Seeking Help Having to call up customer care for activating new channels even after activating on app/website

[blr-nikhil]

Good to see that the sun direct has given the option for activating or deactivating of channels at any time and the channels are charged only for the number of days the channel has been active.
However, every time I activate a new channel from the app/website, I am not getting the channel on TV even after waiting for multiple hours. I am having to call up the customer care again and ask them to activate .
The customer care mentions that I have to keep the set top box on while doing the activation on app/website. I have tried this, but doesn't help.
Has anyone able to figure out how to activate a new channel online without having to call up the customer care?

 

[Sivabhaskar]

Is your box SD or HD? What is the signal strength and quality when you try to do an Auto Tuning of the channels from the STB menu? My (wild) guess is that you might need a dish realignment so that the STB receiver picks up the channel refresh signals to your Smart Card as quickly as possible.

I am guessing as such, because an year or so ago, a couple of a-la-carte channels I had already subscribed suddenly went offline for me, for no apparent reason. I tried a bit of troubleshooting myself, only to no avail. Because, there is only so much we could do when it comes to channel refresh. I had to finally call up Customer Care, who sent a technician home. He tried everything else again first, with unsuccessful results again. At last, he realigned the dish antenna from scratch. And that finally set things straight.

So, here's what I would suggest you to do, before you go for a dish realignment:

1) If your STB has a removable Smart Card, remove it, clean it and insert it again.
2) Unscrew the cable running from the dish to your STB. Then screw it again, making sure it is connected perfectly.
3) Do a Factory Reset of your STB.
4) The next time you do an add-on addition/removal, switch on the STB preferrably 30 minutes to 1 hour before you even login/open the website/app for your requisite action.
5) And just before you are about to actually add the add-on pack/channel, make sure you have switched to that channel number (or one of the channel numbers in the add-on pack) in your STB.

If the newly added channels are still not showing up soon enough for you, even after faithfully following all of the above superstitious rituals(!) , then there is only one thing you can try . Call up Customer Care, tell them that your dish position has changed, and that you need a dish realignment for better picture clarity. When the technician arrives at your home, tell him your issue and ask him realign the dish so that is gives the maximum possible signal % and quality % for all the available transponders.

If it still does the same thing, let us come to an agreement that our Sun Direct is stupid, and yet we stick to it for each of our own reasons