RDR-HXD870 and 890 Ranges Stuck in Update and Not Working

[sheneker]

This is caused by a defective Freeview channel update and is NOT your equipment being faulty.

This happened a few years ago, but more recently in June 2023 and again after the 23/8/2023 Freeview channel update, just before the August Bank Holiday.

After the June event, I phoned Freeview, who admitted there had been a problem with their update, affecting the domestic equipment of many users, including Sony users.

After the 23/8/2023 update, I phoned them again and they admitted that this occasion had been even worse, affecting even more manufacturers' kit and therefore many more users than just Sony.  That took the whole August Bank Holiday weekend for Freeview to put right.

I asked them what Quality Standards they used and what was the back-out procedure, should anything go wrong just before a Bank Holiday, with lots of sporting events, etc. to watch on TV.  They haven't answered that yet.

On Tuesday (after the Bank Holiday) I phoned Ofcom, who didn't want to know about it - seemingly too much bother, saying that if I had been calling about a TV programme's content, they might have been interested, but this sort of thing isn't their responsibility. 

I asked: "So you're not interested in a Freeview national TV channel update clobbering many people's TV equipment, so they can't watch TV over the Bank Holiday weekend"?  "No, not our responsibility".

They told me to contact the Citizens Advice Consumer Helpline, which I did.

Citizens Advice Consumer Helpline were just as unhelpful.  The young lady didn't appear to have a clue, didn't want to know, as Freeview is a free service, so nothing to do with them.

They suggested I contact the TV Licencing Authority !!

Freeview didn't make any announcement that they had messed-up their channel update, so their customers shouldn't worry that their home equipment was broken.  Some people may have gone out and bought new, in the belief that their home entertainment kit had gone 'POP'.

At the very least, most users affected are likely to have wasted a lot of time, wondering what was the matter and fruitlessly trying to retune their equipment.

Apparently there are at least 4 companies that may be involved (but I'm not sure of their relationship):

- Freeview

- DTT Multiplex Operators Ltd

- Everyone TV

- DTV Services Ltd

Does anyone know to whom Freeview is accountable?   They cannot keep broadcasting defective channel updates, which clobber people's TV systems.

[Mooly01]

Perhaps the national press and news channels?

The point to make is that less informed customers will be either paying for service calls (with no resolution as the equipment is not faulty) or simply replacing perfectly good equipment.

Whenever this has happened in the past the normal contacts are the manufacturer and Freeview. The BBC have carried this as a news item some years ago.

What I can't understand is that once an issue is flagged why can they not roll back the changes and investigate the issue internally.

Fwiw, Freeview have told me this time that they now understand the problem better and that hopefully it should not happen again. If it does then they said that should be contacted immediately.

[sheneker]

They only admitted to it, when confronted, otherwise they kept very quiet, presumably hoping not too many people would notice?

Trouble is, if you clobber the equipment of several manufacturers just before a Bank Holiday and don't put it right immediately, some people ARE going to notice, but after that, most of them didn't know what to do about it.

There has been a conspiracy of silence about this, which is unprofessional not acceptable.

With the NATS air traffic control muddle over the same weekend, too many people were affected to be able to keep it a secret

[royabrown2]

@sheneker 

I imagine Arqiva should be in there somewhere.

Apparently, Freeview are answerable to Digital UK, now rebranded as Everyone TV, and their ultimate shareholders are the big four of broadcasting, the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, and Channel 5. So send your complaint to each of them, explaining that the issue stops you watching any of their channels, and would they please have a quiet word with Freeview on your behalf?

It seems to be a loophole with Ofcom that this isn’t something they deal with, but then again, it isn’t something they don’t deal with, and it isn’t even the sort of thing they don’t deal with (IYSWIM), so they really ought to deal with it.

Maybe tell them it’s an Accessibility issue? That would press one of their hot buttons 😛

[sheneker]

Perhaps EVERYONE affected should notify them.  That way they might get the scale of this mess-up and the extent of customer disruption.