Fetch TV - many issues and no support

Electronics & Technology
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After TIVO died in Australia, I purchased a Fetch TV box. I am endlessly disappointed with its ergonomics, clunky controls, buggy software and most of all, that it now offers no accessible support at all. Yes it has the usual FAQs, but when you quickly get to the end of the road and click on the final “Contact support” or “Feedback”, you now go to an empty page. It has been empty for at least a few months. Given that this is my most troublesome device this is not just inconvenient, it is unacceptable. Fetch are supposed to provide support for devices purchased from a retailer. If you purchase from an ISP then the ISP provides support, and you are probably much better off than retail purchasers.

As one example, the Fetch app for SBS On Demand doesn’t display subtitles predictably (they disappear after the last annoying ad break). I contacted SBS who first suggested that I contact Fetch. Well that’s not going to work, Fetch are uncontactable. In the end SBS gave me their time and some help, but weren’t able to fix the problem. It seems the app is some sort of joint venture between SBS and Fetch, anyway SBS said it was a Fetch problem. The same happens with several other issues I have each time they update their software and new things go wrong - there is no means of resolution at all.

• Are suppliers legally allowed to provide tech devices and services with no support at all?
• is there a case for investigation or enforcement by any agency in Australia? ACCC is useless for individual consumer issues and apart from Choice I don’t know of any way of following this up.
• can Choice investigate?

This highlights also the difficulty of resolving issues with apps that are provided by big tech. I asked Fetch (in the good old days before the support page went blank) about a problem with Google YouTube on Fetch. They said it was a Google issue. That was the end of the road, how do you get support for a Google App that is particular for Fetch if Fetch won’t facilitate or themselves make contact with Google? Another problem was never resolved between LG who make my TV and and an Apple app designed for the LG TV. Both denied responsibility.

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Under Australian Consumer Law (ACL), services and goods do need to meet the rules regarding faults. As an individual, a consumer can make a formal complaint about a service or good that they have. This requires that an email or letter of complaint is sent to the business/person who provided the goods or service, if verbal communication has failed. Fetch is both a device and a service, and repair, replacement, refund, and/or compensation can be sought for a failure to meet the requirements of the ACL.

There are free Consumer legal advice centres that can give formal advice and support to help tackle how to go about getting a remedy. I suggest that a consumer takes advantage of these legal centres to ensure they are properly informed of what to do.

Fetch TV

Address Level 13, 100 Arthur Street, North Sydney, New South Wales 2060, AU
Phone +61 2 8014 5180

CHOICE do investigate problems, it will depend on how big a problem it is whether CHOICE will spend the funds to undertake the work. CHOICE is limited due to their budget about what problems they can tackle as their money is from membership funding. The more members the more they have available to look at consumer issues. Raising your problem here is one way of making them aware of the issue (the Community is a social outreach of CHOICE), another way is to write to the CHOICE organisation directly raising your issue.

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Can I ask where you found the phone number? If you use their website (desktop), this is what you get if clicking “Support” or “Feedback” or “Technical Support” or “Contact”…

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I have just tested accessing my Fetch, myself, and have not seen the issues you are having. Jumping through hoops (Next—> etc) eventually gets me to a page where I can submit a query via the web. I confess the only issues I have ever had on the web with other sites presenting blank pages has been when I was using an adblocker

Have you tried turning off your extensions? Have you tried a different (clean, no addons) browser?

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A different phone number to that posted above can be found here:

It however isn’t known if this phone number will link one to get support. It may be worth trying though.

The ACCC is silent in relation to sellers must provide technical support. However, sellers must provide spares and repair facilities for a reasonable time after purchase:

It is unclear whether this extends to include post sale support.

Apps are usually developed by organisations different to big tech. Using your example, Fetch TV manufacturers their box and SBS is responsible for the development of the app on various devices.

As SBS is responsible for their apps development, it is believed that they are responsible for ensuring the app works on the devices which it says it can operate. This includes the Fetch TV box.

Whether the subtitles issue is a SBS app issue or how Fetch TV processes data from the app is unknown. The responsibilities could be either, hence each points the finger at the other. This doesn’t solve your problem.

If subtitles are critical to you for use of Fetch TV, such as one is hearing impaired, and you believe at purchase that subtitles would work on the FetchvTV box, then you may be able to exercise your rights under the Australian Consumer Law. This will be particularly the case if you can’t get any support from Fetch TV or SBS.

In such case, the Fetch TV box isn’t fit for purpose under the ACL. You should then push for a resolution under the ACL.

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Phone number was through a Dun and Bradstreet enquiry. The phone number’s “mailbox” is full, though it is Fetch TV.

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I’ve found this group https://www.facebook.com/groups/fetchtvusersoz useful.

moderator edit: The embedded link was inoperative and has been corrected.

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Thatgroup does not show up for me, even on a search.

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The embedded link was faulty, since corrected.

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I was a bit cranky recently when Telstra ceased supporting their “Telstra TV’ boxes and instead adopted the Fetch boxes. My experience is that the old Telstra TV boxes were far superior to the Fetch boxes.

