Ubc False Advertising ...

[grantbkk]

I am starting to get extremely upset with UBC.

Me too. The Simpsons were supposed to be on Star World at 2 am and they were showing Ghost Whisperer.

Prefer to look at love hewitt than homer...

Ghost Whisperer in Thai means "large breasts". I wonder what her face looks like.

[Scott]

If they mess up Desperate Housewives, then I'll really be mad and do something!

[grantbkk]

Subject: Correspondence for Kantima Kunjara, director for Communications ofTrueVisions.

Dear Khun Kantima Kunjara,

I have been planning to write you personally regarding True Visions programming for sometime, eager to give you what I believe is relevant insight into television programming from a western perspective. What inspired me to write today was my frustration with True Visions’ American football schedule for the coming month. I check the True Visions Magazine, your website and called True Visions Care to clarify the schedule and to make a list of the National Football League (NFL) games to be presented this month.

I was encouraged by the American Football promotion on page 48 of True Visions Magazine touting the “Live and Exclusive! 2007 Season Kick Off” game between the New Orleans Saints and the Indianapolis Colts. The September 7th game was advertised as a showcase for your commitment to professional American football. I checked the magazine and on the internet to determine what channel was carrying the broadcast however the game was not listed. I called True Visions Care and was informed that the magazine promotion was not correct and the game was not available from True Visions. Looking further into the schedule revealed that of the 60 NFL games played this month only four are broadcast on True Visions. This is not much of a commitment and unacceptable to NFL fans.

Over the past six months True Visions Television has become the talk of the town. It seems to be the number one or number two topic of conversation when westerners get together in social situations. You would probably agree with me that the Thai economy, political unrest, global warming, violence in the Deep South and the dilapidated Suvarnabhumi Airport would be expected to dominate these type of conversations. However, to my surprise there are a lot of people very passionate about the quality of your programming. I do not want you to think these folks are just tourists or poor westerners living life on the cheap in Thailand. These people work in well recognized multi-national corporations, Thai companies, broadcasting, are diplomats and include wealthy retirees living full time in this country, most with their families.

The first words associated with True Visions are “joke”, “awful”, and “the worst”. Every one of these individuals must travel all over the world and to a man they say there is nothing worse than True Visions. Several have said that even Cambodia has better television content than True Visions. Please do not take this criticism personally. Cable television companies in the United States faced the same criticism in the 1970’s and 1980’s for their poor service and program content. Many companies were out of touch with the consumer and as a result became an iconic running joke when one was describing appalling customer service. After a shakeup in the industry and laws preventing monopolies were enacted service providers in the United States are now rated high in service and content.

Recently I received a call from the Bangkok Post Editorial Department. The representative said that they were overwhelmed with complaints regarding True Visions and were trying to put letter writers in touch with your customer service department. She went on to say that the Post could not even print even a small percentage of the letters as it would give the impression they were attacking True Visions.

Back to the most recent conversations, several are exploring alternative satellite television service providers. Two are currently installing very large systems in there homes. They have given up on True Visions and do not see any changes in programming or policy in the near future. Several of the people I have had dealings with actually get there television content from street vendors. They don’t care how much it costs but want to enjoy what is available in developed countries and who can blame them. The street vendors provide family television programming that will not be available on True Visions for years. Additionally, no one understands why MTV and VH1 were replaced by local folk music channels. Many people I know are sports fans but not necessarily soccer fans. Last year NFL fans could watch three or four games a week now only four games are scheduled for entire month of September.

A suggestion I would make, is for you to look into what is being offered on your premium movie channels. HBO and CineMAX (Asia) are actually the same company offering a few recent movies played over and over forever interspersed with movies made for American television passed off as feature length movies. Some of these made for television movies are around 20 years old and probably should be on a channel dedicated to “old classic American television”. If HBO tried this tactic in the west they would be out of business and subject to criminal and civil penalties as well. You may be unaware that True Visions is advertising premium content but delivering a substandard product. Of course an inexpensive alternative for the consumer is to buy recent theatrical releases with great sound and picture quality from street vendors.

If you have any control over the television guide available on our set top boxes I have another complaint voiced by everyone that attempts to use the service. For some reason about two months ago, package designators like KNOW:, PLAT:, GOLD:, etc. have been appearing at the front of many of the programs in the electronic guide. These package designators are distracting, make no sense and render the guide less convenient to use, taking up space normally used for the program name.

The bottom line is that something has to be done now. If high-end consumers of entertainment find an alternative to True Visions inferior service there is no question that they will buy the superior service. Perhaps you can create additional premium packages we would be willing to pay for. I’m not talking about the HBO and Knowledge packages that you are trying to sell now. Wise consumers already understand channel packaging and “time shifting” and really don’t want another chance to see more re-runs or what you call encore presentations. True Visions attempt to sell us Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) appears to have failed.

Programming and not the technology drives the consumer. By giving us more choices and allowing us to pick our content your bottom line is sure to rise. We will pay a premium for decent content be it True Visions or another provider. We realize we have chosen out adopted country and because True Visions does not have a large customer base we expect to be charged a premium for premium service.

