Survey About My Cancellation

agregjones

SatelliteGuys Pro
Original poster
Jun 25, 2004
290
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I received a call about participating in a survey regarding my Voom service tonight. It was approximately 15 minutes of survey and they covered almost every possible complaint I have seen anyone have with Voom. From OTA reception to the value of HD Exclusives, it was all in there.

I was rather vocal about my chief complaints: changes in price structure and a signal that can't take the weather of eastern NC. And coming from a DirecTivo environment, there's just too much missing without a DVR.

I also brought up my post-installation woes:
  • I have been billed twice since cancelling
  • I have received no reimbursement even though I cancelled on Aug 2
  • my receiver, picked up on Aug 3, was just marked as having been received two weeks ago
  • It took me more than a month to get a person to talk about the incorrect billing on the phone

I still consider myself a Voom customer since they owe me quite a bit of money. I loved the picture quality--loved it. I thought the HD movie channels were not much less entertaining than HBOHD or its contemporaries. All have far too few movies in rotation any given month.

I told the survey rep the bottom line for me. If I could get a more reliable signal and the level of DVR functionality I had from Tivo, I would keep Voom as long as it existed.

I spent this year finding what the best HD option was for me. I've been on cable with their Scientific Atlanta DVR. I've had a DirecTivo and a separate Samsung TS160 HD DirecTV receiver. I've been on Voom. I loved Voom's content because there was more HD. Cable isn't bad for HD locals, but half the channels I care to see are sent on the analog signal and look horrible on any larger TV. The cable DVR was horrible, lacking even simple scheduling conflict resolution and completely devoid of any of the nicer Tivo features like season passes or wishlists. If you have to know when the show comes on to tell your DVR to record it, you just have a VCR replacement and that's all Scientific Atlanta offers now. Many people that went with DirecTV did so because of football. I don't care a thing about the NFL, so that's not keeping me there.

The DVR is the killer app. No matter how you slice it, most channels have their best content on in the same few hours each night. Being able to sit down and see the best of TV whenever I want justifies the amount we all spend on TV. I don't let anyone else dictate my schedule, why would I let my TV do so? DVR is that important to a lot of customers out there. And the superficial and shallow attempt at a DVR that Scientific Atlanta has out there through your local cable company is no replacement for Tivo.

I could spend $1k on the HDTivo now, but I am still hoping that Voom comes through. Voom has all the channels I want and many that are exclusive. Its only problems are in poor content decisions, which seem to be getting better, and horrible accounting practices. I'd much rather pay money leasing a *good* Voom DVR than on the HDTivo. The lack of viable resale has made buying a Voom DVR a fool's errand.

This isn't the angry rant of a disgruntled ex-customer. This is a plea for Voom to do the right thing and get its ducks in a row. I would gladly deal with having to pay the install fee to get Voom back if this were all available. The new price structure is too high but I'm sure the market will get them back in line before they get the DVR ready.

If you get a survey call, please stress the importance of signal strength and the DVR. It is ridiculous that anyone at Scientific Atlanta misunderstood the important features of a quality product so completely. You would think they could have spent $1000 and picked up an HDTivo and gotten the knock-off a little closer. I hope Voom's is closer to the product it should be.

P.S. In my local area, the PQ wars have only one loser: cable. I have seen absolutely no sustained PQ differences between DirecTV and Voom. Even with DirecTV crowding up the transponders and supposedly downrezzing the picture, it is still not a problem for me. Your mileage may vary.
 
IMO no DVR is worth 1k....
I plan on keeping my ReplayTv until the voom pvr comes out..... SD sucks but most of the shows I record arent in HD anyways so its of no real loss to me. It would be nice to record OTA HD and a few things like missed football games but nothing "I gotta have now" making me want to spend 1k for a tivo that will be outdated in a year.

Look at the current tivo's, generation 1 vs what they have now. You gotta pay 1k for the first gen is insane.
 
edited the quote

jagouar said:
IMO no DVR is worth 1k....

I plan on keeping my ReplayTv until the voom pvr comes out..... SD sucks but most of the shows I record arent in HD anyways so its of no real loss to me. It would be nice to record OTA HD and a few things like missed football games but nothing "I gotta have now" making me want to spend 1k for a tivo that will be outdated in a year.

Look at the current tivo's, generation 1 vs what they have now. You gotta pay 1k for the first gen is insane.
I agree, no one is getting 1000 bucks outta me for a DVR.
 
And to think, I paid $1,000.00 for a 30 hour SD TiVo when they first came out.. should have waited, they came down in cost pretty quick! Same with that darn LASIK surgery. I paid $5,000.00 for that, and I think you can get it for about $500.00 now. I need to be more patient on stuff and not pay and arm and a leg for everything as soon as it comes out!
 
Did they ask about PQ or mosquito noise at all? Just wondering if they were concerned about PQ?
 
Sean, it's guys like you that make it cheaper for the rest of us. I should talk, I paid $1200 for a STEREO (not HIFI, they were $1600) VHS VCR back in 1983. 6 months later the HIFI units dropped to $600.
 
hey i cancelled in june... and they picked up my equipment on july 1st allthough voom swears its july 12.. i too was billed two months after canceling service.. here it is september allmost october and i still havent seen a dime.. about to have my legal represation team handle this one...
 
Kentstater72 said:
agregjones
What DVR is your cable compay using?

It was a Scientific Atlanta 8000HD. It is a fine example of how not to build a DVR. There is no real scheduling resolution: if you have a series set to automatically record and there is a conflict with one of its episodes, you have to cancel the entire series.

I'll give you a practical example. During the Olympics, I had that scheduled in large blocks each night, leaving only one tuner to record other shows. Obviously I can't record two other programs at the same time, so I had to decide on only one series in the same block. Instead of just picking which show to record where there were conflicts, I had to cancel all of the upcoming recordings of that show.

Wishlists are very important as well. You put a movie on the wishlist months before it shows up on satellite and whenever it comes on, it's recorded.

The 8000HD also had frequent lockups. There was also no decent title search. You had to find the program somewhere on the schedule before setting it up for a season pass. To switch tuners, you have to use its builtin PIP functions.
 
At least they picked yours up........can't get anyone to come get mine.
They keep billing, I keep putting it in the file 13
 
---------------------------------------------------------------
Response (Meagan J.) - 09/17/2004 02:57 PM
Thank you for choosing VOOM - the leader in HDTV!

I would like to apologize for the inconvenience this has caused you. The prorate
date for the disconnection of your services began when you contacted us to inform
us of your decision to discontinue services with us. We don't completely close your
account until the equipment is picked up and returned. If a any refund is due to
you, it will be applied to your credit card in up to 4-6 weeks after the equipment
is returned to our inventory.

Please contact us at 1-800-GET-VOOM to reschedule the equipment pickup. If you have
any further questions or concerns, please don't hesitate to contact us.

Once again, thank you for choosing VOOM - HDTV Delivered!

Tony P.
VOOM Email Support
 

Dropping D* - Finally!

If you like sports might be time to leave Voom

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