Foxtel admits errors as subscribers vent over movie changes

Looks like foxtel is again following in the footsteps of the FTA networks by incentivising Aussies to use bit torrent.

Why anyone pays foxtel for anything other than sport is beyond me…

Where to begin with my rant?
Foxtel claim an extensive campaign was launched before the start of the new channels. Considering the press release for the new channels was released on December 9, that’s hardly extensive for a January 1 launch. And add in the fact that it was during the busy end of year period, this was not extensive enough.
Next, people aren’t confused by the new channels and hence are complaining because of that. I find a statement like that to be quite belittling of their members.They’re not idiots. No, people are complaining because they’ve lost channels, lost content and these new channels have had some of the worst programming from a Foxtel channel in a long time. The idea of genre dedicated channels isn’t a bad idea, but when these channels are showing movies that don’t belong in that genre or are just bad people are going to be upset, especially when they are still paying the same price for less.
Their Facebook page has mostly gone dark, with complaint after complaint building up and rotting out the place. Poor social media management!
Finally, Foxtel better be very careful how they tread from now onwards. They’ve pissed off too many people and think they’ve gotten the upper hand since they have control over the movie channels and are the sole cable provider in Australia. But with the rise of streaming and downloading services and growth in Australian multichannels they may soon find many people pulling the plug on an expensive service like Foxtel. They should be doing everything they can to keep customers, not turn them off.
Rant done!

They keep dancing around the facts. The Content is no longer premium content. Its B Grade, its repeated and its forcing you to pay more for the good movies Via On demand.

Movies Such as “The Blob” and Van Damme movies from the 90’s do not add up to Premium content. havent seen many movies more recent than 2002. alot of this stuff you can get on free services like crackle.

2013… Experience Better! hahaha.

Please explain to me why my subscription has gone up in the last month and my magazine did not arrive. I would appreciate it if you would kindly contact me

s. m. wood

they “say” they did a heavy social media campaign, you only have to see their FB page (now with over 2500 angry comments), that this is a lie!!! This Meagher chap is spinning lie after lie! Customers are sick of Foxtel taking us for a ride, take away our free movies, inundate us with ads, remove channels (without ANY email, a GOOD social media campaign)… it is all take take take with Foxtel they OFFER nothing to their long standing customers! And now they expect us to sit back and say yeah no problem, take away channels I signed up for, channels I pay for and then expect me to be ok if I want to see more movies with Foxtel to download them with my internet account or watch them on my iPad …. something of which I don’t own!!! Foxtel’s time is coming to an end… internet TV is the way to go, without the expense of having to subscribe to Foxtel!

and what makes me laugh, is that they “admit” they made an error yet they have done NOTHING about it… there is NO communication to customers, nothing on their FB in over 3 days, and NOTHING on their website!!! Perhaps they are all at a ‘dealing with angry customers ‘ class!! when they are finished with it, they wont have any customers left to deal with! Try explaining that to your shareholders and advertisers Foxtel!

Foxtel movie changes, Foxtel are saying they have had 1000 complaints, OH NO, on January 1 st it started off with 5000+ complaints re the movie channel changes, it is now 16000+ smart move by Foxtel changing the movies when the majority of customers were away!!!! One employee Amy Salter mad a statement: worse things in the world and get out and exercise!!! LIK NOT,,,, what about disabled,aged,sick ,people in remote regions, people who can’t afford to upgrade to IQ. We have had no answers ?

Customers are happy when it’s explained to them? Huh?

How many people are happy that they have been forced from a little bit better than mediocre movie channel line up to a new utterly terrible one that consists of re-runs of movies from the 80’s? The offer is just horrible now. Don’t know what the back story is but from a customer perspective the new programming is terrible. It feels like I’m watching those movies on Channel 7 or ABC at 2:00am in the morning.

Totally agree with all the complaints about Foxtel ,they have been taking us for a ride for a while now . Not just the changes to the movie chanels which i was stunned with but with previous acts like charging us for chanels like Gem and One for example as part of the HD package when they are free to air anyway ,
Foxtel you are and always have been a rip off .

I was so annoyed I wrote it down, so I wouldn’t forget anything … http://www.rebootgestapo.com/Foxtel_1jan2013.aspx

Have spoken to the Foxtel in the Phillipines a short time ago and have asked them for a response as to why they have breached their supply contract in the reduction of services without the reduction in provision charges. Same story – we are providing more modern movies and the quality is better than previously provided.How patronising and revolting. The Austar programming was inferior and now under the Foxtel banner it is repulsive and I believe in breach of contract. I would be interested to get a comment from the Dept of Fair Trade in that regard – I guess the ACCC now knows how the reduction in competition affects the consumer in the Foxtel arena. A good executive knows how to package manure and sell it as a thoroughbread product to keep the shareholders happy. Foxtel is not done with me yet. This needs a class response.

