Sky call handler sacked after hanging up on customers

We may all feel like putting the phone down on colleagues or annoying callers from time to time.

But a senior sales caller at Sky was sacked for doing just that. 

Lorraine Hunter, whose job it was to listen to customer complaints, repeatedly told callers to wait for 'just a second' and then hung up on them, a tribunal heard.

Ms Hunter, who worked for Sky for more than 30 years, then tried to blame technology troubles but did not realise the calls were being recorded. 

She claimed she had been unfairly dismissed at an employment tribunal but lost after it emerged 'hanging up on a customer' was listed as potential gross misconduct in the company's rulebook.

Lorraine Hunter only took around five calls a day, it was heard. Pictured, stock image of woman working a call centre. 

Ms Hunter then took her claim of unfair dismissal to an employment tribunal in Edinburgh but Employment Judge Michelle Sutherland said Sky was entirely reasonable to dismiss her

Ms Hunter had been employed as a Customer Priority Specialist at Sky Subscriber Services Limited since 1995.

She would deal with high-profile or high-value customers, resolving issues and addressing changes to their contracts.

Ms Hunter only took around five calls a day, it was heard.

Sky's Customer Contact Guiding Principles, state 'providing the best customer service in the country is at the heart of everything we do'. 

It goes on to say 'if you are talking to a customer and the call is disconnected for any reason, as long as you've got a contact number to return the call, you should always call the customer back as soon as possible, apologise for the disconnect and carry on with the inquiry'. 

Examples of behaviour that may constitute gross misconduct include: 'hanging up on a customer and not calling the customer back.' 

However in November 2024 an investigation was launched into Ms Hunter after an incident led managers to believe she might be doing just that.

Agents' phone calls were recorded and stored so they could be listened to in full for the investigation.

Seven phone calls were identified in the records which appeared to be prematurely disconnected by Ms Hunter.

Disconnecting a call requires a 'two-step physical action' and is unlikely to be done accidentally.

The first of these calls, from July 25 2024, lasted just 13 seconds before she hung up, and while Ms Hunter could not be heard on the recording, the background noise from the office could.

She claimed the reason she did not immediately call back was that she must have dialled the wrong number - but she ended up successfully calling back a whole two hours later.

The second call was internal - from another agent - to transfer a high priority customer to Ms Hunter.

When the other agent asked Ms Hunter to 'wait a moment' she said 'okay, thank you' - before hanging up.

The third call was from a customer explaining their signal from Sky was intermittent.

Ms Hunter claimed she could not hear the customer but hung up just two seconds after saying 'hello'.

The fourth call did register that there were technical issues before Ms Hunter hung up, but she did not call the customer back once these had been resolved, as was proper. A fifth call involved an 'irate' customer who wanted to attempt to cancel his contract with Sky.

Ms Hunter asked him to 'bear with me a second' before placing him on mute for a minute - and then disconnecting the call entirely.

She claimed she had not done so and that the only reason she had not called back was that she did not have his number. The customer called back to complain that he had been hung up on.

The sixth call identified was from September 2024, when Ms Hunter called a customer to put through their order.