ombudsman

CptlA

Have you seen the nuring home application at the Government's coupon website?

https://www.dtv2009.gov/NursingHome.aspx

I gather that from the above that any representative from the facility my apply for a coupon for each resident. Whoever does it will want to hurry, you have until 7/31/09.

There are a few websites like amazon.com selling converter boxes for the same price as the coupon, so, all a resident will have to come up with is the shipping cost.

Not sure of any other steps you can take to get the best deal.

Welcome to the forum.

Orrymain

If you miss the deadline, the only thing left to do really is just complain to your congressman, not that it will do any good, but you never know. You might get lucky.

DTVuser2009

that must be new, because i was denied twice for being in a 'business or shared-living facility' even same thing when i retried January 2009. and lastly on Feb 2009.

But oh well i paid full price big whoop.

I wonder how cheap the converters are getting since the transition ended June 12th and demand will soon be going down.

Keep in mind though that i didn't live in such a place, i live in a trailer court with its own lot # but the knowing the Government they can deny whomever they please on any grounds with no real justice afterwards.

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Who is General Failure, and why is he reading my hard disk?!

Eureka

Who bought the TVs in the first place?

I feel sorry for people in nursing homes, but TV is not a constitutional right.

DTVuser2009

Neither is having a Driver's License, but they still insist on giving them back to multiple DUI offenders.

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Who is General Failure, and why is he reading my hard disk?!

Piggie

Some come with TVs, others the residence have to bring their own furniture. I looked into them a lot when my parents were alive and thank God I never needed one.

Some nursing homes have cable, some have community room where there is a TV.

So I don't see a simple solution that fits all nursing home scenarios.

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The more I understand, the less I know.

DTVuser2009

most assisted living facilities and hotels/motels have closed-system TVs that only have a few channels routed. so unless there actually are assisted living facilities, hospitals, and motels which use OTA TV i really don't see the issue.

Of course, esp with motels the routed TV channels may not be to one's liking and so they either buy a satellite system or OTA antenna and think they deserve coupons for a converter and then find out the coupon program doesn't work that way.

in case you're wondering what 'routed' TV is, if you have gone to a hotel or motel there is a TV there with a black box on the back, and some times even two Playstation controllers. when you turn the TV on, you get a menu where you can play games, check weather, or watch normal TV. the 'normal' TV is usually some canned offering of only 5-10 channels, likely from a satellite or cable system, routed to the TV. some people aren't satisfied with that 'walled garden' and opt for a better system but then think they shouldn't pay for it or think they can get offerings from the government such as with DTV.

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Who is General Failure, and why is he reading my hard disk?!

Aries

Instead of writing to your congressman, why don't you start up a fundraiser? The converter boxes aren't that expensive, and a large team-effort with 100% of it going to the nursing home, you could get them to have their TVs easily.

Like was said before, "TV is not a constitutional right", so the only way they'll do it is out the goodness of their hearts, which a lot of people in the government seem to leave in the car.

Piggie

I was going to post something very similar. Lots of things are not someone's rights or they should pony up and buy their own. But there are legitimately people that are not crack heads, don't gamble, drink or do drugs that have some thing that keeps them from earning a living, like being too old to work? Many of them you will find were very productive members of socieity.

Anyway all that said, Find a local nursing home, see if they need anything and I would think a fund raiser to help if they lost TV would be easy to collect money.

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The more I understand, the less I know.