FOXTEL

[White Line Fever]

Currently I have Foxtel IQ Standard Box Platinum channels.
Cost me $120 a month ($10 of it is IQ)

So I got a new plasma and got a letter today saying i can upgrade my box to HD IQ2 for a one off $100.

BUT then if i want the HD channels I have to pay an additional $10 a week??

Doesn't make sense... if i upgrade the box why should i pay the extra 10 a month??
I've already got all the channels, is 10 a month really worth seeing the same channels in HD?

Then i asked what happens to my old box and Foxtel said they would probably throw it out.
So i said can i keep my old box and just put it in my bedroom?
He said it would cost me $25 extra a month (this whole multi-room thing)
I said i'd already wired it myself why can't i just keep it???

It seems these guys are just printing money!!
Once i got the box and cable points it doesn't cost them a cent but they charge you for every little bit.

Rant over...

[sapaul]

Similar with AUSTAR. I pay about the same as what you do (slightly more actually) and no way was I gonna pay an extra one off $100 just to have the same service but in HD but last week they sent me an e-mail saying for that day only if I rang I can have MyStar HD upgraded for no extra cost so took them up on that.

HD unit arrived yesterday, sent them the old one back today.

In answer to your question though. Not really.

[White Line Fever]

To cut a long story short...

I convinced them to let me keep my second box for free.

I get a free trial of HD channels.. if i think it's worth it i will pay the extra 10.

On the mobile for 1hr 4min
Will that cost much to a 13 number??

I had a huge fight with the guy and refused to give in and even made him admit it was a rip off

[Brucetiki]

I've had my Foxtel for the 12 months I've been in my house (with the free mutliroom for 12 months). They then offered me a free upgrade to iQ2 with 12 months free iQ access. The tech doing the upgrade was nothing short of incompetent - he broke the scart plug to the hard drive recorder, and actually failed to connect the iQ2 to the hard drive recorder and failed to activate the smart card. I had to activate the smart card myself, while luckily the tech's supervisor came around 20 minutes later to finish the installation.

Last week I decided to remove the multiroom and downgrade to just the basic + sport package (as 90% of the time I'm watching the sports channels). They tried to charge me for the iQ access, saying I had to have a value pack to receive free iQ. I told them that I wasn't made aware of that condition. They checked it out and agreed with what I said, which was good.

My mate got screwed around by them though. He called to cancel his subscription, and they offered him the same deal as me. So he booked it in for last Wednesday, which he had a day off for. So Wednesday comes, and no Foxtel tech. So he phones and they said, 'oh no, we booked you in for Thursday'. They then fraudulently claimed they listened to the call and said my mate booked a Thursday appointment. So he not only cancelled his appointment but his entire subscription. The tech then called my mate Thursday saying he was there for the installation, my mate told him the story and he said it's a common problem.

[sapaul]

Wish I hadn't upgraded to MyStar HD, you can't record stuff onto DVD.

[Dogwatcher]

Thought I should share a positive story.
When I left my previous job, Mrs DW bought Austar with the holiday money I was carrying over (as the changeover time meant we had no time to take a holiday).
She paid for two years up front, something the person on the end of the line had a problem dealing with (mustn't happen much).
Because we weren't getting a monthly bill, we must have slipped through the cracks, as we didn't pay for a movie for about two and a half years.
It was only when Mrs DW fell behind in a payment that we started to get charged for movies.

[Gozu]

Always with Foxtel just get asked to be put through to the retentions area and basically name your price. They are losing customers left, right & centre due to all the FTA channels including One HD (which Packer is now trying to scrap as it competes with his Fox Sports channels). I've read on a few forums people getting excellent deals out of them now.

I was/am out of contract so rung up on Thursday night to cancel as the main reason I have Foxtel is for the basketball. Fox lost the NBL to One HD now and One show far more NBA games than ESPN anyway. I knew if I got rid of the Foxtel I would need to get an HD set-top box (I have an analogue TV), a hard drive (too used to them now) and a good antenna. So I was paying $75 a month and will now have all the Foxtel channels scrapped, got upgraded to an iQ2 for free and will only get the FTA channels through it for $10 a month with no contract. $10 a month is nothing and saves me having to buy all that other stuff.