BYE BYE SHITANTA SPORTS

I'll openly admit that I was thoroughly delighted to see the demise of the UK arm of this utterly shithouse Pay-TV broadcaster, alongside their even more-shithouse customer service operation.

I was never best pleased they'd purchased the broadcasting rights to the NRL and Origin games a couple of years ago because that meant I had to shell out an extra £15 per month on top of my overly-expensive monthly subscription to Sky Sports.

Setanta began by broadcasting 3 live NRL games a week and that included pre-game coverage from Fox Sports Australia or Channel Nine whose presentation is generally far superior to the usual boofhead in a studio that Sky UK used to trot out pretending to know a lot about Australian Rugby League when the trotted-out boofhead in question actually knew feck all and was incapable of discussing any aspect of the games broadcast beyond applying the usual cliches and fatuous comments.

What pissed me off the most was being offered a deal by Setanta to subscribe, which consisted of agreeing to a minimum 12 month contract where the first 3 months were £10 pcm, followed by the remainder of the contract to be charged at £15 pcm. I was politely assured that this was a fantastic deal. I should have known better though. Within a couple of weeks of signing up to Setanta, they suddenly began offering their service at £9.99 pcm with no minimum contract.

I was on the blower fairly quickly to register my disapproval at the package I was on and I politely asked to be switched to a no minimum contract at £9.99 pcm as a gesture of goodwill on their part in return for my long-term and satisfied customer subscription status. Their customer service turned around and basically said 'Tough shit! You signed up to a 12 month contract at the terms and prices earlier specified. We intend to hold you to that contract!' I then banged on about my customer rights and the 14 day cooling off period where I could change my mind about their service but they were very quick to point out I'd subscribed 16 days ago, so again 'Tough shit!'.

At that point, I gave in. I'd lost the argument. They'd got me! However, it was hardly the kind of customer service response that was likely to endear me to the company and so I agreed that I'd continue to fulfil my 12 month contact, but I also pointed out to them that at the end of that 12 month contract, I would be looking forward to ditching the bastards for good. Twelve months later, I diligently waited for Setanta to take the final 12th monthly direct debit from my bank account and then immediately cancelled the direct debit payments. What followed were incessant phone calls and threatening letters from Setanta claiming that my direct debit was no longer working and that I owed them money, to which I continued to maintain that I'd fulfilled my 12 month contract, that they could go forth and multiply, and that I look forward to the day when they go bust. I'm not quite sure how I could owe them several months subscription payments anyhow, since they'd switched me off within 2 weeks of the direct debit being cancelled.

In more recent times, Setanta's coverage of the NRL games had become pretty ordinary and often reduced to just the solitary one game per week broadcast, and without any of the previous pre-game presentations. Edited highlights of German Bundesliga soccer games from the previous week were considered more important to broadcast instead of a live NRL game.

Well they have gone bust now and my opinion is?

Good bleedin' riddance and not a moment too soon! :-)