Sick Of Ubc?

[Maverick]

I am tired of UBC - not a great sports fan so it's mostly a diet of action movies, 70's films, CNN and the like or Animal/Discovery programmes. When staying at The Shangri La hotel recently noted they had a different cable offering (ABC?) and seemed to have some really interesting programmes (the UK's Frost detective series was on one channel) - anyone know more about this?

[lamphun]

Agreed UBC has plumbed new depths of quality and kept on digging. They appear to have dropped the few decent channels they had. HBO is awful, Hallmark ... say no more.

Alternatives. If you're in BKK or Pattaya you could try the cable operators. That's probably what you saw at the Shangri La.

Sattelite I don't know, but I'd welcome if anybody knows of a sattelite company up north that has a western TV selection.

[jonniebkk]

"ABC" was probablythe Australian Broadcasting Corporation CHANNEL. I don't think it is a whole network. At least here...it is probabbly their international channel of selected ABC programs from their network of channels in Australia. Here in Pattaya, there is Sophon Cable in most areas, along with UBC. From what I hear, it is even worse (Sophon) but you do get Fox Channel if you are right of center American and I recall someone telling me it was something on the order of B300-400 per month vs. UBC's B1400+.

[Nat]

Alternative: read a book, it's better for you

[Up2U]

Sophon has just cancelled BBC and CNBC for Chinese channels.

Frost was on ABC Asia Pacific - the Oz channel.

Sophon is now un-watchable - even though they pick up most of their channels from Malaysia, these have now fallen off badly.

Don't know what the solution is - for sports enthuisasts there are always the sports bars with big screens, but if you are not into thet ??

[Orion76]

there are many channels you can get with a satelite dish that are not on UBC but mostly Chinese and Indian stuff... probably not what you're looking for

http://www.siamphan.com/english/table_digital.html

For info on getting ABC contact CAT.

[Up2U]

There are some English-language channels there, but surely it wouldd be better to look at Singapore or Malaysia-related information, where English is a recognised national communication language? The footprint of satellites serving those countries should also embrace Thailand.

F'r Instance - Astro (malaysia) put out a llot of Eng-lang content. Can one purchase decoders and / or subscribe from LOS?

[Pablo H]

I pay for cable here in Chonburi, I think its called CTV, 150 baht a month. What makes me laugh is that they show English language movies which have Thai subtitles but they also dub the soundtrack in Thai. Cant complain though as I can watch English football on Saturday and Sundays. Apart from the football I dont bother watching.

[ChiangMaiThai]

I just cancelled my UBC after a year. It was good for sports, but I figure I can just go to a bar for that anyway. Everything else was complete crap. The channels were good ie. HBO, Discovery, National Geographic... but I am assuming that UBC has the option of choosing various programming from these providers and that they choose the oldest and cheapest of everything. So yeah, you get HBO, but there's no original programming like in the States. And yeah, you get Discovery, but you're watching shows about what things might be like in the year 2000.

UBC needs to get its act together. Does anyone know why they can't sell advertising and offer decent programming? Better not have something to do with Thaksin.

[ovenman]

Does anyone know why they can't sell advertising and offer decent programming? Better not have something to do with Thaksin.

This policy pre-dates the ascension of Mr. Big. "No advertising allowed" was the deal that was signed with the govenment way back when. This was prior to IBC and the company whose name I can't recall merged to form UBC. I've never quite understood why commercials are allowed to pass thru on the Thai broadcast channels though. Anybody know why this is?

[Maverick]

Thanks to all for responses I will look into ABC which might be the answer short term. The suggestion re Singapore is probably a no-goer as the television there is very poor from what I have seen so far. I will post the details here.

[Sick Boy]

I pay nearly 2 grand a month for having two UBC decoders. One downstairs so that the missus can watch her screeching Thai crap and one in my crib for the football and stuff. I still had to pay 12,000 baht for each installation even though they only had to run a few metres of extra cable to join the two together. Halfway through the month I've watched just about everything worth watching and have to suffer repeat after repeat.

It infuriates me that they can't, or won't, sinchronize the commercial breaks. You always get a second or two of "The New VW Tuareg" before you get UBC's own splashcreen telling you to grass on your neighbours. It seems like the guy who's in control is always getting caught out, like he's just not quick enough. I once got almost 10 seconds of Sony Ericisson's classy add before the baffoon woke up and realised what was going on and hit us with their own advertising for an English-Chinese International School with that awful muzak. I hate UBC with a passion that often frightens my dog and look forward to the day when I start my own cable company and wipe them off the face of the earth.

[Raymon'd]

Option.

Buy a satellite dish.

