If you’ve been reading my blog for a long time, you’ll probably remember my rants about Charter Communications when we lived in the States. When we got here, we signed up for Foxtel since they seemed to have the best deal that included a DVR (foxtel iq). We got a fairly full package – we wanted our movie channels and lots of rugby.
It wasn’t long before the ability to order pay per view movies went out. With our package we were supposed to get 2 a month free. We usually forgot, but we ordered a handful before the connection stopped working.
Today I finally called to see if they could help. Not only do the pay movies not work (the only way to order them is thru the box over a phone line), but a lot of the recordings have failed. I could understand if the box was under heavy load, but these were single recordings with the box recently rebooted.
The other problem has been the remote. We use the dvr so much the button to access the recorded shows has almost stopped working. In the
States, your remote is considered part of the equipment the cable company provides (barring mistreatment). They told me I’d have to purchase a replacement at the estimated cost of $60 or so. It’s not like I could use it for anything else. (and thankfully I’m enough of a geek to take it apart and clean it – working better now).
The first time I called and punched through the recorded options – the recording told me they would reboot my IQ and then hung up (this was without any question of what was wrong with it). I had to call a second time to get a person (they have you enter your phone number so they can tell if you’ve called back right away). Foxtel has obviously outsourced their help desk. I talked to 2 people and could barely understand either of them. They had me run through all the trouble shooting steps I’d already taken. In 3 weeks they’ll send someone out to verify the unit is broken. Too bad there isn’t a way to back up our recorded programs or settings. (in the States we had a Tivo and they have a PC extension and you can connect it to your home network). Maybe I’ll ask the technician if we can get credits for a few movies.
I'm sitting here reading this listening to Linda complain about Charter (she's switching to AT&T U-Verse), while I'm also waiting on CommCast repair guy... my cable has been out all week and finally came back on after they told me I only have basic (I'm supposed to have expanded and paying for that and high-speed internet access). But, the TV goes in and out, even on basic channels. Now they want me to pay an extra $57/month plus franchise fees/taxes and all to even get expanded. And, I can't get SciFi OR Logo without paying extra AND renting their box for another $10 a month.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the warning. I'll stay away from FoxTel, if I can. I've already depleted my stash of phone-manner karma credits on Telstra.
ReplyDeleteI've posted about my own problems with Telstra as a provider of Foxtel. These companies are shocking to deal with.
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