PR Hell: Multichoice's Clinton van der Berg

No, I told you that BBC and CNN were on.

Well, I'm sure you're happy because Ruda Landman is on Sundays and the Boereorkes Kompetiesie channel is to your liking too. Then again you're so easily pleased, their logo in HD must make you excited.

County bumpkins in 3rd world countries are so happy about NoChoice, only because they've never been to Europe or US to see what real Pay TV should be like.

No not really I am still searching for alll that wonderful Japanese Anime pron that excites you so much.

So only You were overseas? Where Japan? Stop bitching as those overseas channels are not available here and the MC technical team have to do with little monetary resources after the BEE management squandered all the cash they earn on Mercedes Benz's.
 
No not really I am still searching for alll that wonderful Japanese Anime pron that excites you so much.

Why bother? All those starlets on NoChoice produced soapies should be enough for you.

So only You were overseas? Where Japan? Stop bitching as those overseas channels are not available here and the MC technical team have to do with little monetary resources after the BEE management squandered all the cash they earn on Mercedes Benz's.

If you witnessed overseas TV you'd be embarrassed over NoChoice. BEE management has nothing to do with this, MIH has sucked from Day 1, just that they're the only one around.
 
This sucker (v.d. berg) should remember that WE are paying his salary. I will b cancelling at the end of this month
 
As I've said in the past, I would never complain about the service itself. I think that considering they have no competition in South Africa, we're lucky we get the services we do for the price we pay.

However, it's Clinton's attitude and response that frustrates me. And instead of simply saying, "I'm sorry, I was having a bad day," he keeps making things worse by continuing to support his initial blunder.

The fact remains that regardless of where you get your feed from, it's unacceptable to tell your subscribers to complain to that source directly. If you are my service provider, I'm going to take up service queries with you, not your 3rd party providers. They have nothing to do with me and that's what we were trying to explain to Clinton.
He took this as a personal attack on himself and Multichoice as a whole, thereafter making a sarcastic offer that we, the paying subscribers, come to the offices and show them how it should be done.
Sincere or not, that response is entirely uncalled for. (And lets be frank here, the abrupt tone of the post itself left little doubt as to whether or not there was any real sincerity in the offer.)

All of this would just go away if Clinton just came out and said:
What Clinton SHOULD say said:
"You know guys, I was wrong to tell you to talk to the SABC directly. We are your service provider and I should have understood that from the outset. Ordinarily I provide a useful contribution to the website and this was one of the few occasions when my response was out of character. When confronted, I became unreasonably defensive and for that I apologise.
I can not explain my actions and I certainly don't condone them so I hope that we can put this behind us now and move on. I promise to be more mindful of my responses in future."
 
.(And lets be frank here, the abrupt tone of the post itself left little doubt as to whether or not there was any real sincerity in the offer.):

Very good "hearing" I see :D Is it not rather what you saw or envisaged in Your mind? Your "tone" did not go across that well either! If I was Clinton I would have banned you the first day.
 
I don't get this MC Fanboyism. Since when is it not okay to give your opinion on a service you pay for? Does that mean we all should get banned because we have a "tone" in our posts?

As a paying customer I would at the very least expect professionalism from my service provider, not getting banned and accused of having a negative attitude because some idiot told me to do the job I pay him for.
 
To be honest, I reckon Penguin is one of the MC forum mods, if not Clinton himself.
It's the only answer that makes sense since he's the only one who:

a. Is behind Clinton and his attitude.
b. Keeps finding completely irrelevant points to make.
c. Focuses on everything OTHER than the topic at hand.
 
Very good "hearing" I see :D Is it not rather what you saw or envisaged in Your mind? Your "tone" did not go across that well either! If I was Clinton I would have banned you the first day.

As a matter of interest "tone" doesn't only have to be used with "sound".
Perhaps if you did a little bit of research before simply following your own obscure train of thought (which predominantly turns out to be inaccurate), you'd learn something instead of consistently just trying to show how clever and witty you are.

Just as an added reference:

tone  [tohn] toned, ton⋅ing.
–noun
15. a particular style or manner, as of writing or speech; mood: the macabre tone of Poe's stories.

Click me for more proof: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/tone
 
Latest email from Multichoice:

Multichoice said:
Dear Mr Schoonraad

Thank you for your e-mail. We apologise for the delayed response.

Our records indicate that Dumisa Mgudlwa posted a response on Hello Peter yesterday regarding the concerns that you raised. This e-mail is also with reference to the matter regarding Clinton van der Berg.

We have communicated with Clinton regarding your feedback and he has confirmed that the information that he provided was correct and honest. The feed for the particular test match that you are referring to was provided to us by the SABC. We therefore had no control over that picture quality as the content was broadcatsed as it was provided to us.

Please also note that the SuperSport HD channel is still in the test phase. Taking this into consideration, we are working to ensure that the challenging areas will be sorted out before the official launch later this year.

Please note that we have various methods of correspondence whereby we invite our customers to get in touch with us. The language and style used in the selected correspondence method differ by virtue of the type of forum that you choose to use. One of the more informal forums is the DStv forum. This forum gives customers a chance to inter-act on various issues and we also participate in accordance with the manner, style and tone used on the forum. The communication on this forum is normally very casual and direct in an effort to provide quick and efficient resolutions and also to enhance robust debate.

