Speed of response: 10/10
Quality of response: 1/10
Optimum Response: Free BT Replay (value £3 p/m)
Received Response: Minor Apology
Fairly self-explanatory e-mail. BT were giving away the BBC iPlayer service for free. I paid all of £30 for one of their boxes to take advantage of this, and ended up buying movies from them (which is the point of them giving you the box cheap) - No doubt the BBC feature was the most popular, and so they bundled it up with the Channel 4 replay service and made it chargeable.
Big mistake. Being so green and eco, I decided to switch the BT box off, as I wasn't really ever going to use it any more - and it take about 10 minutes to boot up, so now I can't be bothered to flick it on and see if there's anything I want to watch. So now, they don't get my movie money - Let's see what they have to say:
Dear Sirs
I originally acquired the BT Vision Box for the purposes of using the BBC Replay service, and to obtain movies from time to time.
It came as a real surprise to me to find that the service that was free (and paid for from my licence fee) had become chargeable.
As I already have Sky+, I rarely have need for the PVR functions of the BT box, and so mainly leave it switched off as it tends to run hot. Given that the startup time for the box is so long, this means that I am no longer inclined to use the system to download movies.
The way I use my box may be unusual, but you may well find that by charging for one of the most useful features of the box, a number of other subscribers have stopped using the service.
Had you not introduced the charge for the BBC replay service, my box would still be switched on, and I would still be spending £7-10 per month on movies and other TV shows. You are now losing that revenue to Sky and my local video shop.
I would certainly be interested in hearing the justification for charging for the replay service. I assume others have complained about this and that there is a stock response available.
Yours faithfully
Nigel Cannings
========
Update:
Same day response. Very impressive. Not enormously helpful, though...
On Tue, Aug 12, 2008 at 12:41 PM, support.btvision@bt.com
Dear Mr Cannings
Thank you for your email dated 12/8/08 about Complaint about BT Vision.
I am very sorry to hear of the difficulties you have experienced.
There has been some confusion regarding the TV Replay information and I must apologise for this. Let me explain what has happened and how the charges are applied.
We have recently had a trial whereby the BBC channels were available on TV Replay with no charge applied. Customers were informed via e-mail but unfortunately not all were included in this delivery. Now that we are confident the trial has been successful we have included the BBC channels into the TV Replay package.
I do appreciate your frustration at not having had this information relayed to you. If you wish to continue to use the TV Replay for the BBC channels the charge is £3 a month which does represent excellent value for money. As you know, this will give you access to a selection of the best Channel 4 programmes as well as BBC content from the last seven days.
Once again I apologise for the confusion caused and hope that you remain with us as a valued customer now and in the future.
Once again please accept my apologies for the problems you have experienced with BT recently.
Thank you for contacting BT.
Yours sincerely,
P JOHNSON
BT Vision Customer Services
Ref: 18249071
and so I respond:
Dear Sirs
Many thanks for your impressively quick response.
Sadly, it does not get to the main issue which is a) that the BBC channels ought to be free (as they are online, and with Virgin), and b) that the switch to charging for this service has changed my own behaviour of the service such that you are losing up to £10 of revenue each month. I don't want or need the C4 service, so £3 does not represent good value for me.
The BT Vision box is a fairly flawed device in that it has a very long bootup time which means that switching it off that the mains, as opposed to putting it on standby, leads to a long delay in using the device (as opposed to the quick reboot of a Sky box). As I no longer use the box for replay since the charge was levied, it is not left on standby, and because of this, I no longer use it to watch movies as I don't want to wait for it to boot up..
As I said, I may be alone in this, and overall your net revenue has increased since the BBC replay charge was levied. From my point of view, however, this is not the case. I already have Sky, and so the Freeview and PVR elements are of limited use.
Should you rethink the strategy of charging for the BBC, I shall be happy to switch the box back on
Yours faithfully
Nigel Cannings
And the final word?
Dear Mr N Cannings
Thank you for your email dated 12/8/08 about Re: Complaint about BT Vision (KMM48350037I24871L0KM).
I am very sorry to hear of the difficulties you have experienced I do apologies for any inconvenience caused regarding the BT Vision Service.
If you should have any further queries please do not hesitate to contact us again via e-mail.
Thank you for contacting BT.
Yours sincerely,
Karen Armstrong
BT Vision Customer Services
Ref: 18249071
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