LansdowneLiving.com

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FED UP WITH OPENBAND...

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Below is a copy of an email I sent to Kelly Mattingly who is the customer support supervisor... I feel like OPENBAND's latest "UPGRADE" basically is holding us hostage to pay for a service that was included in our fees. We need to get the whole community involved to get openband to changed their new policy or to get them out of here completely. Also, I haven't heard much from our Board here in Lansdowne on this situation and would love for them to chime in. Everyone who reads this should send an email to Ms. Mattingly Kelly.Mattingly@MCDEAN.COM and show their own frustration.

Dear Ms. Mattingly,

I am responding to your recent email to Mr. Lewis regarding this new "upgrade" to our service that basically holds us hostage on getting your device in order to view channels that we previously got for FREE. It may seem like a small $1.99 fee for every DTA device you have over 2 in your house, but for some of us who live in homes where we may have 6+ outlets, that adds up to a significant amount over the year and definitely longterm, ESPECIALLY, since the whole FREE internet, basic cable and phone was a selling point to be in this community and what OPENBAND boasted here. I honestly think this is a scam and a "backdoor" way for your company to make money on what was previously contracted as FREE. This is just another reason that most homeowners here in lansdowne are fed up with open band and are demanding a change. I would not be surprised to hear that their will be an "UPGRADE" to our internet and phone as well and have to pay a fee for that FREE service. We should have had a vote in the community or meeting to discuss this, rather than a notice basically saying tough luck this will happen. It is poor business practice and you have definitely took a huge step closer to the edge of commiting "contract suicide" here in the lansdowne community. You need to reconsider this policy and have it changed.

ANOTHER DISGRUNTLED OPENBAND HOSTAGE>

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Permalink Reply by Anne Denzin on May 9, 2011 at 11:08am

Has anyone tried to watch a school board meeting on a tv with the new boxes? The picture is fine, but the music from channel 43 plays instead of the audio. I called and opened a ticket on this on April 13th; they came to my house on April 16th - to verify that I was telling the truth that it only happens on tv's with the new boxes. I called back on April 26th and they tried to blame it on LCPS, but I told them there was an open ticket. The answer was that the engineer has not given them an update. Now there is another school board meeting on May 10th and nothing has been done. I'm getting ready to call again.

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Permalink Reply by johnf on May 9, 2011 at 11:20am

Anne,

They have a way to check the signals from the customer service center without coming to your house. Swapped audio is almost impossible to be caused in your home. They should have checked the signal on their end while you were on the phone with them on the first call and they would have seen the problem.

This problem has recurred several time. I put in similar tickets a few times. It was swapped cables on their end. The time it should take a technician to fix this on whatever end it is, should be an hour max.

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Permalink Reply by johnf on May 9, 2011 at 11:42am

You should also complain to the Lansdowne HOA board. They have the power to take effective action to end Openband's monopoly over Lansdowne. Thus far, there has been resistance from some memebrs of the board to taking the correct and appropriate actions. This has been a mistake and a failure of leadership on their part. We may have to vote in a new board member who is dedicated to doing the right things vis a vis Openband in the fall.

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Permalink Reply by Anne Denzin on May 9, 2011 at 11:47am

Thanks but I don't think this applies as it only affects the TV's with the new boxes - not all TV's in the house. Since they don't use the new boxes in their office, they were getting good audio; I also get good audio from my HD box - but my family is not pleased when I take over the HDTV to watch a school board meeting!

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Permalink Reply by johnf on May 9, 2011 at 1:04pm

That is a very interesting bug. They should be using all of the boxes in their support center so they can check issues with this. However, if it is happening on one type of set top box and not another then it MUST be an Openband problem in the since that it is their setup boxes.

It can't be the source (LCPS) if it works on one and not the other.

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Permalink Reply by Ed Kummel on May 9, 2011 at 2:32pm

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Permalink Reply by JLL on May 9, 2011 at 8:30pm

I'm not sure if this helps, but this is what I discovered on my tv this evening. Even though I picked up the dta's, I never installed them. Instead, I was curious to see if my HDTV with the built-in tuner would work without it (I was told it would not by OB reps). After the switch to digital, my husband plugged the tv directly into the wall and had it scan for all channels. Guess what! It works great without a dta. Of course, some of the channel numbers are unusual. By that I mean that some channels are designated by simple digits, such as 73, and others appear as combinations such as 29-36 / RF 29-36.

Now, on to the dilemma at hand. I found two channels with LCPS content. The one labeled channel 42 has perfectly fine audio and visual. The one labeled 30-42 / RF30-42 has the correct picture but plays the music you mention above. Unfortunately, I am not a techie so I don't know the difference between 42 and RF 30-42 or why there is a difference in the audio.

If your tv has a built-in tuner, you can try diconnecting the dta and rescanning the channels. If it is an old tube tv, then you are stuck with a dta or some sort of box. Good luck.