DSTV Rant Thread...

[wcoetzee]

So usually the Wednesday Mythbusters is a new episode as opposed to the daily repeats of the repeats that they have been repeating now for 2 years. However those too have now become repeats of old shows as well. Last week's was a repeat, and this week is a repeat of the Alaska myths. This is getting beyond absurd now. I really am getting to my wits end with these twits.

Where is the new content? It is non-existent...

that is a Discovery channel thing, mca cannot really do anything about it except send your commends to there people

 

[DJ...]

that is a Discovery channel thing, mca cannot really do anything about it except send your commends to there people

Strangely enough, I've used that exact same reasoning in their defence before...

However considering the rampant repetition on all channels now, and the dismally poor form on their part in ensuring that we receive new content, I am starting to blame them. It is their responsibility to ensure that we get our money's worth. It shouldn't be up to me to fight their fights with the content providers - they should be pro-actively ensuring that new content is aired as often as possible, as opposed to re-runs of repeated re-runs that were repeated 2 years ago already. Their collective voice on behalf of all subscribers speaks a lot louder than one email to Discovery. Which is why I hope they view TB's email criticism as constructive and actually do something about it...

 

[ToxicBunny]

Well suffice it to say they clearly have just ignored my mail...

So I scrapped my slighty annoyed 2nd one.. and am drafting a very strongly worded ANGRY email, which I will be sending off to Wendy Knowler, ICASA(who are just as useless), the Daily News, The Sunday Tribune, M&G, and whoever else I can think of once I'm finished with it.

 

[DJ...]

Well suffice it to say they clearly have just ignored my mail...

So I scrapped my slighty annoyed 2nd one.. and am drafting a very strongly worded ANGRY email, which I will be sending off to Wendy Knowler, ICASA(who are just as useless), the Daily News, The Sunday Tribune, M&G, and whoever else I can think of once I'm finished with it.

Don't forget Carte Blance...Oh, hang on...!!!

 

[feo]

Strangely enough, I've used that exact same reasoning in their defence before...

However considering the rampant repetition on all channels now, and the dismally poor form on their part in ensuring that we receive new content, I am starting to blame them. It is their responsibility to ensure that we get our money's worth. It shouldn't be up to me to fight their fights with the content providers - they should be pro-actively ensuring that new content is aired as often as possible, as opposed to re-runs of repeated re-runs that were repeated 2 years ago already. Their collective voice on behalf of all subscribers speaks a lot louder than one email to Discovery. Which is why I hope they view TB's email criticism as constructive and actually do something about it...

Not gonna happen.

I'm registered on their forum and apart from ONE decent DStv rep (MCA itv) all the other dipsh|ts on there give you the generic "Your query has been escalated" BS. When we ask why so many repeats, they reply that it's the channel distributors fault. But then why the hell is there no such problem on Discovery and Discovery HD in the US?

 

[ToxicBunny]

Well see this is now some ammo for me, I will go and get Discovery UK's (since they're probably our distributor) channel listing for Discovery..... and they are now going to get blasted...


My biggest new issue is this 5.1 k@k... if they advertise a program in 5.1... they better bloody broadcast it in 5.1

 

[ToxicBunny]

Well below is my follow up email to them... and its been sent on to at the very least Wendy Knowler

I am writing this email as a follow up to the one i sent to enquiries@multichoice.co.za on the 4th of January at 10:19pm that your company or your support agents have clearly decided to ignore, and I have now decided instead of being civil and polite and not making this a "public" issue that includes people outside of your employment, that I will now copy this email to as many people as I think will either benefit from reading this, or who it might interest in terms of making it a more public issue, and I will be posting updates on the MyBroadband thread linked to in my original email, and below in this one on the status of return communications from your company.

Not a single one of the 5 queries I raised in my original email has been acknowledged. I will list them again for the benefit of the new people I have copied in on this email.

1) Series Numbering : Your programme guide data capturers are still unable to correctly input information that I KNOW you are correctly provided by the content distributors.

2) Language Filtering : You are still on occasion forcing me to watch movies and programmes that YOU are censoring even on the "Original" soundtrack which is supposed to be unfiltered. I do not take kindly to your company acting as a censor and big brother to me. I do not pay you for this service so please stop it. It is highly annoying to watch a movie with the silences over "vulgar" language and in some movies it actually breaks up the story.

3) Surround Sound : You still seem to be unable to get this one right either. CSI on Wednesday was advertised as being broadcast in 5.1, then was promptly started in Stereo, and no, you can't deny this took place. I recorded the episode onto my HD-PVR, which is connected via Coaxial cable to my amplifier, and my amplifier never showed more than 2 channels being played back. This is no longer a minor bug bear for me. It is plainly false advertising and if you don't fix this issue ASAP, I will be reporting you to the ASA for false advertising.

4) Repeats : This is obviously an ongoing issue, that you deflect off on to your channel providers. I have taken the liberty of going to Discovery Channel UK's tv schedule for the coming week and whilst many of the series are ones that have been broadcast in this country before, I am not seeing the same episode being broadcast 3 times in the SAME day, or even in the same week. SO you can't use that excuse of programming is broken down into 6 hour blocks, because clearly that is not the case. This can only lead me to the conclusion that you have structured the package from Discovery to repeat as often as possible to make the channel cost less to you. I am no longer going to accept the normal excuse of "It is our channel providers fault that things repeat as often as they do", because very clearly Discovery Channel UK doesn't repeat content as often as you do, and if they were constructing the schedule it would more closely resemble the UK one, or be exactly the same as theirs since that would be the most cost effective solution for them. I would like some constructive feedback on this issue.

