I am not sure if this qualifies as a “funny” story, but it sure does make it up to annoying.

I am in Canada. We have two sat-tv companies, Starchoice and Expressvu. When I first went to a Canadian system (I use to grey market a US provider), I used Starchoice. They were not bad, but the set top boxes were slow to open new channels, which made channel surfing impossible. When the set top box took a powder and they tried to charge me for a replacement, I jumped ship and went with Bell Expressvu.

Everything with expressvu has been reasonable but not great. The packages are a little wonky, the reception at times is a little wierd, and my outside disk has all the paint peeling off of it. Not a really big deal, because I guess I will be heading to HD pretty soon anway, so no big deal, right? That is what I thought.

I have been watching the ads closely. The price of the HD receiver finally dropped down under $300, and the price of good HD TVs is coming down fast too. I can see myself probably going to HD pretty darn soon. I figured, heck, I could just get the receiver now (with the new dish) and buy the TV when I get a chance, no big deal. I am a big customer, I have pretty much every channel you can get without going to the premium foreign channels and stuff. I figured I would give them a call, I was sure that there would be some sort of deal for a semi-loyal client who is paying them premium money.

Wrong-o Bongo.

It turns out that existing customers get NOTHING extra. Not a thing. Nada. Actually, new clients get more (10 free months of the HD channels) and existing customers get it in the ass. Nothing, nada, no nothing for paying $300 to move up.

Anyway, Expressvu, you are on notice. I am calling the cable company to check out their digital offerings next week, and you may be OUT THE DOOR.

Suckers!