TV converter box windfall

[James Jaragosky]

I tell my wife we have cable; we don't need the converter boxes.

Despite my assurances that we will be fine, she orders the converter box coupons from the government.

To add insult to injury, when she gets the coupons she heads right to CVS and buys two converter boxes for $48 and some change, with her coupons making up the difference
.
Well the big signal change had come and gone with no disrupted service at our home. We never even opened the boxes let alone install the converters.
Every so Smugly I suggest that we return the converters and get our 48 bucks back.

My gloating is going fine until CVS refunds my wife the $48 out of pock cash and then hands her an $80 gift card for in store credit.
It would appear that CVS cannot refund the government it's $80; and it cannot keep the money, so they are refunding it in the form of gift cards.
Go figure
So I just shook my head and waited in the car, while my wife gloated and shopped.

[Mike Henderson]

Wow, I wonder how well known that was. And how many coupons were ordered for that.

Mike

[Mark Norman]

More stimulus money..

Our govenment at its finest.

[Mike Henderson]

More stimulus money..

Our govenment at its finest.
Rather than blame the government, perhaps you should look to the people exploiting the rules. The government was actually trying to help people through this conversion - so in that regard, it is "our government at its finest". They also spent a LOT of money trying to educate people about the conversion. It's hard to think of what more they could have done - you'd have to be living in a cave not to know about the conversion. And it was pretty successful. When the conversion finally happened, there were no serious problems.

And this has nothing to do with stimulus money. The coupons were put in place long ago, long before this financial meltdown. The conversion day has been delayed a number of times, and many years.

Mike

[David G Baker]

I also have cable but I am moody when it comes to the feeling that I am being ripped off by the cable company so I bought one of the boxes in case I am in a bad mood the next time the cable company jacks up the cost.
I already have an antenna in my basement waiting for that day.

[Dave Verstraete]

James
Maybe there will be a spot on the 1040 form to give this back to the Fed....I'm sure that I would....NOT

[Garrett Nors]

They also spent a LOT of money trying to educate people about the conversion. It's hard to think of what more they could have done - you'd have to be living in a cave not to know about the conversion.

Unfortunately some 800,000+ people were in their caves for these announcements:

http://www.dailypress.com/business/sns-ap-us-digital-tv-transition,0,863965.story (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31343385...h_and_gadgets/)

[Leo Voisine]

What's all this about conversion?

Did somebody get converted?

HeHe - just kidding.

Actually David - I like your approach

[Dan Friedrichs]

More stimulus money..

Our govenment at its finest.


Also, the money for the coupon program was largely (if not entirely) provided by the FCC's spectrum auction of the frequencies vacated by analog TV broadcasts. It didn't cost the government anything (net).

[Greg Peterson]

Garrett - link doesn't work and the address is bad too.

It is beyond me how anyone could have been caught off guard by the conversion. These folks have to had dropped out of society or be otherwise ill informed on current events. It boggles the mind. And I wouldn't be surprised if these ill informed individuals would likely be the loudest critics of the program.

Dan - You are correct about the funding for the converters. Do we know who bought the frequencies and how much revenue it generated? Is it a one time fee they pay for the frequency or is it license fee with recurring renewal fee's?

[Mark Norman]

Lest the thread get whacked..

[Matt Meiser]

Also, the money for the coupon program was largely (if not entirely) provided by the FCC's spectrum auction of the frequencies vacated by analog TV broadcasts. It didn't cost the government anything (net).

I didn't know that. That's actually pretty cool. Hard to believe government came up with the idea.

[Dan Friedrichs]

Dan - You are correct about the funding for the converters. Do we know who bought the frequencies and how much revenue it generated? Is it a one time fee they pay for the frequency or is it license fee with recurring renewal fee's?

Verizon bought a significant chunk of it for around $5B. Not sure how long they "own" it for, though...

It's not too surprising the government came up with the idea to fund the transition from that revenue - the FCC auctions off spectrum all the time.

I think the local TV stations got the short straw, though - I think they had to spend quite a bit on new digital transmitters and antennas.

[Lee Schierer]

Every so Smugly I suggest that we return the converters and get our 48 bucks back.

My gloating is going fine until CVS refunds my wife the $48 out of pock cash and then hands her an $80 gift card for in store credit.
It would appear that CVS cannot refund the government it's $80; and it cannot keep the money, so they are refunding it in the form of gift cards.
Go figure
So I just shook my head and waited in the car, while my wife gloated and shopped.

Be glad you didn't buy them at Best Buy. They refund your out of pocket money but keep the government coupon value. We ordered two coupons bought two boxes in February, then in March Direct TV helped us upgrade to a DVR and they also had a companion box for "off air reception" which would integrate with the DVR and allow us to record programs from the local channels. We decided to return the unopened converter box to Best Buy, where they cheerfully refunded our out of pocket and kept the coupon value.

[David G Baker]

Lee,
Guess you didn't read the thread I started a while back. When dealing with them expect less.

[Eric DeSilva]

I didn't know that. That's actually pretty cool. Hard to believe government came up with the idea.

That's like saying selling something you own is free money. It did cost the government, because if that money wasn't used for the converter box program, it would have gone to the US Treasury for general appropriations, just the like other billions of dollars raised through other spectrum auctions.

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

Seems to me a man could make himself a good living that way.

If any one asks you what you do just tell 'em you're in politics.