This company has no morals and are common thief's
Hills TV Rental Charges for "Free to Air" Is Criminal
LDougie 05 on 06/05/2024 - 00:36
Comments
I'll be bringing my own TV and antenna
Or just a phone / laptop with 4G/5G Hotspottiing (or similar) and just stream it?
Thats what my wife did. Streamed everything whilst at hospital. We have Foxtel, so she used that for any Footy.
As long as they don't require it to be tag and tested. It might explode otherwise.
Are they charging for the TV or the TV channels? One is free, the other is not.
The use of the TV
Think of it as a stupidity tax, and pay up.
Hmm. Sounds like a Frankston problem to me.
The TV has custom software on it or something that makes you pay money to tune in FTA?
Oh I see, Hills provide TVs for hospitals, you're in a public hospital right now?
The cost is essentially your fee for renting the TV. It's a classic captive audience motel bar fridge jacked up prices thing. Blame the hospital for being too stingy to provide their own televisions.
As you say, the only real solution is to bring your own. Or bring a decent sized tablet, a data plan and watch streaming services.
Or bring a decent sized tablet, a data plan and watch streaming services.
This.
Another option is a laptop with SIM support. Handy for someone in hospital as it holds itself up rather than needing to hold it or find a way to prop it up. Mate of mine was in for surgery recently so I gave him my old work one, pretty brutal surgery so he didn't have the strength to hold up a tablet for long periods of time but a laptop could sit there. Plenty of old dells have sim slots so cheap to get refurb ones as well.
That and sticking in a 1TB drive and a whole lot of content saved on data costs for streaming.
Or maybe dig out that forgotten VR headsets from somewhere and finally have a reason to use it again :)
Blame the hospital for being too stingy to provide their own televisions
They get a cut of the rental. Just like parking. It's a money maker for them. No incentive to change it
When I was recently staying in hospital I didn’t see a single person using those TVs.
Everyone was just using their phones, tablets or laptops, and nearly everyone was using headphones so as not to disturb the other patients.nearly everyone was using headphones so as not to disturb the other patients.
Yes, some inconsiderate people decide to have VERY LOUD and speaker phone calls.
I mainly see old people doing this and I just assume that they have hearing issues… lol
My wife had many people doing it when she was in hospital in the pregnancy ward. Not racist or discriminatory but it was mainly foreign-speaking people.
@geekcohen: Usually it's just being unaware. If you don't want to confront directly, you can ask the nurses to tell them off.
Have you heard of these things called 'books'?
C'mon!? There are less than 25 hours in a day, and an hour spent reading is an hour who'll never get back.
Books are for idiots. We smart cookies wait for the movie or TV version.
You don't need TV. Just OzBargain forums and some popcorn 🍿.
Any deals on popcorn?
That’s what he’s done with his burner account
They're not charging you to watch free-to-air. They're charging you for using their equipment. Its there as an option and you don't have to use it if you don't want to pay.
Thieves. The thief doesn't own anything.
Hills TV Rental charges for " free to air" is criminal
LDougie 05 8 hours 55 min ago
This company has no morals and are common thief'sThank you OP for this comprehensively considered and nuanced, grammatically impeccable post. Other posters who misuse punctuation are a dime a dozen, so I was especially entranced with how you go above and beyond with your masterful use of white space to really stand out from the crowd.
I eagerly await your future contributions to the body of knowledge that is OzBargain.
My last visit in May23 was 8 hours in surgery, 3 days in ICU and 4 days on the ward. All medicare funded. Paying a small fee for a TV is not an issue.
Username does not check out.
Is that why you didn't post anything for 2 days? Fair excuse, I guess.
OldManYellsAtCloud.jpg
CloudAir
That DP. Chef kiss. saving that for the memes.