Thank you in advance for your time and consideration of these issues.

Sincerely,

grantbkk

Dear Mr grantbkk,

First of all, I would like to apologize for the error on the TrueVisions Magazine about the National Football League (NFL) schedule. Contrary to the magazine which stated that TrueVisions will provide only four games for the entire month, I am delighted to inform you that TrueVisions has secured the rights to broadcast NFL every week through out the season to serve the American football fans as ESPN, Starsport has not renewed their deal with NFL this year.

I also would like to thank you for taking your time suggesting us on our service improvement. For the MTV and VH1 channels, our contract has ended with the content provider but we have been offering several music channels to serve various target audiences.

Regarding the movie channels, TrueVisions would like to clarify that the contents and pattern of the programs on certain foreign channels such as CNN, BBC, HBO, Cinemax, History Channel, National Geographic and Discovery are set by the program providers. However, your suggestion will be passed on to the foreign program providers for future service improvement.

For the package designators, some of our subscribers have requested for additional information on whether each programme belong to which package. Thus, TrueVisions decided to add the initial of each package in front of the programmes’ title on our Electronic Programme Guide which could hold up to 33 alphabets. As a result, some of the titles which contain over 28 alphabets may be missing but viewers could still receive summary of the programme by press i on the remote control.

TrueVisions is striving to offer the best of our service for the majority of our subscribers and hope that the prefix would be useful once subscribers wish to get more information on the packages. We apologise if this should disturb the viewing experience and assure that this was never our intention.

On behalf of TrueVisions, I would like to thank you again for taking your time for these constructive comments.

Best Regards,

Kantima Kunjara

TrueVisions Corporate Communications Director

[Bagwan]

My job list for today includes investigating an alternative satellite TV package being hawked at an establishment with 100 metres off PattayaTai/3rd Road junction. I understand that it has no connection with the Kiwi rip off guy who made stacks from gullible bar owners and private subscribers. I will report back.

Having stayed up late last night to watch MotoGP only to be told that the signal was being searched for was the last straw. Satellite TV isn't rocket science for Christ's sake!

[timonase]

hello all,

ubcs latest reply on the german bundesliga

Dear Mr. Ruge:

We are terribly sorry for late reply and for any inconvenience caused

Please be informed that Truevisions is now trying to negotiate with the license owner once again. We really hope that it would be good news. We apologize again because we are not able to tell you the exact date of when the negotiation is over. As a result, we would be much appreciated your patience.

Should you have any further enquiry, do not hesitate to contact us at 02-7252525 or [email protected]

We are so grateful for your trust in our service and support us all time.

Best regards,

Dont you usually negoiate before the season starts or get information that the german league usually plays on saturdays?

But there might be hope, or maybe its just that the want me to stop writing?

we ll see.

regards

Timo

[rainman]

I would say they wrote that because they want you to stop writing. I can't imagine that they would start negotiating contracts because of one complaint, unless other people are complaining too (I am at least).

[sexy man]

i have just read about the gold/plat etc.comming before the program being broadcast the compant tells you to press the I[DOTOVER IT]to receive more details of the program currently being broadcast i have tried it and it does say something , only trouble is it is in THAI unbelievable when the abreviated one is in english, but as they say THIS IS THAILAND

[timonase]

hello all,

i keep the complaints up as well. Lets see if it gets me anywhere. All of my german friends are doing the same.

paying the same, getting less, thats what UBC is all about this year.

regards

Timo

[Bagwan]

My job list for today includes investigating an alternative satellite TV package being hawked at an establishment with 100 metres off PattayaTai/3rd Road junction. I understand that it has no connection with the Kiwi rip off guy who made stacks from gullible bar owners and private subscribers. I will report back.

Having stayed up late last night to watch MotoGP only to be told that the signal was being searched for was the last straw. Satellite TV isn't rocket science for Christ's sake!

The good news is that you pay 20K up front and then no more. The bad news is that everything is in Chinese and there are no sports channels. Back to square one.

Does anybody know who is at fault when the signal is lost because of rain? Since it doesn't rain 300 miles up I assume that that this is another fault of UBC - Utter Bloody Chaos.

[rainman]

Since earlier this month, I cancelled my UBC service (was Baht 1500 per month) and my wife got a custom decoder box from her sister. Don't ask me where she bought it though, since it's already a few years old and she can't reach the guy anymore that made/sold them. It works like brand new though, i get all the channels I'd get with UBC's most expensive package (Baht 2000, is it?). The downside is I can't change from English to Thai, but its set to English. Doesn't affect me much and neither my wife, since she only watches Thai channels in Thai anyways, the others in English.

I keep complaining to UBC about the bad service, though.

