front of was about 120. Despite the theory, I suffer from having neither a naturally loud voice, nor a naturally beaming expression. So all round, I'm probably not very good.

🏷 http://vocab.amy.so/blog#Doing http://vocab.amy.so/blog#Doing academia advice essays misc phd presentations presenting

Wed 28th of November 2012 at 12:40am (Z)

Last modified: Mon 1st of April 2013 at 1:49am (Z)