5) MTV Channel 321 specific problem. I will admit that I do not watch MTV anymore due to this issue experienced previously so I am unsure if it has been fixed, but I'm guessing due to your lack of response that it is not fixed, or if it is, why is it too much effort to write a reply to my email notifying me of such?

Again, I will provide the 2 links from MyBroadband that are dealing with Multichoice's poor service and poor programming for the benefit of new people included in this email. My original email can be found in the first link provided.

http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthread.php?t=152250

http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthread.php?t=152285


Since my previous email was very clearly ignored by your company I fully expect the same to happen to this email. I am very obviously 1 customer out of over a million, so losing me as a customer won't hurt your company. I will tell you again, that there is groundswell of dissatisfaction with Multichoice as a service provider, and since the service you provide is very clearly a luxury, you SHOULD be doing everything in your power to keep your customers happy as your product is one of the first that gets cut when times get tough like they are now.

 

[Nanfeishen]

The best quote regarding DSTV comes off a site regarding the closure of the Sci Fi Channel, which i find to be rather apt:

A DSTV subscription helps you realize that "good television" is practically a contradiction in terms. Your channel changing thumb gets a really good workout as you spend night after night flicking through one piece of **** after another. And when you've come full circle after going through all 80 odd channels, you go through them all again, hoping that something has changed, or some 40 something coke snorting programming executive has been fired and replaced with someone more like you. It's like going back to a fridge you know is empty when you're hungry, hoping that some Vienna sausages materialized out of thin air since you last looked 10 minutes ago. The best thing about a DSTV subscription is that it gets you out the house - if only to go to the local video shop.

http://www.africans.co.za/modules.php?name=News&file=print&sid=545

For those who want to , why not flood the following forum with your complaints, letters and views, maybe with enough negative articles we could make a diffs:
http://forum.dstv.com/index.php

 

[Jabberwocky]

and whats with the african magic channels? can't they at least give them decent cameras and sound equipment? i`ve made better quality movies with my cellphone!

 

[jason006]

Compared to International Pay-TV, DSTV's repeats are rather low. It's way better than watching the SABC channels anyway. I always find something to watch on DSTV. Wether it be Movies, series, documentries, the music channels or even news. If you dont feel like watching anything go to the DMX channels where you can listen to great music.

 

[ToxicBunny]

jason006 : would you care to substantiate that claim about the repeats?

I went to Discovery UK's schedule yesterday and they DON'T repeat the same damn program twice in a 12 hour period... The most i could find was twice in a week. DSTV does twice or three times a DAY...

 

[UtterNutter]

Watching Mrs. Doubtfire on DSTV right now, and there's about a 1.5 second delay between what is happening and the sound.

Pathetic.

 

[JustAsk]

and whats with the african magic channels? can't they at least give them decent cameras and sound equipment? i`ve made better quality movies with my cellphone!

My biggest concern is how the hell did that crap pass through "dstv quality control".And how the hell did they end up with a 2nd channel of africa magic crap.

 

[orin76]

My biggest concern is how the hell did that crap pass through "dstv quality control".And how the hell did they end up with a 2nd channel of africa magic crap.

I've only watched a minute of two of the Africa Magic (couldn't take any more), but I know of many people (non of them friends - thank goodness) who enjoy it and I think it's also popular in the rest of Africa (they have DSTV there too).

 

[ToxicBunny]

Well they can keep a bouquet for those heathens north of the border then.

I don't want to subsidise their k@k. I want intelligent decent quality programming.

 

[orin76]

Well they can keep a bouquet for those heathens north of the border then.

I don't want to subsidise their k@k. I want intelligent decent quality programming.

ROFL

I agree. I really wish I could pay only for the channels I actually watch instead of stuff like Rhema & co, the foreign language news channels etc.

 

[feo]

Sky in the UK has different "mixes" that the user can mix and match to their liking and only pay for what they choose. We will likely never see something like that from DStv because they're milking us for everything we're worth.

Also, dropping the Sci-Fi channel and not buying the Comedy Central equivlaent for our time zone doesn't really help MC's image much either.

Let's just face it, this country is doomed when it comes to Pay TV, broadband and telephony. If you want quality, move to another country.

 

[brixton tower]

Well they can keep a bouquet for those heathens north of the border then.

I don't want to subsidise their k@k. I want intelligent decent quality programming.

I betcha they say the same whenever Multichoice publishes that it has paid millions for rugby and cricket which no-one north of Vic Falls actually watches in great numbers.

 

[JustAsk]

I've only watched a minute of two of the Africa Magic (couldn't take any more), but I know of many people (non of them friends - thank goodness) who enjoy it and I think it's also popular in the rest of Africa (they have DSTV there too).

Then put it in the rest of Africa.I don't have a problem watching African content but those 2 channels are even an insult to crap.

 

[ToxicBunny]

brixton : that may be the case... then MC need to start offering different bouquets. (granted I don't think they're capable of doing such because it might just be too complicated for them to implement with their useless incompetent staff)