Half of government-issued digital TV coupons have expired before use

by Darren Murph posted Jun 13th 2008 at 10:47AM

Okay, it's not that alarming, now is it? How often do you (or wait, let's use your neighbor in this example) let mailer coupons sit around, collect dust and expire? Yeah, exactly. According to a recent writeup over at WDEF-TV, around half of the 840,000 government-issued digital TV coupons have already expired before they were used, and interestingly enough, Congress may not be placing all of the blame on procrastination. It's said that many folks are still having a tough time tracking a converter box down, and judging by Ben's runaround a few months back, we guess we can sympathize. For those with recently expired vouchers, you may want to keep them around a few weeks longer -- if this proves to be too widespread, The Man may actually extend their useful life to enable more citizens to get discounts.

Filed under: Industry, Regulatory, Tuners, OTA

Tags: analog shutoff, AnalogShutoff, coupon, coupons, cutover, digital tv, digital tv transition, DigitalTv, DigitalTvTransition, dtv, government coupons, GovernmentCoupons, switchover, vouchers

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Neutral

Kyle @ Jun 13th 2008 11:22AM

I was waiting for there to be something I could get for free with the $40 card when it expired. It wasn't even worth paying the $10+ for the boxes available after the coupon.

Neutral

TrentD @ Jun 13th 2008 11:55AM

I was one of them!

Highest Ranked

Doc @ Jun 13th 2008 12:25PM

Why even put an exportation date when it's only feb of next year when we have the deadline? It's pretty sad that the government has this innate ability to fuck up everything that they touch, even a simple coupon..

Neutral

William C Bonner @ Jun 13th 2008 12:44PM

I drove 15 miles out of my way to find a box that I could spend $15 on after using the $40 coupon. I had hoped to use my second coupon at some point, but it has expired before I found a box that was really useful.

I guess I fit directly in that 50%.

Neutral

Nick @ Jun 13th 2008 1:00PM

I got two coupons. I used one. That's 50% Don't need another one, don't want one. I have sattelite in every room of my house, but I needed a converter for the TV in the garage.

You need an expiration date, otherwise the thing will go over budget. The way governmental budgets work, ALL governmental budgets work, in every country, you put aside a certain amount of money, then if you didn't use it, you roll it back into the main budget, otherwise you lose all that money. Any money lost by this government would be a very, very bad thing. We, as a country are in deep, deep debt, and everyone got the chance to purchase a converter, with a coupon. If you're too cheap to pay the 20 bucks for a converter, you can go ahead and bite me. The government gave everyone a decent chance, if you didn't take it, bite me.

Neutral

thorphin @ Jun 13th 2008 1:11PM

You're forgetting one thing, Nick. The program was designed so that any expired coupons would go back into the system for new disbursement for NEW coupons. The money is allocated to the program, and it recycles until it's used up or people stop requesting coupons. The problem is that to send out new coupons, the government has to use more money on postage, wheras extending expiration dates (or not expiring until, say, February from the start) would actually be the cheapest solution. By ordering more coupons than you need or use, you are actually creating more expenditures.

Neutral

Nick @ Jun 13th 2008 3:13PM

The cheapest solution would have been an electronic one, give everyone a number online and then they can go out and use that number.

Neutral

thorphin @ Jun 13th 2008 5:08PM

Sure, but that would be a target audience mismatch. The coupon program is supposed to allow people who can't afford pay-TV to continue to receive free TV at very little cost. Often, the people who aren't paying for TV are also the same people who don't have (or understand) Internet access. It's not to say they couldn't have offered some sort of combination solution with a little of solution a and a little of solution b.... but yeah... that may be asking too much of the govt.

Neutral

William C Bonner @ Jun 14th 2008 1:01PM

While I agree you need an expiration of some sort, expiring in one year would make sense, since one year after they sent the things out the old analog spectrum will have been reclaimed. I know that when the tv in my kitchen suddenly doesn't work at all, I'll really weigh the thought of more wires / complexity vs not working at all. I currently only use that TV once every few months, so it just doesn't seem worth the hassle.

