|
|
|
|
|
Below is a true story of our owner’s attempt to have SHOWTIME
satellite service installed: |
|
| - Sunday, may 14th : Walking around with wife in The Centre: - great looking SHOWTIME banner in “Video Home”, LG dealer…. Bit of a impulse buy…hell why not, we miss quality TV.
After the brief conversation, full of usual Doha-style ignorance and stupidity of salesman and a number of (what will later prove to be) inaccurate claims from the guy, the contract is signed. I’m making one thing clear, though: HAVE THE THING INSTALLED BEFORE WEDNSDAY, as I am leaving on a business trip… “Sure, sir, of course, they’ll come tomorrow…”
- Monday, May 15th : A phone call from somebody named “Larry” – “Excuse me, sir, our technicians want to know what time on Saturday can they come” – “What **&&%%$$” , … anyway, I tell Larry very clearly that if they don’t install before Wednesday and my trip, the whole deal is off. He promises they will.
Several missed appointments, technicians showing up with wrong hardware, and other usual Doha crap later, SHOWTIME is finally installed on Tuesday night. After a few calls to Dubai hotline (where I found out that pretty much everything salesman in Video Home told me was wrong), SHOWTIME is working. Nice selection of channels, even a great picture on my plasma, because SHOWTIME receiver has the S-VIDEO out port. Finally, some quality TV for us… PLATINUM package gives you two receivers, so bedroom and the living room are plugged. Yipee!
Fast forward to Friday, 26th May …. Early morning, coming back from the trip… Switch on the TV, and ALL CHANNELS OFF!!!
Well, to cut the long story short – Friday to Monday spent calling SHOWTIME hotline in Dubai (where each time I call I get the different answer – sometimes they say my credit card is not OK, sometimes something about contract not being signed, and each time they check my phone number and promise they’ll call back and they don’t ), and calling (or better to say attempting to call) Video Home on 4410060 mainly getting ape-like sounds and lots of holding, and good old Larry claming that he emailed SHOWTIME and got no reply from them and has no clue what is going on…
Come Monday and a guy from SHOWTIME (Thanks, Nabil) actually calls back and says that he triple checked and they DEFINATELLY didn’t receive my contract from the dealer, and therefore they’ve cut my service…
Had enough of the whole ordeal, went back to the dealer and told them to come and take their useless boxes back… both Larry and his funny-looking supervisor don’t give a damn, and smile all along… We’ll keep you posted how long will it actually take them to come and when will I see my deposit back….
Now, of course, this leaves my family and me without good TV again… letmesee… I’ve heard QTEL actually has a decent cable service… why don’t I check it online?
Let me copy paste from Qtel’s website description of their cable offering: “We offer the best of Movies channels and the tope of the music channels that beat with everyone’s home, Peak up the excitement for only QR 70/month. “
Noooooooo … can’t …. cope ….. with ….. stupidity ….. no ….. more …… don’t want anyone “beating my home”…
Well, let me give SHOWTIME one more try… perhaps Video Home were just ignorant and other dealers will be better ….
Out of 8 dealers in Qatar listed on SHOWTIME’S website, one actually answers the telephone…. “Multitech” and a guy even sounds nice. Will try him and let you know soon…
|
|
|
