While KyLinTV was plagued with Mainland outages, DishNetwork and DirectTV were able to maintain service. FTA programming remained available as well. KyLinTV blaming the Chinese government for the outage repeatedly was a poor excuse in my opinion.
The video quality degraded and was never great to begin with. Artifacts, synchronization problems, buffering issues all were never solved and never improved. Comments were ignored and support was slow to respond.
The programming offered in lieu of the advertised channels Fig. 1,2were channels KyLinTV should have been paying me to watch most of the time. It is a issue of taste of course, but I joined for certain channels and was force fed something else. Month after month KyLinTV promised "Soon the outage will be over," but nothing happened. Just more channels that quite frankly sucked and none of the channels returning which they advertise! Customer even posted to this blog stating that KyLinTV wasn't informing them of the outage when they were signing up for new service. Per my advice they called KyLinTV back and specifically asked. Upon this the answer was given that their monthly fee would be reduced and admission of the outage was explained.
Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Ending service was as enjoyable as the past half a year of service. It wasn't. Had to send back the STB, so it wasn't really "Free" as advertised on the very first page of their website. Fig.3,4 Not only that, I had to box it and pay for return shipping. No offer of a return shipping container or anything. Just, "OK, your account has been canceled, just send it back to us."
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
I think the FTC should be alerted to the false advertising that KyLinTV habitually carries out. Maybe if enough people file formal complaints something will be done ;-)
I will keep the blog going for all the KyLinTV customers out there and as a warning to future consumers.
I would like to also extend my willingness to KyLinTV to review their products should they ever decide to want a fair and balanced report to the public. During this whole time I was a paying customer and this blog has recorded the issues, treatment and history of my time with KyLinTV.
I hope that my effort and time can serve as an informational tool for others. Of course, everything I wrote is only my opinion and that may not be valued by all. Nonetheless, I hope that I have helped just one person.
Goodbye KyLinTV
20 comments:
Hey, I was looking for some options for my mom to watch chinese programs (she's not very savy with watching stuff online). a friend of mine who has kylintv recently received a letter saying most of the channels from china will return soon and they also added star chinese channel. what do you think? should I go for kylintv or dish network? thanks.
Honestly, I think you should go with DishNetwork. However, I must preface this. Unless you have a good internet connection, the buffering by Kylin STB is horrible at the worst time (meaning at night when everyone is relax and enjoying some good Chinese programs). I am not sure if this is because of their server overloading or through put through the internet pipe is crowded. Otherwise, Kylin is a good alternative that offers more for less cost.
It's not worth going to KyLinTV and paying them for the programs when you can get it for free on UUSee. Granted, you'd need a computer to watch the programs with UUSee, but it's much cheaper and is pretty easy to use. You get all the CCTV channels and all "local" cable channels from the mainland, plus the one from Hong Kong. AND you get many recent Chinese movies.
If your mom's not savvy with computers, one possible way is for you to record the programs with UUSee and burn it on a DVD for her. (Yes, UUSee allows you to record the program as DVD-quality .wmas. Imagine that!)
Now Kylin moves all the mainland channels into the Great Wall package, which is priced the same as Dishnetwork. Why would people pay the same money when dish largely doesn't have buffering problem?
Kylin's business model needs a serious review. I would say the Great Wall package at Kylin can not be more than $25/m, 19.99/m would be an attractive price. I plan to drop Kylin (after current term expires) if they don't add more to the basic channels.
Kylin is getting worse by the minute it seems. Now they only have 1 year contracts not half year contracts as they used to have. And if you want to get decent programming you need to get the $30 dollar package. I think Dish is better option, if you pay installation fee ($50-100) then you can cancel any time with them.
But for now I am going to get the CCTV channels from the internet. Wireless labtop and I can hook it up to any tv in the house..:)
Yes, I had similar problems with KylinTV. In their English version of advertisement, they clearly state " we will send you free IPTV box (value of $198)". While in Chinese version they change the word to be "free to use". This company is cheating, and I will send out a formal complain. Also when talking with their customer respresentative, she suggested me to suspend the service to save mailing fee and reopening fee if I need it in future. She did not mention any fee. Well, then, they charged me the next month's fee, so I called. This time, they told me there was a monthly fee of $5 simply for suspension! Stay away from this notorious company, it will give you numerous problems eventually!
Never never go to KyLinTV. Otherwise, you will keep charging your credit card after you cancell the service. The service is terible and false ads.
