Some good/bad News (Depending how you want to take it)

Tahoerob said:
You cannot collect fines from a company that does not exist nor has assests
But isn't CVC the responsible party here, and they still exist and have assets.
 
MarcelV said:
But isn't CVC the responsible party here, and they still exist and have assets.
It all depends on how they were setup.. It's called Rainbow..... LLC (limited liability corporation) so who know...
 
Yes, while us "subs" certainly feel betrayed, it is all of the employees that I really feel bad for. Consider that most of the people in the call center did not even hear from their own management before the web site went dark. They heard it fromus. What a low class POS James Dolan is.

The only thing I really do not understand is why the deal with Dolan Senior fell through. Assuming that financing was in place, this seemed like the best win-win for everyone involved. I still believe that the company would have been worth more had it been sold as a whole to someone. Think about it, for just over $200 million, someone could have bought a functioning business with 50k subs. The "new VOOM" could have been launched for pennies on the dollar giving it a much better chance at success.

Ah well, it is all armchair quarterbacking at this point. As noted, I will stay until the curtain falls. If nothing else, we will be among the few who have experienced what HD was meant to be.

I think I speak for everyone is saying that our thoughts, prayers, and best wishes go out to all the employees of VOOM who are now the unwitting victims of juniors short-sightedness.
 
zombie said:
Answering your own questions is not a good sign.. grab a beer and relax.
Then come back and go insane rest of us..

I think I will need a long vacation after this is all done... ;) Now time to go to sleep and see what Jr brings us tomorrow on Satguys HD, your source for Voom's Reality TV. :) (just a little joke to end the evening...)
 
MarchingJohnny said:
The employees are freaking out now baby...Whoooooo

Well, they sure know parts of the internet is a buzz about VOOM. Just called and had a CSR confirm my 7 Mar install. Still on but maybe that is all they can say for now. Was appreciative of words of encouragement. A sad and humble tone in CSR's voice on exit. They are just small pebbles on a Go board. Of course, we are too. But less is at steak for us.
 
I am new, not even paid my first bill, yet I am completely engaged in whether I will be Vooming into April or not. Less than a month in and I can't imagine going anywhere else. Monsters HD is awesome.

On a side note, if they close are they going to come get my dish/antenna/boxes. If not at least I will still get OTA until I decide on a replacement. Really, may not get one. HD NASCAR on Fox and Voom originals was really all the HD I watched aside from American Chopper and some other Discovery from time to time.
 
Sean Mota said:
Yes, they are part of the layoff...

Why would they close up shop on the HD content?

I would think that there would be value in repackaging some of the HD into channels to sell to other providers.

BTW, just saw a Voom ad on the Military channel.
 
speedyray said:
On a side note, if they close are they going to come get my dish/antenna/boxes. If not at least I will still get OTA until I decide on a replacement. Really, may not get one. HD NASCAR on Fox and Voom originals was really all the HD I watched aside from American Chopper and some other Discovery from time to time.

They may send for the boxes, but generally these dishes are considered a throw away. I also doubt they would spend the time to pull down the antenna..
 
Thanks Sean for telling it like it is. As for me I'll be here until they pull the plug. More power to you Charlie, hang in there.
 
Can we do anything with the equipment?

First and foremost (we subs can be a little self-absorbed)... my thoughts and prayers are with all the employees who are about to begin their "unscheduled sabbatical" as I like to put it. Hopefully the company will do the right thing and "take care of you" somehow. Good luck in your future endeavors.

My question is, if we get to keep the equipment, is there a way to hack the satellite dish to get broadcasts from around the world or use it for any other purpose? Or does it basically just become an useless hunk of metal on the roof?

Can we use the receiver for anything besides getting OTA?

Oh, and count me in with the other subs who will be there watching crystal clear 5.1 dolbyRave HD until the lights go out on Voom. Oh Voom, I barely knew ye!
 
mwgiii said:
BTW, just saw a Voom ad on the Military channel.

It won't surpise me if you see voom ads on any channel all the way up to march 30 or 31st. That is because a lot times the ads are paid to run for a length of time and are paid in advance.

I seriously doubt that cablevision isn't going to worry bout those ads until later in the month right before voom goes dark or when the cs centers close. Until then expect to see them.
 
Sean Mota said:
Scott that sounds very optimistic but I just received the following memo that was sent to all staff.

To: Rainbow HD Holdings LLC Employees

From: Tom Rutledge

Date: March 1, 2005

Re: WARN Notice


As a result of the Board of Directors’ February 28, 2005 decision to close the direct broadcast satellite business, Rainbow HD Holdings LLC anticipates that it will cease operations at its facility located at 11 Penn Plaza, 2nd Floor New York, NY 10001 between March 4 and March 31, 2005. As a result, all of the employees employed by Rainbow DBS Company LLC at this location will be laid off permanently. Because of this, we are issuing this notice pursuant to any potential obligation under the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (“WARN”). Under WARN, we are required to give you notice of our intent to layoff employees. These layoffs will result in your termination, and the permanent elimination of your position.