If I was running the place I’d make the movie package free until they sign on Disney and MGM and then run a new marketing campaign, this time a compelling one.

Good on you Foxtel, just another ripofff to line your own fat pockets’ sick of it, they are on the phone promply when a payment is late, pick up your game, highway robbers, or should I say TV Bandits’ !! Grrr! Don’t think I will be with you for much longer, not after 10 years of giving you my money. That’s it, I feel better… no I don’t, not yet !

I made comment here earlier, but it disappeared.The quality of service from Austar was bad enough and there were ACCC concerns about monopoly in the industry before the Foxtel takeover. This had happened and the result is several thousand angry customers being ripped off. Excuses offered by the Foxtel Rep in the Phillipines were an absolute insult. Bruce Meagher said we are getting better quality and more up to date movies in exchange for the loss of 5 channels. If he thinks that is honest dealing, then he is corrupt in his intent. His operation is in breach of the contract we have with them as provider and I intend to further investigate with Dept of Fair Trade. They are now the sole operator in this area and their product is seriously inferior. Most nights we search for decent entertainment and turn the TV off. It is no longer worth putting up with Foxtel garbage.

Maybe everyone will now realise there are other ways to get video content

Either legally via Fetch, BigPond Movies, xBox, Tivo, YouTube, the Smart TVs come with video services (LG, Samsung, Sony) or by Illegally fast tracking video from overseas but other means. Cough cough.

Got to wonder how many Foxtel Contracts will get renewed!

I feel a class action coming on!

The response from Foxtel is appalling. I’d love to know which people were happy once the changes were explained to them.

Their ‘extensive’ advertising campaign explained nothing except that a new structure for the movies channel was to be introduced. Those of us on the ‘Premium’ movie package were not informed that we’d be losing channels but staying on the same price.

And as others have pointed out here, if you are going to squeeze 15 channels into 11, why not at least throw some good movies up there in the changeover period to appease customers? What’s on there now is just awful.

A case study in how not to manage change, Foxtel.

At least Movie Network and Showtime screened films from the independent distributors which are far superior to anything from the major studios. Will Foxtel be screening any films in the future from the indies or will it stick to 1980s studio films only?

I have beeen a customer with Austar for over 20 years and am about to pull the plug on Foxtell as I am unable to have full access to the internet to plan movie viewing for my grand children. The TV guide that I have paid for gave no indication that the printed channels no longer exist. Both my husband and I enjoyed pay TV as adds were not a feature. Now we are almost unable to find out what is on as the internet service in a small beach community in limited,hence my reliance on the print media.
Can you please email me the updated movie options that are now available with the movie network for the remainder of january. Alternately I will cancel my subscription and go to the local VIDEO Shop! This option is cheaper and at least i know what is on.

Vote with your wallets people. That’s the only language FOXTEL management understands.

With the amount of money we pay for this non existing service Foxtel will be always at the bank making deposits. All Foxtel program’s should be ad-free! If we have to put up with ADS then we should get free programs! If we were to get this type of service from a local store then we would not shop there any more. Good on you Foxtel for stuffing up a service that was at least 60%.watchable, now you rate in the low TEENS
and a deliquent one at that.

Dear Foxtel,

I’m out!

Complain to ACCC I just did.

We too have been with Foxtel for twenty years. The constant ads & promo’s were bad enough, but the sneeky change to the movie channels is just to much. We might get rid of the whole package or just keep the sports channel.

Libby

Welcome to the new(ish) job Bruce – looks like you’ve dug your first hole to get out of.

Iv been with Foxtel for 15 years and the service
Has got worse . Paying more money for less product ,
The ads have increase , for long term customer there is
extras or rewards . Not happy with the Foxtel they ripping
Us off with movie channels now . Why .

Bruce has the job of selling the unsellable (would have made a good pitch segment for Gruen).

Forgetting the spin in terms of a ‘spring clean’, making things easier for customers, less repeats etc. as a customer I find the new packages rubbish, and filled with 2011 new releases, that are generally labeled as weeklys by video stores.

Worse still, the package changes mean that to drop movies, means also that there are no package alternatives with channels such as Biography, History, and many others of decent quality.

