I literally cannot wait for the day when my life is in a hum-drum routine that is dull dull dull. If you are a regular reader of my blog (or have had any conversation with me in the last 6 weeks) you know all about the problems I have had with moving in to my new house. Well, let the trouble continue.....
I went out and bought (amongst other things) a new TV with the proceeds of the sale of my old house. It is a lovely 40" LCD HDTV. Now, in order to actually enjoy the HD part of the TV I have to get an HD receiver box and subscribe to a service that includes HD channels (such as digital cable or satellite).
So, on Friday afternoon Valerie and I played hooky from work (if anyone from IBM reads this, we actually went after a complete work day filled with lots of productivity LOL) to go and buy a Shaw HD receiver box so I could enjoy digital cable including the HD channels. Valerie has a similar system which I really like so I thought it would be a good choice.... I bought the receiver box, took it home and had the WORST time setting it up. Valerie said she was able to set hers up with no problem at all so I was getting more and more frustrated that I couldn't figure out how to do it. I ended up calling Shaw support and it turns out that there really is no way for me to set up the HD box with my current set up (I have a DVR box that I use for recording but the HD box can't send a signal to both that and my TV so I can either watch the TV OR record something but every time I want to switch from one to the other I have to pull out cables from one device and put them in the other - totally unacceptable).
So since I could not get the digital cable to work I looked into satellite with Bell but wasn't happy after my phone call with them. The guy I talked to really lacked customer service skills and was not very helpful at all. So I decided to give digital cable another try by going to Future Shop to see if they had any cable splitters that would help me set everything up. The salesman tried a few things but his best solution was to buy $50 worth of cable splitters and couplers which would end up compromising the sound.
That wasn't a great solution so he suggested going with Starchoice satellite. He personally vouched for how great Starchoice was. They have great customer service, knowledgeable tech support, and great service bundles (channels) to choose from. Okay, he talked me into it. So I decided to give them a try. The salesman said all I had to do was purchase the receiver then call their toll free number and installation would be arranged and would be free. Hey, this all sounds great... I'll buy it!
Then we went to Shaw so I could return the useless HD receiver box that I bought yesterday. But when I said I wanted to return it they said "all sales are final so no returns allowed." Wait a sec... I just paid $450 for a box that is useless to me? Not only is it not compatible with my components, it doesn't even work (I was able to view the channels but not the guide that comes with them). All the Shaw person could suggest was talking to her supervisor on Monday morning - which I will definitely be doing.
So I went home and read the manuals for Starchoice. They all said don't plug it in until all the cables are connected. No problem, I'll just call for installation then I can hook everything up. I called the toll free number and....... 50 minutes later there was still no answer!!!! I heard "Your call is very important to us. Someone will be with you shortly" over and over and over and over and over! It was crazy! I should have hung up sooner... an hour is FAR to long to be on hold. And this is supposed to be their great customer service? It made a pretty bad first impression with me.
So what do I do? I still have the useless Shaw box to return. If Starchoice service includes being on hold for an hour before I can talk to a tech then that's no good to me. Am I doomed to have a great TV but only an analog signal for the rest of my days? ARGH!!!!! It has been VERY frustrating!!!! All I want to do is watch Law & Order in HDTV... is that asking too much?????
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2 comments:
We have Bell ExpressVu, and although the customer service sort of comes and goes, we are really happy with the service. We have a PVR box which can record shows for us too, but I don't know if we have to watch the show being recorded or not.
That royally sucks. I've got regular old cable and a 10-year-old TV. I like TV a lot so occasionally I think about upgrading to a better system, but stories like this always convince me to stick with the basics. I'm sorry to hear this has been such an ordeal. :-( As if all the hassle and lost furniture from moving wasn't enough.
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