Kolkata: Subscribers, MSO spar over ‘discount’ refund

KOLKATA: Thousands of SITI Cable subscribers were overcharged last month due to confusion over a ‘discount’ that was offered in February to compensate for the intermittent blackout of pay channels in the lead-up to the migration to the à la carte system. Even though the city’s biggest multi-system operator (MSO) with 13 lakh subscribers claimed that the amount had been refunded to local cable operators in March, scores of consumers and operators across the city said they had not received the money.

According to cable industry insiders, some operators had charged an excess ‘network capacity fee’ that was returned after consumers protested. But no discount was given. “Due to a server issue, we couldn’t offer the discount that was promised to our subscribers in February. There were channel blackouts in some areas due to the migration exercise and we decided to compensate the consumers. But the discount could not be deducted in March. We reverted the amount back to our cable operators and they will pass on the benefit to consumers,” said SITI Cable director Suresh Sethia.

A large number of subscribers, however, alleged that they were charged more than what they had expected in their monthly bill. Complaints of pay channel blackouts and levying of excess charges have been pouring in from across Kolkata since the migration deadline expired on March 31. Tollygunge resident Manik Chatterjee was told by his operator that his choice of package will cost Rs 410. “Earlier this month, I was asked to pay Rs 520, which I refused. My operator then called me to his office and said I was wrongly overcharged,” Chatterjee said. A SITI Cable subscriber from the Anwar Shah Road area said that he had never received any discount although all his pay channels had been blocked for the whole of February. “Even though I submitted my list of pay channels to my operator, I had to wait a month to get them. Till then, I received just the free-to-air channels (FTA), but my charge remained the same. I got no discount,” he said.

Mrinal Chatterjee of Bengal Broadband said some MSOs had encouraged operators to hike the network capacity fee fixed by TRAI at Rs 20 for every 25 channels over the 100 FTA channels. “This excess amount had been charged illegally and some refunded it. Other than this, I don’t know of any discount offered by MSOs. The latter were to offer a best-fit pack to consumers during the transition, keeping the subscription fee same,” said Chatterjee.

Bill disputes continue after migration, but some consumers have not been charged extra, according to Tapash Das of Ideal Cable Operators’ Association. “Some may have been overcharged but it was unintentional. The migration exercise was a taxing one and operators struggled to finish the job. We have received no refund from SitiCable so there is no question of passing it on to consumers,” he said.

Sethia, on the other hand, claimed that the discount was offered and the amount depended on the price of the packages that consumers subscribed to before the migration.