If one listens to the interviews posted earlier of various interviews, or PR information by the president of Espial, they have done considerable development in Europe and Africa - I am not sure they have done extensive customer research in Canada, and I get the gut feeling that they feel they know what consumers want because they have had great success accross the big pond.
For some of these countries, this is the first and only experience they have had with a complex set top box, with IPTV and many other features, that have not even come to us yet.
Plus, they had the opportunity of working and implementing closely with RDK, and the hardware stacks and OS stacks (as they call them, and the Espial version on top, which there are quite a number of iterations - this one that goes on legacy boxes and requires close discussion and coordination with the cable provider, the setbox developer (Cisco), their next layer of software (Videoscape, now Technicolour), understanding what customers do not and how or if they can transfer current functionality to this complete differently designed model of RDK rather than RTN. Note that they say they have little control of RDK as it is a open source software and they define how it can be used in order to keep standardization of their middle ware on any box in the world. And Espial bought out ANT which was one of the other layers in the old system.
And it appears, that due to market changes, company changes, and other unpredictable factors, such as end of product support and distribution, it basically got dumped on us and I suspect the company decided to just take the risk of not losing too many people, get the feedback retroactively rather than proactively, and then work through the unknowns of how to make it all work as they go along. And some things, since Espial has licensed certain models of the use of the open source tools and API's, means they may be reluctant to change some things (like the Tile model), since this is kind of their trademark.
So we wait and see, but at least @Gdkitty with the input from a very large group of true testers, designers, and system analysts, has created a fabulous how to tricks and tips as the box currently sits as of 11/02/2016.
I guess there are few options for us, except,
Like Gdkitty myself and others, we try to understand it and pass on what we know to others so they don't have to suffer as much as we did (although we suffered, I think we all like a good challenge of problem solving, in particular those of us who are retired to prove that we still can do it, and can call Rogers on the marketing pitches that just don't hold up to testing and analysis).
So that is one options - keep providing feedback on what we find and how to work with it.
The next one is just as valid, complain and ask for the old one back, but it appears that is not going to happen, period.
Commiserate amongst each other, but be careful about going too off line, or off topic, and remember to keep it clean.
Express your emotions, they are valid, but respect the people who have to read it - keep it clearn.
Cut the cord totally and find alternatives, and then you have new options if these things happen again.
Or go to another company, either teir one, or teir two, knowing that there are pros and cons to leaving or staying.
Or also, you can escalate as far as you can take it to try to get your point to someone who has the power to influence things.
Remember to respectful and polite in your discussions as you move up - they are more likely to be sympathetic and listen, and maybe, just maybe, something surprising may happen - at least some form of compensation at the least.
For now, I just remain patient, keep communicating, although I apologize, I have been getting frustrated and angry and it has been showing in my writing. I ask my question, would I want people to talk to me that way, and lately the answer is no, but it is tough to edit unless you catch it quick, and it is not possible to delete it - although if you do get to edit and want to get rid of it totally - just type in sorry, didn't want this out there - moderators may leave it or remove it, or you can ask moderators to edit or remove something.
And the moderators catch me at times when I slip out of line (I am only human and have a servere disability too) and I always thank them via PM for keeping my posts clean.
I have said this a number of times in the last two weeks that I am going to stay away, but things like GDKitty's how to tips and tricks and I just had to comment, as well, as since I post often, and I must be contributing in a useful way for people, which is my number one goal in all my posts, I get kudos, or feedback, and I like to return the feedback to those people.
Good night, Bruce
Bruce
RogersArthur
