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12. FOXTEL STUFF-UPS
Crikey.com.au Newsletter - Thursday, December 5, 2002, 8.30am
www.Notgoodenough.org only went live in February of this year but the site already has over 12,000 active members griping on its discussion forums about everything from airlines to shop assistants with way too much attitude. While compliments about companies remain in the minority, their number is gradually increasing, making NGE a place of comment not just complaint. Looking at the bigger picture, NGE has found that telcos are our most complained about industry, with the banks not far behind. Pay tv providers also feature in the gripe list and it's not just last week's winner, Austar, who is copping it. Foxtel, too, have been getting their fair share of annoyed punters.
Foxtel has been slammed by NGE members for its performance both on and off the air. One member rightly wonders why they have to put up with so much advertising for a service that they already pay to view; another is more than a little concerned about the $300 or so dollars that was taken from a bank account by Foxtel shortly after cancelling their subscription. While the money was returned days later (without interest, of course), this now ex-customer of Foxtel warns others to "read your statements very clearly when it comes to Foxtel!"
More recent Foxtel-inspired complaints at the NGE Gripe Headquarters focus on the provider's decision to cease transmission of the Country Music channel in response to exceptionally poor ratings. Probably a fair enough decision in itself. But this "contracted viewer's" channel was taken off air and replaced by you guessed it nothing. Viewers were however given the option of subscribing to the ESPN (Sports) Channel, which is a "tier package" channel. As one Unhappy Jan put it, "you will LOSE a channel and then pay MORE to get back what you already had!" Could this be another case of thousands of people totally inconvenienced by another Telco who just can't get it right?
Janine Kelly
NGE Media Intern
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