Foxtel decided not to renew the contract with The Movie Channel and Shopwtime which provided the best movies. All staff at both these channels were sacked as Foxtel want to have their own channels thus decreasing the number of movie channels. They are a disgraceful company.

I have been a loyal Foxtel customer for the past 4 years. I have always been on the highest level, always paid on time and even upgraded to IQ2. I have never questioned my subscription until now. This might not be the straw that broke the camel’s back, but it has me seriously questioning my patronage to Foxtel.

Absolute rubbish content and ripped off. Foxtel’s Executive should be sacked for coming up with such disgraceful programming and expecting custoemrs to accept and pay for their arrogance. if this was free-to- air TV, the ratings would quickly get rid of this mob. I’m cutting Foxtel and going back to DVD hiring and Fish&Chips nights with the family.

Shame on you Foxtel.

You should be dropping your prices rather than increasing them. Too many other choices now.

When I first subscribe to Foxtel there were no ads, now you are the same as free-to-air who have more to chose from. Time to reconsider.

There are many other (legal) avenues to watch the latest movies, unsure why everyone is so angry with Foxtel. Grab an Apple TV, choose from thousands of movies and god knows how many TV episodes, most of them in HD. Get a T-Box as a bundle with Telstra, use your Playstation or your X-box to rent or even buy a movie as they both offer that service. Fetch is also good through iiNet and Optus. Check out Google Play available on all Andriod devices. All of these offers have the latest movies and most of the films that have been released over the last 10 years. Try Quickflix for 15 bucks a month. That’s the great thing about the modern world…choice. If you dont like a service, dont bother bitching about it on Facebook and Mumbrella, stop using it and just try one of so many other entertainment solutions.

Rip off! Didn’t know if it was an error or faulty connection ,poor satisfaction in contacting Foxtel as you needed to give set responses to programmed questions not addressing individual queries asked most frustrating, campaign non existing right after New year!next move-improvement or cancellation,

The new foxtel movie channels are complete and utter garbage. They had a great product, Movie Network and Showtime, and decided to be greedy and combine the 2(which as of yet has not happened). The only films they are showing are from the studios which used to be aligned to Showtime, there are currently no films from Warner Brothers(New Line Cinema etc also), Disney(Touchstone, Hollywood Pictures etc), MGM, Icon,Hopscotch. Why people are still paying $32 per month for this, so called film channels, I do not know.
Whoever was responsible for creating this monster, should be sacked.

Like everyone else, in the commercial world – always shifting the goalposts, BUT never to suit the customer!

Where isnthe consumer protection in all of this. When I subscribed there were x number of channels and thats what I pay for. Now there are less channels so I should receive an appropriate reduction in my subscription. I intend to take this up with Fair Trading and the Telecommunications Industry Obudsman and suggest all subscribers that are affected to the same. Time is now for people to take action and not sit back and cope it.

I complained to Foxtel the first day the change occurred and woopi do they offered me a $14 refund for this month due to my concern. I told them their new line up was exactly what they had before but with name changes. With the exception of a few new releases that would have been on Showtime anyway, the bulk of their “movie” line is re-hashed old movies that would run on par with free to air movies now or you could rent them for $2 pw from a video shop if you were that keen to watch them. I suggested on their Facebook site that they had learnt well from Supermarkets that improved bottom line by reducing packaging contents but charged same price. They replied along the same corporate line that eventually the one movie channel will have the same range as the two previously but no offer to compensate for the loss now except for the token $14 one month discount. What a Joke I hope their programme Manager is getting direct feed of these complaints.

I have been a premium customer for almost 4 years, and was paying $132 per month. Over that (relatively) short period of time, I had the two free movies per month taken away, the prices go up and now the channel options go down as well. In addition, the foxtel contractors who installed the dish left off the capping tile in my roof which resulted in my ceiling being flooded. (Thank God for insurance because of course they denied it).

When I called up to cancel my subscription, the “disconnection team” representative pretended to “consult his manager” numerous times in a TWENTY minute conversation, each time returning after approximately 30 seconds, offering various incentives to stay with foxtel. These included: $16 discount, 50% discount for three months, and ultimately just “keeping the box for three months” so I don’t incur a fee when I sign back up.

The consultant tried to put words in my mouth every time, implying that I’d given my consent to his incentive offers and I just had to keep repeating, “No – I want to cancel my subscription”.

