Pay £39.99 or we'll collect your box

rolfw

rolfw

Believe it when I see it Admin.
Staff member
My Satellite Setup
Promax HD Ranger+ spectrum analyser.
My Location
Derbyshire
Taken from the Media Guardian

Up to one million former subscribers to the defunct pay television business ITV Digital are to be told to return their set- top boxes or pay £39.99.
Click to expand...

Cynical or what, they wait to see if Freeview is going to be a success, then try and recover payment, if they'd done it prior to the launch most people would have said have it back with pleasure.

It may still bite them in the bum, as many people whilst still wanting to receive Freeview, will perhaps prefer to pay just under £100 and get a new fast version with a manufacturers guarantee and they'll be left with thousands of used slow boxes.
 
Interesting to note from the article they changed the company name back to OnDigital the day before liquidation

Something to do with the original silkscreening on the front panels, but the legal precedent would be that all legitimate users of these boxes were supplied ITVD stickers at the end of 2001, so are these modified ones exempt ?

I believe all subsidised integral digital TVs in the homes will quietly go unnoticed in this collection hat fiasco.
 
So I take it all of you no longer use your old ON/ITV Digital box, you either don't watch DTT any more (but you still frequent a BB about it) , or have gone and bought a new and better box.

Well that's fine, send it back then.

But I really don't understand that. People have been paying £60 or more in the shops for ex ON/ITV digital boxes, so why are you not prepared to pay £40 for it. That's certainly a bargain for a DTT box.

I have one now, a Pace DRT735, and it works fine. Fine that is if you don't want to look at text as that's slooooow, but to just receive television channels (after all that's the main point of DTT) it is just fine. It even nicely matches the size style and colour of my VCR, and is in as new condition.

I got my box from a colleage at work who, after ITV digital folded went and got Sky. He knew that one day the ceiditors might come looking for the box back. So if he does get one of these letters, I will gladly pay the £40 for it. I doubt I would get a DTT box any cheaper anywhere else.

Perhaps you should all think of doing the same, rather than just give it back, offer it to someone else who might genuinely see a £40 DTT box as a bargain.

Don't forget, there is this big plan to turn off analogue TV in a few years. When that happens, you will HAVE to convert all your equipment to digital. I'll bet then you wish you had paid £40 for this extra DTT box, if only to convert your video to digital (where it doesn't matter much if it's slow to change channel or text doesn't work)
 
Not totally disagreeing with you ProDave, I bought a new Grundig box for my Mum to use, so i'm not in the situation of having one of the ex On Digital boxes (I always found it a poor substitue for Sky anyway), but I know a few people who have them sat in a cupboard now, possibly on the off chance that they may introduce hackable subscription channels again.

I would guess that the average ex On Digital viewer who stuck with the box to watch the free channels and didn't transfer to Sky, may well opt for paying £39.99 and keeping everything going. I must confess though, I find the operation of some of the earlier models too slow to be practical and prone to lockups, people with these boxes may well opt for the "come and collect it then" option.

As you so rightly say though, if it is just for a bedroom TV or to act as a video tuner, then speed is not of the essence.

So I take it all of you no longer use your old ON/ITV Digital box, you either don't watch DTT any more (but you still frequent a BB about it) , or have gone and bought a new and better box.
Click to expand...

No, we post here mainly because we're "on the staff". ;)
 
I feel sorry for the company that will be employed to check out the returned ones for

1) Functionality - some I know will be doctored to prevent the unit from showing of a dicky card has been used in the past
2) Accesories - the remote controls for a start will have all sorts of interesting life organisms sitting on and under the keypad
3) Subscription / address compatibility, a great set of discrpancies there as those that handed their digibox over to the Sky installer for a tenner when they were targeted in the last campaign desperately buys anything from loot/ebay/local papers/bootsale for less than the £40

Its a can of worms thats been open for a while, but the weather is mild
 
hi. rolfw


the boxes i have seen for sale in a local high street store [really big name] is just the same nokia box and packaging as on digital were selling just before they went bust. which makes me pleased i only ever paid £25.00 for my second hand box and it has never been swithed off . so they can whistle for there box as far as i am concerned and the bbc is trying to do a pr job to say they cannot keep up with demand. there is no genuine reason for any sensible person to pay £99.00 to receive lots of channels that no one really wants. the government is desperate to get as many people converted to this digital through the air satellite as possible but i am not convinced as yet there is anything worth watching how about you.

warm regards a free sat veiwer at least for now
 
Interesting points CH, particularly with regard to the remotes, I've seen a few that wouldn't be out of place in an exotic disease ward. ;)

@ Johnappleby, for most of us on this board the channel selection is pathetic, but to the man on the street who has never had cable or satellite, the 30 odd channels are a positive improvement and are really proving to be very popular. I had to wait for several weeks to get a couple of panasonic boxes from my wholesaler, such was the demand.
 
hi. rolfw

going through the same problems getting onto site as i have had before you may remember this.

