KEY POINTS:
A recently-widowed Hamilton woman was reduced to tears by a Sky TV marketing ploy that threatened to kill her husband's associates.
The woman, in her 70s, received a letter from the broadcaster's customer service department after she had the extra channels cut off following her husband's death.
The elderly widow received the letter six days after burying her husband and seven days after cancelling the Sky subscription, The Waikato Times reported.
The letter read:
"We've just heard that you're thinking about cancelling your subscription to Sky. Why? Maybe you've found someone else to share your spare time with!! . . . Who?!!! . . . We'll kill them!!!"
Then, the letter said: "We'd love to talk this over. Call us. OK?".
The woman's daughter, Megan Wheeler, tried to contact the person named on the bottom of the letter, customer services manager Amanda Bremer. Ms Bremer was unavailable at the time, so Ms Wheeler wrote her a letter.
The manager later emailed Ms Wheeler, apologising and saying the letter was no longer being sent out.
Ms Bremer said she and her department were "shocked" and "appalled that we could have been so thoughtless in sending such a document".
- NZPA
