PiTV signal gone ?

[stevesc]

Anyone watch Pitv ? Lost signal on Saturday evening, not recovered yet as of Sunday evening. Company isn't answering phone calls.

[be236]

What is PiTV? Is that a subscription service like Dish/DTV? Do they have a website you can go to for customer service, etc?

[stevesc]

Welcome to £TV


Their program include 2 SlylinkTv channels. about 5 China channels. one news channel and some minor variety channels. Their web page has not updated in years and their contact email doesn't exist last couple years.
Now the signal's gone, no phone, no email, no nothing. Good thing my contract is up this month. My neighbor just paid a 2 year subscription.

[be236]

Hmm.. their website was flooded this morning,but now it looks back up and running... What happens when you call their 800/866 number? Do you get a live person?

Do you think this PiTV went bust, but their website still remains up for a little longer?

Maybe they couldnt compete with Dish's various Chinese channels... I am just guessing.. that's ashame if they went belly-up, though.

[kilosat]

Looks like they're out of money due to fraud.

http://www.paulhastings.com/tmpdocs/...c_ID=41640.pdf

STUB SATertainment USA is the company I've been going through for billing and what have you, and according to my research, their bank accounts are frozen.

So now, we all have to get together and demand some money.

If you go here:
http://www.sccomplex.org/home/index.htm

You can search for PerdiWave or New World TMT, and get a look at the cases, but here's a PDF if you prefer (attached).

[stevesc]

Looks like 曲建平 and Prediwave is out of business. Property auctions off by bankruptcy court May 16,2007. But according to one article 香港新世界發展 invested in 9 companies headed by 曲建平. As Pitv may still be a viable company, 新世界發展 maybe the new owner of Pitv and will want to keep it alive.

Pitv's phones are now playing recorded message. "Emergy repair of the satellite in progress."

My parent like to watch the 2 politicle talk shows on Skylink, their Korean drama programing is good also. Pitv used to carry Sissy Chen's talk show but no longer. Where can I get Sissy Chen's talk show now? I need recommendation what service to get if Pitv is indeed Kaputt.t...

[be236]

Originally Posted by stevesc

Looks like 曲建平 and Prediwave is out of business. Property auctions off by bankruptcy court May 16,2007. But according to one article 香港新世界發展 invested in 9 companies headed by 曲建平. As Pitv may still be a viable company, 新世界發展 maybe the new owner of Pitv and will want to keep it alive.

Pitv's phones are now playing recorded message. "Emergy repair of the satellite in progress."

My parent like to watch the 2 politicle talk shows on Skylink, their Korean drama programing is good also. Pitv used to carry Sissy Chen's talk show but no longer. Where can I get Sissy Chen's talk show now? I need recommendation what service to get if Pitv is indeed Kaputt.t...

Dish Net has a Great Wall package with many Chinese channels... I think it's around $30 a month.. not sure how to compared with PiTV's offering or pricing... Go to Dish's website and check it out...

[be236]

Originally Posted by kilosat

Looks like they're out of money due to fraud.

http://www.paulhastings.com/tmpdocs/...c_ID=41640.pdf

STUB SATertainment USA is the company I've been going through for billing and what have you, and according to my research, their bank accounts are frozen.

So now, we all have to get together and demand some money.

If you go here:
Santa Clara County Superior Court Complex Litigation

You can search for PerdiWave or New World TMT, and get a look at the cases, but here's a PDF if you prefer (attached).

Wow.. good info... this case started in 2004, and it's just now recently in the last few days that satellite service got shutdown? Just incredible? What was really the problem to run out of business? Did they not have enough customers? Charged too low a monthly-fee? etc??

[kilosat]

Basically, Prediwave was purchased by a big company. And the big company had lots of money.

Prediwave said it was going to develop a technology for interactive satellite TV. And so Big Company invested heavily.

