Odd error message on second STB

[Jonessie]

I have a rather odd problem which not even the engineer can work out what is causing the problem. I personally think it is the Smart Card but trying to explain this to FMC is like banging your had against a brick wall.

Back in Feb I had a V+ installed and had the other STB installed in another room, since the software updates to the original STB the Movie channels give an error message which not even the engineer can work out what is causing the problem. I replicated the error message while he was here and he change over the STB for a new one and when all the channels were updated on the new STB and the engineer had left it was the same problem. Here is the message I get on the second (original STB) when I view Sky Movies channels.

It has not been possible to tune in the cannel at this time please try again

Since the update of the software running the original NTL STB it comes up with the error message only on the original STB not the V+, this is fine and there is now problem with the Sky Movies channels at all. I think the problem lies with the Smart Card, because this is the same Smart Card being used when the STB was originally installed 7 years ago... It's a pain in the but because everytime I speak to FMC they just fob me off with a load of rubbish, when I manage to speak to somebody in Cardiff, they are great and they actually know what they are doing, everytime my call is redirected somewhere else I get fobbed off.

It took me over a month to try and get this sorted and get an engineer out, when I finally managed to speak to someboy in Cardiff they were great and could see there is a problem somewhere. At the end of the day it is down to poor training.

I persnally think it's the Smart Card because all the packages are on the box and they are all configered correctly.

Although I did notice something which is really puzzelling me... because if you go into the Engineer Diags I can see the Smart Card is showing as waiting instead of "OK"

CA IPPV Status UNKNOWN (this should be showing by default "no purchases")
Card Status Waiting (this should be showing by default as "OK")

Thanks

[Nedkelly]

All new boxes come with a new smart card it could be that the acct has not been set up correctly .

[Jonessie]

Originally Posted by Nedkelly

All new boxes come with a new smart card it could be that the acct has not been set up correctly .

Yep exactly what I said to FMC and they said no Mr. Jones this is not the case, there is nothing wrong with your card, its like getting blood out of a stone. To make matters worse, and even more frustrating, it has on my notes I'm an ex cable engineer and they still keep trying to fob me off.

Take for example when we had a DNS problem last year or the year before, I advised FMC their network was about to go down and they would have serious issues with browsing to websites. I advised them there was a DNS issues and they said there was nothing wrong with the network and everything was working fine.

He then babbled on about AV and Firewalls running or something on my machine blocking webistes, which just enraged me even further. There was nothing showing on the faults page when I called, and probably around about 20 minutes later it was on their faults page... DNS fault across the whole infrastructure of the network. I called and made a complaint about FMC and got everything half price for 3 months.