[rainman]

Wow, I cannot believe it. I actually got an email from them, even after they had already responded to my previous complaints:

Dear Mr.:

We would like to inform you that this weekend we will be show four Spanish League games. You can watch the Recreativo-Espanyol at 01:00 and the Barcelona-Sevilla at 03:00 on Sunday morning and the Atletico Madrid-Racing at 0:00 and the Valladolid-R. Madrid at 02:00 on Monday morning on the True Visions channels.

We hope you enjoy the programming.

Best regards,

Service: Correspondence

Non-Voice & Special Projects (Back Line Service)

Tel+66(0) 2725-2525

Fax+66(0) 2725-2500

Email:[email protected]

Is it possible they have finally understood and are following up on customer concerns? Or are they just teasing me with four live matches and I will be disappointed once again? I guess I will have to wait until Saturday night.

[timonase]

Hello All,

yesterdays games included the top game Leverkusen-Bayern, a northern derby HSV- Wolfsburg.

Then again they show Cottbus-Frankfurt

To top things i just saw a trailer for the this years coverage of the bundesliga, claiming that we "have a season ticket" on UBC.

All we have is a season ticket to the mainly boring Sunday games. Yes there will be the occasional top game on Sunday, but again most games are on SATURDAY.

Will complain again today.

regards

timo

[timonase]

Hello all,

now this is an original idea by UBC. The german Bundesliga ever so interesting sunday game has spanish commentary. No, not english, no, not germany maybe.

Its amazing, I am stunned by what can go wrong in one company.

This is almost amusing, to be quite honest, if it wasnt so sad.

regards

Timo

[timonase]

Hello All,

i now have talked to UBC, and nobody seems to know why the german football game last sunday was only available with Spanish commentary. Watch out for the Spanish leaugue being in German next week.

regards

Timo

[timonase]

hello all,

second week in a row, german bundesliga with spanish commentary......no answer from ubc yet....

guess i will have to learn spanish......and i though thai was the language i should focus on...

well.

regards

Timo

[rainman]

You'll probably learn Spanish faster than you'll get a response from UBC about it. Their programming is totally messed up now. They show Premiership repeats when Spanish League live should be on and French League games from LAST year when Bundesliga games are available live.

The French League game between Marseille and Bordeaux was showing the 'LIVE' sign on the top right corner, but Ribery (who now plays for Bayern) was playing ...how stupid do they think people are?

[Pundi64]

I'm ok with UBC, they have golf, American football, and baseball, soccer I couldn't really give a flying -uck for, there is way too much of it on UBC.

[rainman]

And they're at it again. Their online schedule shows Villarreal vs. Barcelona for tonight, but they're showing Valencia vs. Deportivo. On top of that, they have the Spanish commentary turned on and are broadcasting their own commentary in Thai into it, so you can't understand either. The game, in addition to being the wrong one, is unwatchable.

[lazeeboy]

And they're at it again. Their online schedule shows Villarreal vs. Barcelona for tonight, but they're showing Valencia vs. Deportivo. On top of that, they have the Spanish commentary turned on and are broadcasting their own commentary in Thai into it, so you can't understand either. The game, in addition to being the wrong one, is unwatchable.

so there looking after the spanish speaking expat not everyone speaks english .

[MartinBKK]

This seems to be a Truevisions ranting post so let me add my complaint.

THB 7000 to add an additional point? I come from the UK and this price is even more expensive than back home to add this facility.

How can they possibly justify USD 205 to add an additional viewing point in a country where labour costs THB 150 per day.

It is downright greed if you ask me.

[lazeeboy]

This seems to be a Truevisions ranting post so let me add my complaint.

THB 7000 to add an additional point? I come from the UK and this price is even more expensive than back home to add this facility.

How can they possibly justify USD 205 to add an additional viewing point in a country where labour costs THB 150 per day.

It is downright greed if you ask me.

maybe 150b a day but how many thai's have it ..

[MartinBKK]

Well i dont have many Thai friends to be honest but there are plenty of UBC dishes on my housing complex in CM.

I have never seen another farang on this complex so i would have to assume quite a few Thais have it.

[Master Chief]

Okay boys and girls, we do like this!

Cancel your UBC now and do not pay the last months bill before they call you up.

That should teach them do start listening to their customers, loss of money is the only way.

After they have maybe start listening, subscribe again.

Claims,

Stop re-runs of movies within an 6 hours period, now only 2 hours.

Follow the schedule laid up in your UBC magazine.

Add english text and language as second or third option, now only film native language and Thai.

Start an UBC update channel, where UBC informs of schdule changes and subscriber news.

Upgrade our present subscription level, silver gold, with more channels, not as now start new levels and increase costs for us. Things do get cheaper by time!!!!!

[JetsetBkk]

Claims,

Stop re-runs of movies within an 6 hours period, now only 2 hours.

But I quite like that feature . Just a few days ago I channel hopped to 'Movie Hits' half way through "K-Pax" (which is on again right now, actually). After I decided I liked it, I checked the next showing (2 hours later) and watched another channel until "K-Pax" was on again.

[xyborg]

Throw your tv's away would be my advice there are better things to do.