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"What I had meant to say, before clicking the post button, was that I've just heard from some of my friends in Spain and it seems that they are just importing a large dish (from England) and watching free"
a word of warning...i do hope that they have not gone for a cheap petal dish...it is well known by installers that the fortecstar 6 segment petal dish is a poor performer - one installer compared its performace to less than a 1.8m solid aluminium famaval dish....they are not easy to set up, or align as you must move thew hole dish (including the support structure) which it not good for the delicate adjustments required for the best signal...and hence why it is cheap. i have seen a few of these and groan when i see one...
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www.satandpcguy.com Satellite TV & Sky TV in Spain installers. Costa Blanca, Azahar and Valencia areas.
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 Hi Abbbb1, No we paid in cash upfront till MARCH next year so I am afraid they have had our money. But they should not be taking money of you if they are not providing the service, they should have informed the bank concerned. I would get in touch with the bank and ask them to refund the money, they must realise you are not getting the service. but maybe not.  Good Luck Pat
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The last time the TV went down was at the beginning of May.
My direct debit is due around 8th of the month, I paid in May but because of the disruption of service they gave us one month free so I didn't pay in June and have since paid July and Augusts payment. 18 e each time.
Will have to check in a couple of weeks to see if they try to take out September.
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Many thanks for the advice, much appreciated.
Pat & Roy: Sorry to hear about your situation. We originally paid "up-front", but changed it because we don't like anyone having our money before time!! Hope that you get a nice rebate at the end.
We have been dithering a lot just lately over this situation! Because it's a bit difficult to make any decisions on what to do, firstly we decided to cancel the direct debit a few days ago. Then we had problems with Solbank not taking an e-mail cancellation. They would accept a signed, faxed letter. Long saga, but as fax not working, and we changed our minds - yet again!!! - after we read the Telmicro notice of being back on the air. soon . Also, they said that it wouldn't take payments - but didn't exactly say from when they wouldn't take payments!! So was a bit horrified to see that they had taken August's. Knew that the service had been dodgy for some time, but didn't exactly know the day of complete "blackout". However, did presume that no payments would be taken for August!! I didn't get a free month, (June) but again presumed the reason that they reduced our payments down from €20 to €18 was so as they could give us the reduction over the course of 10months!! I feel that I need this head-banging character!!
Even so, I'm very thankful for on-line banking!!
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The May blackout was resolved very quickly. It went off Tuesday 6 May and when I left Spain Thusday 8 May some of the programmes were back on. As the line up was different they offered two charging rates depending on how may programmes you wanted to receive, 15e or 18e. No sports channels but gradually they came back on with some extra channels, UK drama is the only one I remember but there were others. By the time we went back end of June the line up of channels was complete but the list is in Spain so I can't tell you exactly what it is/was.
Did you get a free month in May, mine's in June because my payment date coincided with the black out. If yours is later in the month then they had time to freeze the payment for that month.
I've checked and they were closed down Tuesday 12 August. The Guardia took everything away then so perhaps they didn't have the books/information available to be able to stop any direct debits.
If you didn't get a free month in May then I'd email them to find out why, could you scan the relevant parts of your Solbank statement and attach it to your email to prove your claim.
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Hi Semi: Thanks for all that info.
I sent them a letter, but received only this general one back today. I think that I will take your advice  and send them one with the bank statement attached, because didn't get a break in payments.
Dear Customer,
All the direct debits are paid in arrears. The billing was done first week
of August as normal (for the month of July). No bills have been sent after
the stop of broadcast. Once the service is resumed, we will eventually
restart the direct debits (more information will be provided regarding this
once the service is back on).
We have no official date to restart the service as of yet, but we are
working with a timescale of a few weeks (by mid-September), but hopefully it
can be sorted out sooner.
Regards
Telmicro TV Service
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Well you've found out a couple of things for us, every one pays the monthly bill at the same time ( I thought it depended on when the contract started) and it's paid in arrears. I thought it was paid in advance as they wait a month before they disconnect the individual card, that's what I was told by our engineer.
