Chorus again!

LegacyUser

See an interesting article in the Examiner of yesterday, 2/3/01. Not only does it cover Chorus' usual failings, it pans their new digital service as being (if possible) less reliable than their awful existing analog service.

Yet another "advertisement" for going digital with Sky, and hopefully an intervention from the regulator to remove their exclusive license in their franchise area.

LegacyUser

For those of you that haven't read the article in yesterday's Examiner, it gave examples of people's various experiences with Chorus. One guy had made over 150 phone calls to Chorus, but still got no satisfaction. Another guy spent his 40th birthday waiting for the technicians to install the digital service, and never arrived. The Examiner, in particular, has given significant coverage of Chorus services over the last few weeks, and every article written was scathing. Willie Fagan (Chorus boss) said they were totally 'unprepared' for the volume of people looking for the new service, and cannot cope. They have 100 technicians servicing 20 counties in Ireland. And there are still unresolved software issues with the new service (the box has to be unplugged and reset to restore picture/sound).
Their image MUST be in tatters by now. They have also spent £1 million advertising their digital service.

LegacyUser

stupid ad they have for it too. that woman giving the thumbs up to the guy in the van after she changed the flag outside the shop makes me want to kill someone. how many channels can chorus digital provide

LegacyUser

One thing I should have mentioned in my post is the lack of coverage from the so called "Independent" of Chorus' travails. Both the I.Times and Examiner have featured this very significant consumer affairs story regularly, yet silence from the Independent-we know WHY. I see the 3 Irish broadsheets daily and follow this story. At every opportunity, "Independent" media give great attention to anything negative regarding ntl, (and indeed eircom-although with perhaps some justification there).They are silent on Chorus. We are too lax in this country on cross media ownership issues.

As I see it the difference between ntl/Chorus is that there has never been any question as to the integrity of their basic/analog services; that is not the case with Chorus. Chorus continue to advertise to dissuade/delay people from going over to SKY, to prop up the business while they await a buyer. (Interestingly, Liberty Media are a significant shareholder in SKY, and are expected to increase their holding significantly by buying Vivendi's stake: why then would they want Chorus).

One wonders how the "Independent" will cover Chorus' likely failure to have 100,000 homes digital by the end of March (it appears that they have 3000 homes digital so far, and the clock is ticking!) Watch, they will try to blame delays on foot & mouth...

Anyway, I signed up for SKY yesterday. Good riddance Chorus!

LegacyUser

Mossy Monk,
the Chorus digital channels list have been updated recently on this website, so you can check.
A friend of mine has the service, and I consider it only average. There is some 'freezing' on the channles, and he has to reset his digital box most nights to restore the service. The remote control is very cheap looking compared to Sky's.
Lots of the houses in my area have replaces their Chorus antennae with Sky mini-dishes over the last few weeks. Surely this is a good indicator of how many people are ditching Chorus for Sky??

LegacyUser

what i meant was, how many channels is it able to handle. surely there will be more channels than that in coming months

LegacyUser

Chorus is a terrible service. Give them competition. They are a monopoly. They should have their licence from the ODTR taken away.
All we want is a proper television service provider.

LegacyUser

See letter from fagan of chorus in today's Examiner.
Grovel, grovel with a dig at Sky Digital.

icdg

That article in Friday's Examiner was certainly hard-hitting. I can't believe Chorus would use a box/software that crashed 14 times in one night! Then again, I have just seen the EPG they are using on Digital MMDS in Cork. I thought no-one could develop an EPG worse than ONdigital - but then I saw this...

Why are they using two different EPG software, anyway?

