The Official Expired Converter Coupon Complaint Thread

[porchkitty]

I emailed the website directly, asking why they would send coupons out before retailers were selling the converter boxes, consequently sticking me with two worthless coupons. This is a portion of the response:

Note that due to program regulations, each household address can only be
approved for a maximum of two coupons, regardless of whether those
coupons were received or used. Individuals who are seeking additional
coupons beyond the maximum allowable per household may ask friends or
family members at other households to request coupons they may not need
themselves. While it is illegal to sell coupons, giving a coupon away
for free is not prohibited under Program regulations.

I find it quite interesting that they encourage this kind of dishonesty! Why not just let me return the expired vouchers for new ones? Hmm. How much money did the cable and satellite services pay to get this enacted anyway? I'm thinking someone somewhere has something to gain from the number of coupons they issue. Otherwise, the way it's being handled makes absolutely no sense.

[chacha]

I received my two $40 coupons about the same time my husband became very ill. After I received the coupons, I had a hard time finding a store that sold them. So, after several tries, I filed my $40.00 coupons.

Last week, while looking at TV, there was a program re DTV 2009 /converter coupons. It reminded me that I had filed two $40.00 coupons but when I looked at them, their expiration date was 12/11/08. I called retailer, All American Direct , and informed them what had happened to me and the gentleman informed me that I could not get another coupon(s) and that I woud have to pay whatever the converter boxes cost.......WHY????

There should have been a much stronger warning.....stating...."IF YOU DID NOT REDEEM YOUR COUPONS BY A CERTAIN DATE....THEN YOU WOULD NOT BE ABLE TO RECEIVE ANOTHER COUPON(S) AND YOU WOULD HAVE TO PAY THE FULL PRICE FOR THE CONVERTERS."

The initial advertisement did not warn the public nor did it warn the consumer about stores that did not have the converters in stock.

[Michael Williams]

Originally Posted by bag

Hey! Dumba$$ government goons! Let's try to get this right the second time around shall we?

#1 A PAPER coupon that expired AFTER the switchover occurred should have been issued. Less cost overall. There could have been some security features built into the coupon to insure that it was a valid one - but no!

#2 Having spent who knows how much to create bunch of credit cards, you then decided to have them expire after 90 days! Did any of you stupid monkeys bother to check to see if ANY store had ANY in stock BEFORE you did so? I doubt it.

#3 NOW I read that you want to send out EVEN MORE CC's as a possible replacement to those that are now expired! How about just reactivate the old ones IF the holders contact you and re-up? That way, existing holders of now defunct cards can just use them instead of waiting who knows how long for new cards to be printed and issued?

Wake up and smell the da## coffee!

Helping a sibling wade through the mire of SSI, Medicare, Medicaid and Disability is hard enough now we have two TV converter box coupons that "ARE EXPIRED!" Has anyone successfully purchased a converter box with these coupons??? Please keep us up to date as to when we can start performing the next series of "stupid human tricks".

[sandman700]

i am steaming!!! my cards expired! steaming!!! who's the donkey in our gov to issue these cards before the dtv boxes were available? now the boxes are available but the cards are expired!! did i mention I AM STEAMING!!! almost as if they planned it to happen this way. nobody can be this stupid!

[janecrowder]

I think that it is ridiculous that the coupons even had an expiration date on them. I live in the Wilmington, NC area and we converted to ditigal back in September. I did not realize that my coupon expired on 12/19/08 until I went to get a box on 1/3/09. They should not put expiration dates on them because you can't find them everywhere. I so hope that Washington makes the decision to reactivate the expired cards. The Government is the one that is making the public make this change to digital. You have no choice!!! Let's hope that this matter is solved very soon/

[mhschendel]

This having to buy a box for basic television is a joke, it is another way to keep us in the dark about what is really going on. The goverment is mandating us to buy these boxes if we want tV, but surprise just like the rest of us they are out of money too.. I wonder do you suppose the people in Iraq have to buy this box or is it covered by all of the money we have spent there! I think this was a very poor idea, however if you told me that the converter boxes are manufactured right here in the US and has given many of the unemployed here jobs that would be another story. I would then not have issue with it.

[whatever]

I am equally frustrated. I ordered my coupons in October and haven't gotten them yet. According to my reference number, they were mailed on November 11. I feel that probably the post office made an error, but who knows. The thing that I find MOST FRUSTATING, is that there is no one to call to ask about it. I have searched and searched and searched and there is no one to call.

However, reading through this forum makes me count my blessings. I can see many people were sick and unable to use it - very sad, and others who couldn't find any in stock, also unfair.

On the other hand, every person who keeps complaining that they didn't know there was an expiration is a fool. When you placed that order, it said right on the page that told you to print for your records that they expired 90 days after mailing. It also says in in the envelope that arrives. If you didn't "know" it expired, that's your own stupid fault.

I also keep seeing people claim that the government is making money off of this. Are you dense? This is costing the government money, which is why they set a funding limit, which is creating this mess we have. How would expired coupons help them? The money from the expired coupons just goes back into the pot.

I also see people keep saying that there was no reason for the expiration. That's not true. Since there is a limit to funds, they had to have an expiration that allowed people on the waiting list (after funds ran out) to get a coupon after another coupon expires. So that's a good reason for an expiration date, because otherwise those funds are locked up forever in case that person decides to use their old coupon a year later. Now, the real question was whether the government should have put a limit on the amount given out.

And the comment about Iraq? what?! what does that have to do with anything. I don't know if they have digital TV, but it has nothing to do with this. Besides, pretty much all of Europe has already made the digital switch. We HAD to make a digital switch to free up some of the frequencies on the airwaves. The process sucks and it costs money, but it's not a conspiracy.

[bbknox]

In the begining the TV Ads strongly suggested that people who needed converter boxes respond quickly to the coupon program to get the coupons before the program ran out of money. What they didn't say was that the coupons would exprire before the converter boxes were available in retail stores. Our coupons expired before we could find the boxes.
I feel we were defrauded by the DTV Program since we did as we were encouraged and now we have worthless coupons.

[d4kc]

I am halfway through reading the comments ... maybe someone else has mentioned this too ..

There's a simple solution:

all the coupons, regardless of the printed expiration date, should expire 3 months after the date DTV starts - May 17 or whatever.

NO NEED to reprint the coupons! Just alert the media and retailers, and send out emails - the updated policy can be disseminated for FREE (because taxpayers don't need to be tapped to spend more money to fix government mistakes!!!!!!!), people can still get their boxes, retailers can still make $, and everyone is happy!

EASY!

Why did the gov put an expiration date on these anyway?? They pounded away at the Feb 17th date, and then introducted what seems like a totally arbitratry and confusing that counteracted all of their public awareness!!

So just extend the date to 3 months after DTV takes effect - no matter what the coupons say.

My two cents worth ... and my two expired coupons' worth!

-D4KC

[Katy87]

I ordered my dtv coupons, but they expired on 9/15/08. I was unable to redeem them because everytime I went to a store they were out on converters. I had to check twice a day for about 2 months, I would stop in the morning before going to work and then again in the afternoon when I got off work. By the end of August, I gave birth to my baby and totally forgot about the expiration date on those cards. Now, I'm pretty much all out of luck and stressed out about not being able to re-apply. I feel that if there had been more converters distributed to stores then this wouldn't have happened because everyone would have been able to redeem those coupons. I agree with being able to use the expired coupons, it is the best option for everyone.