I have been with Kylin TV for 2 years. The absences of CCTV-4 was upsetting and they lied about the outage. Now that it is back, they are reconfiguring the packages so if I want to have what I have now when my subscription expires, it would cost something like $600, up from $360. To get CCTV-4, I have to take China TV-Select or Great Wall, and to Watch VOD, it is now a separate package. Very confusing and non-sensical. These people are very greedy and instead of making subscribers happy, they want to wring out as much cash as they can from the subscribers. I wish there was a competitor to them. When they had the outage, their arrogance and audacity and avarice mellowed a bit, but now is in full swing again. It is not surprising since it is backed by Charles Wang and Dolan family. Really triple A for Avarice. Seriously, there should be an alternative. IPTV is not hard to set up and run, and it is all re-broadcast content. Should be quite easy to compete with such greedy jokers. I need to switch, please let us all look for alternatives and inform each other. Tired of being jerked around and gouged. My cousin thought if she signed up for KyLin service she could watch direct broadcast Olympics and when she went to their office to sign up, they did not tell her otherwise but even assured her that she could; she even bought a big screen TV and thought she would be all set to watch the Olympics on KyLin. Ha! Ha! Boy was she surpised and upset.
I used to have KyLinTV for my parents but after a year of service, canceled it and went to GekTV. The reason of change is programs and contents: my parents prefer Cantonese programs, while KyLinTV used to offer the Pearl channel, and it stopped offering it later. While GekTV is more expansive and contract terms are strict, I went with it and relatively happier.
I had very bad experience with Kylin TV. Very bad customer service. I ordered Kylin TV for my parents, the first 3 days, it worked fine, and then the signal started to be chopping,I called Kylin TV, and tried to work with them, they suggested different ways, still not working properly. Then I requested returning the products. They told me I have signed a six-month contract with them, I have to pay for 6 months, they do not care whether I can view it or not. So I just keep paying and the time to view it is very minimal...
Fianlly it was the end of six month, I gave me a bigger than normal final bill, they told me according to their record, I viewed some paid programs, those programs I swear to God, I never touched it... it is about $6, I said forget about it, I will just pay for it.... Then yesterday I received another fianl bill, it is one year later...see below:
Total outstanding balance of your account is USD $17.74.
To make a payment and update your subscription service status, please call our customer services at (877) 888-8598 by March 5th, 2009. No penalty will be charged!
If we do not receive your response before the deadline, your account will be turned over to a collection agency and an extra $25 collection fee will be charged in addition to the outstanding balance.
I called them, they say that's their record, I really could not put up with this kind of crap anymore, try to file complaint with Better Business Burea, Kylin TV is not listed with BBB... So I find this place. Hope this bad experience can warn off some potential customers...
try gek tv, mor hongkong type shows
KylinTV is simply a big scam. They sent me a broken box at my cost for shipping, after went through with their customer service for hours and hours, who confirmed it was not functioning. And they asked me to send the brocken box back again at my own shipping cost. So I cancelled the service and sent back the box (paid shipping again) on July 13, 2009 (2 days after received the unuseable merchandise), guess what, until August 13, 2009, they never credit me the charge of 18 months fee, although I have never even be able to watch it for a second! Stay away from KYLIN TV, sooner or later, they will go bankrupt the way they do business and you'll never get your money back... They are just screwing money out of honest people!
I purchased KylinTV service and later cancelled the service on 7/23/2009. Kylin service person told me that once they successfully charge my credit card for the last bill (of $33.98) and cancel my account in their system, they will send me an email for instructions on how to return the TV settop box. I received the instruction email on 7/28/2009 and ship back the settop box. Everything looked smooth at this moment, but there is a catch later. Read on... A few weeks later, I received a letter from Kylin's collection agency named "Saturn Systems" and the letter demanded me to immediately pay $58.98 otherwise they "are committed to use whatever means necessary and proper to secure payment". On 8/27/2009, I called Kylin about this matter and they admitted that there is an internal billing issue that mistakenly failed to charge the last $33.98 bill which caused the problem. Kylin was able to charge $33.98 after they try it again. On 8/28/2009, I called Kylin again to check if the last payment went well. They acknowledged that they did receive the payment. However when I asked them to restore any damage to my credit scores, and make sure that my credit score won't be ruined by this error caused by Kylin, they refused to do so.
