Chorus Door to Door salesmen !!

PacMan

This evening, man from Chorus calls to house.
"Can I interest you in Chorus??" he asked. "
Err, No, I say, I already have Sky". He told me the usual Chorus has UTV and Channel 4 thing, and then he shocked me when he said that Sky will Loose all BBC channels next week.
He went on to say.." If you join Chorus you will have all the BBC stations PLUS Utv and Channel 4".....
I did explain that BBC1/2/3/4 News24/CbbC/Cbbebies are all available NOW on sky. This he did not believe.
My point of writing this is ..
why are reps from Chorus, going door to door selling their product.
Why are they stating false claims.

False claim 1: Sky viewers will loose BBC stations next week.
False Claim 2: Chorus has all BBC stations. (It only has BBC1/2)

I do understand that Chorus have a bad name and many ex-customers (Myself included) who would never go near them again.

Are they this desperate for business????

Mossy Monk

old tricks die hard.

i have heard similar from them in the past and there have been other people who mentioned it here. i haven't seen salesman in a long time so they must have gotten the message. all MMDS aerials seem to been exchanged for minidishes in my area. ITV and Channel 4 are available through an aerial here

Lpfsox

Chorus aren't the only ones. NTL are doing the very same thing. They called to my SO's parent's house and basically told them that if they didn't upgrade to NTL digital, they wouldn't have any of the UK tv stations (BBC, UTV, C4).

Now 2 pensioners are paying more than double what they used to for the same service (and I use that term very loosely indeed given my past experiences with NTL). Granted, they do have 6 million shopping channels and even GOD TV, but will they ever watch them? In fairness, I did catch them watching 10 year old Eastenders recently, but that's not value for money in my book.

Apparently, the salesman went to each house on the road during the day so the only people that were at home were either pensioners who were scared into signing up for the digital service in case they'd lose all service altogether, or parents of young kids who were coerced into paying extra for Fox Kids or whatever.

I reckon they're terrified of more people copping on and going to Sky, so they're pushing for digital sign-up (with a minimum 12 month subscription) and hoping people will stay lazy enough not to question or complain.

NTL are complete charlatans :mad:

celticfc

It's definitly nothing new to me.

I was told by a mate when NTL brought out their telephone services that they are supposed to have said that Eircom had gone bankcrupt earlier on that day and were to close before the end of that week so that you would take up thir "special offer".

I've heard about some of Chorus's bullsh!t aswell.

dahamsta

Pacman, you should report them to Comreg immediately. Chorus were allowed raise their prices on the condition that they improve their customer service and knock this kind of thing on the head. The more complaints Comreg has in their records against Chorus, the better position they're in to tell them to bugger off the next time they want a price rise. If they /don't/ tell Chorus to bugger off, we can FOIA complaints against Chorus and out the regulators for allowing the rise.

Simply write a letter outlining the conversation as closely as you can, send it to Comreg, and follow it up within a week or two if you didn't get an acknowledgement. It shouldn't take more than a half hour of your time, you can send the letter here:

Commission for Communications Regulation
Block DEF, Abbey Court
Irish Life Centre
Lower Abbey Street
Dublin 1

Oh, and next time get a name before he leaves. If you really push your case hard, you could probably push Chorus into firing him to set an example. That's justice.

adam

PacMan

Adam, although the claims made by the Chorus Rep were indeed false, I would not like to get the guy fired. Something inside tells me not to report him.
Thinking back over the conversation I had with him, the poor guy did not even know what an EPG was when I explained that BBC News 24 and BBC3 / BBC4 were available on the other channels option on the Sky EPG.
I was standing on the doorstep telling a salesperson from a television provider what an EPG was. think about it.!!!!
As to reporting Chorus to Comreg, I have reported them a few years ago to the ODTR, when I was a very sad and unhappy customer of theirs. I was impressed with the feedback and quick responce from ODTR as it was back then. Chorus managment did contact me, asking me all sorts of questions, and then their excuses and answers were "Wacky" to be diplomatic.
Chorus will probally get the message when its way too late. Each time I return home (I work overseas for 6 months contracts) I see more and more Sky Dishes on Houses where chorus MMDS aerials once were.
Chorus have lost the plot:D

dahamsta

Still worth filing a complaint PacMan. If we don't complain to the regulators, we have no right to complain to each other.

(I realise that strictly speaking you're not complaining. You obviously feel strongly about it though, or you wouldn't have posted.)

adam