Thread: Are Samsung STBs still in short supply?
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Old 09-09-2005, 17:44   #8
patrickp
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Re: Are Samsung STBs still in short supply?
Quote:
Originally Posted by PeteM
Hi all,
I receive broadband via a (Pace 2000) stb; back in April, wishing to take advantage of the speed increase, I phoned Customer Services and requested an upgrade to a Samsung box. An appointment was made for 10th May. The day came... and went, but NTL didn't! On phoning CS again they told me the appointment had been cancelled because they didn't have a Samsung box available; presumably they thought the best way of letting me know this was to simply not turn up!

Last week I thought I'd have another go. I phoned CS, and an appointment was made for Wednesday 7th September. Imagine my surprise when Wednesday came... and went, but still no sign of (or contact from) NTL! This time when I contacted CS they could offer no explanation... no comments added to the call, it was simply ignored. CS can't give me a contact number for the local scheduling office (understandably I suppose), so I'm in the dark.

I've now made a 3rd appointment (for Tuesday 20th)... if they don't turn up for that (or at least let me know they aren't going to turn up), I'll have to throw all my toys out of my pram!

Is this normal procedure? Am I unlucky? Do NTL hate me? Are there so many outstanding requests for stb box upgrades that they're being ignored?

As a long time lurker in this forum, I'm sorry to make my first post so negative (and long winded!), but I'm getting a bit grumpy now!

Pete, I found myself in the same boat as you when the upgrades started: I was on the 750Mb service and wanted to upgrade to 2Mb (same tier). Like you, I was connecting through my black Pace box. They told me there was a big backlog on Samsung boxes, which I would need for the 2Mb service. In the meantime, a helpful person in CS suggested I _downgrade_ to the £19.99 service, so my speed would go up to 1Mb, which the Pace box could handle, so I did.

To cut a long story short, it was getting on for 2 months IIRC, and no Samsung boxes in sight. So another helpful CS person suggested I have a cable modem and keep the Pace box for the TV. Did that, went on to 2Mb and I'm well happy now - not sure, but I suspect I may actually be better off with a cable modem than a Samsung box.

Ask your CS people if you can have a cable modem for your broadband connection.

Patrick
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