Neutral

Ordeith @ Jun 13th 2008 1:54PM

Converter boxes all sold out at the fre places here that even carry them.

Even @ radio shack.

So they expired.. here's hoping for an extension.

Neutral

SouthPaw @ Jun 13th 2008 3:30PM

I ordered in february and never got my coupons!! I think they were never mailed I asked at local Bestbuy and when asked they said they hadn't seen a coupon card in their store yet. I thing large locks of coupons were never mailed.

Neutral

Jean Chalupsky @ Aug 19th 2008 11:16PM

I must agree SouthPaw with your saying lots did not receive. I am part of that group. Yet, when I try to order now, I am declined saying I have already ordered. They system has it's issues in my opinion. So, here I am without a coupon to use. I'm basically $80 in the hole on this DTV project. Darn!

Neutral

The Aggie CEO @ Jun 13th 2008 5:48PM

Can I get an extension..........lol

I hadnt pulled these things out since I got them..........had 4got about them........lol

Neutral

BT @ Jun 13th 2008 7:38PM

it's FCC, what do you expect?

Neutral

Rick @ Jun 14th 2008 2:42PM

uh oh. mine expire in 3 days and all of the stores in my area are sold out. =[

Neutral

GrangerFX @ Jun 15th 2008 1:24PM

It's not really procrastination. I could never find a good one. I could never even find any decent reviews. Good converters were in development but none were released in time. The real problem is that the coupons expired way too early. They should have lasted up until the cutoff date at least. That would have encouraged converter box makers to compete with each other and release units with decent features and the ability to decode weak signals. I decided I would rather keep my $10-40 and buy a better converter in the future. Heck if I don't use the stupid coupon, I could opt for one with a HDMI plug.

Neutral

FreeRange @ Jun 17th 2008 5:21PM

https://www.dtv2009.gov/Stats.aspx

As of Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Coupons Mailed: 15,411,260
Coupons Expired: 802,873
Coupons Redeemed: 3,277,107
Coupons Active: 11,331,280

802,873 out of 15,411,260 is just 5.2%

Neutral

Dave @ Aug 4th 2008 6:35PM

https://www.dtv2009.gov/Stats.aspx

As of Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Coupons Expired: 4,672,451
Coupons Redeemed: 7,221,795

4,672,451 out of (4,672,451 + 7,221,795) is 39.3%

Neutral

mike @ Jun 17th 2008 11:47PM

My DTV coupons never came. I ordered first week of Jan 08. Gov't told me the coupons mailed 3/21/08. 6/16/08 still not here. Called gov't hotline, was told they would folowup email. Nothing, no followup, no investigation, no dtv coupons for my family. What a ripoff. I paid my taxes that pay for these dtv coupons, and now I cant even get them. Now when I call, they tell me there is nothing anyone can do.

Neutral

Karen @ Aug 14th 2008 2:46PM

I never received my coupons either - applied in April - said they were sent in May - I e-mailed the web-site - they replied that the coupons had expired and there is nothing that can be done. This is a joke!

Highly Ranked

Damon @ Jun 25th 2008 3:32AM

You can call 1-877-RS-DTV-4U and order a box with your coupon through Radio Shack. BONUS: FREE SHIPPING
I got the Digital Stream DTX 9950 with Analog Pass for $19.99 plus tax

Neutral

johnny loveless @ Jul 29th 2008 2:51PM

wal marts run out befor i could get mine'cause im disabled. waited and waited then they expired.what do I do now?

Neutral

Nonnie @ Aug 5th 2008 12:55PM

Heck we were always too broke (just from paying reg. bills) to get them and each time I'd save up the money, then they wouldn't have any and now the coupons are expired, ugh ! So the coupons really didn't help us. $20 extra for us is a couple of meals for us. We have to pinch every penny. Guess we'll be watching a blank screen tv.

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