Dog House Ramblings

DTV Coupon Program - another federal failure

When the government announced the transition from analog to digital TV, I knew we would be affected. The only TV we receive is over the ether. We don't do cable and we don't do satellite. And our youngest TV is over 10 years old. I have a very nice antenna in the attic that pulls in local channels (and some distant ones) just fine.

But in the name of saving bandwidth (and making money) the broadcasts are going digital.

I don't really have a problem with that. After all, I am (or was) a digital design engineer. I know the power of ones and zeros. And I don't mind having to buy a converter box to make our old televisions work.

So the government announces a DTV Converter Coupon Program - "Limited Availability". I of course submit my application for a couple of coupons right after they start accepting them. Lo and behold, we get coupons a few months later.

Then the bad news. The coupons are only good for 90 days and only for specific models of DTV converters. I gotta say I should have waited. I spent hours driving, calling and looking for converters that fit the bill... with zero luck. While the government was ready with coupons, retailers were not ready with boxes. In the end, my coupons expired.

It doesn't bother me so much that I won't save the $40.... Okay, it bothers me. But the whole program was a horrendous waste of money. The feds wasted a ton of money printing these cards with no way to use them.

So I complained to my elected officials about the waste.

Talk about a bunch of clueless fools. Apparently not one person in any of the official offices bothered to read the letter (which was short and too the point). The plugged keys words into a program and printed out responses that had absolutely zero to do with what I wrote.

Amazing...

Come November, I say we vote "None of the Above".

Fuck 'em.

posted by The Dog @ 6:46 PM