They have also cofirmed that no direct debits will be paid until the service comes back on.
Will just have to wait for further information and keep searching the threads for news as that's the only way us non residents can get information. 
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I've just spoken to the hotline (902512930 for those interested) and they confirmed that my August DD went thru cos it was for July's service, which was ok, now I won't be paying til they announce it on their info channel when it is all back on. Seems like we'll be getting some extra free viewing when it all comes back.
I asked what it was about and they said can't be sure as Spanish law says you can't get details of an ongoing investigation, but from what they can tell it's re "certain channels" - I think we can all guess which those are!
Also confirmed what the email in previous post said - Mid-sept is what they're hoping for to resume broadcasting...
Makes me wonder though... why was Telmicro shut down while the other companies were only told to stop showing those channels?.... sounds weird to me... any thoughts?
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Who knows, there has been plenty of speculation and posting from someone who knows someone who knows someone who works in Guardia or owns Telemicro. 
As you say why Telimicro, maybe because they were the largest and they were used to get the message across.
There's so much intrique and supposition going on but the only thing that is clear is all these companies are illegal. They are re-broadcasting a signal for profit. Even if they were paying to receive the channels (don't think so) as soon as they charge us to receive it it becomes illegal.
I see on another thread you've listed the channels and Calle13 is only showed on Digital+ which you have to pay 30e a month to subscribe to. So not only are they defrauding sky but also the Spanish digital pay for view channel.
I have seen that Torresat are also broadcasting this channel plus others which in the Digital+ lineup, Fox, SciFi and I can't remember which others had Spanish adverts.
The main things is not to panic, if Telemicro doesn't come back then I'm sure the others will follow.
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i have noticed than many rebroadcasters show calle13, Fox, Nat Geo and Sci Fi. I kno wthat these are not the UK versions, so they must be some other countries verisons of these channels -
calle13 is owned by Universal, and is also available on many cable systems as well as D+, so maybe the rebroadcasters do actually have some permission for these channels......
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The version I watch has Spanish adverts and when I returned home I googled to see if I could get the channel in UK (in the middle of a series and wanted to know how it ended) only D+ came up.
If it's Universal that makes it I'll have to look for it when I'm next out in US, never heard of it before Telemicro started to transmit it . It does have some German broadcasts thought it was a bit strange but now I know.
What about Halmark, who owns the rights to broadcast that, I notice that channels not included in the list.
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calle 13 is the spanish version of a channel owned by universal
the french version is 13rue, and 13th Street is the Gerrman version.
hallmark channel is owned also by nbc universal...
looking at the listings some programmes are on both hallmark and 13
probably "spanish hallmark" is actually calle 13.....
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Some of the programmes are similar, they have the latest versions of Law & Order, Criminal Intent and Special Victims Unit on Calle13 whereas on Hallmark here in UK (what Telemicro were transmitting before the plug was pulled) the series are a lot older. That's why I wanted to carry on watching Calle 13, can't get the series on DVD yet as they are so slow to release them.
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For the record, (but I think most peeps know this now!)
A UK purchased Freeview box does NOT work in Spain.
Don't matter where you plug the ariel in..........communial ariel, the mesh dish, satellite dish, or what ever orifice you may be closest to at the time!
It don't work.............plain and simple.....................ours is currently sitting by the green bin in the street, plus skart lead, ariel lead and remote control. All dumped in anger by my worst half........... (pm me for the address if you are a bin scavenger!)
I had previously asked our resident satandpcguy for advice, and he correctly told me.....no, it won't work..........did I trust him....nah, so lugged it all the way from the UK, only to be proved right!!!!
So peeps, say a big thanks to all the advice given on EOS by satandpcguy, he certainly knows his onions (or rather the sat dish they may be served on............LOL!)
Oh and yes, me and the old git still argue over which DVD to put on.................. makes a change from which channel to watch!
Bless...................
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