Showtime, OSN Television or should I say lack of it !

[Hurghada Lady]

For one month OSN Network (Showtime) advertised that people with Dream Box or any other receiver’s that received their signal through Internet would not be able to receive programmes for Showtime or Orbit, therefore advising them to buy their Showtime, OSN packages before they lost their signal on 19th December 2010. Of course, I didn’t take much notice as I have been subscribing to them for years and had another 5 months left of my 12 month subscription, so I was totally legal.

On 19th December 2am, every single pay channel had a notice on it saying that the channel was scrambled, I was annoyed but thought to myself, just typical yet again they have cocked it up, it will come back on later............as of today we still have nothing in fact, the whole of Egypt has not been able to receive Showtime, OSN since 19th December!!!

I spent two whole days trying to get through to customer services, but it was constantly busy. Third day I managed to get through to an automated attendant which kept stating how important their customers are to them please hold........... I held for 45 minutes and gave up. A few days later after searching the Internet for any information I came across a Telesales number, I phoned it. I was answered in less than 30 seconds, how efficient I thought. I stated the obvious that I hadn’t got any channels working to which he replied “and we have no idea when we will be able to transmit them again” he said that we needed the new HD boxes to be able to watch any of the channels. I informed that I had been phoning since last August asking for the new HD Box to be told they are not in Egypt yet, he said no and they are still not in Egypt and we do not know when we will be getting them. He then went on to say how much money they were losing through this and also there was a problem with the Government not allowing the merger of Showtime and Orbit for the past year. I will just add here that January 2010 we had a month of Showtime and Orbit to watch, 1st February we went back to watching just Showtime and Orbit subscribers went back to watching just Orbit. They advertised that we could pay for the extra channels if we wanted them, I phoned to be told they didn’t know prices yet so we couldn’t subscribe to the extra channels and that also still stands to this day! Anyway, I asked the Telesales man if it would be possible for me to pay in Dubai and then have an HD Box sent DHL would it work here. He then perked up and said yes it would and I can help you, you contact your friend in Dubai and I will contact OSN in Dubai for you, I then had to admit I hadn’t got a friend in Dubai it was a hypothetical question.

Two days later I remembered that my brother in law worked in Saudi Arabia as a teacher, so I phoned him and asked if I managed to get a HD Box and card would he bring it back with him when he came for a holiday on 2nd February, he said he would. I then phoned Showtime Telesales and told them the plan, they informed me this way I would have to pay for the HD Box instead of changing my normal showbox for HD free of charge, I told them I was aware of this but at least I would be able to watch Emmerdale, Coronation Street and Eastenders again!! So Telesales here arranged the appointment for the HD Box to go to my brother in laws home and be set up to make sure all is working and then he can bring it 2nd February to me....... I can’t wait!!!!

[Jayway]

HURGHADA LADY. I admire your fortitude. I have lost BBC2+4 and Euronews since December on my freesat. So now I watch CCTV and horror films - -till they come back - ever the optimist. :co: :cb: