lost smartcard....and
 

2 things ....my 20 month old son has lost our smartcard from the set top box...turned the place upside down ...can't finf it...NTL say that they will heve to replace the samsung box for £25.00 plus call out charge of £25.00. ...any work around to this problem........the other thing the 1 yr contract is up for renewal ....we signed the special deal for BB and PHONE and basic TV package for about £50.00 a month....workswell ...BB speed now up to 750k ish...how much will a new contract cost us....same cost or will the special deal finish and costs increase:confused:

Re: lost smartcard....and
 

In the past the contract has always just kept going for me on the same terms. The only time service levels and thus costs have altered seems to be when ntl mpose an annual change, say for TV, or if I ask for a different bb speed.

As for the smart card. I think you are in trouble. It's esential to the STB seems to be coded to the STB so that is it. Why they can't just post a new one to you though I don't understand, no doubt some lame technology reason. Even if they could post to you, I'd still expect an admin charge for doing so, given that it's hardly their fault your littlun has kleptomanic tendencies :D

Re: lost smartcard....and
 

As an engineer is needed to make sure things are done correctly basically. I can't see why she needs a new box though. All that need be doing is the smartcard changing on the system. And £25 for a new box?! I think they're telling porkies on that one. Charge for new boxes is around £150 if I recall correctly.

Give them a call and ask if they can just send you the card (I would imagine they can, but never worked in faults so no idea), saves you waiting in for an entire timeslot for a tech to come. All you hav eto do then is call and inform CMC of the new card number and they can swap it over.

Paul

Re: lost smartcard....and
 

Have you tried inside the VCR?

out of one slot & into another was very commonplace with mine.
(as was putting it down thier nappies - lol).

Re: lost smartcard....and
 

Ah good idea that.
Kids like posting things thruogh the "letterbox" of the VCR.
I remember a friend who found a load of Malteesers chocolates put into his VCR once.

Re: lost smartcard....and
 

The cards are paired to the boxes , so its not possible to send a new card , the whole lot has to be replaced by an engineer. hence the £25 callout charge. When i worked in faults a new box was £150

Andy E
ntl pirate

Re: lost smartcard....and
 

That's sounds a load of rubbish about not being able to send a new card. How is the original card paired to the STB in the first place? Sky send out new cards occasionally and will pair a card to a different box if asked. There is something drastically wrong with NTL if they can't perform a simple task like sending a new card and pairing it.

Re: lost smartcard....and
 

Sky use MediaGuard (I think), ntl/Telewest use NAGRAVision. Different systems, and they work in different ways.

Re: lost smartcard....and
 

They may use different systems but the principle should be the same. You have a smartcard containing a chip which needs programming whether it be a new card for a new box or a replacement card for an existing box.

Re: lost smartcard....and
 

seems rather weird to me as well , the card may be paired to the box to stop ppl taking sky sports round there mates house but i cannot see how a card cannot be paired to any box that ntl chooses it to be paired to , however , if someone can supply a link to prove otherwise then i will read it ;) :D :D :D

Re: lost smartcard....and
 

With respect NTL are the ones who run the business so they can do so how they seem fit and the gentleman who has lost his smartcard is not a SkyDigital customer he is an NTL one therefore it is irrelevant what sky would do or how Sky choose to work, NTL choose to pair the cards in house and if a card is lost or broken then they charge for a new card and a call out to replace the STB which incidentally will come with the new card.

If you ask nicely sometimes they will waiver the call out charge or the charge for the new card sometimes even both but it depends on the approach made.

Re: lost smartcard....and
 

What do I know I only worked for them for seven years... as an installer/ sevice then inside to faults, If a card was lost or damaged the box had to be replaced. Thanks for rubbishing my post ... i'll not bother offering any advice in future. Obviously you know a lot more than me

Andy E
ntl pirate

Re: lost smartcard....and
 

i dont think there was any deliberate rubbishing going on , more of a case of not believing that ntl could not perform a seemongly simple task such as this ;)

Re: lost smartcard....and
 

NTL could perform this 'seemingly simple' task, however business practice is to offer the equally 'seemingly simple' task of sending an engineer around to the property to perform a box swap.

Wheres the discussion?

Re: lost smartcard....and
 

I am not trying to rubbish your post in any way and accept that you have told us the way that NTL do things. I apologise if I have caused you offence, Also, as gooner4life says, if that is the way NTL want to do things then they are free to do so.

My grouse is that on the surface it would appear that NTL could do the same as Sky if they so wished and thereby avoid tying an engineer up with a job that isn't really needed. He could be better employed fixing another customers problem which does need an eengineer visit. Is there any technical reason why they cannot issue a new card and post it to the customer?

Re: lost smartcard....and
 

It is down to the Nagra provisioning system being a royal pain, and also a security issue, back in the days of Analogue when lots of people had Jerrold access they could enable every single channel and it would never show up on an audit or on any billing systems so fraud was rife, these days a select few people in the OSS team and the DMC have access to the Nagra system and they are busy enough as it is working on far more important things believe it or not.

Also without being able to say how Sky's system works I would hazard a guess that they have 1 system for there entire subscriber base, NTL have a mismash of different billing and provisioning systems, not to mention 2 entirely different networks, sky would have likely had the card provisioning automatically update the billing side where as NTL do not have this luxury until Harmony is completed.

Re: lost smartcard....and
 

Thanks for the explanation. You must admit though that Customers perception of NTL can be tainted by little things like this that appear simple to the uninformed. Can you imagine all those customers who are, or have been, sitting there waiting for an engineers visit to sort out their problem reading that their wait could have been shorter if engineers were not doing jobs like this. Even with the given answer, a new card will still have to be issued for the STB unless it is to be scrapped so these very busy people will still have to do it. To say that the NTL staff concerned have far more important things to do would have been better unsaid if a customer thinks that this is increasing his wait time. RThe customers service, or lack of it, is the most important thing for him.

Re: lost smartcard....and
 

The Smartcards and STB's are already paired in the stores though, the actual pairing is done by the stores its the re-provisioning of a different card with an old box that would take the DMC engineers time that they dont have.

With a new box and card the provisioning would be done by billing when the STB receives a hit with an instruction of what channels to decode.

Re: lost smartcard....and
 

Surely that's the whole point in providing the customer with a new box/card pair, then the old box can have a new card generated at leisure?

Re: lost smartcard....and
 

Precisely.

Re: lost smartcard....and
 

I don't know, the story seems to be changing :confused:

The new card may be able to be generated at leisure but it still takes an engineers time and associated vehicle costs to do the box swap and who ends up paying for this. My priorities, and customers, would seem to be different to NTLs so we had better leave it at that.

Re: lost smartcard....and
 

When boxes are reconditioned when returned to stores they do not get a new smart card. When you get an old 1000/2000 series box it frequently has the old C&W smart cards in them.

Re: lost smartcard....and
 

But this is what engineers do, drive around areas of the country swapping boxes and fixing problems. Those that manage the security of these cards and what box they are attached to are i guess not customer facing and work to different priorities.
Is the issue here money. Whist I sympathise with the OP (i occasionally chase my 2 yr old around the house while he has a smart card in his hand - telling him he won't be able to watch TV until he gives it back often works!). It is the OPs fault that this has occurred and not a fault of NTL so NTL charging a service fee is reasonable IMHO, then it is just down to what they do with that fee, they can either get a team that does not work in a customer orientated process to do a one off job (which eventually becomes so many one off jobs that a person needs to be hired into the team for this problem, yet they probably won't see the £25 each time this occurs (more cost to the team - no revenue). Or they can get the customer facing CSRs and Faults to box swap. The biggest difference for the customer is that they need to wait in for a engineer rather than wait for a card in the post.