How do you get competent support from Brighthouse?

[mbbrumm]

With the advent of Digital OTA programing I have not use a cable company for several years before moving to Ocala FL. I am now 70miles away from the transmitters and need to use Brighthouse for reception.

I have 2 Qam digital sets and a Media Center PC all hooked to the cable without a set top box. However Brighthouse has been moving all kinds of programming in and out of unencrypted QAM and do so without notice. For the last 3 mos. I go TBSHD and History HD. This last week they are gone along with WRBW 65.1.

I call and email Brighthouse and can not find anyone who knows anything about what is really on the wire. They always start out by telling me I have to have a cable box to get HD which is totally wrong and illegal if it was true. They want to send out a technician every time they get something they don't understand.

How do you get through to someone who really knows something? I am tired of having to teach their tech support people how to spell QAM. I need to know what to expect from the service and when it is going to happen.

[stevenl]

Well BHN does not sell you a "Unencrypted QAM service" So if they move channels to and fro, its not affecting a service you are paying for. Its not illegal for them to encrypt their channels. Hd or not, local or not.

If you would like the HD channels Id recommend subscribing to the Cable Card or a box, and paying for them. A few channels will show up now and again but its not permanent nor did they sell you that service.

[jcarrera]

...I call and email Brighthouse and can not find anyone who knows anything about what is really on the wire. They always start out by telling me I have to have a cable box to get HD which is totally wrong and illegal if it was true. They want to send out a technician every time they get something they don't understand.

He didn't say that their changes were illegal. He said that if he had to get a box for HD--THAT would be illegal (implying the BHN people should know that and not be telling him the untruth).

.How do you get through to someone who really knows something?

You didn't answer his only specific question.

I need to know what to expect from the service and when it is going to happen.

And this seems to summarize his gripe, along with people on the phone who don't know squat, have standard (wrong) responses, or want to send a tech for a non technical issue because they don't know squat.

[stevenl]

Welcome to the world of call centers... You can replace BHN with any company and have the same gripe. Its sad it really is.. But they are low paying jobs, that people with little to no tech knowledge get because they can "talk to people" well.

Cable card or Box would be the only way to get HD from BHN. They were not lieing they just forgot the Cable Card part. BHN does not have a plan for you to just "get hd" from the cable. You need some device a card or box to get it from BHN. I took him as implying it would be "illegal" for BHN to encrypt their channels. If I read you wrong sorry.

I have to agree completely on the "sending a tech for no good reason" I once was that tech who had to goto peoples house just to give "Customer Education" It really gave me a bad impression of the call center reps and even to this day their is always a "fued" if you will between field ops and call center ops. I gave up the fight along time ago though because you cant win it. I will go work the phones if they want to match my current salary but I highly doubt that will fly with them.... So until then the call centers are stuck with people whos job is to "answer your question to the best of THEIR ability, or visit the BHNU website to find the answer, if not listed or they cant figure it out send a tech to your house."

[jcarrera]

Or perhaps BHN could set up a call center operation that served the people...like having an "elevation" option for non-technical questions--so you could get to someone who really knew what they were talking about.

Or is BHN saying there is no one there who knows what's going on?

And I think there is an obvious observation here that the training of the call desk people is inadequate.

[stevenl]

They should have a tier system (They do on the HSD side) where they can send you to the more "Knowledgeable" CSRs But the question he asked is not first on the list of the "Training Manual" They are trained that if customer wants HD they need a Box or a cable card. BHN does not send them "clear qam" if you will. Some channels do get through that way, but its not because BHN wants you to just pick them up. So the CSR told him what they know. That if you want to get HD you need a Digital Box (or a card which she/he forgot to mention) Otherwise you cannot receive HD services from BHN. They do not offer support for "Clear Qam" channels.

The CSR probably assumed the customer was confused about something and she wanted to send a tech out who could show them in person what goes on. So for the CSR not to offer support or know much about the "Clear Qam" signals is ok, because BHN does not offer support for it. Ask the CSR about the box or a service BHN does support you might get a different result. I bet you will find one that knows nothing though... There just are people that refuse to learn no matter how much information is in front of their face.. Unfortunately BHN has to weigh "Calls answered in under X secs" vs "a full call center of experts" Customers dont want to wait, 10-20 mins on hold. They want the phone answerd ASAP! So have CSR's in numbers out weighs the benefit of having just a few highly trained technical gurus. Because more then half the calls to the Call center are Billing/Sales inquires. Which any idiot can solve.

[jcarrera]

.
Oh, I see. There's no way they can do better.

[stevenl]

Sure they can.. There is always room for improvement.

[Khandurian]

They always start out by telling me I have to have a cable box to get HD which is totally wrong and illegal if it was true.

I personally would like more clarification on that statement.

When you sign up for cable, BHN clearly shows you the fact that their are different "tiers" and to get those different tiers you have to pay extra for them.

At this point, they tell you that a cable card and/or a cable box is required to decode these signals to legally view and watch these channels.

Now at this point, you have not been outright told, those channels are "encrypted". It is more or less perceived as a "given" or in other words, they should know they are encrypted, thats why we offer the box.

Ok, now lets go back, oh..... 20 years ago. 20 years ago, if you called the cable company and ordered lets just say their basic only package. A tech came out, ran a line from the pole/ped to the house. At the pole/ped they installed "traps" to trap out the channels that the customer did not pay for. (they still do this to some extent!).

Now, you are viewing what you paid for. Skip ahead a couple of years, and the majority of these traps went away because they found that it was cheaper to encrypt certain channels, requiring you to rent a box from them to decrypt these channels when you pay for them.

So, encrypting channels has been going on for at least 15 years (probably more!) Therefore, how is it "illegal" for the company to encrypt their HD channels? So with the above quote, it's perceived that the cable company has been illegally encrypting their channels for years.

I need more clarification.

[Khandurian]

As I sit back and read that statement over and over and over again, the only conclusion that I can come up with is the probability that the customer may think that he doesn't need to have their box but maybe use their own.

Ok, so now lets look at that probability. If you do not want to use their box and/or cable card, you are correct to a certain extent. You will have to give the CSR your cable box serial number, as well as the cable card serial number that came with your box from the store.

Once you have given those to the csr, agree to pay for the HD programming, within 2 mins, the hd package that you purchase will come up and be viewable.

However, if you feel that all of the HD channels should be broadcasted unencrypted, that will never happen. As then anyone would be able to go down to their local Best Buy, or even on the internet, purchase a box, bring it home or receive it in the mail, plug it in and get all the channels that is being broadcasted for free.

BHN constantly moves channels around all the time to do tests of how much bandwidth a certain channel requires. How many channels they can run uncompressed on a particular frequency without causing collision and pixilation.

So therefore, with you being able to actually capture that particular channel one day and not the next, does not make what their doing illegal.