Most of us have been on the receiving end of appalling customer service. There are few things more annoying than having to navigate long-winded phone options and phone queues, then to be transferred from pillar to post in an overseas call centre hoping you will finally get to speak to a competent staff member.

This was how my call to SKY customer service began last November. I had been a loyal Sky customer for six years until I moved to a new home six months earlier and a Sky engineer confirmed I could not get Sky as there was no access to a satellite dish throughout the building. I therefore cancelled my account.

Several months later, I began receiving “Come back to Sky” offers with free months and free channel deals. And although their Marketing team considered me as a lost customer, they were still drawing direct debit funds from my account. When I called to request a refund, I was put on hold for 30 minutes before being put through to a rude service rep in India who refused to credit my account. I spoke to two more supervisors who were no less incompetent.

Now, it is not often that a company will refuse to provide their service then charge you for it while asking you to come back. I would imagine Sky would get away with this on many occasions.

But thanks to the Internet, I was able to find emails for their executive team. Within the same day, I received a response from their “Director for People” who apologised and promised to sort it out. This was followed by an email from their “Service Excellence” Consultant who promptly refunded my account and questioned why the Sky engineer had not done the installation as they had done for other customers on my street.

It was all too late.  I had not only switched to their competitor but also told about 50 other people about their incompetence when it came to service.