Warning On Foxtel Hd Installation

[Guest rodders70]

Now we have all experienced bad service from time to time, but for me, Foxtel take the cake.

Took yesterday afternoon from work in the excitement of Foxtel HD being installed. Having a pioneer lx50 kuro, I was looking forward to seeing some channels how they should be.

Booked some weeks ago and told be home between 12-5pm... no problem.

Was home at 11.40am.

Phoned my office at 12 and told someone from foxtel raang at 11.36am to ask where I was. My secretary told him i was on my way.

At least i thought I wasn't forgotten because I was told some documents would be sent to me but as of that day I had received zip.

Few hours pass and start to get anxious. Never mind as i check mail and long and behold - there are the confirmation documents.....bit late but at least it confirmed installation was today!

4pm rolls around and I get concerned. Phone Foxtel.

18mins on hold....get to Stephen, explain situation. No worries... Stephen will email contractor and get back to me in 30 mins.

5.25pm nothing.... extremely peeved.

Phone foxtel again..... on hold for 10 mins before get sales person and explain situation.

They check records. Comes back.

"sorry Sir you have wrong day, it's 14 June!!!!!" WTF?

Explain earlier call, my letter confirming it's today but no... "it's 14 June, WE RANG YOU"

By this stage I ask for manager, another 5 min wait.. none available.

State I wish to be called asap. Told probably tonight or at latest tomorrow - I give two numbers.

Guess what...... No call, nothing from them at all.

Sorry this is so long but be warned, CUSTOMER SERVICE DOES NOT EXIST AT all!!!!

Not one usually to complain but this was simply amazing.

Anyone else have this experience?

[mtv]

No surprises there.

If you go back through the threads, you'll find similar stories.

[grb1503561862]

Now we have all experienced bad service from time to time, but for me, Foxtel take the cake.

Took yesterday afternoon from work in the excitement of Foxtel HD being installed. Having a pioneer lx50 kuro, I was looking forward to seeing some channels how they should be.

Booked some weeks ago and told be home between 12-5pm... no problem.

Was home at 11.40am.

Phoned my office at 12 and told someone from foxtel raang at 11.36am to ask where I was. My secretary told him i was on my way.

At least i thought I wasn't forgotten because I was told some documents would be sent to me but as of that day I had received zip.

Few hours pass and start to get anxious. Never mind as i check mail and long and behold - there are the confirmation documents.....bit late but at least it confirmed installation was today!

4pm rolls around and I get concerned. Phone Foxtel.

18mins on hold....get to Stephen, explain situation. No worries... Stephen will email contractor and get back to me in 30 mins.

5.25pm nothing.... extremely peeved.

Phone foxtel again..... on hold for 10 mins before get sales person and explain situation.

They check records. Comes back.

"sorry Sir you have wrong day, it's 14 June!!!!!" WTF?

Explain earlier call, my letter confirming it's today but no... "it's 14 June, WE RANG YOU"

By this stage I ask for manager, another 5 min wait.. none available.

State I wish to be called asap. Told probably tonight or at latest tomorrow - I give two numbers.

Guess what...... No call, nothing from them at all.

Sorry this is so long but be warned, CUSTOMER SERVICE DOES NOT EXIST AT all!!!!

Not one usually to complain but this was simply amazing.

Anyone else have this experience?

not for HD, but my recent saga goes something like this...

last Thursday, Telstra confirm to Foxtel that they will finally (after 6 months of bullsh*t) take my address off the "cable only" list so we can get satellite.

I call to book the install, the rep tells me they can only book cable. I pleaded with the guy to try to understand what I was saying, but eventually it just seemed pointless. he said the only way I could get satellite was to book a cable install, have a cable installer come out and say "I can't install cable here" and then Foxtel would re-book for a satellite install. he admitted it was ridiculous, but there was nothing else he could do. I let him book it.