It is officially cheaper to go buy a ticket to the football than to pay for the sports subscription, given that you have to subscribe to a whole lot of crap you don’t want to get the stuff that interests you.

I cancelled on Monday, and last night arranged Netflix and Hulu, free for a month trial. Given my brief experience so far, I will have no hesitation paying $7.99US per month for either or both services. With a VPN or DNS blocker, and both services I will have more content than I have time to watch, for about $21 per month.

Au revoir foxtel. May you have the customers you deserve.

This discussing organisation is in breach of contract and A class action should be set up.
They are out right lieing to the public and we should not let them get away with it. How can you delver less service and charge teh same price or higher.

ACCC do your job and get after them, you are suppose to be protecting the public against organisatons like this one.

The call centre staff are defending the indefensible. Timeshift gave us a choice of four big titles at 8.30 on Sunday night. Movie One promised and delivered a minimum of three premieres a week, they did this with deals with a lot of Indi distributors like Madman ( not the show). Showtime also had a big indi slate. Bruce Meagher should be wary of claiming that subscribers a) were confused and b) are happy once it is explained to them that all the content is there.
Privately the call centre will tell you that there has never been any confusion, and they are instructed to say that Foxtel had no control over management and output of Showtime and Movie Networks, resulting in high repeat numbers and ‘potentially showing the same movie all day’ (Barbara call centre).
All the content is not there, Disney movies made up a huge part of Movie Networks, think Dreamworks, Marvel, Touchstone, Pixar, we are not talking Sleeping Beauty here. Many of the independent distributors are not there anymore, it is a lie to say all the content is there.
While Mr Freudenstein holidays in the snow, the broadcast equivalent of the Exxon Valdez is happening all over his watch. The farcical presentation of the new channels is just a byproduct of the decision making and management mayhem with recycled Showtime corporate style interstitial content. Tragically it seems all the same people who have coasted along at Foxtel, are still in the frame. The presentation is bad, the marketing is bad and the corporate spin is bad. And don’t let me start on Austar service.
Instead of just complaining, I cancelled both my Austar and my Foxtel services. I will make do with a T Box and a DVD with hard drive. So far, so good. We will see.

Foxtel has ripped off Horror fans yet again as Horror does NOT appear to be a top proogity to them in any shape mean nor form and what they show is utter CRAP

What a surprise.

I connected to Foxtel in the 1990’s when it first started in Australia because it promised to be “Ad Free’.

That worked out well.

I just bought a wd streaming media player last week, connect it to the internet and connect it to your tv via hdmi, you can get streaming video on your tv, I put an overseas dns ip in my router and I can now watch hulu from America as well other channels, can’t get Netflix but an American ip address put into the router should fix that, I installed a software on the computer called “playon”, this gives me even more channels to watch and also allows me to stream movies on the computer via network to the wd streaming player onto my tv, the box cost me $99 at office works, anyone wants one make sure its the “streaming media” model I bought one that doesn’t stream tv from Harvey norman online for $99, but I cancelled that when I found out my mistake, you need 1.5 to 2 megabytes speedline to stream it, so update your internet speed if you have to, I already have 1500 kilobyte download and it works fairly well, this stuff can also be done through game consoles such as xbox360 and wii I think it was, this will be a lot cheaper that $130 bucks a month for foxtel, got other stuff to check out as well, such as how to join Netflix and hulu plus without letting them know im not in the u.s.

@phil… So what I can gather from your advice is that to get content the way you do, it is either illegal or complicated.

@ fred..

well at the moment the channels I get are free, so its not stealing movies..

I put a yank dns ip in my router, and while its there I cant access tv catch up videos on ninemsn, but I can still see yahoo7 tv videos, so I don’t see why these companies should block other countries anyway, if I were to buy hulu plus or Netflix, im still not stealing movies, all im doing is accessing videos based in another country, and having ip and dns proxy addressess are not illegal, in fact, its a way to protect your own identity from crooks.

there is also a free section of hulu, and its got absolutely heaps of stuff, you can also watch this through your computer if you want,

I think anyone who has a problem with this change needs to untangle their twisted panties, change their tampons, put some big boy pants on and look at the big picture.

New movies! Non repeatable.. I haven’t seen the same movie in almost 2weeks. There’s a variety…. Unlike the 30 same movies they’d play every 2nd day and only change 4-5 a month ……….