You can buy for only 19000 baht two satellite dishes. One small one who is fixed and you can received about 56 channels. Cinemax, HBO, Discovery etc. and many good radio stations.

(no Thai Subtitles, but Malaysian) Who Cares)

The large dish is for (all) Asian channels and you can receive some European channels too. About 140 channnels

The large dish is including rotor and you can move the dish to 5 differents satellites.

No Monthly payments and great tv

[george]

Option.

Buy a satellite dish.

You can buy for only 19000 baht two satellite dishes. One small one who is fixed and you can received about 56 channels. Cinemax, HBO, Discovery etc. and many good radio stations.

(no Thai Subtitles, but Malaysian) Who Cares)

The large dish is for (all) Asian channels and you can receive some European channels too. About 140 channnels

The large dish is including rotor and you can move the dish to 5 differents satellites.

No Monthly payments and great tv

What provider, e g where do you buy it? Do you have an URL to their website?

[Thetyim]

Does the 19k include decoder and sim card ?

Have you actually got one in your house.

[randyksf]

I pay nearly 2 grand a month for having two UBC decoders.

Why do you pay for two decoders? Go to China town and get a box for 2 grand. They work great all you need is a line with UBC piped into the house.

[Thetyim]

Why do you pay for two decoders? Go to China town and get a box for 2 grand. They work great all you need is a line with UBC piped into the house.

Probably because he has two TVs and wants to watch a different channel on each.

Tell us more about these boxes for 2K

I cannot have cable TV where I live, will it work with a dish ?

[ASIC]

UBC just announced that they will introduce pay-per-view. As for the chinatown solution, it only works for cable, not for satellite.

ASIC

[mrmnp]

The extra charge for the thai "other half" t.v. is unnessary, an antenna gets all the Thai channels, and UBC gets nothing.

They hit me for 1500 baht a month for their awful content for one t.v., is that standard for the full package?

[kandt]

Option.

Buy a satellite dish.

You can buy for only 19000 baht two satellite dishes. One small one who is fixed and you can received about 56 channels. Cinemax, HBO, Discovery etc. and many good radio stations.

Sounds great. As George asked, let's have the details. Considering renewing UBC in Phuket 1 April (not April's fool) but if this is a viable option, very interested.

Kandt

[astral]

The "No Advertising" rule was supposed to protect the Pay TV channels from interuptions, but the blanket application to ALL channels has backfired.

We all pay more because there is no advertising to subsidise channels like Discovery etc.

If you want to see what it is like without the rule, take a trip to India. Over there Star Movies is interupted with adverts every 20 minutes.

At least we get to see the film straight through.

It is yet another example of the inability of Thai's to apply common sense to something.

TIT

[BillyZ]

We have out own box and dish that was purchased by the landlords a few years ago. It's already paid itself off.

UBC turned my cable off one day, because they had some screw up with charging my credit card. Of course, it was my fault and I had to go to the bank and deposit that months payment, plus 150 baht re-connect fee, into their account. OK, I did that. (My wife normally goes to the bank each month to do this, anyway).

A few weeks later, I got a message on the TV screen to contact UBC right away. When I called, they had no idea why the message had been sent. During the conversation, I asked why couldn't I just pay by credit card rather than the monthly trip to the bank.

No problem, they said. They got my numbers, confirmed that I was paying the non-dish/box rental rate and said 'thank you.'

Another two weeks went by and I got a call that they'd just turned off my UBC because I didn't rent the equipment from them and they 'could not' charge my credit card.

I know this is some poorly paid guy (and then a woman after a second call) that I was talking to. But I was ticked off.

1) Why did the woman 2 weeks before accept my credit card information if it's against policy for non-renters (heaven forbid ) to use their card?

2) If they could call me right after they disconnected my UBC (and it was still on for 2 days after they called, the DUMMIES!!), why couldn't they call a day or two before to warn me?

3) If I own my internet modem, Loxinfo will gladly take monthly payments off of my credit card. Why can't UBC adopt this same policy?

I was told, "No problem sir, you can pay at the bank on Monday, re-connection fee AND this months payment. PLUS, you'll have to pay at the bank every month."

SO...(I know I'm ranting, I'm almost done), UBC is going to make it hard for me to give them money simply because we don't rent equipment from them. AND I've gotta pay the re-connection fee, again. I'd been a loyal customer through many moves (read: installation fees) and price increases almost since the merger.

Finally I just said screw it, "You guys have lost a customer." and I've not really missed it. OK, it's gonna be a bit of a pain in the butt to see F1 in the middle of the night and I didn't see one American football game until the Super Bowl. But I don't miss CNN or BBC and I have a lot more time to do other things. Screw them. If that's the best customer service they can give, I, too, will be glad when other companies are finally allowed in. I suspect that will be right around the time commercials are allowed to be shown....

[randyksf]

Why do you pay for  two decoders?  Go to China town and get a box for 2 grand. They work great all you need is a line with UBC piped into the house.

Probably because he has two TVs and wants to watch a different channel on each.

Tell us more about these boxes for 2K

I cannot have cable TV where I live, will it work with a dish ?

No sorry will not work on a dish. If you have cable in each room just put a box on each tv. then each tv has its own channels.

[tutsiwarrior]

oh dear...I'm glad I never installed cable or satellite TV...better to read a book instead to take Nat's advice.

In this regard is it possible to order books and videos from the internet and to retrieve them from the post office in Thailand without having to pay large amounts for local taxes, customs duties, etc?

cheers...

[chokrai]

I went to UBC a few months ago to cancel the second box i had for the TV in the bedroom as i wasnt watching it much and it was almost 500 Baht a month. I was expecting to get the 4000baht deposit fee back also. The girl working there told me that they will keep it till i cancel the service,i said no you wont.She said that is the rules from BKK.I said phone BKK. She phoned BKK and my wife talked to some guy there who said sorry that is the rule! I said sorry i will cancel my service. He said ok we will send you the money. I said thank you. Where do they get off thinking they will keep my money for the next 5 or 10 year? You should have seen the girls faces in the office when the farang started to get cranky! I always try to keep my cool here but sometimes you have to show them that you are not going to take any crap. They did send me my money a few weeks later though at the time i thought they were just trying to get me out of the office. Thanks for letting me rant

[Guest timbee]

Would either randyksv or ASIC, who are clearly both knowledgeable about cable solutions, mind sending me a PM telling me where precisely I can buy my second box ... I am in the unenviable position - due to TelCos inability to provide me a land line - of having to have both satellite for my UBC TV requirements AND THEN one of their cables in order to get Internet from TA. Overcharged? Naaaa!

[Roger_royal]

There is an alternative satelite company called PSI, which has a motorised dish and a choice of 17 different saterlites. These include several saterlites that screen English speaking films and programs such as Frost, also ABC Pascific programs and BBC World.

I know that there is a shop in Udon Thani and I think there is one in Ban Dung also.

Hope this info is of some use.

[fatter than harry]

I hate UBC with a passion that often frightens my dog and look forward to the day when I start my own cable company and wipe them off the face of the earth.

That was classic comedy gold!

In this regard is it possible to order books and videos from the internet and to retrieve them from the post office in Thailand without having to pay large amounts for local taxes, customs duties, etc?

You're better off with UBC than the post office for logic, don't get me started on customs duties.....

[astral]

some guy there who said sorry that is the rule! I said sorry i will cancel my service. He said ok we will send you the money. I said thank you. Where do they get off thinking they will keep my money for the next 5 or 10 year? You should have seen the girls faces in the office when the farang started to get cranky!

1. It is high time UBC did start listening to their customers.

I have complained for years about the way the signal disappears when it rains.

They say it is normal. I have a degree in electrical engineering, and I say it is not.

The dish is too small to cope with the lower signal strength in rain. I reckon a 1m dish should do the job, not the 70cm one that UBC fits.

I stopped paying my bill and got cut off.

I missed some of the programmes, particulary F1 racing so ended up getting reconnected. However I am always one month behind on my bills. UBC will only cut you off after 2 unpaid bills. So I make then suffer in that small way.

2. I don't think a little ranting from a farang does any harm at all.

I know the Thai's think it is rude, but so is BAD SERVICE.

If there were an alternative to UBC they would get my business TODAY!

A friend got so pissed with UBC that he took the set top box down to their local office and told them where to stick it.

Later when they asked for a time, to come and collect the dish and LNB he just told them it was not convenient.

The mobile phone companies used to be like this a year or two back, but not any longer. They now recognise that good service is needed, because the is competiton. The same reason that the EGAT workers do not want privatisation, they might have to work for their money!!

[Up2U]

Now I am really sick of UBC Last night all the English Language channels were off the cable. I had to watch (briefly) a Taiwanese channel as I do not like listening to Thai from my TV, when I can listen to my wife, daughter, assorted relatives or the people at work for that!

I am in an apartment block - one of severl in a development - and rely on the management to sort out problems. Unfortunately, when I got home from work, the management had also gone home from work.

So how do I get hold of a satellite installation in the Bang Phlii / Bang Na area ? Which content supplier(s) do I choose?