Years ago I did some volunteering in the local hospital. At the time they had TVs, which you had to rent to watch, the rental got you the use of the remote, and the volunteers got income from the commission for organising that for patients. At the time the hospital was commencing switching over the electronic record keeping using a LAN-connected screen at each bed that gave the medical staff access to the patient's records, and the patient access to free to air TV, cable channels and movies. For a daily or weekly fee of course.
That system seems to have totally replaced the old TVs in this state. Which, from what I saw when I was recently in hospital for a procedure, staff don't seem to be very happy with, because now they essential have to keep both electronic records of everything, and still keep all the paper records for when the computer isn't accessible. So I saw a bizarre dangerous process of staff writing things into the paper file, then making notes of what they'd recorded, like blood pressure and such, that they later had to key into the electronic record, and getting it confused which note referred to which patient. I had to point out that every written note should have the ID of the patient it referred to noted at the top, which seemed so obvious that it was ridiculous it wasn't a standard required practice. The whole thing looks like a disaster waiting to happen.
Subsequently I had to see a specialist to get the results of the procedure, and they'd put everything on computer, and he had had no idea how to make it work. You really had to wonder if the whole thing really was a good idea.
lmao this rules
TL:DR
What a totally descriptive post
Member Since
12 hours 25 min agoWho was that bored?
OP sounds like he's someone who's got the shits at something and now going around telling anyone who will listen… I haven't looked, but I'm pretty sure he's signed up to many forums with the same post.
He's in hospital with no TV, of course he is bored! probably in there for an injury to their sense of entitlement.
Has always been this way. The provider pays for the TVs and their upkeep, the hospital and its staff are too busy providing care. So the provider ensure the infrastructure is working and you pay for their service. It's based upon the concept that you will be there a few days or a week and someone else then comes in.
Complaining that the content is free is like being annoyed you have to pay for car hire when you already have a can of petrol.
Sure Hills owns the physical TV. Bit of a stretch if you think they maintain any actual infrastructure that supply’s the signal to the TV especially if we are talking free to air. From what I have seen the hospital owns and maintains the infrastructure, remotes, distribution amplifiers and even the antenna on the roof.
It's like $15/day lol
Bring your own tv
Must have missed FTA in my human rights class
Dead set legend, Dougie.
Mount franklin spring water Charges for "water" Is Criminal!
This company has no morals and are common thief's!
Yeah a joke. Just like international flights on Jetstar that have screens for every seat, but you need to pay $15 to watch stuff.
You want to watch FTA TV?
No wonder you’re feeling sickSo you expect the government to cover the cost of the equipment and maintenance of the TV, cabling, power, remote, speaker etc etc when you stay a a hospital?
Just bring an 3G iPad with stand. All the channels have live stream apps.
If you pay for renting the TV, then that is your call.
You can only complain, if they force you to use & pay for the TV, but they don't do that.Won't get very far with the 3G iPad, maybe go for 4G or 5G instead
Yeah that what I mean. Cellular tablet.
Hold on. Is OP also responsible for filing 60 noise complaints a day? 😂
Capitalism is based on predation. Everyone is trying to steal what little money you have. Capitalism 101: Wealth is finite, the easiest way to become wealthy is to steam someone else's.
In capitalist countries it is a crime for the poor to steal from the rich (eg piracy), but 100% legal for the rich to fleece the poor (like what Hills is doing).
Capitalism is based on predation. Everyone is trying to steal what little money you have. Capitalism 101: Wealth is finite, the easiest way to become wealthy is to steam someone else's.
Please tell me you're just ranting and not serious.
It was probably Adam Smith, 300 years ago, who showed that wealth is created by the specialisation of labour. It takes about 2 graphs and 4 lines to disprove your claim. Wealth is not finite unless you're living in an agrarian society.
This is literally high school economics.
Op is entitled to use their equipment for free?
Healthcare is 'free', is it unreasonable to expect to be able to use a TV (that's already installed in the room for use) for free during your stay?
the easiest way to become wealthy is to steam someone else's.
