Foxtel Digital Subscribers

[Lidge]

I signed up for the Platinum package last night to have all of the bells and whistles in place for the new season.

This morning I received the confirmation and and nearly choked on the cornflakes...install date Monday 12th July!!

FFS - 15 rounds will have been completed by then

Is anyone else out there experiencing the same delays.

<not happy Jan>

 

[Zeke]

Hang that for a joke, I was considering getting it - but not if I have to wait that long...

 

[ozzult]

Must be extremely popular.

 

[Joel]

Lidge, get to the back of the line. If you called up last night, then no wonder you have to wait to then. We called up about mid Feb, and were supposed to have an install done last week, however, they cancelled that and put us back until May.

This is pretty much old news to the people who tried to sign up a while ago.

 

[dr nick]

Originally posted by ozzult
Must be extremely popular.

i think all the installers went on strike.

 

[Joel]

Originally posted by nicko18
i think all the installers went on strike.

...and demand was more than they expected.

Checkout this thread re Foxtel Digital: http://www.bigfooty.com/forum/showthread.php?threadid=103375

 

[mighty mick]

for more info read this and more on whirlpool

strike details and delays

i dont think demand has been so great its more of a matter of contractors knowing when they can hold people to ransom for more pay.

dont be fooled by interactive footy also. its only on selected games and seeing most friday night and saturday night games are on free to air they will not be included.

too pricey for the same regurgitated crap. except for live footy that is.

half way through last yr, telstra offered early retirement packages to thier own staff cable workers causing more of these delays as they are now left with a couple of cable laying gangs and the rest are contractors. the season may be over before you get your cable,

 

[mighty mick]

just tried to find out when i could get digital connected to my place, the first two calls i presume ended up in thier indian head office as the people couldnt speak english and the quality of the phone call was as broken up as if they were on the front lines of the iraqi war,

i finally got through on the third attempt and was told that i would possibly get a connection in july

apparently if you had shown an interest in digital and requested to have foxtel call you back when digital became available, (as foxtel themselves had requested you too), this service was discontinued early in the piece because it was to time consuming for them

i suppose july is not too bad considering what others have said there waiting periods are

 

[Danni]

I wouldn't be surprised if your install dates were changed to dates much earlier than they have said so far.

Joel, the general gist of things seems to be that those missed out were given a date in May (like I was), but from what I've heard most ppl are then re-rescheduled to 2- 3 weeks from their original date. Failing that, ring foxtel and get them to agree to a free install & get your workorder number, then ring the contracting companies direct with your workorder number see if any of them are in your area soon and then offer the installer the $50 cash you would have orginally paid foxtel. It seems to be working for some.

For those booking now, accept the date they give you and use the 1300 number to call them back every couple of days to see if a vacancy has come up. They are currently traning more installers each week to try and clear the backlog. Unfortunately, even though they are advertising in every major newspaper (and have been doing so for several weeks), there just aren't enough ppl answering the ads to make it a quick and easy solution.

 

[mighty mick]

my other query is how will my adsl be affected, as the phone line in my room where the digital box would be has my adsl connection on it, you know the line that the digital box would also need to be connected too.

i have heard mixed reports on the effects to adsl speed, ive assumed a filter may not be enough.

 

[Joel]

Thanks Danni. Foxtel rang again today and said that they will do it on the 12th of May. I will consider doing what you said to do. I've also heard about the free installs, so they better give us one.

 

[rizzo]

foned up last week, weve gotta wait till the 20th of may

 

[year of the roo]

For those who have actually got it, is it any good? Give us the low down!

 

[robbieando]

Originally posted by year of the roo
For those who have actually got it, is it any good? Give us the low down!

At the moment the only real benefit I'm getting is the improved picture and sound quality. Channel wise the new ones are good additions and the timeshift channel are very handy as well. I find having the 7 day TV guide on the Digital system an improvment over what we had. However News Active isn't that great, the 8 screens in it are too small and the headline news stuff they have hawked is just useless. Sport Active is great as well and after using it last Saturday for the NRL I can't wait to use it for the AFL.

Remember those who have got it now and will get in the next 6 months have jumped in on the ground floor, in a year to 18 months time the whole set up will be fanastic.

 

[Ray Nolan]

Originally posted by year of the roo
For those who have actually got it, is it any good? Give us the low down!

