Brighthouse Cable Screws Central Florida Customers…
This past September, to the delight of many, Brighthouse turned on four new HD channels — HGTV HD, TBS HD, The History Channel HD and Food Network HD. Over the last 2 months, they have been sending out flyer’s to it’s customers talking about the addition of Discovery Channel HD, Animal Planet HD, TLC HD, Science Channel HD and National Geographic HD on February 1st. Unfortunately, what a large community of Brighthouse Customers found, was that instead of adding 5 new channels, they had lost four (Or Nine if you include the new ones).
What is rapidly turning out to be a PR Nightmare for Brighthouse, they decided to disable these channels to all Cablecard users — Which include owners of Tivo’s, HDTV’s, and Media PC’s that choose not to use the craptacular equipment that Brighhouse charges it’s users for.
The original thought for the reason that these channels had been disabled was that Brighthouse had enabled SDV [Switched Digital Video] — A technology that is not supported at this time by cable cards. However, after the sleuthing of the Tivo Community Brighthouse employees admitted that Brighthouse has not switched to SDV, and have purposely chosen to disable these channels specifically for Cable Card users.
[Note: The press release says nothing about changes to Cablecard Users — or that the change is only for Brighthouse Equipment Users]
“Bright House Networks Added Five High Definition and Two Digital Channels on Fri., Feb. 1, 2008, at No Additional Cost to Subscribers”
Oh really? Seriously? They why are you telling us to pay more to upgrade to Brighthouse Equipment?!?!.
Despite as an “olive branch”, Brighthouse offered me a complimentary cable box, if I choose to keep my cable cards I need to keep paying $2.95/ea (keep in mind, they took me 4-weeks to get) and also pay $9.95 for their DVR Service (which is horrible since TiVo controls all the usability patents). Also, until a solution for cablecard SDV support is released, Brighthouse now has a feather in their cap to keep people from purchasing any 3rd Party equipment. This means they now collect the hardware rental fees, and DVR subscription fees that pads their pockets and keeps their network a nice proprietary money making machine.
Futhermore, Third party hardware users have additional media delivery options beyond what you get with Brighthouse’s equipment. I can rent movies from Amazon, stream MP3’s, share media with family, Watch TV I recorded on my computer, view digital photos, etc. All of these services are either better or directly compete with Brighthouse’s premium services ie. Video on demand, Digital Music, Pay-Per-View — All of which you pay extra for, so by having such a device, users can minimize their bills.
So, to simplify. Brighthouse Networks is forcing customers to pay upwards of $20 additional to receive channels that there is not a single reason why they can not receive with their own hardware and a $3 cablecard. They have also removed my premium features I get with my Tivo — And now, instead of buying a movie from amazon and having it delivered to my Tivo, the comperable solution is to use Brighouses PPV. Instead of streaming Music from my computer, the comprable solution is to subscribe and use Brighthouse’s music channels. And on top of all of the additional fees, they have now managed to launch a slander campaign against 3rd Party Technologies like Tivo. [That’s right! Because now, when someone asks me (Or any Cable Card User) if they should buy such a device, we now need to say “Well, only if you don’t want to be missing 25%+ of the HD Channels.” ]
*Clap* *Clap* Well Done Brighthouse. At least your J.D. Power customer service award was fun while it lasted.
Details around the Web:
Orlando Sentinel
EngadgetHD
TivoCommunity
UPDATE!
Within 30 mins of publishing this. 3 Seperate IP addresses within the “MyBrighthouse.com” domain have hit this blog post. I know you’re out there Brighthouse! There is a comment form below. Use it — I’d like to hear what you have to say.
I am one of those complacent Brighthouse customers who pays the fees but still wondering why it’s so expensive. I’ve actually started looking at the Tivo box at Costco, trying to figure out if I’ll save money. But I sure don’t want to give up those channels. Please keep me updated, or I guess I just need to keep checking your blog. thanks for the great info.
Comment by Tony R.
February 24th, 2008 @ 10:23 am
Brighthouse is just awful. Their on-demand is a joke, their equipment frequently malfunctions, and their ceaseless self-promotion (I guesss nobody else will buy any ad time) makes me want to gag. I keep telling myself that I can put up with it for a few months, until I head back up North for the summer, but I really have to get a satellite. BTW, as I write this, the entire cable system has been down for the past two hours in what the phone rep called “my area”. Must be a big area, cuz it took a half hour to get a rep on the phone. Do you think we’ll get a credit on our bill?
Comment by M M
March 8th, 2008 @ 8:43 pm
I blame the fact that kids are bringing guns to school and global warming on brighthouse.
Comment by Special-K
March 14th, 2008 @ 11:07 am
I’m so sad I can almost cry I like my Tivo that much. But I probably will convert to a Brighthouse box instead because the pixilation issues & dropped channels make tv watching unbearable.
Comment by Ken
April 3rd, 2008 @ 10:37 pm
My parents and I have been irritated by the poor quality issues with Brighthouse service for years! We both have the Digital DVR boxes, and while I expreience pixilation occassionally, they experience it daily…mostly during Prime Time. They have called Brighthouse several times, and each time a tech was sent out…during the day, of course. The pixelation didn’t happen to occur while the teh was there, so of course there must not be a problem!
