Want to help me blow up Media Markt?

My nightmare of tring to get cable installed in my new apartment is never-ending. Three weeks ago I signed up for Digital Cable with an English packet from MediaMarkt with the assurance that I would receive all the necessary stuff by now. When I didn't, I called TeleColumbus who of course said they never heard of me and to talk to MediaMarkt. So, I went to MM where an unbelievably nasty (even by German service standards) called them and then told me they couldn't connect it because I don't have an Analog Anschluss and that they tried to call me but had my phone number wrong naturally. I won't bother describing the rest of the interaction which involved me having to fish my papers out of their garbage can where he had thrown them together with all my private data.

Of course, I told the original guy at MM that I had my analog connection through the apartment management and he said it was no problem. Also, the first woman at TeleColumbus told me that all I needed to do was call back and they would set me up over the phone. The only problem is that when I did call back, the next woman told me I had to have my own connection and a "Grundleistung" from the apartment building was not enough.

Does anybody know enough about this to tell me whether or not I need to have an analog Anschluss in my own name in order to get the digital cable?

I think I will lose my mind here. ARGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHH!

Ok, I called TeleColumbus back and as I understand it, I need more than the basic analog cable package to get the digital service and I will need some kind of enhanced service. I think I only have a basic package of 7 channels at tht moment.I guess I should have been suspicious when the whole thing was co cheap, about 10.9 Euros/month for the basic digital service and then 4 Euros/month for the English package. Of course, that is on top of buying the digital receiver (99 Euros).

Does all this seem right to anybody who has been through this?

I'll help you blow up Media Markt only if you help me blow up Saturn. Saturn=crappy service

One a serious note, you do need more than the basic package and the digital receiver.

If "Search" can't help, then perhaps Grinner will, he knows his shit when it comes to telly stuff.

I tried searching the forum but didn't see anything on this. I am going to revisit the Berlin RKS center again to try and figure this out. At this point, I am assuming I have to upgrade to a full analog cable package before I can get digital although it seems weird to have to subscribe to one package to get another.

As far as MM, after my girlfriend got two bad computers from them and this episode, I will think long and hard before buying anything from them again but if I keep blacklisting places, I might have to move out of Berlin.

"Ich bin doch nicht blöd!"

Saturn and Media Markt are the same company...

Ok...I was at RKS in Berlin and got the info. Apparently, the cable package I get through the Hausverwaltung is not sufficient to support the digital add-on (why that is doesn't make alot of sense to me except that they want more money) but it doesn't matter since the analog upgrade I can get for my existing package that comes with the apartment does not include CNN/BBC.

Bottom line is that to get what I want, I need to pay about 11E/month for the analogue enhancement, another 11E/month for the digital package, and then 4E/month for the English package in addition to buying the digital receiver for 89E. In return I get the following channels of interest to me in addition to all the German channels which i never watch:

CNN
BBC World
Al Jazeera English
SkyNews
EuroNews
National Geographic
BBC Prime
TCM

and a bunch of other useless crap for 25E/month. I consider that ok for my purposes since it says in my lease that I can't have satellite (I looked at Sky Germany anyway an it is overkill for what I need.)

The interesting part was that they say three musiness days to deliver everything where MediaMarket said three business weeks. I will believe it when the stuff actually shows up and everything works as promised.

Yeh, can we go round to the Conrad at OEZ after that too? I was just trying to buy a cordless mouse, she couldn't get the barcode to work, then entering the number wouldn't work, after almost 10 minutes of waiting while she served other customers and occasionally shouted over to another colleague to get someone from the computing department over, I left and bought it from Saturn next door.

What really pisses me off is how they will have just one checkout open with a huge queue, and like 3 of them standing around chatting somewhere else in the shop.