Friday morning after sleeping on it, I decided this was completely stupid, so I call back and force them to change it to be a satellite install. eventually got to speak to someone who could organise the sat install, so he (supposedly) canceled the cable booking and made a new sat booking. all seemed to be going well, until he told me that there were no IQ boxes available until the end of June. rather stupid considering the mass marketing Foxtel are doing right now for the IQ install deal. anyway, got to speak to someone who sounded like she knew what she was doing, and agreed to do an IQ sat install on June 6, provide a Pace 420 box and swapover to the 460 when the stock was available. seemed reasonable.

today I call Foxtel, as by this stage I am paranoid about them actually getting anything right. spoke to someone who basically couldn't do anything, couldn't even transfer me to anyone who could help or bother to look at the notes on my account. I gave up in frustration/anger. called back a few hours later only to be greeted by the IVR message "we're really busy, call back later." how f*cking rude.

tried again at about 6:10 and spoke to someone who seemed very helpful and understanding. she (supposedly.. again) canceled the cable booking and promised that someone would definitely call me within 1 hour. 1 hour rocks around, no call. I called back ONCE MORE and again spoke to someone who seemed helpful and understanding. she said the account was basically messed up, and would have to get someone to fix it. promised that she would call back within 30 minutes.

to my astonishment, she actually did call back. but she couldn't get anyone at the time who could fix it. and apparently can't just ignore the existing account because there is a cable booking for my address in the system which needs to be canceled first. she has once again promised to call me between 9:00 and 9:15am tomorrow. we shall see.

in my mind, it is not that Foxtel customer service is bad, or even atrocious. it's f*cking non-existent.

[ministry]

Customer service is non existent in many big companies with foxtel being first and toshiba following behind!

[Guest rodders70]

Its easy to say big companies don't care but really I have dealt with hundreds through my work that are great.

Singapore Airlines springs to mind on how to inform, listen and respond. Better still, they know what an apology is when errors occur as they do from time to time.

But Foxtel - forget it. It is honestly the worst company I have ever dealt with in my life.

They spend big $$$ on marketing to get customers but knowing that they have no real competition, that's it.

I honestly think I will cancel my subscription that I have had for years. Wont change anything probably but to tolerate their lack of service is worst!

[tomlc]

Its easy to say big companies don't care but really I have dealt with hundreds through my work that are great.

Singapore Airlines springs to mind on how to inform, listen and respond. Better still, they know what an apology is when errors occur as they do from time to time.

But Foxtel - forget it. It is honestly the worst company I have ever dealt with in my life.

They spend big $$$ on marketing to get customers but knowing that they have no real competition, that's it.

I honestly think I will cancel my subscription that I have had for years. Wont change anything probably but to tolerate their lack of service is worst!

I deal with companies way bigger than Foxtel like Airlines and Hotels. I have done so for the last 30 years and this is what I have found and generally applies

to other companies as well.

A company will go on the offensive ie advertising, great prices, great customer service. After a few years they have what they wanted and then become

very lax, trimming back on things like price/servicing etc. Takes another few years for them to realise that others are overtaking them so then they

go into over-drive and generally start back on the customer service and/or pricing. I have seen many Airlines do this. They get to the top and think they

are king sh*t but always someone nibbling on their heels.

I doubt we will have anyone take on Foxtel head on but with all this talk about TIVO/Freeview , then what the FTA's may do with their extra channels plus

if IPTV ever really happens then all of them nibbling at Foxtels heels might get them to do something but if it ever does I reckon its years off.

I have already cancelled all the Movie channels as it was cheaper for me to rent DVD's each month plus got better PQ etc. Although at the moment with

the account stuff ups they are having I have been getting free movies since I got IQ a few months ago.

There is no excuse now for the lousy service Foxtel gives. They have had enough time to hire/train extra staff to help out and they havent so they just

frustrate their customers and thats when loyalty goes out the door.

[Brad..]

yep they suck

[sirhc55]

Does anyone deal with Dell? If so, Foxtel would be the rose in the dung pile. . .

