It is how bad they can be when they’re bad

I used to dish out this advice. ‘’It is not how good they are when they are good, but how bad they become when they’re not’’. I used this piece of advice around relationships. When the perfect one turns sour, how does the spouse then act?

But today I am applying this to my relationships in other areas – Sky Sport Now in particular. I’ll start with the good. Fantastic to be able to sign up for just as long as one wants, without having to take out a year’s subscription. There were weekly and monthly offers available. Luckily, I read the fine print and noticed that the monthly packages automatically renew. As I only wanted Sky Sport for the World Cup Rugby, it was time to cancel my subscription. Firstly, I went to my Sky Sport Now app, clicked on account, then subscription, only to find a message, ‘licences unavailable’. I would have to do it another way. My preference is to talk to a person. I phoned Sky, only to be told they had nothing to do with it, I would need to go to the website. Found this and saw a note that they did not have phones, one would need to email. Really? So, I emailed and several hours later received a mailer demon, which I noticed was after the chat sessions had ended. So, I dug a bit deeper, which involved finding my personal account on their website. Luckily, once again, I remembered my password and which email address I had used to create that account. Once there, the process was relatively simple and I received an email telling me the subscription was now cancelled along with a feedback form of which I explained my concerns. There were a couple of other issues but I will definitely do this again, perhaps for the Commonwealth and Olympic games.

My next problem is with the company I used to print my first book. They are great when they are taking one’s money, but not so when it comes to answering phones or getting royalties paid. I messaged them some weeks back but didn’t receive a reply. I phoned yesterday, held on for 21 minutes and 16 seconds, before I received a voice message telling me they couldn’t answer and to leave a message. ‘’Someone will call you back.’’ Nobody did, instead I received the dreaded email telling me to outline my concerns. I will do this today. I have read other people’s questions, in particular, asking when royalties will be shown from sales of books from other outlets. I know I have had Amazon sales, for example, yet no sign of these on my royalties page. I have also seen their reply, telling the people to contact Amazon directly, which I actually might do before I contact this crowd. But surely, shouldn’t they be the ones doing the contacting if they have the account with Amazon?

As I say, its not how good they can be when they are good, but how bad they can be when they are bad. It seems that companies deliberately make things as difficult as possible to opt out of, but easy to get into. Perhaps a marketing ploy, but I would far rather see ethical practices. What is wrong with aiding people to get what they want rather than what the company wants? The world will never change until companies and people themselves change. Greed and money shouldn’t be the bottom line always.