Prediwave told Big Company that it needed to buy a special memory chip from another company called WOW. Big Company was ok with this, believing that the chip was being purchased for a regular market price.

What really happened is the owner of Prediwave set up an account with HSBC under his brother and mom's name, for WOW. And WOW purchased the memory chips, marked the price up 20-fold, and sold them back to Prediwave. In effect, money was laundered within Prediwave, away from Big Company.

When Big Company began investigating Prediwave's spending, they found this and more, and the rest is history. Prediwave's spending accounts have been frozen, and the company's property has been auctioned off.

That's all I know so far, and there may be inaccuracies, but I think it's about right.

Oh, and Prediwave made big big payments to S.T.U.B SATertainment. I think they're basically the same company, which is why our feed is gone. Hopefully someone else will see this as a potential business and go for it.

[kilosat]

As of this morning,

http://www.pitvusa.com/

is not responding. Their mail server continues to function.

[be236]

Originally Posted by kilosat

As of this morning,

http://www.pitvusa.com/

is not responding. Their mail server continues to function.

Yikes.. that's definitely a bad sign... I feel sorry for the employees at PiTV.. There were probably laid off w/o much notice... Also, feel sorry for the customers that paid in advance for this service.. wonder if they get to keep their dishes and receivers and what they can do with 'em? I would guess they can use their dish for FTA watching (just need to get new FTA receiver?)...

Also, wonder if the guy monitoring this TP on Lyngsat has updated his entry yet... Seems there's no way to contact the person.. just have their short name listed on Lyngsat only...

[stevesc]

Lyngsat no longer showing Pitv on the chart, 2 days after I email them the bad news.

Pitv employee ? They were never good for nothing. TV schedules messed up. Serial dramas not played in sequence. Lost signals,lost sound, poor no communications. The programing was good though with Skylink TV and until 3 month ago CTI news and variety shows.

[mluu510]

i am a pitv customer. what do i do now? what's pitv's phone number? i want my remaining money back. thanks.

[su123]

I am a pitv customer too. There is no signal here either. I tried to call but only got a message for the last week. Where can we go to file a compliant about this, and to get our money back?

[kilosat]

The best solution is for us to all pony up and hire a lawyer to get our money back. But that's expensive.

So for now, we should probably contact the Ontario California Chamber of Commerce about what has happened.

When you contact these guys, be sure to state that you had a contract for one or two years of service, and that you have already paid in full. And that now, the company is disappearing, and you are seeking a refund for the remaining time of service. Or something to that effect.

I'm not a lawyer.

Here's the Ontario California Chamber of Commerce web site:
http://www.ontario.org/

If anyone has better ideas, post here! I'd be happy just to have the service back, personally.

[be236]

How is PiTV much different than Dish's "Great Wall Package" of about 20 or so channels? Is it just that PiTV was cheap (like $15/month) vs Dish's $35/month cost?

[stevesc]

Pitv was great that it has 2 SkylinkTV,CTI(until month ago), a number of talk shows representing 2 opposing camps in Taiwan. A number of variety shows, serial dramas and of course those free CCTV, MacTV, buddha channels. Its very good if you came from Taiwan.

The Great Wall has no attraction to anyone not from mainland. All those provincial channels just duplicate CCTV programs most of the time, the rest... provincial news,singing,dancing shows are of no interest to non-mainlanders. Don't get me wrong, I love CCTV, watch the travel, national treasure, archeology,anthoprology ,history programs every day.

What I want now is CTI and Phoenix , better if I don't have to pay DirectTV's $10 basic English programming. Skylink is only available on Dish which require you to subscribe to English,then Chinese packages raising total cost over $55 . Bad deal. Maybe Skylink could find an alternate reseller ?

[be236]

Hmmm.. I think Great Wall has two Skylink channels and CTI.. and I think even half their channels are Taiwan-based like those various ETTV channels, and a few are HK-based (Guangdong hua)... Yeah,I guess Dish Package/Great Wall can be a little expensive...

