VOOM: You will not be billed beyond April 30th

[Nick]

If you've had 'final' billing questions as I have, pressing the VOOM button now gets this announcement.

Important Message From VOOM

We regret to inform you that VOOM will be discontinuing
service on April 30, 2005. You will not be billed beyond
April 30th. We apologize for any inconvenience, and
thank you for being a loyal VOOM customer.

[Nick]

Now comes the email: VOOM is Discontinuing Service

Dear NICK,

As we recently notified you on-screen and as you may have also read in the newspapers or on our website, the VOOM service is being terminated on April 30th. The notice period is designed to provide you an opportunity to transition to another television service provider. We are currently reviewing customer accounts in preparation for final statement delivery and service termination.

There is no action you need to take at this time, other than to contact a new service provider. We have valued our relationship, and thank you for being a loyal VOOM customer.

Sincerely,
VOOM Customer Service

[Nick]

No word yet about disposition of the recever or the dish.

[jgoggan]

In my email about my canceled service call, they said that someone would be in contact "soon" about returning my equipment. We'll see how that goes, actually.

They also said I wouldn't be billed passed the day that I called for service.

- John...

[terfmop]

If they decide to not come get the receivers I wonder if anyone wll be able to find a good use for them....other than a paperweight or doorstop

[Nick]

I'm sure someone will market an adapter kit consisting of an eyebolt, nut and washer.

http://images.google.com/images?q=tbn:vUfmn23asi8J:www.happcontrols.com/images/30/30002100.gif

[Richard King]

That looks like the new Voom Boat Anchor Kit. Available from your local Voom distributor for only $9.95 plus a small shipping and handling fee. If you act immediately they will double your order at no additional cost to you. :D

[jgoggan]

Heh. My VOOM dish apparently turned out of alignment yesterday -- I suddenly have a signal well below lock level. This is on a 5 week old install. Not very impressive... :(

- John...

[Cpt Matt]

Ebay lists the recievers for $1, but you need to pay $25 for shipping. Aint it a great country.

Does any one know if the terrestrial reciever will work on its own? Without the Voom program guide of course. Built in scaler, HD and sd reception, digital audio, decent universal remote. Quite a bargin for $26.

[jgoggan]

Does any one know if the terrestrial reciever will work on its own? Without the Voom program guide of course. Built in scaler, HD and sd reception, digital audio, decent universal remote. Quite a bargin for $26.

This has come up before -- even asked specifically by me. I got completely different answers from different people. Some said it absolutely would not -- others said that it surely would.

So, I tried to do some quick testing myself. I removed the splitter box thing from the back and plugged the OTA antenna feed in by itself. I was still able to tune the OTA stuff without any trouble. However, that was WITH an activated card. I then pulled the card and could NOT get passed the "no card" screen no matter what I did.

So -- it appears that with an activated card, OTA works even without a VOOM feed. If the card was not there, it would not work. The big question is whether or not it would work with a deactivated card (i.e. if the card was there, but not valid/subscribed, would OTA still work?).

Another question is if, when VOOM dies, how long a card would remain valid (assuming they don't send a card deactivation signal to everyone). If it stays forever valid, then OTA should be fine, I think...

- John...

[Nick]

Just remove the VOOM dish feed on or before 4/30 - no signal, no deactivation. Period.

Am I missing something?

[jgoggan]

Yes, you'd be missing the possibility that the cards go invalid after a certain amount of time without a signal. I believe that the new Nagra2 Dish cards do this.

That is what I meant by "if VOOM dies, how long a card would remain valid..." part. That even if it was out of the stream and therefore not deactivated, that the cards might not necessarily stay "activated" forever.

Note that I THINK they WILL -- so I'm not overly worried. But it is a possibility.

- John...