It is rediculus for a company to immediately direct unsuccessful payment to collection agency without trying to contact its customer first!
It is also rediculus for a company to refuse a confirmation to its customer that they will try to recover the damage caused by their own fault.
I certainly would not recommend kylintv to anyone. they have very bad billing practice, and you might easily end up with bad credit score because of kylin's error in their billing process.
Below is my story with kylintv, a sad one.
I purchased KylinTV service and later cancelled the service on 7/23/2009. Kylin service person told me that once they successfully charge my credit card for the last bill (of $33.98) and cancel my account in their system, they will send me an email for instructions on how to return the TV settop box. I received the instruction email on 7/28/2009 and ship back the settop box. Everything looked smooth at this moment, but there is a catch later. Read on... A few weeks later, I received a letter from Kylin's collection agency named "Saturn Systems" and the letter demanded me to immediately pay $58.98 otherwise they "are committed to use whatever means necessary and proper to secure payment". On 8/27/2009, I called Kylin about this matter and they admitted that there is an internal billing issue that mistakenly failed to charge the last $33.98 bill which caused the problem. Kylin was able to charge $33.98 after they try it again. On 8/28/2009, I called Kylin again to check if the last payment went well. They acknowledged that they did receive the payment. However when I asked them to restore any damage to my credit scores, and make sure that my credit score won't be ruined by this error caused by Kylin, they refused to do so.
It is rediculus for a company to immediately direct unsuccessful payment to collection agency without trying to contact its customer first!
It is also rediculus for a company to refuse a confirmation to its customer that they will try to recover the damage caused by their own fault.
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I certainly would not recommend kylintv to anyone. Their bad billing process and errors will cost you a credit score dents. Their inconsisitent response in customer service will cost you time and money to deal with.
Their are many complaints against kylintv in the websites. Please look around before you hook up with kylintv. good luck.
All KyLinTV victims:
We need to organize a class action lawsuit against KyLin TV!
Yes, I totally agree that we, as a consumer and victim of KylinTV, should start to act on this bad company in America. I'm in for the class action lawsuit.
I didn't realize so many people were victimized by Kylintv. I too was the victim of Kylintv and was sent a few collection agency letter for unpaid bills. I'm still subscripted to them, if not because of my parents, I would have long gone from their poor business practice. Now my mom's favorite channel keep gettin this "Server Busy" massage, most of the time Kylin blaming on our poor internet service. My internet connection is 8 MB, and I did a lot of tests to see if my internet is slow whenever kylintv is buffering, sometime it is my internet problem, but most of the time it's the kylintv server problem. While they are relaying on our own internet service to provide their kylintv service, they are charging us the same kind of fee as the cable and satellite charged us. while the satellite's box are free for the customer to keep at the end of the contract term. Kylintv make us send back the box if we cancel the service at the end of the service term whne they claim the box are gaven to us for free to watch their kylin service. I have long been complainting to their customer service the poor business practice, but they just ignore my comments.
If you have internet, go with PPLive, just need to connect to you HDTV as projector or secondary monitor. cost you nothing, and no harassing, an no damage to you credit report!!!!!
I fell into the KylinTV STB trap. I had it for two years. And I when my contract matured, and by the time my credit card was also updated with new numbers. I think I may not need to worry about it since my credit card info is updated, and I should worry about the automatic renew.
However, I was wrong, they still trying to charge me monthly fee even the auto renew failed earlier. I argued with them to take that charge off since I didn't do any renew as my credit card info has updated.
However, they keep bugging me and quickly turn to a collection agent for just $30 bucks. I was so pissed off. I have to write LETTER to explain/complain it. However, they insist with the charge and threat me again with the collection agent. I was so angry and I pull the KylinTV Box (STB), and throw it into the Dumpster. A week letter, I got another letter telling me to return the STB, otherwise, they are going to charge $198. Now what, my credit has been ruined by them.
I am not sure how I am going to do with it, Pay it or keep seeing in my credit report. One thing for sure, I will never use it again in my life time, and I will try whatever I can to tell my relatives and families about this trap.
Luckily, I have PPLive, I just bought an HDTV, and I enjoy it very much. More program, more live, much faster the KylinTV. and best of all, FREE with no harassing, no threat to your credit !!!!
Thanks for the heads up, everybody. I'm going to order GekTV instead for my mother as she is a Cantonese speaker. Kylin sounds like such a scam.
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