Looking at their channel list, it looks great...

If you look at the FTA channels beamed into "zhong guo" itself, there are so many... too bad those can't get re-broadcasted by some provider back to USA.. The cost to re-beam 'em could be the reason why they can't be free.. darn!

[su123]

Originally Posted by be236

Yikes.. that's definitely a bad sign... I feel sorry for the employees at PiTV.. There were probably laid off w/o much notice... Also, feel sorry for the customers that paid in advance for this service.. wonder if they get to keep their dishes and receivers and what they can do with 'em? I would guess they can use their dish for FTA watching (just need to get new FTA receiver?)...

Also, wonder if the guy monitoring this TP on Lyngsat has updated his entry yet... Seems there's no way to contact the person.. just have their short name listed on Lyngsat only...

Does anyone know how to convert the Dish from Pi TV for FTA watching? Is there chinese program as well? What equipment do I need and how to set it up? How is the quality of the picture? Help, I am going crazy with out my TV.

[kilosat]

If you're as ticked off as I am, feel free to email the lawyer handling the bankruptcy.

His name is John Fiero, and he represents a committee comprised of the creditors of Prediwave.

Because we are owed money for the services we have already paid for (assuming you pre-paid as we did), we are creditors, and Mr. Fiero is supposed to represent us to the court, and get our money back.

Understand that he can't do this overnight, but he does need to be aware.

John Fiero's email address is JFiero@pszyjw.com. That's JFiero at pszyjw dot com, incase the email address is filtered.

I encourage everyone who has lost service with any provider related to Prediwave or S.T.U.B. SATertainment USA or Pi TV to email Mr. Fiero at once and explain the situation to him.

Thanks!

PS: Here is the website about the current case: Information Website for Unsecured Creditors in PrediWave Corporation Chapter 11 Case

[madre]

請到商業改進局投訴 如下

https://odr.bbb.org/odrweb/public/GetStarted.aspx

通知大家加入申訴行列, 才有机会得到拿錢回來.

轉載於世界日報 06/23/2007

¥@¬É¤é³ø¢w¢w¬¥§üÁF·s»D

商家惡性倒閉 討錢有方法
向消費者事務局投訴 投訴人愈多 錢拿回來機會愈高

【本報記者林芷妘洛杉磯報導】近期許多惡性倒閉公司團體，欺騙消費者預繳月費等手
段，事後卻關門大吉、人去樓空。消費者可透過洛杉磯縣消費者事務局（LA County
Department of Consumer Affairs)或商業改進局（Better Business Bu-reau）
等管道投訴，只要投訴人數愈多，案件會愈快進行處理，運氣好，被騙的錢還可拿回來。

許多民眾、包括拉斯維加斯的華人紛紛向本報投訴衛星電視「派TV」不明原因中斷訊號
多日，服務專線也無人接聽；同時間內，在亞凱迪亞市也有一跆拳道館假藉停課兩週名
義，無預警下人去樓空。許多華人受騙卻不知如何應對。

「消費者行動」代表張毓潔也指出，近期有許多民眾抱怨手機行以各種方式欺騙消費者
預繳費用等，但事後卻惡性倒閉，不但錢要不回來，連手機都無法使用。

張毓潔表示，由於惡性倒閉案件層出不窮，民眾應隨時提高警覺，付費或簽約前先透過
「商業改進局」網站（www.bbb.com）查詢公司資訊和信用；另外，英文不好的民眾在簽約前需請通英文的親友幫忙查看合約 內容。

洛杉磯消費者事務局主任賀羅那（Pastor Herrera Jr.）指出，許多詐騙案或惡性倒閉
案件多源自不肖廠商，利用新移民不懂英文，以英文且繁雜合約欺騙消費者。他指出，
實際上，華人消費者有權要求簽約廠商以「中文」書寫合約，此外，簽名前請懂法律的
朋友、社會法律服務機構或消費者事務局，事先確定合約內容。