[extremeaudiowa]

My install went to Pot yesterday

It staerted with singing up and being told i am booked in 7am-10am. Not a problem Never heard of this time slot so i confirmed with them twice with 2 different CSR on 2 different times.

Come 12am and still no installer I ring foxtel only to get told we will have to reschedule cause they should be there by now. I said no reschedule you will get your bloke out here as i took a day off work for this to happen. He told me installers are uncontactable by foxtel (Which is not true as i have had them contact them before)

So i get off my bum and ruing BSA myself. They told me that install is between 7am and 5pm (So have to wait around for the entire day for them to arrive.)

BSA tried to call the installer who was uncontactable and said they will call me back within 30mins.

2 Hours later still no installer so i call BSA again and get the same line they tried to call the installer and he is uncontactable at the moment. So the installer Is AWOL. I live in the metro area in perth there is nearly no where that there is no signal for 2+ hours.

So come 4.30 in the afternoon the installer rocks up with a box. The first one he installed would not turn on DOA and he said he had no others. I said he better go and find one because i have waited home all day for an installer when i was originally told between 7am and 10am. He went out to his van and magically appeared with one. Told me it is his own personal one and now he wont be able to install his at home until the DOA one is replaced. He also told me he had 11 More HD installs to go "Today" he left my house at 4.40pm so i dont think he would be doing another 11 installs in that day some how because ti was already getting dark.

So surely he could have used one of those HD boxes.

The final part is he told me it takes a while for the box to recognise where it is and thats why HD channels dont work yet. I rang foxtel as soon as he left to find out that the HD channelshad not been added to the package and thats why they were not working. So 5 mins later they where added and working.

My trials and tribulations of a foxtel install.

PS: Dont trust the installers either as they are not trained well "Or dont listen:

My installer told me:

Foxtel HD is 1080p Full HD.

The hard drive in the unit is 320gb but they can double its capactiy with compression and wont affect anything

All 4 tuners work now

You need the ethernet cable plugged in as it downloads you HD movies via this not the sattelite.

My 52" Samsung Full HD TV which is brand new wont be able to keep up with the picture of the FoxtelHD only the Pioneer Kuro is capable of that

The foxtel IQ2 remote is security coded to the unit and wont work on other boxes (Works fine on my Other IQ1)

[dragonjen]

As far as i'm concern Foxsteal can go and get F****kd they have no customer respect and are bloody arrogant my account was over debited a month ago and still money not back when i rang back and asked them to terminate my contract today spoke to supervisor and told me that they have done nothing wrong. So taking extra money and not refunding it when they say they will is nothing wrong. I really don't know where they get off in being so arrogant and thief's.I have made a formal complaint with Fair trading and hopefully current affairs.

[SCAT01]

Now we have all experienced bad service from time to time, but for me, Foxtel take the cake.

Took yesterday afternoon from work in the excitement of Foxtel HD being installed. Having a pioneer lx50 kuro, I was looking forward to seeing some channels how they should be.

Booked some weeks ago and told be home between 12-5pm... no problem.

Was home at 11.40am.

Phoned my office at 12 and told someone from foxtel raang at 11.36am to ask where I was. My secretary told him i was on my way.

At least i thought I wasn't forgotten because I was told some documents would be sent to me but as of that day I had received zip.

Few hours pass and start to get anxious. Never mind as i check mail and long and behold - there are the confirmation documents.....bit late but at least it confirmed installation was today!

4pm rolls around and I get concerned. Phone Foxtel.

18mins on hold....get to Stephen, explain situation. No worries... Stephen will email contractor and get back to me in 30 mins.

5.25pm nothing.... extremely peeved.

Phone foxtel again..... on hold for 10 mins before get sales person and explain situation.

They check records. Comes back.

"sorry Sir you have wrong day, it's 14 June!!!!!" WTF?

Explain earlier call, my letter confirming it's today but no... "it's 14 June, WE RANG YOU"

By this stage I ask for manager, another 5 min wait.. none available.

