I recently bought a LG LED TV. The plan was to take a good HD connection to enjoy the TV in full. After reading through various forums, including this one - I finally decided that I would go for Hathway HD. I already own the Hathway SD Digital connection via my Local Cable Operator (in Byrasandra, C V Raman Nagar) - so assumed this would be a cake walk. However it proved to be anything but!
First I contacted the LCO and he stated that they will provision the HD connection, but I had to purchase the STB from the Hathway office in Halasuru. I spoke to these guys and they confirmed that they can sell me a STB if I pay them 6.2K in cash. I agreed and promised to come down the next day. The following day (today), I called them again and confirmed that I am coming to buy the STB and they said 'come over'. I reached the place (which looked like a shady basement of an apartment, with a backdoor entrance) and told the guy on the counter that I was there to buy the HD box. His reply was that they are out of stock and have no STB for sales at the moment. I told him that I called them barely 30 minutes back about this and was asked to come. The guy pretended to have nothing to do about it. But he was helpful enough to refer me to the Indiranagar office, where he said they currently have stock.
Once bitten, twice shy! I took the number of the Indiranagar office from him and promptly called them. The first question I asked them was if they have the stock of HD STB (I didnt want to drive over to their office and then be told they are out of stock). To my puzzlement, he flatly refused to answer and said that they dont sell STB to customers directly. And that my LCO has to procure the STB from them and complete the installation. When I told him the two different experiences I had from LCO & Hathway Halasuru office, he just said that he cant do much about it and he is just following the process he has been told to follow. I gave him a verbal bashing (the mild kind) which included the joys of the customer having to run from pillar to post to get a connection and having to hear a totally new process at every turn. He knew that I had a point and backed down on his stand. He asked me to come with 6.2K cash along with address proof and he will sell the STB. However, he also said that my LCO needs to contact his manager to confirm that I need this (ahem!)
By this stage, I was feeling like I was in a Govt office trying get some work done. I thanked the guy and called my LCO. His turn to hear the bashing (again, mild one - I have to continue to have my connection active afterall ). The LCO promised a call back after he checks this situation. I didn't have much hope. To my surprise, the LCO called me back promptly in 10 minutes and mentioned that he will get my STB procured and setup, just that I need to pay him 200 bucks extra. However, since they are out of stock at the moment, he wanted 3 - 4 days time to get this done. I was only too happy to agree - rather than burning petrol (at the price it sells today), I agreed to pay the 200 bucks and be done with it.
Now, the wait begins. I once again am not confident that the STB stock would come in 3 - 4 days (coincidentally, when I took the SD connection, I had to wait for more than a week as Hathway was out of stock of STB). But I am hoping I will be proved wrong and the STB comes quickly - and I can start enjoying the HD.
Update on 17th Sept: Weekend arrived, but no HD yet. Frustrated, I called my LCO and he says that he didnt do anything since I promised to get the set top box myself. I had to take him through my entire struggle once again and tell him that his office had promised delivery/setup in 3 days. He said he will check and call back. In the interim, I called the Indiranagar office again (got the same guy who I spoke/bashed the other day) and told them situation. He asked me to get the LCO to call him - I relayed this back to the LCO. LCO called back in about 30 mins. He asked me to submit an Address proof and Rs. 6400 in his office and that he will get the connection done by evening. So I parted with these two and started counting down the time to evening.
At around 7 PM, the LCO called and informed that he had been in the Indiranagar office for the past 3 hours, but due to some server issue they are unable to activate my STB/Smart card. They promised that they would do it the next day. However, since the next day was a Sunday, I wasnt so confident and told them the same. However, they promised to do it by morning and even gave me a contact number whom I can chase for status. The next morning, no one arrived as promised and so I called the guy whose number was given. He was totally clueless and told me that he didnt even belong to the HD dept, but worked for the Internet side of Hathway. Here we go again!
Finally, at around 1 PM afternoon, the LCO came in with the STB and set it up. He spoke to some one in Hathway and had them enable the STB/Smartcard and - THERE - the HD channels on my new TV 😀
Once the LCO had gone, I sat back and started reviewing the channels! Like some one else told me - the wait was worth it! No doubt. The HD channels were awesome, especially Star Cricket, ESPN, Ten HD and Star Movies. The others were good too, but I found these to be the best.
However, I have a small niggle - every 10 mins or so, the picture freezes for a few seconds (2 - 3 secs max) and then resumes. This is not too bothersome, but still a blip in the otherwise TOO GOOD reception. I have spoken to the LCO and asked him to check this - hoping that it will get addressed.
