View Full Version : Are you switching to digital?............Beware.
grumpyoldb
14-10-2008, 10:19
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/dorset/7667221.stm
Retailers have been criticised for giving "shocking" advice about the digital switchover in Dorset.
Trading standards secretly contacted electrical stores and aerial fitters and found many gave wrong advice.
Officers found some fitters recommended new aerials while one store said customers would need a new £1,000 television despite there being no need.
The new digital signal will be gradually switched on, starting in west Dorset next year and completed by 2012.
Officers called 14 aerial installers and visited 15 electrical retailers as part of the operation.
They said nine of the installers gave bad or misleading advice, suggesting that people are likely to need a new aerial for switchover.
It's absolutely essential that no one is pressured into buying equipment they do not need
Bill Taylor, Digital UK
Ofcom believes only 5% of homes will need to upgrade their aerial systems.
Five installers told the mystery shopper they would need a "digital aerial" to receive digital TV, when in fact there is no such thing.
Only two pointed to the test card which is a good indication whether an aerial upgrade will be needed.
Out of the electrical stores, one wrongly recommended a new television costing £1,000 - a Freeview box costing about £20 will convert an old set, trading standards said.
Bill Taylor, South West Regional Manager of Digital UK, said: "These are shocking figures.
"It's clear that only a tiny minority of retailers and aerial installers manage to give completely accurate advice about digital TV switchover.
"It's absolutely essential that no one is pressured into buying equipment they do not need."
Bill Jaggs, Dorset council's head of regulatory services, said: "This survey makes depressing reading.
"We will be working with retailers and installers to improve their service."
Terrestrial digital signals are broad-band. Some areas of the country have a problem with this when it comes to going digital (my part of the West Midlands, for example). Some 'normal' TV aerials do not have the required bandwidth and that, together with the number of very old TV aerials on roofs, means that it is better to get a new aerial.
My 14-ele gave really good signals on analogue TV, but real cr*p on digital, despite close examination. I had to fit a new one but the twerp who fitted it pointed it in the wrong direction. Despite this it works, sort of, on my Freeview box.
I suspect that the excessive selling techniques could have a basis of the nature of the question asked, as opposed to pure greed. Ask the wrong question and you get expensive answers.
But there's no real excuse for misleading information.
::P:
Datalink Squirrel
15-10-2008, 22:24
I dread the changeover in 2012 in our part of the world. Currently, my Freeview is OK - untill some flockwit chugs by on his/her moped/scooter or, occasionally, a motor bike, then the funny boxes appear on-screen and everybody starts impersonating Norman Collier's br#-/n mi@$*ph@n# routine along with some clipped bird song. Ah, yes... 'The Comedians', when telly was telly!
:PDT_Xtremez_35:
The aeriel is defen... defintlee... def... confirmed as accurately pointing in the right direction.
Dorset...fffnnnaaar...Dorset...Chortle chortle chortle...fcucking Dorset for fcucks sake...guffaw - who gives a ****. They are to busy shagging their mothers aunties uncles to even watch the fcucking telly - cnuts.
Mickwreay
16-10-2008, 12:28
To be honest the whole digital set-up stinks.
The government should be paying for more informative adverts.
If they simply stated that most people should go out & buy a £20 set-top box from a supermarket & install it or have a friend or neighbour help them. This is probably the quickest & cheapest way of testing your TV aerial.
Sky TV, although not everyone’s favourite, is the easiest way of watching TV especially Sky+. For a minimum monthly cost you get the easiest video recorder you will ever own, even plumbers should be able to operate it safely!
NearlyDone
11-12-2008, 16:45
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/dorset/7667221.stm
Retailers have been criticised for giving "shocking" advice about the digital switchover in Dorset.
Trading standards secretly contacted electrical stores and aerial fitters and found many gave wrong advice.
Officers found some fitters recommended new aerials while one store said customers would need a new £1,000 television despite there being no need.
The new digital signal will be gradually switched on, starting in west Dorset next year and completed by 2012.
Officers called 14 aerial installers and visited 15 electrical retailers as part of the operation.
They said nine of the installers gave bad or misleading advice, suggesting that people are likely to need a new aerial for switchover.
It's absolutely essential that no one is pressured into buying equipment they do not need
Bill Taylor, Digital UK
Ofcom believes only 5% of homes will need to upgrade their aerial systems.
Five installers told the mystery shopper they would need a "digital aerial" to receive digital TV, when in fact there is no such thing.
Only two pointed to the test card which is a good indication whether an aerial upgrade will be needed.
Out of the electrical stores, one wrongly recommended a new television costing £1,000 - a Freeview box costing about £20 will convert an old set, trading standards said.
Bill Taylor, South West Regional Manager of Digital UK, said: "These are shocking figures.
"It's clear that only a tiny minority of retailers and aerial installers manage to give completely accurate advice about digital TV switchover.
"It's absolutely essential that no one is pressured into buying equipment they do not need."
Bill Jaggs, Dorset council's head of regulatory services, said: "This survey makes depressing reading.
"We will be working with retailers and installers to improve their service."
Blimey. I live in Dorset and I didn't even know we could get telly.
Saw one of them new-fangled horseless carriages the other day...they'll never catch on.
Gingerburd
11-12-2008, 17:03
Got Sky + so am already sorted, It will be a pain for many pensioners etc who don't have Sky who will be seriously ripped off as I think the cost of dgi boxes will go through the roof, I think pensioners should get a free digi box.
Dont talk to me about sodding TV's. I paid for a new digital aerial after having Modern Housing Solutions round as I could not receive any channels, be it terrestrial or digital and they recommended a new aerial.
OK new aerial installed and still cant get any channels. It now appears the problem lies with the cabling from the aerial to the wall sockets. God damn! Cant be ar$ed with getting MHS round again so will just stick to sky and an infra red tranmitter if I want to watch upstairs.
Scaley brat
11-12-2008, 18:06
It now appears the problem lies with the cabling from the aerial to the wall sockets.
I just did a little wee :PDT_Xtremez_31::PDT_Xtremez_31::PDT_Xtremez_31:
:PDT_Xtremez_25:Yeah thanks Cnut!:PDT_Xtremez_25:
Dont talk to me about sodding TV's. I paid for a new digital aerial after having Modern Housing Solutions round as I could not receive any channels, be it terrestrial or digital and they recommended a new aerial.
OK new aerial installed and still cant get any channels. It now appears the problem lies with the cabling from the aerial to the wall sockets. God damn! Cant be ar$ed with getting MHS round again so will just stick to sky and an infra red transmitter if I want to watch upstairs.
Complain - bitterly to MHS (whoever they are).
If the stupid twits putting in the aerial didn't check, they must be bloody cowboys.
Having just moved, on leaving the Service after 37 years and 363 days(but that's another story!), from Middlesex to sleepy Downham Market in Norfolk, I couldn't get any picture apart from four very crappy terrestrial channels. The Lighthouse electrical shop in Downham came and fitted a digital arial and now I have all of the freeview channels pefectly tuned. Because dig hasn't rolled out in this part of the world yet(believe it is due in 2011), it was necessary to fit a power booster, which I had also been using in Middlesex. The shop were very impressive and they fit and align the aerial with a digital meter to ensure it really is pointed in the optimum direction. Good service and at £179.99, I think it was resonable value. However, as someone mentioned earlier, I really do think the Gov should be paying for OAP's.
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