I promise to be as unbiased as possible… I’m not a hateful person, really… but this situation has to be addressed as it’s affecting thousands of people throughout Wisconsin, and no one seems to be talking about it.
Here’s some background on the situation:
First, Charter Communications is the main (if not only) cable provider in Madison, and a good portion of Wisconsin. Charter has an On-Demand service that allows you to purchase and watch a movie at any time, also pausing, rewinding, and stopping the movie. HBO and other movie-tier subscribers can also watch any shows or movies from the channels they subscribe to as an On-Demand product.
Sounds great, right?
In the second quarter of 2005, Charter started carrying the MOXI cable box, branded by Motorola (at least mine is). The MOXI box is a new type of cable box that allows integrated DVR (which Charter now charges $14.99 per month for - up from $9.99 per month previously - per a notice from Charter it’s because of increased costs). For those who don’t know, DVR is a digital video recorder which allows you to record, pause, and rewind TV.
Sounds like a marvelous product.
What Charter has failed to tell it’s users, is that On-Demand service does not work on the MOXI box. Sure, they charge you the full price of the cable package you order - which includes the cost of having access to the On-Demand system - but you just won’t be able to use that. Sounds fair to me…
When I first called Charter with my error code 0×8, I thought it would be an easy fix - maybe they’d have me restart the box as they uploaded some software fix to my box. To my surprise, the Charter agent told me, “Yeah, we’re not supposed to say anything… but… the On-Demand doesn’t work with that box.” So I simply asked for a different box. The problem is, the only box with a DVR is the MOXI box.
Hmmm.
So, what you’re saying is… you’re charging me for a service (On-Demand) that I don’t have access to because I’m overpaying for another service (DVR)? (And the DVR service is questionable at best due to reasons such as program info blanking out 2 days out of each week, but that’s another post). That actually sounds great… I’ll stick with that plan thank you very much.
I asked the guy how long it would be before it would be working, and of course I get the standard line about them working on the issue as fast as possible. This was 6 months ago. Since then, I’ve had to call Charter with a few problems (besides the On-Demand not working), and I’ve asked if it’s “working” yet. Each time, I get the line about how they’re not supposed to say anything, but it doesn’t work on that box.
THEN WHY OFFER THE SERVICE? Actually, you’re not even offering it, you’re charging me for it as a built-in cost of your service.
This should have class-action written all over it. Maybe I’ll forward this post off to the local news - they sometimes like a consumer rip-off story to air. Maybe that would get Charter’s attention. Or maybe not. As a monopoly in this area (except for satellite), the cost is extremely high for even basic cable, and people pay for it by the thousands because they have no other options. People like me who live in an apartment simply aren’t allowed to mount a satellite on their deck.
Trust me, I’ve had satellite TV before, have satellite radio now, and would switch away from Charter in a second.
Any lawyers interested in a class-action suit? Contact me… I’ll be the first to sign up.
Tags: pvr, rant, Television
5 Comments | Comment or Ping
Mack
I have a Moxi at home as well, but just an FYI, you don’t pay for VOD. Just like you don’t pay for email address, webspace, anything like that…it’s a free service that’s offered. Now, I’m not going to argue that it doesn’t work, after my stint at Charter, the Madison area was notoriously bad for VOD, due to volume reasons alone. I live in a different area in WI, have the Moxi and my VOD works without any problems whatsoever. Never had any problems at all.
But regardless, it’s still a free service, and complaining it doesn’t work is like complaining that the free battery powered clock Publisher’s Clearing House sent you isn’t working anymore.
Mar 28th, 2006
Elliott
That’s one of the stupidest comments I’ve seen in a while - nothing is free. You think the infastructure needed to provide On Demand programming is setup for free? Costs nothing to stream to your TV? Charter, like any business, looks at the cost of goods, and then prices their product accordingly - VOD is included in their COG which means the cost is being passed on to the customer. It’s idiotic to think that they’re just eating this cost.
You’re right about one thing, it’s pointless to complain. Charter has admitted VOD doesn’t work in Madison on the MOXI box, yet keeps their rates the same while making no progress fixing the issue.
Mar 28th, 2006
Mack
The Madison area in general is a complete clusterfuck of bad cabling. Just as an FYI, Charter bought the area during the early days, and the cost to rebuild it wouldn’t be feasible. And about the VOD cost, if you saw the amount of money the company is in debt, you’d be surprised how much they just suck up. Yes the VOD in the Madison area is spotty at best. Unless there’s a mass exodus in the area, or Charter magically cleanses itself of a lot of debt, it probably won’t get fixed. And while taking care of DVR concerns all the time, I agree that VOD shouldn’t really be offered as a selling point for the DVR. I have numerous issues with how the company runs things as well, not just the lack of communication, trust me.
The price increase for the DVR is due to a couple things, though. Demand was #1. For months, we couldn’t proactively sell, nor even allow a customer to quickly get a DVR on the acct. There simply wasn’t enough inventory in the whole company to meet the demand. #2 was the licensing from Digeo. The company decided that they were going to raise the cost for the software, and well, that sort of puts a telecom company in a bad place.
The only way you’ll see a differential in rates, is if there’s another cable competitor in the area, which are few and far between in WI. And seriously, these error codes that people keep getting, there’s not an overly complex fix for it. I have no idea why some people know it, some don’t. Apparently they put the communication in Charter Communications.
Mar 28th, 2006
Burt
Would anybody out there care to comment on the extremely high temperatures that the MOXI box operates at. I have another style DVR, also sold under the Motorola name that operates at a modest temperature and can be put in sleep mode with the remote control, wiothout lose of functionality during the time it,s in sleep mode.
Jul 18th, 2007
Munky
I’m in Souther California… I have Charter and the MOXI DVR… I’ve had to replace one box due to what I believe was related to Burt’s problem an overly hot box causing the power supply to fail… As for VOD service, it’s spotty at best. Sure, most of the time it works but, when it doesn’t work, it fails miserably. When you attempt to select a movie you’ll get the “Thank you, enjoy your show” message but then nothing but a black screen and no error message or you’ll get an error message (sometimes after a few minutes of waiting).
As for cable being a monopoly, it generally is if you go by the concept of vendors. I mean, how many cable companies do any of you know that operate in a single area at any given time? Generally, I’ve only heard of one at a time. Supposedly satellite is another type of the same medium but, like it’s already been said, if you live in an apartment building you may not have the opportunity to use it. Telephone companies are just setting up cable-like services, but most areas will be unable to use the service for a number of years… Cable, the monopoly the government forgot…
Mar 25th, 2008
Reply to “Charter On-Demand and MOXI”