cost of free view

I was charged $450 for the installation of Freeview which I consider a ripoff. All you get is the same limited channels that were free previously on our old TV. Freeview is made out to be something new and I was conned into it.

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Permalink Reply by Mike G on November 13, 2013 at 7:46

Hi DG, was your installation for Freeview UHF or satellite? It sounds like you don't have all the channels available. Have you tried a retune? Cheers, Mike

Permalink Reply by DG on November 13, 2013 at 8:58

Im not sure which one l have, the technician put a new piece onto an existing aerial plus l have an existing sky dish. It would have been much cheaper for me to just have got a second sky box but l did not know that at the time.I have got sky at another address.

Permalink Reply by Biggles on November 13, 2013 at 9:02

Well if you want to continue to watch TV after 1 Dec your only options are Freeview or Sky. The old analogue channels will disappear then. There are around 24+ channels available on Freeview (depending on your location) including Radio so maybe you haven't found them all yet? Unless your installation was a satellite install then you may indeed have been ripped off. UHF antenna kits are currently available at around $50 and a STB from about $80. DIY and that's around $130 for an installation. A Sky installation is generally free but ongoing costs of around $46 per month minimum.

Permalink Reply by DG on November 13, 2013 at 9:23

I have spoken to Benrow in Ellerslie where I bought the TV and who recommended the technician CHANNELTEC a man called Peter Schonhof He charged me $450. Benrow told me I need to buy a Freeview decoder for another $120 to get the rest of freeview channels! Do l need to get a technicion to install the decoder?

Biggles said:

Well if you want to continue to watch TV after 1 Dec your only options are Freeview or Sky. The old analogue channels will disappear then. There are around 24+ channels available on Freeview (depending on your location) including Radio so maybe you haven't found them all yet? Unless your installation was a satellite install then you may indeed have been ripped off. UHF antenna kits are currently available at around $50 and a STB from about $80. DIY and that's around $130 for an installation. A Sky installation is generally free but ongoing costs of around $46 per month minimum.

Permalink Reply by Biggles on November 13, 2013 at 10:55

Well Benrow are telling you porkies. If you have a Freeview TV it will receive all the channels. A STB won't get you any more. And sounds like you were ripped off. Shouldn't have cost more than $250 for a UHF install and much less if you already had an antenna. However if you are still using an old VHF antenna then it's quite possible you are not getting all channels because its not suitable for UHF and you aren't receiving all 3 muxes. If you can see TV1, TV3 and Prime then you have all three muxes and will have all channels. Any of those three missing you have an antenna/cable problem.

DG said:

I have spoken to Benrow in Ellerslie where I bought the TV and who recommended the technician CHANNELTEC a man called Peter Schonhof He charged me $450. Benrow told me I need to buy a Freeview decoder for another $120 to get the rest of freeview channels! Do l need to get a technicion to install the decoder?

Permalink Reply by DG on November 13, 2013 at 11:35

Thank you for telling me this, l thought the decoder was similar to the Sky decoder where l could get the Living,History,Food,Documentry etc channels.

Permalink Reply by Mike G on November 13, 2013 at 11:40

Are you sure that your tv is showing the digital channels and isn't still set to analog? On some tv's you need to push the tv button twice to access the digital freeview channels.
You should have: TV1,2,3,4,Maori,TV1+1,2+1,3+1,C4,Prime,Trackside,Choice,Sommet,AlJazeera,three shopping channels,Parliament,TeReo,Firstlight,Chinese and tv33.
If all is tuned in correctly on UHF.

Permalink Reply by Biggles on November 13, 2013 at 12:21

There is an Igloo decoder that will recieve UHF Freeview and a few of the Sky Channels. Benrow may have been referring to this but its only about $80 now in most shops and you still need monthly payments to view the very few Sky channels available as they are encrypted. Info here

http://www.igloo.co.nz/igloo/

and you'll find full info on how Freeview works here

http://www.freeviewnz.tv/equipment-installation/what-do-i-need.aspx

DG said:

Thank you for telling me this, l thought the decoder was similar to the Sky decoder where l could get the Living,History,Food,Documentry etc channels.

Permalink Reply by DG on November 13, 2013 at 12:23

Thank you Mike, Yes I can get all of those channels on Digital. It looks like a lot of channels but the actual content on them is very poor. TV 1,2,3, are doubled up and except for Prime and Choice the others are mostly foreign speaking or trivia. There are really only 5 channels of any note, which is what we always had on our old TV. I wish l had known this before and l wouldn't have wasted my money on FreeView(and got ripped off in the process) It is very kind of you guys to take the time to reply to me and l am grateful for the information.

Permalink Reply by Biggles on November 13, 2013 at 13:40

If you are getting all those channels then there aren't any more. And as you say they are mostly rubbish. However without getting a Freeview TV or Sky you wouldn't be able to watch anything from 1 Dec. Next problem arises if you want to record anything.

Permalink Reply by Mike G on November 13, 2013 at 13:43

I guess you have to weigh up the ongoing cost of Freeview (zero dollars) vs the ongoing cost of a Sky subscription ($500 or more a year) and work out if those pay channels are worthwhile.

Strangely, I quit Sky because there never seemed to be anything new on it!

Permalink Reply by DG on November 13, 2013 at 14:23

Yes I agree with you, I do have MySky at my holiday home which l pay for all year round and l get annoyed because it is mediocre and they have advertising on it as well! ( At least you can record stuff and watch it without the ads later.) I thought that the Free View was a good alternative for when I am in town but it is mostly rubbish. I have looked at Igloo today and it appears you can pay for that on a month by month basis so that could be a good alternative.

I rang CHANNELTECH and complained about him ripping me off but he refused to listen and said he was not going to do anything. I am going to let Benrow know about him and to stop recommending him.