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Big (Bullshit) TV; heightened exptns & failed performance I have taken a new Big TV connection on 31.08.08 with smart card no. 200511906888 against a payment of Rs. 2990 i.e., Rs 500 more than the base option of Rs. 2490. It comes with a free premium pack of channels offered for 6 months (incl all the Kids, lifestyle, Sports & other niche channels) or a popular pack( which excludes many of the usual channels provided by local cable operators/MSOs) for 12 months as a free subscription plus one regional language pack of our choice as free pack for the selected period.
Though I have personally ticked the correct options for a 6 months premium pack in the post installation appln form provided by the installation guy, the Big TV has carelessly punched 12 months popular pack which is short of all the normally viewed premium channels & also some other regional pack (ie., Gujarati-Rajasthani, which is the native language where I stay which I never opted for). This punching is done by their local installation service provider & you donot have any control over it even if they make blunders. And on top of it Reliance DTH says it cannot be changed inspite of their own mistake & having a copy of my signed form with them which is perfectly in order.
I had to make dozens of phone calls to their toll free no., which connects only after several attempts ( & even on connection, Min 10 minutes in queue most of the time even during their office working hrs, & much more during nights) and also to their local installation & services provider, who says he has sent mails to their distributor & washed off his hands & stopped taking calls from my no. The result was not a Big TV but a Big Zero of disappointment. Moreover one always encounter incompetent & un-empowered staff at BIG TV Call centre no., who never passes their calls to senior chaps inspite of specific requests/problems & offer no help except to read out from their computer. So I AM STUCK WITH A USELESS PACK AND I REGRET HAVING DISCONNECTED MY LOCAL CABLE WHICH WAS GIVING MORE CHANNELS WHICH ARE OF RELEVANCE TO OUR FAMILY VIEWING THAN THIS BIG BULLSHIT TV. Even the much touted 20 movie channels run the same films non stop for 2 weeks & that too on a monthly subscription basis & the English movies are as per pay per view which sounds good but a big pain in the pack. You will never attempt this again after using it once, I vouch for it.
Even the signal reception quality esp., sound is affected with huge background noise disturbance with slightest of rains, which we donot notice much in cable signal probably either it is filtered specially or dilutes due to the in-line signal boosters. No big deal between MPEG4 & MPEG2 tech as far as end user is concerned, it serves the DTH operator better for pay per view etc.
TATA SKY as I have seen is equally fraught with these issues but there were never inflexible esp. for things which were done wrong from their end, as my office colleagues expressed (& even change pack inspite of marginal usage) & provide the similar set of channels in thier pac,k costing almost the same. RELIANCE is a big master as far as squeezing money from customers with no commensurate benefit is concerned. I tried Reliance with hesitation for the first time & never a Reliance service again. I doubt whether the subscriber numbers they project are correct, while I hardly find any of my friends & office colleagues use their services, esp mobile & other phone connections.
My advice is stick to your cable guy as long as he is providing all the usual niche channels including newly launched channels with good signal quality & donot go for DTH. And never a Reliance . At best try a Tata Sky DTH that too after seeing feedback of the users in your locality & your friends and aquantances.
Keeping my personal problems aside, for a person who wishes to go for DTH for various reasons, the attraction as on date in reliance is only on two scores
Item 1. Cheaper & better channel line up as compared to others even after the free subscription period, which comes to Rs. 220-260 for the usual feed of our channels , assuming you take a movie plus & Kids plus pack & also one sports pack (min. 240 for 6 months). You get the premium lifestyle channels in Reliance which you miss at this price point with the competition. But the competition & may be reliance themselves may change soon in this area for cheaper rates.
Point no: 2 is MPEG-4 where I failed to see any appreciable difference in Video/Audio as compared to MPEG-2 (audio was prone to lot of disturbances even with moderate rains even without ligtening etc, specifically the audio, though it is OK during normal time). But it may be supporting HD/USB connectivity in future though STB has an USB. But sooner or later even others will swap the old STBs with MPEG-4 as & when things unfold.
Updated status of my complaint even after 15 days: No action from Reliance, ultimately I paid extra vouchers for Kids pack as my children cannot wait for ever for their usual channels not offered with popular pack.
I DONOT RECOMMEND RELIANCE DTH AS PER MY EXPERIENCE
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I had to go through somethign very similar with tata wimax when my connection was down the very first day they installed it and it took a few hundred calls to get them to sort out the issue.
:lol: :lol: 