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Hidden cable costs
This is a Belgian only post I’m afraid. But at least it’s a post, and that’s been a while right 
I want to pitch a little advert I saw on the internet at the beginning of the week, that was removed swiftly due to a court order. It’s a viral / online only commercial for Scarlet, a company that offers internet here in Belgium.
The commercial is a parody on a Telenet ad, where they show leopards to demonstrate how fast their service is. Telenet is a true 3-tier player, offering next to internet also (digital) television and telephone services.
The point the Scarlet commercial wants to make, is that there’s a hidden cable cost in Telenet’s offering. They promote their services in packs .. this amount of money for digital TV + internet for example, but what they forget to mention is that you as a consumer still have to pay for the analogue TV signal.
On the other hand, would you go for a IP only solution (DSL basically) and you subscribe to TV over IP, you wouldn’t have to pay these costs.
The commercial demonstrates this in a rather funny way, the leopards are tied to their cable, so basically they’re limited in movement.
I’ll embed the movie here below, well knowing it might be taken off pretty soon. If so, too bad, but it won’t change my point / view on this.
I must say, I’m a happy Telenet Digital TV (and internet) customer. I think they have a great product, and I use it on a daily basis (not saying it couldn’t be improved though). At the other hand I wasn’t as pleased with Belgacom TV (the IP-tv solution in Belgium, that Scarlet is pitching) in the beginning, but it might be better now, just don’t know.
But I do think Scarlet has a huge point. There IS a hidden cable cost, and it pisses me off. I’m the kind of guy who might actually pay for this, because I still have a DVR next to the integrated digital TV recorder, and I might even switch to the analogue signal if my box is recording 2 things and I want to see a 3th one . But I want to know about this. When I signed up for Telenet at the beginning of the year, I was misleaded. I didn’t knew what I would be ending up paying, till I had my first invoice (and still). There’s hidden cable costs, hidden copyrights, .. stuff I couldn’t find searching the website.
In my mind there’s one of 2 things that should happen:
1. Communicate honestly about the prices people end up paying
2. Make the the analogue cable signal optional in the package
I’d like to open up the debate about this. Sure, the Scarlet commercial might be out of place due to copyright issues (they’re reusing a Telenet spot), but the message is very valid! Anybody an idea how we might get this for example in the consumer tv show VOLT?
And let’s not get started about the insanely high internet cost here in Belgium!
<end of rant />
hell yeah, Telenet also fooled me with that hidden cost.
And when I complained I got a couple of months for free. So they know that they are doing something wrong otherwise they would not give me the discount.
I thought they would have changed it by now
ik zal wel es naar Kobe Ilsen bellen!
Don’t bother complaining anymore. Telenet adapted it’s website before pulling this ad from the air. Their site is legal compliant now…
@Yves Ferket
Telenet didn’t adapt the price of the triple play packages in their commercial communication.
The cost for cable distribution is still missing!
http://telenet.be/1119/0/1/en/residential/shakes/shake-internet-digital-tv-telephony/goldshake.html
What hidden cost(s)?
From day one, you could only “enjoy” Telenet digital Internet/TV via cable, which you had to pay for separately. I’m pretty sure this will be mentioned somewhere. In july 2008 Telenet reached an agreement with Interkabel regarding the acquisition of 800.000 cable TV customers.
As a customer, instead of paying separately for cable access, you get one invoice. They simplified it into one, all services combined. Shout all you want, I don’t see anything wrong here.
I do however understand your point. But there used to be a time when almost everybody had “cable”… and people only complained about the monthly Belgacom phone-line costs, whether or not you used the phone often, that didn’t matter, that fixed fee was always there.
Companies like Scarlet had to compete with Belgacom/Skynet, and the only way they could succeed is by giving the customers a discount, not surprisingly with the amount of the monthly phone-line fee. Smart move, because now they promoted one price, no hidden costs. That made it -as a customer- much easier to comprehend. But never forget, there’s still is a monthly Belgacom bill, but Scarlet takes that-one into account (correct me if i’m wrong here).
All I can conclude is that the market has changed rapidly… apparently too quick for Telenet to overhaul their own strategy.
Or the market changed so rapidly, I’m off-beat now.
Well Logic, that’s not completely true.
The thing is the cable cost isn’t mentioned in the pack description. When I signed up I searched for all costs, and there were a few that came up that weren’t mentioned on forehand. Cable cost was one, some were administrative mess (how many people just pay their invoice without sorting it out thoroughly? Must say I had trouble from time to time, and I’m a customer who speaks his mind ..).
So that it isn’t mentioned is my biggest problem: I want to know what I’ll need to pay. I don’t complain about the cable cost, as said: I might choose for it.
But a lot of people actually don’t need it anymore? Why do they need to pay for the cable? As far as I can see it Telenet just uses this cable cost to cover the cost of the package. But that’s bad practice .. if you tell something is cheap, but at the same time ask for a surplus to make this cheap thing “normal” prices , you shouldn’t tell people you’re cheap, right?