Now for the really good stuff. My boyfriend and I purchased an On-Demand movie last night…”American Gangster.” This is the first time in a long time that I have done this, as the quality has always been so bad. But, I guess I was hoping that with the amount of money I am paying for HD Digital service these days, it may have improved. What was I thinking? Anyway, we begin watching, and there are some of the normal pixelation issues, but we were dealing with it (a little rewinding her and there, pausing, etc.) BUT THEN…all of a sudden out of nowhere, we are treated to some extra footage that did not appear to be Denzel Washington. It was 60 seconds+ of a very graphic XXX porn scene. I do mean very graphic…no doubt about what was going on between these two people! The picture was very clear…no pixilation there! It would not go away no matter what we did, until we actually switched channels and then came back to the On Demand channel and restarted the movie.
I called Brighthouse to make them aware of the problem, and they offerred to credit my account for the cost of the movie. While that was certainly expected, I wanted to know how this could occur. I mean, we were adults watching a movie, and while I was offended, I could only imagine if a family with children were watching an On Demand movie and were treated to this! The young lady on the phone stated that she agreed, but had never heard anything like this before. She said she would “note my account.” Now, how is that going to alert anyone at Brighthouse to the problem? Or, do you really think they would care?
In my web research this morning, I did find where this happenned over in the Tampa area in 2004 during a Pay-Per-View wrestling event. So, it has happened before! In the article, the rep from Brighthouse said there had been an “equipment malfunction” and that they had taken steps to make sure it didn’t happen again, although they could not guarantee it. I know it is difficult to predict what will happen in the future, but this kind of thing seems easy enough to prevent. (My solutions would be to not make porn available, but I know that is unrealistic…it is too big of a money maker). Hmmm…I wonder how often this happens and people do not report it?
Just thought I’d share.
Comment by Koren
April 19th, 2008 @ 8:13 am
I recently discontinued my Brighthouse service because of the new HD-DVR’s that Brighthouse provides (SA 8300HDC). I switched to DirecTV and so far I’m extremely happy. I know this doesn’t address the initial posting, about using CableCard with TiVo, but it does say something about the current products that Brighthouse is providing and that they are losing customers on a daily basis. Now, every channel that I typically watch is in HD and I’m very happy with my choice to switch to this point.
Comment by John
April 20th, 2008 @ 12:51 pm
We and my neighbors in our Wintermere Pointe community in Winter Garden Florida have been trying to get Brighthouse to get their network up to par and actually provide the services we all pay for since last September 2007. Yes September 2007. Most of my neighbors all have switched to satellite already because they are sick of Brighthouse. Eventually Brighthouse will actually get a clue when their subscriber rate falls dramatically.
Our new community is in such bad shape: the nodes which actually power all of our communities, those lovely green boxes we all see and all of the wiring underground are flucuating, bad to the point were they needed to be replaced years ago and wiring that is cut through but some how still manages to send a week signal. It amazes me that all the employees know this and customers keep complaining but as long as they get their monthly payments they do not fix the actual problems at hand. They just slap some duck tape over the problem to temporarily patch the problem instead of fixing the root of the problem for good.
I believe there needs to be a lot more government oversight because Brighthouse does whatever they like. It is not like we can get another cable provider. Can anyone say Monopoly. I am waiting for Verizon Fios to come in to town at 30-40 MBPS. Verizon if you are reading this please come to Winter Garden. We know you are already in Kissimmee. Let me be your first customer here.
Between field techs, engineers, priority techs, supervisors, service call guys none can figure out why cable tv (high definition or digital) with dvr boxes there is so much pixelization. Nor can they figure out why Turbo speed plan of 15 MB download/2 MB upload speeds for High Speed internet only reach 7MB download and a mere 200-300 kbps upload. Then they release this new HD 8300hdc unit which is a piece of crap and they should be ashamed of doing so. For once, start actually listening to customers feedback. Your days of awards should be over.
Then these employess all say that the internet hubs that maintain high speed cable companies, the servers and routers are out dated and overloaded. Too many customers on too few servers. The end result is that you are all using the same resources. It is like getting water from a stone :)
None of the departments talk to one another to actually figure things out. They do things separate and then wonder why it has taken 50 trips out to a house when 1 could have done it.
It is not going to matter whether you use a tivo or another 3rd party dvr or box. You will still get the same feed, pixelization and more. Your best bet is to keep on complaining for the long haul and get some upper management involved or simply switch over to satellite.
Comment by Chris
April 26th, 2008 @ 2:43 pm
Road Runner High Speed Internet ads are false and misleading!
No way do they provide 15MB service. Have never come even close to 1/2 of that speed. I pay for it but do not get that speed.
Brighthouse should get fined for false advertising.
They make stuff up in the lab but never test it in the field to back up their claims.
Comment by Pete
April 26th, 2008 @ 2:50 pm
Well I guess that some of the outdated equipment that Chris mentioned finally crapped out last night and as of 2pm it’s still not fixed.
This has put me at dial up internet speeds, I just tested it and I had a 58kb download speed. This has also all but knocked out my VOIP service.
I also have had problems with the pixilization of my upper channels.
Monopoly is the word!!! Last year I was working in California and the cost of High speed wireless internet was $15 for the family plan (more than one computer).
At the price we pay here in Central Florida for cable services we should have nothing but stellar service and no excuses!!
Comment by Tom
May 11th, 2008 @ 2:12 pm