I had it put in on Monday (only had to wait 2 1/2 weeks!) and I'm really happy with it. My only complaint is the screens in News Active being too small, there should be a way to enlarge them. Apart from that, no complaints.

 

[The Passenger]

apparentally the waiting list is going up by 3 days every day.

that's what they said when we rang up.......

 

[year of the roo]

Wow, you just confused the hell out of me Robbie. First you say this:

Originally posted by robbieando
At the moment the only real benefit I'm getting is the improved picture and sound quality.

But then you list all these other benefits:

Originally posted by robbieando
Channel wise the new ones are good additions and the timeshift channel are very handy as well. I find having the 7 day TV guide on the Digital system an improvment over what we had. Sport Active is great as well and after using it last Saturday for the NRL I can't wait to use it for the AFL.

So from what you've said, everything is all good except the boxes are too small on the News Active. Is that because you have a small TV screen? Or are people with big screens finding this a problem as well?

It's a pity about all the delays it's having, sounds like it is worthwhile knowing that it will only get better!

 

[mighty mick]

great to hear the feedback, good and bad.

but can someone who has adsl on the same line as the digital box connection to the phone line tell me how the adsl has been affected.

if at all

 

[Tinker]

At least you only have to wait til May! Here in Canberra, my husband rang the day the lines opened for bookings and we can get it til 26th NOVEMBER!!!! A friend rang last week and got booked in for July 2005....


In the meantime we will continue to deal with very late night replays and continual coverage of the Sydney Swans......too bad I follow Essendon and my husband Richmond......not to mention poor old North Melbourne who utilise this city as a 2nd home and cant get TV coverage!!!!!!

 

[mighty mick]

for those with the anolougue service and who watched freo vs carlton. did you get as much picture break up as i got in the last 15 minutes of the game

 

[LondonCalling]

I'm going to go all Geoffrey Wigand here and give you the low down. (Any Russell Crowe fans here will get that reference)

This morning I received the confirmation and and nearly choked on the cornflakes...install date Monday 12th July!!

You've done well, mate. Whoop Whoop in WA are waiting till October.

just tried to find out when i could get digital connected to my place, the first two calls i presume ended up in thier indian head office as the people couldnt speak english and the quality of the phone call was as broken up as if they were on the front lines of the iraqi war,

We only have offices in Melbourne and Sydney, mate. However, we do seem to have quite a few English challenged operators, which disturbs me a bit, and yes, we were having phone problems for all of that week, quite a pain in the arse.

Failing that, ring foxtel and get them to agree to a free install & get your workorder number, then ring the contracting companies direct with your workorder number see if any of them are in your area soon and then offer the installer the $50 cash you would have orginally paid foxtel. It seems to be working for some.

There is no way in hell you'd get a free installation based on one cancellation at this stage. If you were ****ed around 3 times, yes, a discount would apply, but at this stage I've been informed that free installations are pretty much the last resort.

For those booking now, accept the date they give you and use the 1300 number to call them back every couple of days to see if a vacancy has come up.

Thank you, Danni. Makes life much easier when people take the trouble to do it themselves, quite satisfying too when people ring up with a scheduled appointment for October and we get them in for next week. Theres just too many inconvenienced at the moment to cater for all individually.

my other query is how will my adsl be affected, as the phone line in my room where the digital box would be has my adsl connection on it, you know the line that the digital box would also need to be connected too.

i have heard mixed reports on the effects to adsl speed, ive assumed a filter may not be enough.

We have been receiving reports of a drop of speed of roughly 10kb. A quick call to our tech support team fixes this up.

A friend rang last week and got booked in for July 2005

****, I can't stress this to my team enough. If the date scheduled comes up with a 2005 calendar, it represents a "dummy" calendar and that we can't guarentee a time frame and someone will be in contact to advise when they'll be in the area next. Yet for some reason, our rocket scientists continue to advise customers we'll see them at March 6 2007......

In closing, Fox Digital is ****ing ace. Yes, I think there should be more games a week being given the Sports Active treatment, however that just isn't possible at the moment, but will become a reality in the future. The games channels, addictive, but expensive, but I don't for them, so I don't mind.

Well worth the wait.

C.

*** - The opinions left in this message represent the views of user, CammoAU, not that of Foxtel or any of it's parent companies.