Tag Archives: Multichoice

Deukom Sweet Service and ZDF movie ‘Verschollen am Kap’ Sour Service Awards

The Sweet Service Award goes to Andrew Cowie of Deukom, who was very efficient in assisting with an upgrade to the Premier Smart Card for the German Bouquet, a process which had been most frustrating to sort out via Multichoice, a company which must have the worst call centre in the country!  Not only did Andrew get the signal sent, but he also followed up telephonically and by e-mail to see if all was working, and helped to get a second smart card set up for the same Deukom subscription.  Andrew helped cut through the ‘Germanness’ and bureaucracy of dealing with Deukom, being British but speaking a good German.

The Sour Service Award goes to ZDF and its screening of a two-part thriller ‘Verschollen am Kap’ (Lost in the Cape) on Monday and yesterday evening.  Clearly based in Cape Town, and filmed in the city centre, the 3-hour movie did not show any beautiful scenes of the city, and would be a major tourism deterrent for Cape Town, the movie implying that the public water supply could be poisoned, that Cape Town only has criminals living there, especially those with darker skin colour, that one can be tortured in Cape Town, that our city is not safe for young people, and that our hospitals are unsafe in that anyone can walk into a ward, dressed as a doctor, and inject a patient with a poison!  One wonders how the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) could have funded this movie, and how permission was given by the City of Cape Town and the Film Commission for filming such a tourism-damaging movie about our city!  The first part of the thriller was seen by close to 4 million ZDF viewers on Monday, on Germany’s third largest TV station.  TOP Productions and Media Film Services were local film companies involved in the production.

The WhaleTales Sweet & Sour Service Awards are presented every Friday on the WhaleTales blog.  Nominations for the Sweet and Sour Service Awards can be sent to Chris von Ulmenstein at info@whalecottage.com.   Past winners of the Sweet and Sour Service Awards can be read on the Friday posts of this blog, and in the WhaleTales newsletters on the www.whalecottage.com website.

Deukom Sweet and Multichoice Sour Service Awards

The Sweet Service Award goes to Deukom, the German TV subscription service in South Africa, which has informed its subscribers that it will not be increasing its subscription rates for the next year, a commendable move, given that it has never held rates before, and that Multichoice is increasing its rates.

The Sour Service Award goes to Multichoice, which once again is increasing its DSTV and M-Net subscription rates, by 6 % from this month, despite continuous criticism from its subscribers about the repeats that the subscription TV service flights on its channels. 

The WhaleTales Sweet & Sour Service Awards are presented every Friday on the WhaleTales blog.  Nominations for the Sweet and Sour Service Awards can be sent to Chris von Ulmenstein at info@whalecottage.com.   Past winners of the Sweet and Sour Service Awards can be read on the Friday posts of this blog, and in the WhaleTales newsletters on the www.whalecottage.com website.

Multichoice Sweet and Deukom Sour Service Award

The Sweet Service Award goes to Pondy and Pindy, two very efficient Customer Care ladies working for Multichoice in Cape Town..  Both of them were efficient and friendly in sorting out a customer account problem, surprising given the size of the organisation.  Pondy was happy to reverse an Excess charge, which had not been agreed to, without question

 

 

The Sour Service Award goes to Deukom, the German TV channel distribution company, which has restricted working hours in the evening, especially over weekends.    Most Deukom customers would be watching TV after 9 pm, and any problems with the Deukom TV service will have to wait until 9 am the following morning.  One is invited to leave a message, and one is promised a call back.   Last Sunday, only one person was working in the Call Centre, and one had to hold for 20 minutes until the call was answered, after having been cut off once already.    The lady on duty made it clear that she was annoyed at being the only person working.   The message left on the answering machine the night before was not returned at all!

 

The WhaleTales Sweet & Sour Service Awards are presented every Friday on the WhaleTales blog.  Nominations for the Sweet and Sour Service Awards can be sent to Chris von Ulmenstein at info@whalecottage.com.