賀羅那表示，消費者若遇廠商惡性倒閉而損失金錢，可透過電話（800-593-8222）、
電子郵件或到洛杉磯消費者事務局辦公室洽詢，並在網（consumer-affairs.co.la.ca.
us）上下載「抱怨表格」（Complaint Form）。

他強調，抱怨表格只能用英文填寫，若華人消費者不懂英文，可透過專線請中文專員協
助，或請親友幫忙。此外，同一抱怨事件，愈多抱怨信件對調查事件有正面幫助。

張毓潔指出，在「消費者行動」網站（www.consumer-action.org）也有投訴書表格，可透過熱線213-624-8327向專人請教書寫方式。

由於洛杉磯消費者事務局只處理縣內居民抱怨事件，因此，戶籍不在洛杉磯縣的消費者
，則需透過當地的消費者事務局或商業改進局投訴。

2007-06-23

[William Eng]

Originally Posted by su123

Does anyone know how to convert the Dish from Pi TV for FTA watching? Is there chinese program as well? What equipment do I need and how to set it up? How is the quality of the picture? Help, I am going crazy with out my TV.

It all depends. What is the size of your dish? You need to re-aim your dish to either G3C, IA5, or SatMex6 for chinese programming. In all likelyhood, you probably can get free chinese tv from your equipment.

[William Eng]

Originally Posted by su123

Does anyone know how to convert the Dish from Pi TV for FTA watching? Is there chinese program as well? What equipment do I need and how to set it up? How is the quality of the picture? Help, I am going crazy with out my TV.

If your receiver can move a motor, then I would suggest you buy a motor. This will you the most FTA chinese programming. You may have to move your dish to a location where you have a clear view of the southern sky. The picture quality is excellent, digital, but not high def. This part depends on the broadcaster too. If your receiver cannot move a motor, then you might want to consider adding a LNB bracket and another LNB, this way you can get content from 2 different satellites with one fixed dish.

[stevesc]

The receiver is proprietary like DishNetworks , with program guide,timer recording. Unless someone writes a program, you are out of luck.

The dish itself is OK for FTA.

I think you all have a good chance get your money back. Prediwave had hundreds million $ in the bank when it filed bankruptcy. My subscription has ran out so I won't be filing. Just curious, what happens to customers who paid after the bankruptcy, many moons ago ?

[William Eng]

[quote=stevesc;47953]The receiver is proprietary like DishNetworks , with program guide,timer recording. Unless someone writes a program, you are out of luck.

It doesn't hurt to try. Just re-aim your dish and see what you get

[be236]

[quote=William Eng;47954]

Originally Posted by stevesc

The receiver is proprietary like DishNetworks , with program guide,timer recording. Unless someone writes a program, you are out of luck.

It doesn't hurt to try. Just re-aim your dish and see what you get

Nice answer William...

Yeah, since I dont have the special PiTV receiver, I'm gonna guess it is proprietary and wont be able to receive regular FTA channels... maybe someone knows more about this can elaborate.. (heh)...

But of course, we're pretty sure the dish can be re-used for FTA.

[William Eng]

Here's another idea. Take your Pi receiver to someone who has a working FTA setup. Switch out the receivers and see if you can still get a picture on your tv. You might have to change some setting if the receiver lets you.

[be236]

That's a good idea... However, it might even be simplier to understand your PiTV receiver menus and see if there is any way to change your settings, such as LNB type, frequency values, etc... If you have no way to change these simple settings, then most likely you cant just point to any FTA satellite to pick those channels up...

[stevesc]

No and no. Tried it on my G3C system. The Pi box just shows Pitv screen. Can't change nothing.

[be236]

Yeah, I kinda figured that... So basically at least you can still use the dish (it's about 80cm I would guess)... you would just need to get a FTA receiver, which is cheap these days... I've seen some as low as $80.