We anticipate that your last day of work will be between March 4 and March 31, 2005. You do not have bumping rights. Please return the attached acknowledgment form indicating you have received this notification to ******, Employee Relations Manager.


Ok I know that I already posted a couple of times that cs center is still open but wouldn't you think it wise that the call centers would be directed to tell people that they're not accepting new customers or would just be told to go home and not come back to work tomorrow? I mean rainbow is definately a nail through the coffin but if your intent is to sut down a service like voom you have to start with the installers and the customer service reps.
 
I spoke with a customer service rep who said the website message is a hoax. I haven't seen this mentioned anywhere but consider this possibility. My gf is a website developer and provides hosting. If someone pissed us off we could easily log in post whatever we want "We're going out of business" blah blah blah you get the point and change the passwords to log in if anyone else had the password and they would be screwed. Well maybe whoever was in charge of the website has ties to Jim Dolan and they are doing this as revenge. The customer service rep said that they were working to correct the 'website problem'. Also consider someone may have hacked their website just to cause panic. So I say until you get something in the mail on paper, always remember strange things happen online and people jump guns.

Scott
 
Sorry Scott,
I'm not sure who you were talking to but this was posted in another thread:

Sean Mota said:
I just got home and there are 14 pages to read I have only read 6 since I left work. Got confirmation that the message is real, not hack. So there you go. Inside CVC/VOOM they are stunned as we are that a company like CVC will act this way.

IMO, the ceiling is falling unless there's something more which I have not heard yet. Will keep you posted if I hear something. BTW, CSRs are the last to know.

If this has been already posted, I am sorry.

Man, I hate bursting bubbles. Encluding my own.
 
Just got this reply from cs this morning in my email...
Thank you for choosing VOOM - The HDTV Satellite Service!

Thank you for contacting us about VOOM. We appreciate the opportunity to provide you the broadest and best quality of HD programming available and are committed to continuing to deliver that service.

As you may have heard, Cablevision's recently announced agreement with EchoStar involves an agreement to sell to the company's Rainbow 1 satellite and certain other related assets. Separately, Cablevision has announced a letter of intent under which VOOM HD LLC, a new company set up by the Dolan family, will acquire the actual VOOM programming and service. Under the terms of this letter, VOOM HD, which is a strong believer in VOOM, will continue providing our state-of-the-art service to customers.

All of us at VOOM are excited about the opportunities that this new agreement will provide to continue building the VOOM service. We will communicate to you additional information on our future plans as we move forward.

Thank you for choosing VOOM - the leader in High Definition programming!

Phyllis B.
VOOM Email Support
 
nanaberry said:
Just got this reply from cs this morning in my email...
Thank you for choosing VOOM - The HDTV Satellite Service!

Thank you for contacting us about VOOM. We appreciate the opportunity to provide you the broadest and best quality of HD programming available and are committed to continuing to deliver that service.

As you may have heard, Cablevision's recently announced agreement with EchoStar involves an agreement to sell to the company's Rainbow 1 satellite and certain other related assets. Separately, Cablevision has announced a letter of intent under which VOOM HD LLC, a new company set up by the Dolan family, will acquire the actual VOOM programming and service. Under the terms of this letter, VOOM HD, which is a strong believer in VOOM, will continue providing our state-of-the-art service to customers.

All of us at VOOM are excited about the opportunities that this new agreement will provide to continue building the VOOM service. We will communicate to you additional information on our future plans as we move forward.

Thank you for choosing VOOM - the leader in High Definition programming!

Phyllis B.
VOOM Email Support


This doesn't tell us anything new. This is the same letter that has been sent out for the past several weeks. Now that the letter of intent has expired this letter really doesn't mean anything. Yes the dolans want what's left of rainbow dbs aka voom but cablevision or should i say more importantly james dolan ceo doesn't want to see what's left of voom go to his father and brother. He'd rather chunk it in the garbage can just to say look at what I can do probably. Anyway, if you have friends or family get them to call and hooked up cause the $1 install has been extended and as of 1:25 this morning the csr center was still open and still signing people up. Let's get as many people signed up as possible.
 
The website / domain voom.com is owned by Cablevision and is administered from Bethpage LI NY. Sounds like another childish prank, legal like done by the spoild child, James Dolan. Maybe it was a retaliation for Chuck Dolan because he may have just changed the Will to read, Bequeath to James Dolan one dollar and to Tom Dolan the remainder of the estate! :D

Someone mentioned a deal with E* Would that be that Charlie would lease back the purchased uplink and bird channels to Dolan's should they successfully take over the company and E* successfully purchase the RF asset?