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Given the fact that they need 1.5M customers to break even, why the
heck does VOOM continue to do nothing to keep customers from leaving
and even lie to them straight out and do nothing to compensate for or
address it.

Case in point:

I signed up with VOOM last October. A week before my moneyback
guarantee ended VOOM called to ask which plus pack I wanted. Instead
of choosing a plus pack I chose Va Va VOOM. I also purchased 4
receivers because I was promised that I would only have to pay a $5.00
household mirroring fee and not $5.00 for each receiver. To cover
myself (in case that policy changed), I had a supervisor send me an
email which stated that as long as I remain a VOOM customer and do not
interrupt my service, I will never have to pay for each receiver, just
$5.00 for the entire houselhold (up to six receivers). In addition,
the email said I could go back to the basic + 1 plus pack anytime I
wanted to and still maintain my Charter Membership. This is the only
reason I ordered the extra receivers. BTW, I was never by VOOM nor the
the CSR that called in April that I would loose my charter status if I
went with Va Va VOOM. (And what the heck does being a charter member
have to do with what programming you choose anyway? what intelligent
individual thought that one up?) Shouldn't the criteria for being a
Charter Memeber be based on the date you became a VOOM customer and
not on what programming package you chose. Heck, I guess they really
didn't want the extra revenue they were getting from the Va Va VOOM
package. I won't mention the supervisors name, but VOOM should have
more like him because he knows what customer service really means.

Since my original installation, I have had continual problems with the
VOOM service (loss of picture, OTA going out, boxes hanging, reboots
etc.) up until about a month ago. Wilt helped out by getting a
different OTA installed for me (they incrementally went to larger and
larger antennas until they got one that worked. It took 5 trips before
they put the one up that I asked for in the first place, but it also
needed a power booster. My wife wanted VOOM out of the house very
badly, she thought the service was a joke as she does not like being
on the cutting edge of technology. Nor did she appreciate how much
time I invested in VOOM both on the phone and with the installers. I
also helped VOOM's marketing department out in a variety of ways and
talked with outside vendors they used for various promotional and
programming topics. I was also asked by VOOM to attend several
conference calls with Motorolla and Install's Inc. to help them
identify which OTA worked in my area as we are surrounded by mountains
and some issues involving the STB. My wife and family wanted Direct TV
back as we never had any customer service or hardware/software issues
and that was what they were used to ( At least none that they didn't
do something to make us happy customers). In addition, my kids missed
all the Nickelodeon stations VOOM lacked. Now all we have Direct TV
for is the NFL ticket and Sports Package for my local RSN because we
canceled all the other programming with Direct TV when we got VOOM. I
stuck with VOOM and convinced my family to go along with me because I
knew Wilt would get all the technical issues resolved and VOOM had
always treated me great, with quick response times on services calls
and credits to my account to compensate for loss of service and
hassles. About a month ago the installer for my area sent out a senior
tech to go over the entire installation. He found a lot of sloppy
work, such as the switch box not being secured downed. Instead it was
left dangling from the antenna for dish (btw, they replaced the
switch 3 times because of fault equipment). same with the power for
the OTA. He found most cables were not crimped tightly and easily
moved. He was really upset that someone from his company did an
installation like this. Well he fixed everything and even caulked the
outside holes where the drilled for the cabeling. Now thanks to the
installation company and Wilt everthing in the house is rock solid. I
get all my locals incluing two from another city 90 miles south of my
house, I got a 30" dish to help with rain fade, all new receivers with
the latest software and new cable tips for all cables. For the last
month I don't think think I had a single audio dropout or a single
pixelation in the last month. I have Tivo set up for VOOM and HD
recordings look great when recorded in best quality mode.

I figured now VOOM is now prime time and is destined to be the best
satellite provider in the country once they added all the RSN's and
some additional "core" SD channels like Sci-Fi, all the Discovery
channels etc... So for 9 months we suffered with constant random
outages and just a very poor VOOM experience because of a lousy
install and initial receiver firmware bugs and lack of features. My
family now loves VOOM and everone thought I made the right decisions.
In addition all the kids have their own receivers so there is no
fighting of who can watch what and when.

Now I get this month's bill and I have $15.00 extra on my bill, $5.00
fee for each receiver, instead of $5.00 houshold mirror fee. I called
VOOM up to ask why all of a sudden I am being charged for the
receivers. The CSR said it was an obvious mistake since I was a
charter member and credited my account for overcharge. The CSR also
escalated this to the billing department so it wouldn't happen again.
Three days later I received a call from the VOOM billing department.
An extremely nice individual apologed for the mistake and was told it
was taken care of and I will not be charged again. He said for some
reason, my account recently was changed to non charter status. He sad
that he applied the credit and put me back as a charter member.

