Am I the only one? Last summer I requested the coupon for the digital

[daninthemoon]

converter box for the upcoming hdtv switchover. I didn't use the coupons, or even open the envelope until recently, and found that the damn things had a very short expiration date which was long passed. I thought I had until February to use them. I requested an additional coupon, and was denied. Now if I want to watch network tv I have to pay full price or buy a new TV? WTF? Anyone else get stuck? here is te reply I got from the fed:

This email is in response to your appeal of the denial of your coupon application. We have reviewed the information you provided in your appeal and all applications submitted for your household. Your duplicate application remains denied because your household has already been approved for, or has already received two coupons.

If you have reapplied because your coupons have expired or you have not received your coupons, we are prohibited by law from replacing your coupons. While we understand that many situations may have caused your coupons to expire, we are prohibited, under all circumstances, from replacing coupons. Individuals who are seeking additional coupons beyond the maximum allowable per household may ask friends or family members at other households to request coupons they may not need themselves. While it is illegal to sell coupons, giving a coupon away for free is not prohibited under Program regulations.

[Veritas_et_Aequitas]

1. I haven't even gotten mine yet. nt

[Mojorabbit]

I never received mine either. nt

[Orrex]

2. Find a friend who's already digital-compatible

Then ask them to request a coupon. If it's made out in their name, then they can go shopping with you to buy your... I mean their new converter. If the coupon is not made out in your friend's name, then they can give you the coupon and you can go shopping by yourself.

[Skittles]

3. get a friend who doesn't need one to request one for you

[Orrex]

5. That's the most outstanding idea I've ever heard in my entire life!

Only a genius could have come up with a scheme like that!

[Skittles]

6. *snort*

:rofl:

[dysfunctional press]

7. that's what i did for my aunt- hers expired, and i wasn't even going to request them...

so i did request them, she got one and i got one.

[MrModerate]

4. If your TV is not capable of digital reception . . .

It almost certainly sucks. Your financial situation is clearly none of my damn business, but if you're going to watch a TV, I think you owe it to yourself to get a new one.

[NutmegYankee]

11. WTF?

[MrModerate]

20. Obsolesence? n/t

[DoctorMyEyes]

14. Steve Jobs, is that you!?!?

Always making me buy new Mac products cause you don't support the old ones even if they work just fine? Forcing me to send fine functional products I'm perfectly satisfied with to an early grave?

That is you isn't it?

[MrModerate]

18. Sometimes things become obsolete . . .

Even if Apple doesn't make them.

[robinlynne]

17. BULLSHIT. You like paying for able. That's your problem. Some of us do just fie with an antenna and

free tv. I think paying for televison, and still having to watch commercials is insanity.

[MrModerate]

19. Whereas I think watching commercials when, for a small investment . . .

You can skip them using a cable box/DVR, is masochism.

[backscatter712]

22. Well excuuuuuse me for being too poor to buy a TV that doesn't suck.

I suppose that's why I'm jumping through the hoops to buy a converter box. (haven't received my coupons yet...)

[MrModerate]

50. Errr . . . $250-300 for a 28" LCD at Good Guys?

Like I said to the OP, your financial situation is none of my business, but really . . .

[surrealAmerican]

32. "you owe it to yourself"? ...

... What kind of ad exec are you?

[MrModerate]

49. Look, the programming is bad enough . . .

You don't want to make it worse by looking at cruddy images. And besides, occasionally there are things you want to see well.

[DoctorMyEyes]

8. Why would they expire?

It sounds easy enough to get around - the "one per household" thing. They're even encouraging you to ask a friend to request a coupon. But, why would they expire in the first place?

[dysfunctional press]

10. probably so that they don't get 200 million people all trying to buy them in february 2009.

just a guess. :shrug:

[Tesha]

30. They are actually EBTs: Electronic Benefits Transfer cards

There was a fixed pool of money allocated for the program and
each card represents a commitment of money from the program.
Therefore, if you requested a card but never used it, the program
would have assumed $40 was committed that might, in fact, never
be expended. So they set a short expiration period to force you to
spend the $40 they committed to you or lose your place in line and
allow them to recommit "your" $40 to someone who would actually
use it.

