Sunday, October 10, 2010

Orbit Showtime Network (OSN) is PISSING ME OFF

I can understand why OSN is spending probably millions of dollars giving out new receivers and dishes and subcontracting out satellite technicians.  They want people to stop stealing their signal.  In a few months, their technology will be outdated and people will start stealing their signals again.  In the meantime, you can't watch OSN until  you get the F-ing receiver and the F-ing dish.

I have had OSN technicians come to my house 2 times now.  They're here now.  They've been here for 3 hours - trying to figure out the system of my building.

WHY DOES EVERYTHING IN KUWAIT HAVE TO BE SO DIFFICULT????

They first told me that I would need a new dish.  Fine.  Bring the F-ing dish.  They brought it today.  Now, they are telling me that they can't configure their system to the system of the house because they can't figure out what goes where.

"Call the technician who installed the system"
I call my landlady.  She says she will call their guy.  ETA?  No idea. (as usual - it's Kuwait).

OSN dudes, "When the other technician comes, call us.  We'll come back."
oooooooh, I have lived in Kuwait long enough to know that game - really well.  I don't think so.  Fix it NOW.

So, I tell them to drop a cable from the top of the building (I give up).  If the land lady wants to change it, she can change it when her guy finally shows up - sometime around Christmas or maybe New Years (whichever is more inconvenient for me, I'm sure.)  She's going to be totally pissed off when she sees it.  Good.

I've been here for 2 years and I still can't even get a land line in my apartment.  Apparently, the house isn't registered with the place that issues civil IDs or some bullshit like that.  RRRRRRRRRRRRRR.  If I could get a land line, I could get DSL.  If I could get DSL, I wouldn't f-ing bother with OSN at all because they PISS ME OFF.

Oh, I told them to drill a hole through the window.  Now they are breaking the window frame instead.  What a bunch of A-holes!

So, they start to walk out with the new receiver and I DON'T HAVE ANY TV.  I don't think so.  'Put it back.'  I'm not going to be without television.  Dudes - you are supposed to FIX IT not appear and destroy.

October 13, 2010 OSN Saga Update

So last night, the nice Lebanese Satellite Dude (LSD) from the building owner's side came and looked at my set-up (TV/sat).  It was the ONLY time my Kuwaiti landlady has ever visited me inside the apartment in 2 years and wouldn't ya know it - The Man is sitting on the sofa in serwal (them thar long underwear pants that them thar Kuwaitis wear) and my big USA t-shirt.  Nice sat dude  looked at The Man and said (Arabic), "I'm sure I know you from somewhere.  I'm sure a police station...."  tee hee.  He didn't elaborate.  LSD went upstairs, wiggled a wire, and shazayam - TV again.  Then, he said, "Tell them disec 2 and Nilesat."   (Would someone please explain a "disec" to me.  WTF is that??)

So, OSN dudes came back this morning (3 days later) with the receiver under their arm, I told them 'disec 2 and Nilesat' and I got, "OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH!  Disec 2"  (whateverthefuck that means!).  Looked like their internal lightbulbs had switched on (albeit a 25 watter).   and shasayam - New OSN decoder works.

Nobody had to break a window.  Nobody had to throw a cable 5 floors from the roof.  Nobody died.

They were walking out the door with MY Humax decoder (which I bought in Hawalli), thinking that I wouldn't notice.  'Excuse me - not so fast...' and grabbed it back. They feigned innocence - as IF.    If its not an OSN receiver that you got from OSN, you don't give it to them.  They'll take it somewhere and sell it to the next guy.  I don't think so.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

i have the same DSL problem in my new house since there is an 8 month waiting list to get a land line in Salwa. Instead I got a VIVA router. KD 18 a month and so much faster than the DSL i had in my old pad! highly recommended!

Regarding OSN - fucking monkeys dudette :)

Q8travelbud said...

I feel ya .. well probably after Orbit and showtime merged there's not big competition anymore so u kinda stuck with OSN .. otherwise you can alwas throw the " I will switch to Orbit if you don't fix it" line :)

G'luck!

Anonymous said...

I had the same problem. O think that the lazy bastards just use central system as an excuse to get out of work. I had the haris lock the gate so they couldn't leave, got OSN Dubai on the phone (whoe were very helpful) but I still had to show those dipshits how to find the cable.

Desert Girl said...

I still have no satellite. 2 days later. Fekit!

Anonymous said...

Look - local TV of any variety SUCKS - big hairy ones. If you like TV I suggest you follow the steps below - I have done so and it has made life in the dirt so much nicer.
1. Go home for a bit - US home.
2. Buy yourself a Tivo from Amazon (sub $400 with all the bells and whistles +$300 for lifetime service)
3. Buy yourself a Slingbox from Amazon (sub $300 and no service fees)
4. Pay for an extra cable box at your parents/siblings/good friend's house (upwards of $200/mo for every movie, sports, etc channel imaginable or like $700/yr for your everyday average cable which will kick Orbit/Showtime's ass any day of the week)
5. Hook cable box into Tivo, hook Tivo into Slingbox, hook internet into Slingbox.
6. Watch time and location shifted US TV anywhere in the world you can get even a 1MB/s internet connection - on your phone, your computer, your TV (you have to buy a $50 box to do that or hook your computer to it).

So to recap, about 300KD in hardware costs, and 200KD/yr in paying for a cable box back home gets you real TV anywhere, anytime. I've had this set up for quite a while now and it ROCKS!

Anonymous said...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DiSEqC


Not that it helps - but that's what Disec is...you should have options A,B,C,D...apparently yours is best on C?

Heema said...

I think this is the right place to say FU OSN, I had their service since 2002, just disconnected the service and they didn't collect their shitty receiver! baseball bat/gas/matches and I will celebrate 2011 with it burning (buuuuuuuuurn buuuuuuurn nyihahahahaaa) :/

Anonymous said...

You know I have called several times to check that when wrestle mania is on and what time, they told me at 4am Saudi local time, I told them then how come it is there on my tv that it will be aired on at 2am Saudi local the guy on the other end said. That if it is 2am nobody will be coming there to work. So I called again this time they said it will be aired on Monday at 3am Saudi local time so I don't know who will I believe, and another thing b4 they do anything they never send us a message saying that they will update something or change channels or whatever, they r very very lazy and they don't want to work

Anonymous said...

An answer to all your questions and doubts http://osn.boards.net/

Unknown said...

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