Excellent AndyA! The more complaints the better. I'd hate to be the only one bitching at them. I don't know how they can ignore your email especially with the specific CRTC link. Let's hope you don't just get a form letter response with the usual rubbish they like to quote.

Sometimes on these issues, if you don't get an adequate response, it's better to call, put up with the inane questions from the initial CSR (unplug your STB please) but ask for a second level individual.

These people are usually equiped to understand your issue, while the initial level simply reads off a computer screen.

Sometimes on these issues, if you don't get an adequate response, ask for a second level individual.

These people are usually equiped to understand your issue, while the initial level simply reads off a computer screen.


Well I had an occasion to talk with a so-called higher-up 'expert' in digital TV - I had been phoned by Rogers (!) in regard to my emails. The first guy was quite personable but admitted he didn't know too much about HD so was going to transfer me to someone who supposedly did. The second guy was a total jerk and just spouted the company line. He couldn't get his mind around the fact that the Buffalo affiliates were having lots of problems getting into HD. I kept asking about these channels being monitored but he said the engineering guys would 'take care of things' but obviously they haven't. I wonder if there's anyone at Rogers who has any idea of what's going on?

I wonder if there's anyone at Rogers who has any idea of what's going on?There are a few, but they are rare - at least it's rare for us to be able to talk to them.

You can tell instantly when you get someone who actually knows...

Has anyone been successful in getting their HD package fee refunded? With all the problems with Buffalo we have been pretty much forced to get the package AND a PVR just to watch decent HD (when it records and the names haven't changed). Went through my scheduled recording list today and their was two of almost everything. I'm really upset about the quality Rogers has been spitting out lately, and anyone I've talked to just don't understand.

So far I've found it's pointless to attempt talking to anyone at Rogers - even so called 'experts'. I've had the best results (sort of) by sending emails to digitaltvsupport@rci.rogers.com When they reply it's always signed by someone at highspeed internet electronic support group, but I'm assured this includes digital TV.

I was interested in what a technician said when he was over to see what was 'wrong' with my system (nothing was wrong of course). He said that they had problems at first with the highspeed internet. Then HD came along, so in the process of fixing HD issues, the internet problems got cleared up. Now it's the new phone service they're offering. Lots of problems with that, so he figured that getting the phone service fixed will correct the HD problems!!
He also suggested that the video glitches we were seeing from time to time ( I haven't seen any over the last week myself) were actually interference from nearby cell towers where the Buffalo feeds are picked up. Seems cell tower frequencies are close to some of the HD feeds, mainly ABC and CBS.

What problems specifically are you having with the phone service?? Just Curious?

What problems specifically are you having with the phone service?? Just Curious?

I'm not - I don't have their phone service. It was just something the technician said in passing while he was here. I have Bell and it works just fine.

BTW yet again last night, ABC switched into SD for the last part of Invasion, a good six minutes. I just don't understand the mentality at WKBW - either they have an HD service or they don't. Why they keep screwing around like this beats me.

Oh, and I've emailed Rogers again about it!

Rogers just emailed me back. Here's a bit of what they say this time.....

"We are sorry to hear you are continuing to have these issues. We have
sent a trouble ticket to our network operations centre outlining the
issue of HD programming switching back to standard definition at the end
of the program to see if anything can be done from our end......

It normally takes our network engineers between 24 and 48 hours to
commence an investigation once all information is received, and add an
update to the ticket itself. We apologize for any inconvenience in the
meantime"


They gave me a ticket # too but I normally just send a reply to whatever section the email came from as it has all my previous emails appended. That way they can easily see this is ongoing. I can't imagine WKBW will be interested in what Rogers have to say as I doubt they're being paid anything for the off-air use of their HD.

Anyway, I intend to email everytime I have a problem with an HD show I'm watching regardless of which HD channel it is.

Harl, what would be neat is if you kept a running tally, simply adding the latest problem to all the recent ones.

Say - Date, Time, Channel, Programme, Problem...

That way when you get to like 100 problems, they may realize this is not an isolated incident.

LOL! I'm sure they know this is not an isolated incident. I've lost track of the number of ticket numbers they've given me.

But that is an idea I could possibly follow just for my own education. When I get a large enough number I could just cut and paste the list and send it on to them.
I can go back in my emails and pull up the ones I've sent them as I'm not deleting anything yet.

Start a spreadsheet. Then just add your new complaints. Then you can sort it by date and station. Then add the ticket number and leave the resolution column empty, maybe they'll notice that nothing is acutally being done. I would if I had the patients.

We should start a thread that lists all the problems in chronological order without any other comments. This way others can also take the list and email them in to Rogers as a complaint.

I only watch what I have recorded on the HDPVR, so by the time I watch it usually a week later, I presume it is too late to put in a complaint.

If we had a running list, I could add to it, and use that to send Rogers my own complaint.

If a few clients send many complaints it is not as good as many clients sending even a few complaints.

I know the last time I watched Surface HD on NBC it was blanking out and on and off for the first 15 minutes, then it switched to SD and was fine, though it was in SD, not HD.

But I alread erased it and forgot what day and time I had recorded it on.

Your wish is my command. ;) Thread created here:

http://digitalhomecanada.com/forum/showthread.php?t=32509

I watch the Buffalo HD channels off-air and have not been experiencing anything wrong with them recently. I know some of them forget to pull the HD switch from time to time, but they are very stable.

I watch the Buffalo HD channels off-air and have not been experiencing anything wrong with them recently. I know some of them forget to pull the HD switch from time to time, but they are very stable.Stable, sometimes, but "proper", no. See the following links for examples in just one evening and these issues go for OTA as well, as confirmed in later posts.

http://digitalhomecanada.com/forum/showpost.php?p=275854&postcount=199

http://digitalhomecanada.com/forum/showpost.php?p=276510&postcount=216

Perhaps you don't listen to DD5.1, or perhaps you don't notice, or perhaps you cannot compare what sound there should be, since you only access Buffalo. I CAN compare Buffalo and Seattle (and previously Detroit) and the hiccups on Buffalo are often and not insignificant. Buffalo is worse than Detroit ever was, even 3-4 years ago.

You are correct that any station can have minor issues from time to time, however, the issues went up by at least an order of magnitude between Detroit (or Seattle) and Buffalo.

I don't even watch these stations. I only surf by and notice these deficiencies. Anyone actually spending a significant time watching must be sorely disappointed.

I suppose this may be a little like a simsub. If you only have access to the simsub, you don't know what you're missing.

So I had Rogers turn on the HD package (they gave me a whopping 50% off for two months :rolleyes: ). Now I see what I'm missing. 5.1 on the Seattle stations most of the time versus 2.0 on the Buffalo stations (with the exception of CBS which appeared to have 5.1, though I didn't notice if it was "properly encoded").

Also noticed the Bills game was in SD on the Buffalo station while TSN had it on in HD.

the CRTC has asked me to send them a copy of the Post Card rogers has sent, since they have been recieving complaints about this, and wants to see how rogers blamed them for it.

That's an interesting turn of events.....I wonder if the CRTC will be able to get Rogers to start picking up HD stations from Boston? From what I read, it seems Boston stations have it together when it comes to HD. Who cares if we get weather forecasts for Cape Cod! Rather that than Irv Weinstein and fires around Buffalo....lol.
Back in the old days, WKBW always had the worst pictures due to over-enhancement of everything. I think the station president had a crappy TV at home and had the signal enhanced so it would look good on HIS set. Too bad it looked like crap on everyone else's.....I guess that sort of attitude prevails today.