Digital TV Coupon Program Under Way Again

An anonymous reader writes with this excerpt from CNet: "Federal regulators said Thursday they are going into 'search and rescue' mode to help the millions of consumers unprepared for the phased transition to digital television, which culminates with the June 12 transition deadline. The millions of consumers waiting for coupons for digital converter box coupons will finally receive them within the next two and a half weeks, thanks to emergency funding for the coupon program provided in the stimulus package, said Bernadette McGuire-Rivera, an administrator for the National Telecommunications and Information Administration. The NTIA is also ratcheting up its outreach to consumers most likely to be unprepared for the transition... FCC commissioners said their agency is also intensifying its outreach, but they acknowledged that while one third of television stations have already dropped their analog signals, the hardest part is yet to come." We previously discussed the DTV coupon program when it ran out of money in January. The $650 million from the stimulus packages adds to the $1.3 billion that's already been spent.

People who already bought a converter

[Skapare]

So what happens with people that ended up paying full price for a converter because the coupons stopped flowing and 1/3 of the transition (which in many places was nearly a full transition) already happened? Can they just get $40 back with the coupon and their original paid-full-price receipt? Even if they got their full price converter at Circuit City?

Is it spent yet?

[pavon]

That $1.3 billion is the amount that has been allocated to be spent. Last I read, less than half of that had actually been spent and the rest was tied up in coupons that had been requested but had neither been used, nor expired yet.

hurry it up, dude

[cashman73]

So, let's just get the effing show on the effing road, dudes,... I bought my DTV converter, with coupons, over a year ago, and still get a crappy signal because 5% of the numb-nuts put it off until the last minute,... So all the DTV stations around here only broadcast signals at 25% power. So hurry the frak up so the rest of us get a decent DTV signal!

Yes

[localroger]

At first I wasn't going to get a converter, because I am allergic to paying money for the privilege of watching commercials. But this is one of the reasons I relented.

I have to say I am surprised at the result. Even 60 miles from the transmitters with a modest antenna that gave me a very snowy signal on analog, I have twice as many channels and they are razor sharp. There have been a few transient artifacts but not the hopeless pile of random polygons I feared because of my marginal signal strength. I was very afraid the damn thing wouldn't work at all out here and I'd be stuck for the difference between the true cost and the coupon.

Re:hurry it up, dude

[The Grim Reefer2]

Applied for my coupon the very first day they were available. Didn't get it until almost exactly a year ago.

"Sorry, we have no converters in stock yet"

Tried again. And again. And then again. Apparently, they'd arrive during the day, and be cleared out before I got off work every fucking time.

"No, sorry, you can't reserve one, sir."

Day before they expired in June 2008, I'm going place to place, trying to get one. Still none to be had.

So now, I've been waiting nine months for them to let me reapply. And the numbnuts in Congress waited to the last minute before the conversion to go, "Oh, yeah, those of you screwed by slow processing and then a lack of availability, maybe you should get a second chance, because our asinine expiration date fucked you out of 'em."

I keep seeing stories about this "shortage" and I think the problem is more with how the converters were distributed than a real shortage. The Circuit City where I live priced them at 70% off last weekend and they still had a mountain of them piled up on the floor. I would estimate there were 500+ stacked on the floor by the entrance, and still more on the shelves. I've been to several other cities in the US in the last couple of weeks and have seen them on store shelves also.

Re:Doing the math

[vdammer]

I live in the midwest, where in the spring and summer I can feel by the humidity, air pressure and temperature if a tornado is on the way. I certainly don't need the idiots at the local weather station telling me where a funnel cloud might be. And in the event that my senses aren't enough, the mechanical voice of the national weather service over a radio is the only other thing I need.

Weather warnings on tv are annoying time vampires that interrupt the show I'm trying to watch.