'Pretty sensible, really.

Tesha

[Mind_your_head]

9. They're telling you that you can't watch the teevee anymore.....

which means you can spend even MORE time on the internet and reading good BOOKS. I would consider this a "gift in disguise". :-)

[BuyingThyme]

12. Tell them that you gave your coupons away and need new ones.

[tularetom]

13. The guy who lives next door to my son is an electronics geek

And he says that the industry is trying to eliminate free TV by making the service suck so bad people will have to subscribe to cable if they want any TV at all. He also says the digital service will be line-of-sight so that if you want decent reception there better not be any trees mountains or buildings between you and the transmitter.

I don't know enough to confirm or deny what he said. I report, you decide.

[AndyTiedye]

15. It's True

All the digital channels around here are on UHF, which is very line-of-sight.
What UHF comes in here (analog) is quite snowy.
With digital, you don't get a snowy picture. If it was snowy before, you get NO picture.
We're only 1/2 hour from San Francisco, but we're in a redwood forest, and have NO digital channels with a usable signal. Not one is even close.

[Horse with no Name]

26. That is true

I have the second level of cable-it's not digital.
I purchased one of those big flat screen TV's and have to say that my 1982 Curtis Mathes console using rabbit ears has a better picture than it has on cable.
Cable company told me in order to "take advantage of the capabilities of the television" I would need to upgrade to digital TV.
Sorry--not interested.:shrug:

[Fumesucker]

28. A high gain outside UHF antenna might help you ...

Something like this:

http://www.hdtvantennalabs.com/reviews/Winegard-HD9095P-reviews.html



It's also possible to stack multiple antennas for increased gain, two gives you 3 dB gain and four gives you 6 dB.

A mast mounted high quality RF amplifier can help also depending on the circumstances.

[surrealAmerican]

33. The signals are CURRENTLY on UHF because ...

... VHF is still transmitting in analog. After February, when stations are no longer required to broadcast in analog, most will switch their digital transmissions to the VHF band. Unfortunately this makes it almost impossible to tell now just which stations you will be able to receive next year.

[ipfilter]

34. Sorry, but your neighbor is full of crap.

I live 60 miles from my "local" stations and receive their digital broadcasts with my antenna just fine. My antenna is only 16 feet off the ground and I barely receive the analog signals but the ATSC digital channels are flawless. Of course every situation is different and reception will depend on a thousand different variables, but my distance to my local stations is on the fringe and my antenna set up is not at all optimal. I have DirecTV but I change to my antenna for primetime tv and football games because the HD picture quality is so much better off the air...from 60 miles out.

[robinlynne]

16. So ask a friend!!! I got mine and did it immediately because the expiration was written

90 days. They always send two, so anyone you know who has one can can give you the other. Mine expired and I couldn't' find anyone who needed it.

[Dangerously Amused]

21. Tell them you never got the coupons in the first place.

Yeah, I know the letter says "If you have reapplied because ... you have not received your coupons, we are prohibited by law from replacing your coupons," BUT... the burden is going to be on them to prove that they sent the coupons to you. Maybe tell them that you are willing to take them to small claims court over it, it probably won't be worth their while to fight it.

[dysfunctional press]

36. that doesn't work.

sorry.

[Waiting For Everyman]

23. The cost of basic cable should be WAY lower too. Like $5/mo or something.

Low enough for almost anyone to afford. (I agree, paying for cable and still having commercials is nuts.) We used to get a decent picture on free TV. But since unaided reception has been made lousy now, the price of just getting that should be next to nothing. If we don't want the extra programming, why should we have to pay for it in a pre-set package? I think we should be able to choose which additional channels we want, if any.

I hope Obama changes that, and makes digital access available everywhere at a low cost.

