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| ExpressVu Raising Rates in March - My Open Letter |
| Posted
on Monday, January 24, 2005 - 05:31 PM |
ExpressVu is raising rates by $3 per month for many of their clients, mostly those who have remained with older packages. As an ExpressVu subscriber I felt it time to respond to the notice they send, read on for my Open Letter to ExpressVu ...
To Whom it May Concern;
Today I received my notice of a price increase, yet again, with no added benefits to my account. You however feel obliged to list these apparent benefits to me:
1) PVR - I paid $700+ for it, I think I already paid a good chunk of the actual cost to you for that unit. Not only that, the unit is a bug ridden mess most of the time when your software upgrades mess with things, for example mine currently has the fan spinning up when powered off thanks to your upgrades and that "power off when idle" feature.
2) Largest lineup of HDTV - Don't care, I don't have a HD set now so why do you expect me to pay for it? Besides that, are you saying this $3 increase would give that to me? No, I would have to a) give up my PVR since you are slow at releasing a HDPVR and purchase another receiver b) pay extra each month for the HDTV packages, let's be honest here, it was already being paid for by those who have adopted the technology to receive it. On top of that, you'd likely ask me to pay the multi-receiver fee so there goes another $4 per month out of my pocket for nothing really, not like you are renting me the receiver when it costs me $600 to buy it.
3) Interactive TV Services - I never asked for them, I expect television signals delivered to my household and I pay you enough as it is for those. Your interactive services are borderline highway robbery in most cases, games that resemble 20 year old ColecoVision aren't worth $5/month and I am quite sure the software developers aren't being constantly paid by you for them either. I don't watch sports at all so don't bother wasting my subscription dollars enhancing the Olympics please, you are free to enhance this type of thing but charge those who have sports packages and interest in the subject matter for them instead.
You already charge extra fees for your interactive services, that is what those fees are there to cover, you should not have to soak the rest of us more when we have no use for that content.
4) Nimiq3 - Isn't it true that this satellite should be mostly covered by insurance payouts from your problems with the already insured Nimiq fleet? Besides that, it is Telesat who deals with this type of issue. Nimiq3 is there because Nimiq1 is slowly losing power as it ages and due to manufacturing defects if I'm not mistaken. Nimiq3 does little but boost power in your 91 to prevent rainfade that has progressively been getting worse, even my 24" converted Starchoice dish started to see more fade before Nimiq3 went into service. What are your plans when it needs replaced entirely? Ask us to pay double todays rates?
Since signing up with Bell ExpressVu I have watched my monthly fee almost double but I have not seen my services double to go with that. I don't consider 20 extra versions of Global and CTV as something I need to pay extra for, those are there to service local markets and the benefit to subscribers outside those markets is minimal, especially those of us with a PVR. As it sits I currently pay twice for most content since ExpressVu feels the need to simsub just about everything on the US networks I actually have to pay extra for, a basic form of bait and switch under the guise of "cultural protection", sure wish my industry enjoyed such protections.
So Mr Steve F. Smith, senior VP of Marketing at ExpressVu, I do not currently feel you are offering me great value for my entertainment dollar and I feel you are not highly competitive.
Yours ...
Tripster
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