Other users of Hathway HD - please let me know if any of you have the freezing problem like mine.
Overall rating of the HD channels: 9/10 😀 It really is impressive!
*Jeash*
First I contacted the LCO and he stated that they will provision the HD connection, but I had to purchase the STB from the Hathway office in Halasuru. I spoke to these guys and they confirmed that they can sell me a STB if I pay them 6.2K in cash. I agreed and promised to come down the next day. The following day (today), I called them again and confirmed that I am coming to buy the STB and they said 'come over'. I reached the place (which looked like a shady basement of an apartment, with a backdoor entrance) and told the guy on the counter that I was there to buy the HD box. His reply was that they are out of stock and have no STB for sales at the moment. I told him that I called them barely 30 minutes back about this and was asked to come. The guy pretended to have nothing to do about it. But he was helpful enough to refer me to the Indiranagar office, where he said they currently have stock.
Once bitten, twice shy! I took the number of the Indiranagar office from him and promptly called them. The first question I asked them was if they have the stock of HD STB (I didnt want to drive over to their office and then be told they are out of stock). To my puzzlement, he flatly refused to answer and said that they dont sell STB to customers directly. And that my LCO has to procure the STB from them and complete the installation. When I told him the two different experiences I had from LCO & Hathway Halasuru office, he just said that he cant do much about it and he is just following the process he has been told to follow. I gave him a verbal bashing (the mild kind) which included the joys of the customer having to run from pillar to post to get a connection and having to hear a totally new process at every turn. He knew that I had a point and backed down on his stand. He asked me to come with 6.2K cash along with address proof and he will sell the STB. However, he also said that my LCO needs to contact his manager to confirm that I need this (ahem!)
By this stage, I was feeling like I was in a Govt office trying get some work done. I thanked the guy and called my LCO. His turn to hear the bashing (again, mild one - I have to continue to have my connection active afterall ). The LCO promised a call back after he checks this situation. I didn't have much hope. To my surprise, the LCO called me back promptly in 10 minutes and mentioned that he will get my STB procured and setup, just that I need to pay him 200 bucks extra. However, since they are out of stock at the moment, he wanted 3 - 4 days time to get this done. I was only too happy to agree - rather than burning petrol (at the price it sells today), I agreed to pay the 200 bucks and be done with it.
Now, the wait begins. I once again am not confident that the STB stock would come in 3 - 4 days (coincidentally, when I took the SD connection, I had to wait for more than a week as Hathway was out of stock of STB). But I am hoping I will be proved wrong and the STB comes quickly - and I can start enjoying the HD.
Update on 17th Sept: Weekend arrived, but no HD yet. Frustrated, I called my LCO and he says that he didnt do anything since I promised to get the set top box myself. I had to take him through my entire struggle once again and tell him that his office had promised delivery/setup in 3 days. He said he will check and call back. In the interim, I called the Indiranagar office again (got the same guy who I spoke/bashed the other day) and told them situation. He asked me to get the LCO to call him - I relayed this back to the LCO. LCO called back in about 30 mins. He asked me to submit an Address proof and Rs. 6400 in his office and that he will get the connection done by evening. So I parted with these two and started counting down the time to evening.
At around 7 PM, the LCO called and informed that he had been in the Indiranagar office for the past 3 hours, but due to some server issue they are unable to activate my STB/Smart card. They promised that they would do it the next day. However, since the next day was a Sunday, I wasnt so confident and told them the same. However, they promised to do it by morning and even gave me a contact number whom I can chase for status. The next morning, no one arrived as promised and so I called the guy whose number was given. He was totally clueless and told me that he didnt even belong to the HD dept, but worked for the Internet side of Hathway. Here we go again!
Finally, at around 1 PM afternoon, the LCO came in with the STB and set it up. He spoke to some one in Hathway and had them enable the STB/Smartcard and - THERE - the HD channels on my new TV 😀
Once the LCO had gone, I sat back and started reviewing the channels! Like some one else told me - the wait was worth it! No doubt. The HD channels were awesome, especially Star Cricket, ESPN, Ten HD and Star Movies. The others were good too, but I found these to be the best.
However, I have a small niggle - every 10 mins or so, the picture freezes for a few seconds (2 - 3 secs max) and then resumes. This is not too bothersome, but still a blip in the otherwise TOO GOOD reception. I have spoken to the LCO and asked him to check this - hoping that it will get addressed.
Other users of Hathway HD - please let me know if any of you have the freezing problem like mine.
Overall rating of the HD channels: 9/10 😀 It really is impressive!
*Jeash*
