[sullivanl]

The quality isn't even very good over HDMI...

But.... I Just got off the phone after a greuling hour with "customer support". So.. A few months ago I had a TV/Broadband plan for $228 and they called me promoting the HD box and said it is $488 for all the channels plus an extra little bit for each HD channel you add (there are four).

So I say yes, but it turns out that I am still paying the $228 plus the $500+ for the HD. And they take away my old TV box too.

They said if it wasn't clear then I should have asked when I confirmed the price, but how am I supposed to know that it is two sepperate transactions? One would think, if you have a TV plan from the same company, now I change it to another, it would be like an upgrade. But it is clearly not. UH. So frustrating.

And to top it all off, if you want to cancel you have to pay the FULL monthy payments x2 years! So basically you can't cancel.

Very unhappy. Extremley rude customer service, they accused me of lying a few times too! And she finally said "you are wasting your breath because there is nothing we can do to cancel your service, at all". Wow.

[KnowItAll]

Why not call them again, tell them that this call is being recorded and will be forwarded to various consumer organizations and within the expatriate community.

If they can record your calls, you can record them too.

[chimo]

So the only thing extra that the HD TV gives you is four channels? In other words, you are paying $500 a month for four channels, including Voom TV? Or does the HD box do anything else?

I would make more of a fuss. Did you get the name of the person who sold you the plan?

[PDLM]

But be sure of your ground - PCCW can produce a recording of the call where you agreed all of the terms & conditions with them. Unless that shows that they said something that is clearly untrue then the principle of "caveat emptor" applies. Whenever I have had those calls (whether from PCCW or CableTV) the minimum term and cancellation policy in particular has always been made very clear.

[PDLM]

Originally Posted by chimo

I would make more of a fuss.

On what basis? The essence of business is to get the customer to pay as high a price as possible for whatever you want to sell him. So long as there was no deception involved and the terms and conditions were clearly explained, what exactly is the cause for complaint?

[chimo]

No basis, just I would make a fuss

I know, I know the OP has little chance of winning his argument. But if the salesperson told him "this is an upgrade and replaces your old contract", then he would have a case. But I doubt the OP recorded the sales conversation. If you went to upgrade your mobile plan to a 3G plan, would you still be required to pay for your old plan?

[KnowItAll]

PDLM - Throwing a good old gwailo tantrum has been known to fix contractual issues.

[chimo]

Originally Posted by PDLM

The essence of business is to get the customer to pay as high a price as possible for whatever you want to sell him.

Hmmm... I think the essence of a business to get the customer to keep coming back for more business (especially true for a service oriented business).

[PDLM]

Well that sort of depends, if the customer has already stated that they are an expat who will only be here for 2 years (and yes, I know plans can change) then a smart PCCW salesperson is going to be looking for the highest price 2-year lock-in he or she can get. There's only going to be one transaction.

[talllatte]

The wife and I told Now when it came to renew that we wanted the offer in writing. During our 1st term we were also tricked into the 1 + 1 channel scam. The free ones were only for 12 months whereas the paid ones were for 18 months. Remember you can only renew for 18 months it meant we have 2 contracts running at once....

Anyway when it came to renew we wanted it in writing, I'm sorry to say we even did the foreigner tantrum. The "manager" gave us his word the email would be sent on 3 occassions. Did we get the writing confirmation of the channels and the price? Did we ****!

Did they automatically renew us at an inflated price? Yes.