@izzy…

so you don’t mind getting ripped off then…

if that’s the case, then give me your address and tell me when you won’t be home for a few hours and i’ll go burgle your home, be sure to leave the backdoor unlocked won’t you…

@izzy

oh. i’m sorry that you have sight difficulties.

some films are being repeated continuously throughout the week. other films are being rotated in on a monthly basis.

i just went through the coming week’s films and guess what there was one new film “men in black 3” next sunday night. there’s a maybe about wednesday and friday’s films because i have never heard them … so they may be new. other than that all the films are repeats.

the disney channel has ‘the princess diaries’ on their big friday night premiere.

things are not improving foxtel.

My problem with the new line up has nothing to do with confusion, what I hate now and feel betrayed by is the quality of movies. Most are compared to previously old hack boring time wasters that have been flogged to death with the old setup. Even the premiere movies are crap full and uninteresting, and they have the hide to repeat the same crap on premier 2. HBO showcase is also rubbish and most of it like Spartacus and Game of Thrones is nothing short of porn. I pay for the HD2 full premium package and because I save with their bundle packages I am tied to this crap. If you want to know whats on and have a smart phone download the foxtel app
As soon as my contract is up I am ditching half of my current package or perhaps all of it I mainly have it for the NRL. More than 15 years with foxtel and they do this to us.

How about admitting to this error??… Dear Foxtel, thanks for stealing $300 from my account. I cancelled my service with you back in November. You only provided me with a sticker to return my box late last week. I returned the box yesterday via the post office, and on the same day you take $300 off my credit card for not returning the box. What do you consider to be a reasonable amount of time for someone to get to the post office?
Why aren’t you able to offer a courier pickup service like other MUCH BETTER providers such as Fetch TV?
Not impressed, and I want my money back IMMEDIATELY. Not once you’ve received the equipment as your call centre has told me. I’ve given you a valid receipt number from the Post Office, so please return my stolen money TODAY.
That is all.

It’s simple folks – if you don’t like the changes, cancel your subs, like I have. That’s the only response Foxtel will understand. As for Mr Meagher’s bleatings about customers being firstly “confused” and then “satisfied”, you can’t even credit that comment with “spin”. It’s rank BS and deserves to be treated with the contempt Foxtel are displaying to its customers.

@Sarah,
Just call your bank and have the transaction reversed. Tell them it was not authorised by you.

Hi Bruce. We’re not “confused” due to “a lack of effective communication to explain the new set up”. We’re angry because we can clearly see that you’re providing us with a poorer service and you’re pretending that you’re not.

I don’t believe for a second that “data we are getting from customers is confusion – once the changes are explained most of them are satisfied”. Who is satisfied with 15 movie channels cut to 11 while the price stays the same?

Bruce, you are not a good Foxtel spokesman. You have insulted us by saying we are “confused” and implied that we are too stupid to comprehend the new set up. You have lied about the data you have received from customers. Most people are not satisfied with receiving a reduced service for the same money.

Foxtel hve been planning this for ages and are just trying to rip the concumer off as usual.
I am cancelling my two subscriptions tomorrow morning.
Even the movies they are playing are as old as the hills.
What a rip off Foxtel you should be ashamed of yourselves
I hope people vote with their feet and cancel their contracts.There can be no early termination fees as that was all part of the old contract which is now null and void as Foxtel are now in breach of their own contract as they have underhandedly changed the.legal substance of the contract which we all signed in good faith. This is commonly known as Fraud as we were all legally entitled to abstain from signing the contract had we of been told all the facts and the intended course of action. You are a disgrace to the business world and should be investigated..

@mike unfortunately the contract you entered into gives fottel the right to change anything! at there discretion. it even states it in the magazines etc they send out. So there is no “breach of contract” Im as annoyed as everyone is. But i cancelled my movies package. and judging by the continued quality im glad i did. there only hanging onto me for the AFL otherwise id be out 100%.

Now the sneaky price changes are slipped in for good measure. ” youll get a letter saying if your price has gone up or down” most likely gone up again!

Been with Foxtel 20years, dear oh dear what have you done Foxtel, less movies, more money, many more adds, more repeats, how disappionting, having to think very,very seriously about cutting out programs or just cutting out Foxtel altogether, but not the end of the world. plenty of DVDs out there to buy, hire, or borrow from friends, will be a hell of a lot cheaper, don’t you think?

Stopped looking at foxtel movies altogether now sick and tired of the same old stuff, wonder when their gonna ruin sport. Hang on sponsorship pays big for that don’t they. Mabeye we could pool altogether and sponsor decent movie content, oh wait their already asking us to do that with on demand ppv.

Bit torrent and live Streaming – end of story