A few days later I get another call from the VOOM billing department
(this time a lady...name witheld) to let me know that was calling in
reference to an escalation they received from a CSR. I told the lady
that it was all taken care of and that a person from billing had
already called me up and told me everything was taken care of. She got
very stern and said she never authorized anyone to call me. She went
on to tell me that I had to pay the $5.00 for each reciver because I
was not a charter member anymore since I chose the Va Va VOOM package
back in April (She reversed my status to non-charter and removed the
credit as well). I asked her if that was the case, why wasn't I ever
charged until know. She didn't have an answer. I then told her I had a
note from a supervisor telling me that I was entitled to a $5.00
household mirroring fee for life. Now get this; she said she saw the
email noted in my records, talked to the supervisor who sent it out
for verification, and then said that VOOM was not going to honor what
they sent me in writing. I told her that I would not have purchased
the extra receivers if I had known that I would have to pay extra for
them as was told from day 1 that that was one of the benefits of being
a charter memeber. I was olso told on day 1 that my price of $39.95 +
1 free plus pack wold never change. I never heard of such perks in the
sateelite/cable industry but I figured that it was because VOOM was a
new company up against two very large competitors, and they were doing
whatever it would take to beat the competition. She said I could
easily disconnect the receivers if I didn't want to get charged. She
didn't get it, I paid $200 for each of them and had an email stating I
didn't have to pay $5.00 for each receiver. She said there was nothing
she was going to do about it, no credit, no buy back of the receivers
since my MBG ended in April and that was final. She wouldn't even
activate them if I sold them. I asked her why a company would treat a
customer like this so early in it's life when it needs to get and keep
as many subs as possible (no company should every treat a customer
like this anyway). She said "well, we are doing pretty well now". It
sounded like, OK, when we needed you we made promises to keep you pat
the MBG period. Now you can't get any money back and we are adding
subs at a good pace so we don't need you anymore. I was totally
shocked, stunned more like it. I could not believe a company would lie
like this and not stand behind a comitment they made. She said the
only thing she was willing to do was to escalate it to her boss, but
it wasn't going to change the situation. She would not give me her
bosses name or anyone else I could talk to about this. I asked her if
this was the case I might have to go to small claims court to get my
money for the receivers back. She then said if I was planning on suing
the company, she was no longer allowed to talk to me.

I did get a call from her boss a few days later, and he said he
contacted corporate and said VOOM would do the right thing by me (he
agreed I was entitled to the lifetime mirroring fee because I was
promised it, but said there was no official policy about how long the
charter members were even entitled to this benefit. He said he could
not change my status unless he received authorization from corporate
as he could loose his job. He PROMISED he would definately call me
back the next day when he was supposed to call corporate for an
answer. Well, it's been over two weeks and I have not heard back from
anyone. I have called VOOM to talk to him to find out the status but
the CSRs say they are not allowed to put people through to billing.
All he could do was fill out and escalation form and someone from
billing would call be back in 3 to 5 days. Every CSR I talked to could
not believe how VOOM handled this situation.

It is too bad, I got six people to sign up for VOOM and I really love
the programming. But this is just outrageously poor customer service.
When I got VOOM, I told Direct TV that I switch to VOOM but could not
get RSN's. I asked if I could buy their sports package which has all
the RSN's (all I really needed was mine Fox Sports Arizona) plus The
Outdoor Channel. They said that normally you need to have a base
package like total choice, but the CSR said they would do it because
they wanted my business back if I ever decided to leave VOOM (which sh
said I would probably do becasue they have a lot of HD programming
being lined up, inhd?). Now Direct TV has awesome customer service.
They always have, but this goes beyond being good, this is was great
customer service.

I just called Direct TV today to price an HD set up and because they
are offering 6 months of free HD programming. Most NFL ticket games
will be in Hi-Def this year. They had it noted in my account that I
switched to VOOM and asked why I was coming back. When I told her, all
she could say was "Oh My God". She got real friendly then and confided
in me about what HD channels they would be offering by the end of the
year, and this was just the begining. She awesome deal on the
equipment and programming and gave me every incentive offer they had.
She even dropped the price for the sports package if I wanted to keep
it to $2.00 per month for the next 12 months and offered some other
deals to help offset my loss for the VOOM equipment. I can't discuss
which HD channels they are adding, but is significant enough for me
not to worry to much about leaving VOOM (i may just keep the base
package for Worldsport and the Cinema's) which I feel I have no choice
based on pure moral reasons if nothing else.