i do not really see the addition of some of the extra bbc channels including bbc parliment etc . and shopping and other naff channels as a great improvement in veiwing choice. i am not presently working and find that haveing to pay for any extra channels to be a hardship. the british people are always ready to pay over the odds for all sorts of different services including cars phone services, white goods , and now tv services . ther are some exellent programs available it is the cost of getting them that is the problem as they are over priced . even £ 99.00 for a one off payment is way over the top. they should be giving it away in my opinion not selling it .

regards
 
hi

just this minute as i am watching the royal family [repeat ]
on bbc1 at 10 pm the ending is someone buying jim royal a subscription to sky tv with 200 channels i subscribed to sky tv in the first couple of years it was available and was one of the few people to pay £199.00 to have it installed it was one of the worst moves i ever made as in the beginning i would say 85 per cent of programms were archives of old itv and bbc programming revampt. and after having it for a short time found it was all just
moved from one channel to another and called a premiere. sorry i have had my say and am very happy to have had the oppertuneity. if this does not agree with others veiws but thats what free speech is all about.

regards
 
Only problem with that is that I don't think that there is another country in Europe who have a free digital terrestrial service, most if not all of the other countries have no more than five or six free to air analogue services on terrestrial, some have a lot more free services, but only on satellite. We don't actually do that bad, the Germans are the ones way out in front, but then they've been in to satellite for longer than us.
 
hi. rolf

thanks a lot for the instant replies

i am not a fan of any sat you have to pay for and it is late the lager may be taking over now m8. all veiws are valid and i take on board what you have said. i think if it is ok with you we can agree to disagree that uk free to air sat services are crap.

i wish you well and seasons greetings

regards
 
LOL, just finishing one last Carlsberg myself, never mind people having different opinions, just as long as it remains good natured and this certainly has. :) Seasons greetings to you also and to all other members on the board who may be reading this thread.
 
hi rolfw

just pretend. i just gave you a manly type cuddle and a pat on the back a couple of times. and when i wake up in the morning i will not remember this thread [lol] . i wish you nothing but well and your family to, seasons greetings . no reply needed

regards
 
Pay for the box!!!
They had better send 2 BIG apes with armour.
They were quick enough to collect my years subscription and close down 2 months later.
I had recieved, as did everyone else, virtually Free TV and put the lose down to experience,£80 or so.
Like I say give me my £80 back and they can have the box.
I am prepared to fight over the money in court or otherwise.
it ain't the money...
 
Can you see them splashing out on colection costs if everyone says come and get it? i think they will take the money they get and forget about everyone else anyway.
 
Just a couple of points that come to my mind.

i) I work for an electrical retailer and I am sure about a couple of months ago we recieved a letter from Philips concerning the continued selling of their On/ITV-Digital boxes. The gist of it was, I think I'm correct in saying, that they would no longer be offering any back-up service such as technical updates etc.
Now, if someone wants me to pay for a piece of equipment I need to be convinced that they will be able to offer me a full guarantee that the equipment will work properly and efficiently. I have a Philips box myself and the delay while the BBC channels come up on screen is several seconds, to the point that you think it isn't going to come up at all. I accept this at present as I haven't paid for the box and that is just they way it is (unless someone can help me out with this?). However, if they want me to pay for it they can make sure that it is working properly first, and I do not want someone elses flee infested box of rejected junk. I cannot see them employing engineers to repair these boxes and the manufacturers do not seem interested in providing continued technical support. I intend to sit back and see what happens, if pushed for payment I will ask them to fix my box or provide another in as new condition which works properly. It will be interesting to see what their reaction will be as they will have to send someone to deliver/collect at least once, and that will cost money. There won't be much of their £40 left by the time they have me satisfied.

ii) The discussion regarding the number and quality of channels on 'Freeview' interests me. As mentioned before I sell these things at work. We have been inundated with people interested in the service, mainly from 'older' customers who do not want oodles of channels, they just want a bit more choice and a better picture quality (which can be an issue locally), and in the last few weeks parents looking for xmas presents little Johnny, and no subscription charges. Pay for the box and that is it. The enquiries about Sky have virtually dried up. Personally I think they are just plain greedy with their subscription charges, which are to go up in the new year. In short, I am more than satisfied with the service. The last thing I want is an ugly satellite dish on the side of my nice new bungalow and having to pay hefty subscription charges.
 
well, as i`ve moved house without leaving a forward address i guess i`ll be keeping my box FOC!

as for people owed money from ITV digi, didn`t they send out refunds shortly after going bust??
 
I gather that many people did get refunds, but from the sound of it, the liquidators are aware that many refunds are still outstanding, they have said as much in a BBC interview, the transcript of which is on Digital Spy.

I'm sure that 50% of ex-subscribers will probably pay up without question, that still leaves a lot of boxes though.
 
I would like to know what the liquidators intend to do with any money they get back through either the £40 or a returned box. If it's going to help customers who lost out like our friend lancsc all well and good. But if it's going to Carlton or Granada forget it. Unless it's going to pay for business management and contractual dealing courses for the ITV companies and/or football league then I might just stretch a point. Might even run the course myself LOL.

Jimbo :D
 
I believe that the main preferential creditors are The FA and BSkyB.
 
Back
Top