Won't steaming it shrink your wealth?
CrazyOldMan #CrazyOldMan #CrazyOldManLalaLalaLalaLalaLala
Next OP post whinging about kayak holders in 3…2…
Get well soon.
Thieves* not thief's
Op's post seems to be a rant, however It's not unreasonable to expect a TV with Free to air to watch at no charge while in hospital, and to be fair, in a lot of instances when you end up in hospital, you don't have time to prepare a tablet and wifi hotspot to watch TV or Netflix and a lot of the population would not have the know how to do it.
A hospital is mainly about taking care of your health. TV's have a not insignificant cost and require constant maintenance (at least when you have them in the pure volume that a hospital will have). So their choice is really charge everyone even more than the insane amounts they already do to cover this even when they don't use it or outsource it to a 3rd party and let them go to a user pays model. Personally I would prefer the User pays as I would just use a tablet or phone.
And yet he has the facilities to go online, create an OzB account, and rant about it.
This perfectly sums up boomer entitlement. Go to great lengths to complain about a problem that has the most simple of solutions. I don't want a solution, I want to be mad!
just boomer?
boomer entitlement? usually associate that more with Millennials. though yes this guy certainly comes across as entitled.
Weren't the boomers called the Me Generation decades before the first millennial was born?
@Jolakot: yes but that was more for being self centred rather than entitled. Everything they did was for themselves.
@Jolakot: they often go hand in hand. But self centred is doing everything with yourself as the primary benefit without much regard for consequences to others (e.g. buying up property and preventing first home buyers getting in the market). Entitled is expecting others to give it to you for free or without effort (e.g. believing they shouldn't have to make sacrifices to buy a house like going out less or not having that Avo on toast at the cafe every second morning)..
@gromit: Is it entitled to expect to put in the same amount of sacrifice in as previous generations?
I think some of the whinging from people who expect luxury apartments or town houses just for existing is ridiculous, but even with a promotion since I could literally not afford to buy my own house today
@Jolakot: of course not, but many don't expect the same sacrifice, they think the previous generation had it easy which couldn't be further from the truth. My younger sister is a classic example. My mother and myself tried to help her buy an apartment, so we went through her finances with her as she claimed it was impossible. Identified easy cutbacks that would allow her to save an additional $10k a year easily like 1 night out a week instead of 3 and breakfast with friends twice a week instead of 4 times and no more overseas holidays for a couple of years, we would then contribute extra on top. Her response was that it was not reasonable as she should not have to cut back as I didn't and my mother didn't and it was all unfair. At that point I walked away as I knew my mum worked 2 jobs 7 days a week to be able to afford her first house and I didn't go on holidays or out at all for a couple of years.
It was free at one point but that could just be in the children's ward. I am sort of happy that you now have to rent them as older people would have the volume blasting in a 6 person ward early in the morning and then you would hear a snore intermixed with some horrid morning show. Growing up around hospital stays i cannot watch daytime tv as get flashbacks of utter boredom mixed with days of our lives, young and the restless and some horrid morning show..utter hell
My stay in hospital a couple of weeks ago had the Hills TV still activated from the previous patient.
Hills TV still activated from the
previouspassed patient.
Classic boomer stories.
$10 a day and their website doesn't even state what you get.
If we do a long stay at a hospital its cheaper to just drop $40 on a data sim, felix has unlimited (20mbps) for $20 atm
Just wait till OP hears that the new RAV4 doesn’t co,e with roof racks for his kayak…
Something tells me that OP was just a passing troll. And if it was a real account, probably incapable of lifting a kayak onto a car roof anyway.
"Something tells me that OP was just a passing troll"
I thought it was Clive Palmer
.
you could always try to down load user manual enter the unlock code using the remote to enter professional mode but probably isn't lawful as you don't own the TV
Dougie 05 on 06/05/2024 - 00:42 Comment score below threshold.
