A little fun at the expense of the cable company..

[Davage]

I have Rogers Cable internet service. I've used it for years. I am a huge satellite enthusiast and have been watching satellite tv since 1988.

Yesterday I received an 'exclusive offer' from the cable company. They are going to GIVE me a free PVR box, and 3 months worth of service. All Free.

Being a skeptic, I call up the cable company and say "Is this deal for real?" The nice customer service rep lady says "Yes". I say "Where's the fine print? - What's the catch?" She replies "No catch. No strings attached, no commitments at all. We are just so confident in our service that we're sure that you will want to subscribe after the free preview period". I say to her "So.. If I decide to cancel after the 3 free months, then I get to keep the PVR?" She says "Yes". I then tell her that I am a Bell TV subscriber. She then says "Oh, I hope that it snows really bad during your free preview so that you can see how more reliable our service is than satellite". I laugh and say "I have an 8ft satellite dish that works no matter what the weather is, and likely would provide me signal in a hurricane" The cable lady then says "8ft dish? What do you need one of those for?" I reply "To see stuff that isn't on cable or Bell TV, such as Nascar feeds from the track" - She then says "We have the Nascar channels too.." I then tried to explain to her about wild feeds and backhaul feeds.

After I had hung up the phone I then realized that I should have told her to go out back and look to see how they get CNN.. I'll bet that they use a big 8ft to 12 ft dish

Anyways... I am getting cable tv for 3 months. I'll use it to fill up the PVR, then I'll be pulling the plug on their service before the 3 months is up. I'm a SatelliteGuy and will always be a SatelliteGuy

 

[tvropro]

I have Rogers Cable internet service. I've used it for years. I am a huge satellite enthusiast and have been watching satellite tv since 1988.

Yesterday I received an 'exclusive offer' from the cable company. They are going to GIVE me a free PVR box, and 3 months worth of service. All Free.

Being a skeptic, I call up the cable company and say "Is this deal for real?" The nice customer service rep lady says "Yes". I say "Where's the fine print? - What's the catch?" She replies "No catch. No strings attached, no commitments at all. We are just so confident in our service that we're sure that you will want to subscribe after the free preview period". I say to her "So.. If I decide to cancel after the 3 free months, then I get to keep the PVR?" She says "Yes". I then tell her that I am a Bell TV subscriber. She then says "Oh, I hope that it snows really bad during your free preview so that you can see how more reliable our service is than satellite". I laugh and say "I have an 8ft satellite dish that works no matter what the weather is, and likely would provide me signal in a hurricane" The cable lady then says "8ft dish? What do you need one of those for?" I reply "To see stuff that isn't on cable or Bell TV, such as Nascar feeds from the track" - She then says "We have the Nascar channels too.." I then tried to explain to her about wild feeds and backhaul feeds.

After I had hung up the phone I then realized that I should have told her to go out back and look to see how they get CNN.. I'll bet that they use a big 8ft to 12 ft dish

Anyways... I am getting cable tv for 3 months. I'll use it to fill up the PVR, then I'll be pulling the plug on their service before the 3 months is up. I'm a SatelliteGuy and will always be a SatelliteGuy

Great deal Davage... Rogers must really be looking for sub's. I bet they have a 14 to 16 foot dish out back for CNN and the like. If cable or pizza offered me a promo like that for free no strings attached I would take it too. Heck free is free. In the U.S. all they want is your credit card number so they can drain you dry

 

[stogie5150]

I don't know if I'd be bragging that I was watching NASCAR backhauls....bad form, IMO.

 

[Davage]

I don't know if I'd be bragging that I was watching NASCAR backhauls....bad form, IMO.

I chatted about more than the racing feeds with the CSR.. I was just making the point to her that there are a lot of other signals up in the sky that neither the cable company or other small dish companies are providing to their subscribers. Who knows, I may end up converting a Roger Cable CSR over to Free-To-Air (Although, I'm willing to bet that they get quite a discount on their cable services..)

 

[Larry1]

Be sure that they put it in writing that you get a free PVR to keep and not just a free rental. I'd be willing to bet that you only get a free rental, and not a free to keep PVR. Also make sure it is not a free for a period of time rental. Be sure to keep an eye on your bills a I have Rogers and it usually takes 3 or 4 calls if you need them to make any corrections, and then corrections to the corrections. Be sure to ask for the promotion codes for when you need to get the changes made they know what to set your account to. It took Rogers 4 attempts to install my cable initially, then they constantly reset my free rental back to only 1yr for free rental.

 

[Cosmokramer11]

Be sure that they put it in writing that you get a free PVR to keep and not just a free rental. I'd be willing to bet that you only get a free rental, and not a free to keep PVR. Also make sure it is not a free for a period of time rental. Be sure to keep an eye on your bills a I have Rogers and it usually takes 3 or 4 calls if you need them to make any corrections, and then corrections to the corrections. Be sure to ask for the promotion codes for when you need to get the changes made they know what to set your account to. It took Rogers 4 attempts to install my cable initially, then they constantly reset my free rental back to only 1yr for free rental.