This is a very unfortunate situation because I have enjoyed being part
of VOOM's growth and seeing a new company grow and helping where I
could. I am not putting down anything about VOOM, it is just their
customer service, policy changes and/or lack of clearly communicated
policies as well as a management I don't feel can take VOOM to the
next level quick enough, IMHO. I never even complained once about the
degredation in PQ, although looking at HDnet it looked sharper than
most VOOM channels especially Equator which has this look that I can't
explain. It is sort of like a little blur like you see in the summer
comming of the street, sort of wavey in some parts of the screen when
filming form the air. As for programming, I think the Cinema's have
come a long way, so noone should be complaining about content. Rave
has awesome PQ although I can see the same concerts on PBS. I was
expecting a channels with converted concerts and ones that VOOM would
shoot new, not just a rip-off of the PBS 1 hour series. So the way I
see the programming I will not be getting with Direct TV,

1) Cinema 10 - will miss a little. Shows movies I don't think I would
have ever seen without VOOM but could have lived without ever seeing.
But there are some really great movies on these channels and the
content is getting better and better.

2) Animania - my kids love Henry's World and the Grave Diggers, but
like Nicktoons better which VOOM Doesn't have.

3) HDnews - Won't miss.

4) MOOV, Gallery, Ultra, Auction - Won't miss.

5) Rush - Might miss because it has potential. It didn't turn out to
have as much new content or stuff that I like, speedboat racing, jet
skiing, ATV'ing, Wakeboarding (I know there is one episode from Hawaii).

6) Rave - Won't miss. HDnet has much better concerts (not just 1 hour
segments),I can watch SoundStage on PBS in HD.

7) Equator - Won't miss. I was excited about this channel at first.
But it doesn't take yo "into the streets" of different cities so you
can feel like you are there experiencing it.

8) Monsters - Will miss, but has becoe repetitive and doesn't have as
much new horror as I expected. I saw Children of the Corn II bit never
saw the others. But the Horror Channel is comming out in two months
and will have a larger variety but not HD.

9) Worldsport - Will miss without a doubt.

10) All Premiums, HBO, SHOW, CINEMAX, STARZ - will be on Direct as
will TNT and BRAVO. Plus Direct already has ESPN, HD PPV and HDnet
(Bikini Destinations!!!), HDmovies and they will have an exclusive on
the NFL ticket for another 5 years, next year ALL games will be in HD.

So if I take away the 21 VOOM exclusives I think Direc TV will be
pretty much on par with VOOM and maybe have a channel or two that we
VOOMer's have wanted for a long time and was even advertised in VOOM's
brochure at one time. Plus Direct TV has no sales tax. So with all the
Premiums + HD + Sports Package I will be paying only about $11 more
with Direct TV and have all the SD's like Sci-Fi that I don't get with
VOOM.

So I may have lost some money with the equipment but Direct TV helped
ease that pain somewhat if/when I decide to go with them, but VOOM
probably just lost 7 people that would have been customers for life. I
really don't see how they will survive if they need 1.5M customers to
break even and they are at 40K now and are not agressive in retaining
current customers.

Sorry for the long post, but I thought new people considering VOOM
should here how their policies may put them out of business quicker
than anything else would. So think a lot harder than I did ( I am a
very trusting person, but I only get burnt once ) before investing in
a lot of equipment, i.e. DVR - who knows, they will probably offer it
for no monthly fee at first and then start charging $25.00 per month
for the service for it. Who knows what policy will be next. THEY DON'T
EVEN HONOR WHAT THAT GIVE YOU IN WRITING. Another promise the CSR who
signed me up said was that all charter members would be getting a DVR
for free when they come out and charter members were the ones who
signed up before Jan 1, 2004. Oh yeah, but I forgot, I am not a
charter member anymore since I decided to give my satellite company
more money to help them be successful. Seriously, I don' watch StarZ
and could be paying $15 less per month.

So for a meesly $10 per month for extra receivers VOOM will most
likely loose 7 customers to Direct TV. My friends that got VOOM only
purchased one receiver so Direct TV will make it a wash for them. We
are the type of subscribers that would have subscribed to every
channel VOOM offered (most of them anyway) becasue we all had C-band
systems and gloated about how many channels we got, e/w feeds on just
about every channel. I can say however, that I have no worries
investing in equipment from Direct TV which will soon have 13 million
customers. A pretty large base to offer HDTV to. They also have the
market on sports. So after the next two quarters when they have added
the HD movies channels, they are going after HD sports. I was
wondering what they were going to do with three more satellite...

Ken


--- In VOOM@yahoogroups.com, "williamhunteman" <whunteman@n...> wrote:
> http://www.nypost.com/business/28594.htm



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