ASA Adjudication on British Sky Broadcasting Ltd

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An online sales promotion for Sky TV stated “£50 M&S vouchers for you and your friend when you introduce them to Sky TV … Simply follow the 3 simple steps below to invite your friend to join Sky TV. We’ll reward you each with the gift of £50 M&S vouchers when your friend has joined Sky TV. For you both to be eligible for this offer, your friend needs to join Sky TV by 3 March 2009. You can benefit from this offer as many times as you like. For each and every new customer that joins Sky following your referral, we’ll give you each £50 M&S vouchers. 3 steps to introducing a friend 1. Confirm your gift & enter your friend’s details 2. Preview your invite email 3. Confirm your email address We’ll send an email to your friend inviting them to join Sky TV. When your friend has joined Sky TV and paid their first subscription we’ll organise the delivery of your gift … Terms and Conditions Introduce a Friend offer: Only available by following the steps set out on this website and not by any other means e.g. via a retail outlet … Vouchers sent within 30 days of receipt of first subscription payment from new customer provided existing customer’s account is active. Existing customer must remain an active subscriber to qualify …”.

Issue

55 complainants challenged whether the promotion had been conducted and administered fairly and efficiently, because despite fulfilling the obligations assigned to the offer, they had not received their vouchers within the designated timeframe.

CAP Code (Edition 11)

Response

British Sky Broadcasting Limited (Sky) said they had offered the Introduce a Friend (IAF) promotion, or variations of it, since 2003 and it had proved very popular with customers.  They said, towards the end of 2007 they started to promote the offer more widely and, as a result, an increased number of customers had taken advantage of it.  They disclosed the number of offer participants to the ASA.  

Sky explained that the basic premise of the offer was such that, by offering an incentive to existing customers, typically either Marks and Spencer (M&S) vouchers or a discount on Sky equipment, they encouraged a friend to join Sky TV.  In addition, Sky currently offered an incentive to the new customer when they joined.  Sky said the offer was only available via their call centre or website and in order for it to be successful, the customer accounts of both the new and existing customer must be matched to ensure that the terms and conditions of the offer had been complied with.  Since receiving complaints about the offer in 2008, Sky had conducted an investigation, which had highlighted some issues whereby customers' details were not registered correctly or in exactly the same format as they were held on the Sky system.  As a result, it was difficult for Sky to rectify the two sets of customer accounts, which led to one or both parties not receiving their incentive within 30 days of activation of their Sky TV account.  Sky said at that time, fulfilment of the offer and customer services were outsourced to a third-party company.  

Sky said, since then they had developed and improved the IAF process.  They said they had moved all customer services back to Sky and made significant developments to their data management systems, which were completed in October 2008.  They said the principal improvement was that new and existing customers were correctly matched on the database at the point of sale and their in-house customer relations team were able to identify more effectively issues or handle complaints, because they had direct access to the customer database.  In addition, the operation of the offer had been handled by a Sky in-house team, who had ensured that the IAF offer was resourced appropriately to meet demand and, due to the length of time the offer had existed, could accurately predict its likely take-up so that stock levels of the M&S vouchers, for example, were in adequate supply.  

Sky explained that, with regard to the complaints made to the ASA, they had identified a number of reasons why those customers had not readily received their incentive.  These included incorrect registration, failure within the data transfer system and ineligibility.  They said the Sky operations team had identified the issues in each case and would take action to resolve each one where necessary.

In summary, Sky accepted that a number of issues had arisen in respect of the IAF offer. However, they wished to reassure the ASA that they had developed appropriate systems and processes to ensure that the offer would be administered effectively.  They said, in all cases, they had sought to deal fairly, quickly and honourably with customers and it was never their intention to disappoint.  They said it was regrettable that some customers felt that their expectations had not been met, but when the overall number of customers was examined, only a very small proportion, as reflected by the number of complaints, had been dissatisfied.

Assessment

Upheld

The ASA understood that a number of issues had arisen since the IAF promotion was introduced, which had led to some consumers not receiving their incentive in a timely manner.  

We appreciated that, in cases involving ineligibility, the consumers' disappointment and failure to receive their incentive was due to the terms of the offer not being met by the consumer.  We noted other circumstances, however, such as internal systems failures or errors within Sky's call centres, which were the responsibility of Sky as the promoter of the offer, had led to customers not receiving their entitlement.

We recognised that a large number of consumers had successfully taken advantage of the offer since its inception.  We also noted the significant developments Sky had made, once they were made aware of issues that had arisen as the promotion grew, in order to prevent future disappointment.  Furthermore, we noted Sky had honoured the promotion in all cases as swiftly as possible, having been notified of complaints.  Having assessed Sky's response and evidence, we considered that the complaints we received related to the administration of the offer, but we were satisfied that Sky had satisfactorily estimated the likely response of the promotion and that they were capable of meeting that response in terms of the provision of the number of vouchers required.  

Despite the improvements Sky had incorporated in the administration of the IAF promotion, we were concerned that the terms of the offer stated "Vouchers sent within 30 days of receipt of first subscription payment from new customer ..." which, unfortunately, Sky had not been able to meet for a number of customers.  We concluded, therefore, that the offer had not been administered satisfactorily and had caused unnecessary disappointment to those consumers.        

The sales promotion breached CAP Code clauses 27.3 and 27.4 (Sales promotion rules) and 31.1 and 31.3 (Administration) but did not breach 30.1 (Availability), 31.2 (Administration) or 34.1g (Significant conditions for promotions - availability of promotional packs).

Action

Ads for the sales promotion should not continue to appear in their current form unless Sky are able to demonstrate that the offer will be fulfilled within the terms specified.

Adjudication of the ASA Council (Non-broadcast)