Yes I agree read everything. Because you are supposed to pay a fee every month on the pvr/dvr cable box.

 

[Digital Logic]

After I had hung up the phone I then realized that I should have told her to go out back and look to see how they get CNN.. I'll bet that they use a big 8ft to 12 ft dish

you'd be lucky if they were in the US.

 

[zamar23]

I don't think keeping a PVR forever was the part of this Promo, as it sounds. Besides, the only thing you can do with it without a cable sub is to sell, and possibly only locally, as cable companies impose MAC and Serial restrictions when activating boxes.

 

[classicsat]

AFAIK, any Rogers system can activate boxes sold by them or partner retailers across Ontario, regardless of where it was originally obtained. The Maritimes Rogers systems use Motorola boxes, so it will likely be similar there.
I think Videotron is the same way.

Now, except for Shaw, most Motorola based providers might authorize boxes not provided through them, since they do not have provider restrictions that Scientific Atlanta boxes have.

 

[Davage]

I don't think keeping a PVR forever was the part of this Promo, as it sounds. Besides, the only thing you can do with it without a cable sub is to sell, and possibly only locally, as cable companies impose MAC and Serial restrictions when activating boxes.

I confirmed with them that I am able to KEEP the PVR. I have the details printed out on paper here, and I also confirmed with the CSR..

Unfortunately, the PVR they gave me is defective. It's a 'refurb'. Hard Drive failed... I'm off to the local cable office this morning to get it replaced. Maybe the cable company is having a bit of fun at my expense?!

After I'm done my free preview period, I already have someone in mind for the PVR receiver. A co-worker of mine has a son in the same city as me who has rogers cable, but does not have a PVR. He has a young daughter and quite often misses is favorite shows. I'll give him the PVR..

I have been on the phone with the cable company a couple times the past 24 hours.. Now I remember why I gave up on cable tv 14 years ago and went strictly with satellite. The customer service from cable seems disorganized, although the people who are on the other end of the phone seem genuine in their help, they are limited in their resources.. The one CSR last night told me that the local cable centre / video store was open until 10PM, so at 9:15 I went out to get the box replaced. I show up to find the cable dept closed.. They need a little more organization internally to have store hours clearly and correctly available to their own people.

Oh well.. Maybe "free" isn't really free.. A little gas running back and forth to cable centres is what it'll cost. I have kept my Bell TV subscription fully active because there are channels on Bell that Rogers Cable simply doesn't carry...

Anyways... The original intent of this thread was to say how I was joking around with the cable company explaining that I am still using a big dish. I don't want to get too far off topic.. I'll see what other 'joking' fun I can have with the CSR at the desk today. I'll be sure to get a few satellite discussions in with him/her....

 

[Cham]

I have bell here too... but a local cable company always phones to solicit their service so I have fun with them... I am located in the country so their nearest cable access is about 5km away (3 mi). Sometimes it takes two to three days for them to realize I'm not in their part of town... I always keep them on the phone asking them why the sales call when they obviously can't provide the service?, when can they provide the service?, why they are discriminating between rural and urban customers?, etc...
They waste my time so I have to waste theirs too...
C.

 

[classicsat]

@Davage: It could be that they have too many refurbs and were looking for an excuse to get rid of them. If have seen providers offer "special deals" to liquidate them. Sometimes it is to make room for a new model.

@cham, while I do not get solicited directly by the local cable company, I do get their mailers from bulk mail. I, like you, do not have physical access to cable nearby. I am about 10 miles from theri line. You would think they could save money not delivering them to rural mail routes.

 

[gdavisloop]

They may let you keep the PVR (though I can't see why), but "deactivate it" so it's useless... even to play back the shows you already recorded.
Watch out, I fell for this and I'm still paying for the cable service two years later.
--Gary

 

[Davage]

I had a tech come onsite and he replaced my original defective PVR. I've played with it a bit, but I am not overly impressed with the Scientific Atlanta cable box at all. I prefer my Bell TV PVR, especially for the 30 second skip ahead button. Commercial skipping is much easier on Bell TV than it is on cable.

I've already got the 'cancel' date written on my calendar here. Rogers require a 30 day notice, so I'm going to end up giving them a 6 week notice of cancellation. I just quite honestly am not impressed with what I'm seeing.. My VisionSat PVR has much nicer on-screen graphics than the Rogers Scientific Atlanta box does...

gdavisloop - I'm not recording anything worth keeping on the PVR box, so I'm not concerned if they deactivate it. I've already decided that I don't want to keep the service. Thanks for the heads-up though