Frigging Vodafone!!!

[wiseheart]

Or One, as they call themselves since they swallowed DigiTV, aka the competition. Anyway, they contacted me today as it was time to renew my contract (of course it will be somewhat more expensive from now on, like everything else). I specifically asked if the new package will contain my German-speaking channels, which are important for me to keep my vocabulary alive. They assured me that it will. And what happened? Barely had I hung up on them, German RTL simply vanished mid-sentence. All other foreign-language channels (like the oh-so-important Chinese one) where still there. Just not the channel we used to watch on a daily basis (Richterin Barbara Salesch anyone?).

I called Customer Service, and a helpful young man (at least his voice sounded young) tried his best to help me - to no end. That particular channel simply wasn't in the new package. I wouldn't be this angry if I hadn't specifically asked, but here we are. *is really mad*

That was enough to ruin my whole day. I can watch old episodes on YouTube, but Mum preferred the new ones with the Irish wolfhound - well, no Piri for her anymore. I really don't understand why can't we simply choose which channels we want to have - I'd certainly throw out all the stupid sports channels and MTV and the likes - since we pay a batch of money for our telly!

Anyway, other than that I did some writing, starting to flesh out a fairly alternate version of the ST:TOS episode "Plato's Stepchildren" and took out the elephant plushie again. It has now both ears and both eyes and I'm working on its accessoires in the hope to finish it during the weekend. Or not. We'll see.

Comments

[meathiel]

That's really annoying.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Alas, these big providers can do what they want as they are continuously buying up the smaller ones and thus create a monopoly for themselves.

[artemis10002000]

That's miserable. Is there ANY new package which still includes German language channels?

I know the political situation in Hungary is shit right now, but I wonder if there is still some sort of accommodation for language minorities not chipped away at that would make it easier for you to be switched to the correct one, even if you're technically stuck on this one. Also, since you did this by phone, you should be able to revoke the change and insist you want to go back and keep your old package. Check on Hungarian rules for 14-tägiges Widerrufsrecht bei Fernabsatzverträgen, the barebones of them at least ought to be the same EU-wide

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

It's just RTL that's gone. We still have ZDF, SAT1 and ORF2. I'm planning to go to their customer service in person on Monday and see what can be done.

[artemis10002000]

Hm, I wonder then if this is related to RTL trying to push people into their own paid subscription. Here in Germany they still offer the basic version as free TV, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they try to milk that extra money out of international viewers

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Oh how frustrating for you both. I hope there is a way to sort it out.

[adafrog.livejournal.com]

OMG!

[red-day-dawning.livejournal.com]

Hugs

[elwenlj.livejournal.com]

Grrrrrrrr! Companies rely on you not wanting to go to the trouble of switching. If you have the energy I would ask them to check their recording of your renewal conversation. They have lied to you and should, at the very least, provide you with some kind of discount.

[akane42me.livejournal.com]

We have experienced the same situation with our cable tv provider. Every year, more expensive and less choice. Very frustrating.

[noadvertising.livejournal.com]

Would there have been another package which still includes RTL? Maybe you could switch to this one! Then again, RTL programme already turned from bad to worse, just as if they want to make users come over to their pay TV channel.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

I'll learn it on Monday.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

I don't want a discount, I want RTL back. Alas, I seriously doubt that it will be possible.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

And there is nothing we can do against it.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

We usually just watched "Richterin Barbara Salesch" on RTL. Fortunately, my young(er) cousin showed me how to watch YouTube on the telly, so we decided to watch the old episodes, one a day. Unfortunately, they don't have Piri the Irish wolfhound, and Mum was in love with that beast.

[akane42me.livejournal.com]

Grrrrrr. Like you, we wish we could just choose exactly the channels we want. Why is that such an impossible thing.

[mirasaui.livejournal.com]

That is why I dropped cable TV, all the channels I liked (and there were not many) were not included in the package I could afford.