Now pushing people to replace TVs (or go through all this hoop-jumping for the extra box). I don't get it - we're not supposed to do all this "wasteful consumer spending" but then we're almost pushed into replacing things that are allowed to be rendered obsolete. WTF? :shrug:

[silverojo]

24. How did you get "stuck", when you failed to read the coupon?

And failed to redeem it in a timely manner? It's not the government's fault that you let the coupon expire....

[dweller]

25. as he stated in his OP

he didn't open the envelope until he was ready to use them, and they had already expired.
I failed to learn about the expiration also, when i applied for mine, i don't remember it being stated in the form. (It is now) So mine expired too. I had my daughter and my dad apply for more.

As each card is barcoded and #'d , they should be easily be replaced with the old #'s no longer valid. And they should be able to tell that the cards had not been used, so yeah, i think it IS the gov't's fault for running such a LOUSY program.

First they are telling us that someone has now a 'new' technology that is so wonderful, that you MUST have it, and to make sure you do have it, they will make the 'old' technology obsolete.
Can you name any other technology the Gov't has demanded the same?


dp

[dysfunctional press]

38. if they didn't have expiration dates, there'd be 200 million people trying to buy them in feb 2009..

this IS america after all...

[EFerrari]

42. My mom says Americans do everything at the same time like ants.

:)

[EFerrari]

41. And usually time sensitive material is marked on the OUTSIDE of the envelope.

It is a lousy program.

[Fumesucker]

27. Using someone else's coupon is no problem..

I gave one of my two to my brother and he used it to buy a box no problem, we only have one TV and didn't need two boxes.

I applied for my coupons online and it was made quite clear that there was a 90 day window to use them.

Maybe some DU member has an extra coupon they can send you.

[MadinMo]

29. Yep, the very same thing happened to me.

I opened the envelope with about 2 days left before expiration and didn't manage to get to a store in time.

Fortunately I had a $50 mall gift card from last Christmas and used it at the Radio Shack at the mall to get one box. We still need to get one more. Hopefully after February the prices will go down.

[uppityperson]

31. me too. Putting that expiration date on it was a bad idea.

[dysfunctional press]

39. without the expiration date- evryone would try to buy them in february 2009...

and it would have been a total madhouse everywhere.

the expiration date was/is a good idea if you think about how many procrastinators there are in this country.

[daninthemoon]

43. i have no use for the box until February, so why would I buy it now?

Maybe my tv will break before then and i'll have to get a new set and won't need the coupon at all. if i tell them i did not receive them, they should be able to determine if the coupons were used. if it doesn't matter if people give them away, why does it matter if i get another one? so what if alot of people wait until Feb? last guy in line has t owait, big deal. that is no reason not to send me a replacement coupon. if I didn't live in tornado alley, maybe i could do without local tv, but it is a pretty serious matter when the weather turns bad. i think this is all about co-erced consumerism.

[dysfunctional press]

44. exactly my point. thank-you.

:hi:

[uppityperson]

45. I got a coupon way back when it first came out, but didn't know if I'd

need it now. The old tv has hung in there, so I would. But it might not of. I wish I'd been aware of there being a short time limit on the coupons.

[dysfunctional press]

46. when i bought it whith the coupon, the box was only $10...

even though i have digital tv's and satellite- i bought one anyway, in case i want to use an older tv in the kitchen or garage at some point.

[uppityperson]

47. throw in shipping and I'll buy it for $5!

I prepared but didn't buy.

[bikebloke]

35. After ordering my coupon...

I read that the price of converter boxes was going to drop. So I decided to wait and see. I only use the telly for watching DVD's anyway. Once and a while when connecting the DVD player, I'll flip through channels to see that I'm not missing anything.

[rucky]

37. You're among the first of many to get screwed by this.

[kimmylavin]

40. I could get you a coupon.

PM me, if you still need one, and we can figure out getting it to you. :hi:

[Gidney N Cloyd]

48. I did the same thing. Ordered before the rush then let them sit too long.