Mar 29, 2007 07:28 PM
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(Updated Mar 29, 2007 07:52 PM)
All of us have read so much about CAS (Conditional Access System), which has been thrust down the throats of citizens in the metros in India. The reasons for this implementation was because of Underreporting of connection thus tax evasion by the cable wallah, MSO etc, Another reason was it was ‘better technology’ whatever that means as you shall see.Regarding the first point when we pay our dues honestly to the cable wallah, why are we being penalized for ‘under reporting’ on his part.
The cost of CAS Set. Top Boxes and its implementation should have been borne by the cable wallah or MSO or the govt. but no since the local citizen does not have a lobby, we lost. On the second point shouldn't the customer have a choice what he wants, better technology or whatever?It was my turn to ‘get it’ from 31st
Dec 2006, but not unexpectedly channels went of the air on 31st Dec sometime in the morning. This clearly showed the mentality of the people involved, trying to pressurize viewers in this crude way. Thus started my travails of CAS J. I took two tv connections of Indusind Media & Communication (Mumbai) thru
Rohit Vision the local franchise in Mahim Mumbai.
Knowing the quality of service of this cable wallah as I had suffered for three years with my Sify ‘Broadband’
service of which he is also provides in my area (see my Sify suffering article in this blog). I had decided to opt for DTH but I wanted it to be a coordinated effort with the rest of my building mates as I wished to go in for a community dish antenna in my building. To cut a long story short, there was a general consensus in my building, that we try CAS ‘for a few months’then decide whether to go in for DTH.
All of us missed out that a la carte selection of channels required us to pay for FOUR MONTHS at a time, as the different bouquets did not have all the required channels we were compelled to go for a la carte. A mix & match was not allowed then. It is now. ie: you can select a bouquet which is a best fit and then select those channels which are not there in bouquet. That was my first mistake that I got talked into this even in spite
of my experience with the QOS (Quality Of Service) from my cable wallah.
As I know his capability of handling ‘advanced technologies’is like asking ‘Flintstones’ of comic book fame to launch a satellite. The only sign of evolution in them is that they have learnt to be polite where as before they
were absolute ‘topori’Anyway the two STB’s were installed on the 6th of Jan 2007 and the picture quality was
impressive, but the sound was mono. At this time the signals were not encrypted hence you could watch all the channels just like the old days. Around the end of Jan we gave our channels selections and the encryption of channels started & all hell broke loose. We now see Flintstones at work :)Let me enumerate the problems faced:Problem 1First point I would like to make is that I have not received ANY RECEIPT YET for my cheque payments for the STB deposits or for the four-month rent for FTA or pay channels.
The cheques for the deposits were collected on 7-Jan-07 for both CAN’s (Customer Account Number) & were cleared on 10 & 11 of Jan-07.The cheques for the channel rent and STB & FTArents for four months were collected on 28-Jan-07 & were cleared on 3 Feb-07. So there has been ample time to give customers their receipts. When I ask my cable wallah I am told that receipts have to come from Indusind Media & when I ask on the toll free number I am told very casually ‘ask your cable wallah’, is this ignorance on their part or is this part of company policy?
According to TRAI advertisements in the media we should be given receipts for the payments made, so why this delay? I think the plot here is when there no receipts issued they can fudge the dates (especially true for people who have paid in cash) of when the STB’s were installed so when they return the customers deposits they can also fudge the amount returned which is dependent on the date of installation. Clever chap’s isn't it!Problem. When I subscribed, I was specifically told that I could choose the language for the channels, which had been dubbed in local languages.
There is no sign of this till date in spite of many complaints. This is true for both CAN’s. eg. Cartoon Network sometimes comes in Tamil or Hindi ! In fact on 4-3-07 when I wanted to watch Harry Potter movie on Cartoon Network, I find the sound is in Tamil. I was told by one of the call centers guys that this is a technical problem (really!!!!) but no word on when it going to be solved as this was happening even before CAS was introduced.On 4-3-07 I found that for half a day HBO had gone off the air!!! But appeared again later in the day, also, I find that almost all channels tended to freeze.Coz of space constraints rest follows in the comments section.