State I wish to be called asap. Told probably tonight or at latest tomorrow - I give two numbers.

Guess what...... No call, nothing from them at all.

Sorry this is so long but be warned, CUSTOMER SERVICE DOES NOT EXIST AT all!!!!

Not one usually to complain but this was simply amazing.

Anyone else have this experience?

You think thats bad. When Foxtel digital first came out I was waiting at home all day on the day they were supposed to install it and then they didnt turn up. Called them and they told me I would have to wait 4 MONTHS to get the digital service. So I told them SCREW YOU and hang up.

About 2 years later finally got it installed

[DrP]

The hard drive in the unit is 320gb but they can double its capactiy with compression and wont affect anything

Not sure where you got that from. There won't be any recompression going on.

[extremeaudiowa]

Not sure where you got that from. There won't be any recompression going on.

Please re-read my first post.

Thats what the installer told me.

I knew it was utter cr*p

Was explaining that dont trust what your installer days. this one gives installers a bad name

[Illuzive]

i know you guys probably don't want to hear this but i had my standard foxtel installed in december last year and everything went without a hitch...bloke turned up on time, installed it and had it working on my t.v within 30 minutes!

and no i don't work for foxtel lol!

[mtv]

i know you guys probably don't want to hear this but i had my standard foxtel installed in december last year and everything went without a hitch

On the contrary... it's good to hear about positive experiences... just a shame there aren't more of them.

[Hosko]

On the contrary... it's good to hear about positive experiences... just a shame there aren't more of them.

Your probably only ever going to hear about the bad ones as an unhappy punter is more likely to talk about it then someone who didn't have an issue.

Most of my installs have gone without a hitch. On one of them the LNB wasn't adjusted properly but that was promptly fixed.

[dragme]

Got my IQ2 today and it all went well. The installer was under the pump and late but thats what you get, with a launch of a new product/service.

[dracomjb]

Took the day off Wednesday for the install. Booked it in the day it was announced (May 19th), ordered 1 IQ2 to upgrade from an IQ.

Sorted everything out so that all the programs recorded were transferred off onto a dvd/HD recorder, appointment was 12-5 so ready and waiting from 12.

3pm get a call from the installer saying he had no boxes, it was Foxtel's fault and it wasn't going to happen today. Not impressed. Call Foxtel, they tell me they have lots of stock and the installer is talking rubbish and they would chase up what the problem was.

I then get a call from the contracting company that employed my installer. They tell me that Foxtel had failed to deliver any boxes (this being the 3rd day of installs) and that it was Foxtel's responsibility and I should call them.

Currently waiting for more information from Foxtel but from what they tell me, they're not happy with the contractor, but I'm still waiting to find out what is going to happen and when.

[Brad..]

i got my iq1 im happy with it im going to wait still foxtel HD get more channels

[Guest rodders70]

update from foxtel.....

As of last Monday, I was told a manager would call to discuss that night or next day.

As of Thursday nothing so I call them again.

After the usual long wait eventually get through to a manager and explain situation.

Long and the short of it is now Foxtel promise to install tomorrow and waive installtion fee!!!!!!!

Stick with it people. It took me persistance and a clear indication of how unhappy I was and may leave foxtel altogether.

Remember that if someone doesnt live up to their end of a deal - deal is off and time to negotiate.

If all goes well tomorrow I'll let you know.

[Cratra]

Took the day off Wednesday for the install. Booked it in the day it was announced (May 19th), ordered 1 IQ2 to upgrade from an IQ.

Sorted everything out so that all the programs recorded were transferred off onto a dvd/HD recorder, appointment was 12-5 so ready and waiting from 12.

3pm get a call from the installer saying he had no boxes, it was Foxtel's fault and it wasn't going to happen today. Not impressed. Call Foxtel, they tell me they have lots of stock and the installer is talking rubbish and they would chase up what the problem was.

I then get a call from the contracting company that employed my installer. They tell me that Foxtel had failed to deliver any boxes (this being the 3rd day of installs) and that it was Foxtel's responsibility and I should call them.