LegacyUser

I have to disagree with you icdg regarding Chorus. It is the "ONLY" thing that they have ever got right, streets ahead of Sky's EPG and NTL's EPG

LegacyUser

I agree the chorus giude is very good compared to sky

LegacyUser

<!--EZCODE CENTER START--><center> chorus are absolute rubbish! i paid £40 for connection to MMDS (analog)last summer. their cable guy came out and sez it won't work here coz of hills, so i contact chorus (cmi then) for a refund. "rite away" fortnite later i ring again. "its being posted." month later, "it was posted today." did i get my refund? NO. did i get MMDS? NO. did i opt for SkyDigital instead? Too darn right i did and am glad im not with chorus as their entire service is crap. they can change their name as often as they like (CMI, Irish Multichannel, Chorus) but they're still rubbish. the sooner UK terrestrials are unblocked on Irish SkyDigital, the better for everyone</center><!--EZCODE CENTER END-->

LegacyUser

Hear Hear...
Chorus is the most complained Television provider in the state. This is not my opinion. Check out the "features" section in the ICDG homepage.
I have said it before and I will repeat myself. Chorus has an monopoly on rebroadcast of BBC/UTV/Ch4 and should have competition from Sky. I know someone might add that NTL also operates in the State, but in practice both companies are monopolies in their franchise areas. If Sky were allowed to broadcast BBC/CH4 etc, then Chorus would have competition and ONLY then would their service improve.
Have any of you actually had the experience of contacting Chorus Customer service line???? The staff are unfriendly and are NOT there to help. They are inexperienced and have no polite way to converse with people.
Phew...glad thats off my chest....

icdg

I have just had more clarification regarding the EPG software and stand corrected!

(Nobody, not even Chorus could beat ONdigital for a terrible EPG).

Does it really crash often though? Or was that Examiner article just exaggerating things?

LegacyUser

My epg has never crashed. Sometimes ive lost 5 chanels always G plus G breeze mtv vh1 cnn.

LegacyUser

Fortunately for me, the analogue service was so terrible that it was enough to make me go to Sky. I have never seen such a shower of cowboys as Chorus. Typical problems included total service disconnection during the day time for several hours or at random times when they were digging up the roads, an apathetic and bureaucratic "customer service", poor picture quality on some channels (e.g. Sky Movies Gold) and rip-off pricing for too few channels. I wasn't prepared to put up with them no matter whether they had a monopoly on the BBC channels or not.

It beggars belief that they expect people to entrust them with their phone and internet access as well!

LegacyUser

I've just signed up with Sky and cancelled my Chorus account and last night I got a call from a customer service person asking why I had left.

They had some questions on the service and so on... Pretty good idea for them and I tried to help them out by listing my litany of issues. However I was annoyed that in my resignation letter/e-mail (sent a copy both ways), I made a lot of points and explained my problems, but this person who spoke to me (very politely), didn't have this mail, just a summary on my account that said, "lack of digital, poor customer service". I forgot to point out the irony that my detailed letter had obviously been summarised to 6 words, and now I was being asked to explain the same things again.

Still, maybe it's a sign of good things to come. Next year when my Sky sub is up, maybe I might go back... if customer service is better, digital TV is ready and working, there's a better value package of channels, and maybe there some form of home internet access (other than the TV).

Best regards,
John McD.

LegacyUser

i too disconnected from chorus mmds last week,
when i went to their office and asked to be disconnected i was asked why,so i told them poor service lack of choice,poor value for money and i said i was not paying another few pound for so called service charge.i had a letter written out and everything but was told i would not need it.

i recieved a phone call 2 days later asking why i left,and offering to send out a technician to check my service and they offered me a free month's rental.i told them i wasn't interested and that i had sky digital anyway.she then gave up and said fine.

i was going on hols last week and wouldn't be there for them to disconnect.So i rang them and asked could i drop the black boxes back to them and they take the ariel while i was away. i gave them back the boxes and came back the other day.

GUESS WHAT, the ariel is still on the roof.
if they don't come back for it i am keeping it and i am not paying any more money.

i have sky digital since september and i think it;s a great service and can't wait for bbc etc on it.

all the best digi-man..

p.s i love this web site....it's great.i have been reading with interest for month;s but this is my first posting

LegacyUser

From reading the posts on the various forums, it is great to see that I am not alone in the problems I am having with Chorus. From contacting the alleged customer service, to getting an answer on the new high-speed internet access, it has been nothing but a story of extreme frustration. The introducion of the "service charge" has to be the most incredible act of anti-customer arrogance I have ever seen.

Now that I have BBC 1 on Sky digital, this is the final push I need. I will be contacting Chorus today or tomorrow to ask them to take back their box and ariel. Good riddance.