In light of the information provided above, we apologise for the misunderstanding and we welcome your feedback. You may contact Clinton directly on the e-mail address previously provided by him if you prefer.

We hope the above is in order.

Kind regards

Ntope Letlhake (Mrs)
Customer Liaison Management
 
To which I responded:

My Response said:
Thank you for your response.
I would like to raise the fact that although the information provided was factual in that the feed was provided to yourselves by the SABC, that does not detract from the fact that firstly, the Supersport logo itself was also of equally bad quality (I assume the logo was not also provided by the SABC?) and secondly, it is bad business practice to inform your customers to go to your content suppliers for answers. As consumers, we pay you for a service and therefore the onus is on you to answer any questions raised about said service.
If I called Telkom to ask why I was have telephone problems, they wouldn’t refer me to Cisco if their exchange hardware was at fault. Surely this logic must make sense to you.

Although I understand that the Supersport HD channel is still within a test phase, this information was never made available to the public prior to Clinton’s post. As per the official DSTV website, the channel has already been officially launched. Your website only stipulates that it will soon become a 24 hour channel, not that it is currently still being tested.
Had Clinton mentioned upfront that the channel was still being tested and that he would look into resolving the issue surrounding the reasons why the feed provided to yourselves was of a low quality, there would not have been this much of an issue.

I am not the only person who feels that his candour was dismissive initially and subsequently sarcastic as can be seen by the excessive number of posts/complaints on multiple forums online.
The only difference is that although many people are unhappy with his demeanour, I am the only person who lodged a formal complaint, which I did on request of multiple forum users.

The DSTV forum may be a less formal means of communication and this is always taken into account when posting ourselves and when regarding the posts of Multichoice representatives but Clinton did not simply use casual speech when responding but was altogether too flippant and outright rude in his response. He has used casual means of communication in the past and this is the first time that his responses have created this kind of outcry so that alone clarifies that there was something wrong with the manner in which the information was provided.

I do understand that Multichoice consists of a close-knit group of people and has a family atmosphere amongst its staff as my company has a similar approach to employee interaction. It makes sense that as such, Multichoice feels the need to protect their own and stand by the actions of their employees. We, the forum members simply want some form of apology from Clinton for his blatantly obvious lack of etiquette regarding the incident. We understand that occasionally some people have off days and say things that come across the wrong way but on those occasions, it’s only ethical to admit to the above and make an apology for the way it was perceived, whether done intentionally or inadvertently.

This is an incident that should never have escalated to the level at which it currently has. Surely Multichoice as a company can understand our frustration that not only was an apology not offered up but a secondary post was made inviting your unhappy customers to come and show you how it should be done. Although the invitation may have been made in all sincerity, the tone in which it was delivered felt sarcastic and undermining, a fact which is clear, if you read the post yourself along with the multitude of responses thereafter.

I think a sincere apology on the forum is a small price to pay, considering the current status of this incident. This is all the users really want and I feel we at the very least deserve it.
 
Point made........I think going forward you should conserve blood pressure.

:D
 
An apology was finally released by Multichoice.
Not from Clinton directly, and also completely contradictory to the replies I got from them prior to this (as can be seen in the post I made just before this) but heck, I guess an apology is an apology, whether or not it was a copy/paste response.

Multichoice said:
Dear Forum Members

MultiChoices acknowledges concerns that have been raised by forum members regarding the response by MC SuperSport re: Quality of sports programming on the M-NET HD channel.

In complying with company policy, employees are required to treat all parties (internal and external) with dignity, integrity and respect and to communicate courteously and to take care to be helpful, fair and open.

MultiChoice regrets any forum posts that may have been contrary to our business code of ethics. We value constructive feedback and comments and assure you of our continued commitment to provide excellent customer service.

regards
MC Fathima
I guess this is the best we're going to get and I suppose I'm grateful somebody at least took the time to consider the possibility of posting an apology instead of spending the next few weeks having to deal with me.
 
That letter you wrote was well scribed. it brought a tear to my eye.
 
well semi-serious. it really is a well crafted letter. if i were to creft a letter, i would want it to be like that.
 
Ya very well written Kheiron. You have a command of the english language. All thats left is to slash Clintons tires...:p
 
To be honest, I reckon Penguin is one of the MC forum mods, if not Clinton himself.
It's the only answer that makes sense since he's the only one who:

a. Is behind Clinton and his attitude.
b. Keeps finding completely irrelevant points to make.
c. Focuses on everything OTHER than the topic at hand.

What a joker!

See you were chased there for the exact same attitude! You sound more like a spoiled ... , never mind
 
Come on boys, play nice. The problem is resolved. :) Although I thought Clintons response was wrong, It definitely didn't merit some of the replies it received.
 
Come on boys, play nice. The problem is resolved. :) Although I thought Clintons response was wrong, It definitely didn't merit some of the replies it received.

Sanity prevails. Nice job there Mavado. I wish all can be so dedicated and mature about issues. That's the only way forward.

Good luck!
 
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