$200 to move my VOOM after July 31st? Monthly rates going up after July 31st?

Whiteice

SatelliteGuys Family
Original poster
Jun 9, 2004
38
0
FYI, $199 to move VOOM after July 31st. Monthly rates going up after July 31st.

So I get home today after being gone a week and I get to deal with the same problems a lot of you all are having with the lockups. My picture was showing, but the "No Signal" Messaged was locked in the center of the screen. At that point I couldnt do a thing, it was locked so I had to powercycle the box. It reboots, then when I change the channel, it locks again. Powercycle. Then it reboots, now NONE of my locals are coming in. So I call tech support.

The guy (Nice guy) told me to go to an "Installer option." I dont have one. We go back and fourth through the menu 3x, each time same thing. Dont have the option he is looking for. So he has me check my phone line to make sure it is plugged in. It is. Then he says that I should have turned my box off when I was gone. Um, really I do? I dont have to do this with my cable box, but I have to do this with my VOOM box? I never had to do this either with my DTV back in the day, but it is irrelevant. I inform him that this is the second time in about 3 weeks that I cant watch TV because the software needs to download.

Then after dealing with this, I inform him that I am moving in September and would like to keep VOOM and he then told me I have to pay $199 to have my stuff re-installed. I told him to cancel it then. It got quiet for a second. I told him if they want to charge me to move after all the problems I have been having, please cancel it now. He then asked if I would mind holding to see if he could get that waived for me. After the gentlemen came back, he told me if I place my move order before end of day July 31st, I could be grandfathered in so I wouldnt have to pay. So after he got the approval, he got sales on the line to setup the re-install so it is in the system before July 31st deadline.

When I talked to the sales guy, I mentioned the support rep had mentioned that starting August 1st there are gonna be some big changes. I asked the sales rep if he could ellaborate and he said that both of there packages (Va Va Voom and whatever the cheaper one is) will be going up in price. The cheaper package will be $49.95 and the Va Va Voom will now be $89.95 (I think the current rate is $79.95) and he said both packages are increasing by $10. He also said that new orders starting August 1st will carry a installtion price of $199 from that point on.

I was also told that VOOM will be replacing all current customer boxes with the "2nd generation" boxes no later then Janurary. He said that there are a few beta testers who have the new devices and he said none of them have had 1 problem with them and that is why the old ones are being replaced.

I still want to keep my VOOM service because in all honesty, I love the Worldsport channel. Plus Equator is starting to grow on me big time. There just has been so many hassles, so I hope the move process happens smoothly.

I will stop my ranting at this point since VOOM is going that extra mile for me, or at least attempting to, to keep me as a subscriber. I just wanted to let you all know what I was told in case you all didnt know, or if anyone is planning on moving in the near future to CALL IN NO LATER THEN TODAY, SATURDAY AND GET GRANDFATHERED IN.

FYI,
Whiteice
 
So the basic package+1 STB rental will come out to be $60+tax ~$65 in CA for me.
 
Programming costs and free installed systems will increase on 8/1/04. I can not release the exact new prices but they are going up.

If you purchase by July 31, 2004 and install and activate your service by 8/7/04 you will get the lower current rates.
 
Unfortunately the rep did not mention the manufacturer of the 2nd gen STB nor if it would include DVR funcionality.

And the prices I mentioned were quoted to me directly from sales as I was placing my moving order. Again he said both plans would increase in price +$10 So the cheaper package instead of being $39.99 will now be $49.99 (Dont forget the equipment rental fee as well $9.50) and the Va Va Voom will be going from $79.99 to $89.99 a month (Again dont forget the equipment rental fee.)

Whiteice

PS. The sales rep did mention that whatever plan I pick would be the old rate as long as I made the decission by Aug 7th but after August 7th, I would get the newer more expensive rates.
 
Your are correct on the rates going up Aug 1. I just up my package to the vava voom before the increase. Good till end of year. My conversation with the CSR was good. The DVR are in production and should be available mid September. No details yet on upgrading customers. The new HD sports starting tomorrow were to be a secret. A surprise for us. He made the statement that alot was going to happen over the next few months. Get ready to be voomed. Alot more HD. HGTV & Scifi soon, the most requesed channels.
 
Well I told ya so. But I am a "speculator". LMAO. Im sure it will go up even more often now that cablevision has limited the spending.
 
I just called and scheduled a reinstall for when I move. They told me it was free, but they told me something I was curious about.

I told him I needed to take everything down and take it with me when I moved, but he told me that all I could do was take the box and all the cables with me. He insisted that the installer would have to go to my old place, take down the dish, then take it over to the new place. He said this is because if I take down the dish myself I lose some type of "inhome service plan" or something like that.

Does this make sense? I understand if I damage the dish I would be responsible for it, but if the installer puts it up at the new place and verifies everything's ok why wouldn't I have this service plan?? I didn't even know I had a service plan to begin with. The equipment is leased after all...

Doesn't make sense considering that they told me that what they do in their records is cancel my old account and put me in as a brand new customer again. Basically why would it matter if they void something on an account that was closed?

I was really hoping to take the dish and check for LOS before I even bother having it reinstalled. I guess worst case scenario I could take the dish down, check LOS at new place, come back and screw it back in place and let the installer waste 45 minutes unscrewing it and driving it over. This really doesn't make sense to me.
 
Yes it does appear the prices are going up.

I am being told the monthly service price is going up by $10 a month. (Those who already have VOOM are grandfathered til the end of the year)

The Zero Down plan is also gone, they will still be leasing boxes however it will be $199 for instalation of the first box and $50 each additional. The monthly rental fee of $9.50 reamins the same.

I am also told that tommorow's channel launches are a good. We could even see USA launched in the afternoon if all goes well. :D
 
Can you give us a clue on what the channels will be?? Any new HD ones??

Also, anyone have any input on what I was told about taking my dish down myself and the "inhouse service plan" that I'm still not sure what it is???
 
Checking VOOM's website it looks like the $0 down deal is gone and the prices did go up. Oh well, I wonder how many people will take the plunge now?

kaw
 
Considering that DirectTV will give you a 3 room system for free, I doubt that charging a couple of hundred for what the consumer will view as the same will go over very well.

Granted that there is a difference between standard definition and high definition. But isn't this something like the guy who buys a a $75 DVD player to go along with the new plasma TV he just purchased?
 
Man Im glad I get my system installed on 8/3.... I dont think too many new subs will sign up with all the extra "costs" now.

The biggest reason for me was HD that cost right as much as a dish HD..... top60+HD pack + rental fee for 811 would be right at 50 bucks too but I chose voom because they seem more interested in adding HD channels to their lineup. With the new fees voom will be inline with direcTV and cable (atleast in my case). Although I can see why they are doing this but the most important thing to me is price for performance... Thats how my whole theater was done and the way I build computers.

Had I not found voom soon enough and had to get in on the "current" voom deal I would have kept the dish and added the 811.
 
So, what's the new cost for the PlusPacks? I noticed Playboy went up to 19.90, but I didn't see a price for the PlusPacks.

-John
 
The $199 installation fee cannot be good. :( I don't mind the $10 increase to the basic VOOM Package, but that Sure $hit better include the INHDs, HDNets, and cable favorites later this year.

Just my opinion... :rolleyes:
 

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