Currently waiting for more information from Foxtel but from what they tell me, they're not happy with the contractor, but I'm still waiting to find out what is going to happen and when.

I think from reading this and other posts it would be prudent to try and get a morning install as the installers are struggling to keep up. I had mine booked for 7am to 12pm 020608 and the guy turned up at 9.20am with my job being his first ever install. Nothing like an early start???? The guy was nervous, you could see it in his body language and demeanour. It went through okay but he had a few minor problems. Done in about 20minutes for IQ1 to IQ2 changeover.

[Sidor]

I think from reading this and other posts it would be prudent to try and get a morning install as the installers are struggling to keep up. I had mine booked for 7am to 12pm 020608 and the guy turned up at 9.20am with my job being his first ever install. Nothing like an early start???? The guy was nervous, you could see it in his body language and demeanour. It went through okay but he had a few minor problems. Done in about 20minutes for IQ1 to IQ2 changeover.

sometime installer should take 2-2.5 hour round trip at the morning to the warehouse to pick-up Foxtel boxes ...

It has always been a shortage either boxes, smart cards or both ... and very often installers are NOT even given requested quantity of equipment and have either to reschedule or cancell jobs, go to the warehouse the next day or so to pick up more equipment spending $15-20 on petrol ...

this is the reality of Foxtel installations and neither Foxtel or BSA/Downer are actually care because NOONE but installer only loosing money.

Edited June 6, 2008 by Sidor

[tomlc]

I think from reading this and other posts it would be prudent to try and get a morning install as the installers are struggling to keep up. I had mine booked for 7am to 12pm 020608 and the guy turned up at 9.20am with my job being his first ever install. Nothing like an early start???? The guy was nervous, you could see it in his body language and demeanour. It went through okay but he had a few minor problems. Done in about 20minutes for IQ1 to IQ2 changeover.

Has anyone who has booked a 7am-12pm ever had the installer turn up at 7am ?

And yes you are right about booking mornings if you can. I use that for all workers - plumbers/carpet cleaning etc as the more they do before you there

more there is a chance of delays adding up and up.

I wonder if these guys ever book themselves say a plumber and told take 1/2 day off and wait ? then get aggravated when they dont turn up till the

last 10mins ? maybe they would then see where a lot of people are coming from. Our Strata has narrowed a lot of these people down now and so when

they say there 10-12 etc you can almost guarantee they are there within that first hour. Anyone no-showing or ringing and cancelling etc gets the shove

from the Strata Management company for all their properties.

[doodlefeatures]

Has anyone who has booked a 7am-12pm ever had the installer turn up at 7am ?

And yes you are right about booking mornings if you can. I use that for all workers - plumbers/carpet cleaning etc as the more they do before you there

more there is a chance of delays adding up and up.

I wonder if these guys ever book themselves say a plumber and told take 1/2 day off and wait ? then get aggravated when they dont turn up till the

last 10mins ? maybe they would then see where a lot of people are coming from. Our Strata has narrowed a lot of these people down now and so when

they say there 10-12 etc you can almost guarantee they are there within that first hour. Anyone no-showing or ringing and cancelling etc gets the shove

from the Strata Management company for all their properties.

When I got my original IQ installed the guy rocked up at about 7.05, I couldn't believe it.

[Sidor]

I wonder if these guys ever book themselves say a plumber and told take 1/2 day off and wait ?

you can't compare plumber with Foxtel installer.

When you book plumber you talk to him directly, when you book Foxtel installation - you talk to Foxtel first, then Foxtel send job to its contracting company which does routing of ALL the job and assign to installer. When installer receive the list of jobs he can do them in any order, morning jobs arrival time 7-12, afternoon jobs - 12-5pm. Depends on the job installer can get 1-5 morning jobs. He usually does them in order to travel as less as possible.

And Foxtel keeps installers under pressure ALL the time ..

Edited June 6, 2008 by Sidor