Telstra gave us one new Fetch box to replace the old one but we actually had three. So I complained but the compensation that I got for now having two perfectly functioning but useless Telstra TV boxes was just $100. So I decided to not buy any more Fetch boxes lest Telstra decides to cancel them.

So I have just bought an Apple TV and I have to say that it is terrific!

I have some older Apple TV boxes but have not used them for several years because the old Telstra TV boxes were so good.

I highly recommend the Apple TV boxes. Not only for their quality and service back-up but also because they will integrate with other Apple devices to the extent that you can display all of your photographs stored on the Apple iCloud on to the big screen of the TV.

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With regard to the specific issue of the disappearing SBS OnDemand subtitles, I encountered that same fault, as did a family member on her Fetch box. Consistently, the fault appears immediately after the final ad break. As it didn’t seem to occur with other streaming apps I took it to be an SBS problem rather than a Fetch problem.

I contacted SBS who appeared to take the problem seriously and asked me for examples of episodes or series where this was happening. I supplied this information and there were several emails to and fro. Amazingly, they said that with their testing they were unable to reproduce the fault. I suggested they make sure they play an episode in full rather than maybe fast-forwarding to the final ad break. Again they said they couldn’t see a fault. I suggest you add to my voice by complaining to SBS, and maybe they can be encouraged to keep trying. (BTW - there is a quick and dirty fix you can use. Hit Pause then hit the Exit button, which should take you back to live TV. Next, hit the Return button. The streamed program returns to the point at which you exited, but now the subtitles are working).

I realise none of this should let the Fetch people off the hook, but maybe the SBS developers have some hotline to the Fetch people, if that’s where the fault lies.

I appreciate that this is only a small part of a more general issue which you’ve raised, but I’m hoping it still helps.

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Thanks to people for the suggestions.

On the subject of contact with Fetch support… Following Sue’s advice I tried a clean browser and did manage to access a support form. So that’s a plus, though I have not tested it, and it’s a mystery to me why I have no problem with any other similar form using my regular browser and ad blocker. On that form page Fetch say “We do not offer phone support, but we will get back to you as soon as we can.”, so I am more than doubtful about the suggestions for phone numbers. (also not tested by me). One of the phone numbers suggested is from an old US site, and grahroll says the other doesn’t answer.

The facebook page is a possibility for support but it is thinly used and there’s no apparent Fetch participation or response. The quality of users’ comments and assistance available is variable. Actually there are at least TWO facebook pages, the one not mentioned already in this thread is “Fetch TV Australia… User Issues” with a URL on my machine of Redirecting...

There’s an email [email protected] which I discovered I had used in 2020 with reasonable success, but not sure if that is still operating. It is not mentioned anywhere on their website, but Google AI knows about it and gives a US-oriented discussion of its usefulness.

It’s kind of reassuring that one other person found the same problem with SBS On Demand (two others actually). FYI kortravel, I also spent time discussing with SBS and also asked them if they could contact Fetch. At the time there was no improvement, but I notice in the last few weeks that subtitles seem to work for entire programs, and that leaving and re-entering the app is no longer necessary. The SBS app as a whole used to be very troublesome but does seem to be improving.

It’s obvious from hunting around the net that Fetch box performance is not great and many people have had issues. People mention that software updates cause more problems than they fix, and quite a few have abandoned their Fetch TVs. (I would too if there was a replacement. The TIVO was, by comparison, brilliant – in case I haven’t mentioned this enough already).

If you start googling, once you get to “alternative to f…” the autofills are informative - in order I got:

• fish sauce,
• facebook,
• fetch tv (two above foxtel).

Considering Fetch’s much lower user numbers than fish sauce, facebook or foxtel, that is quite telling.

It’s my impression that Fetch support and performance have become worse in the last few years and I wonder about the coincidence of Telstra taking a majority stake in Fetch TV in 2022.

Anyway, I’m very grateful for the nudges in this thread that provide hope for getting Fetch TV support via the above avenues :slight_smile: . (Though I wish there wasn’t so much need for it :frowning: )

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Hallelujah! Someone else has problems with Fetch, I’ve given up with the view that once the units eventually die I will start searching for something to replace it. For me the trouble all started a few years ago with the complete redesign of their Graphic User Interface (GUI). The original one wasn’t too bad but the rewrite saw every single function redefined, all the menus changed, & obviously done by someone who was NOT an end user because nothing was intuitive.

These days it’s things like menus skipping back 2 or more levels when you’re simply trying to go back to the previous one. Then there’s deleting recordings after watching only to find that you’re actually deleting a recording you haven’t watch or another programme from another channel! Of course if you pick this up you can restore it from the “recently deleted” folder. Another problem is when the box records from multiple sources like ABC & iView, once watched you can’t always delete either recording without backing right out of the unit & restarting it.

Originally I used EyeTV for Mac & used a dedicated macMini as my media centre. Their software, IceTV, programme guide & recording framework was wonderful. It allowed you to the set recordings by actor’s names, so anything containing a specific name: genre, series, or partial name eg you could set it to record “Mission Impossible” or “Doctor Who” & every time one of the movies and/or TV episode was broadcast, regardless of source, it recorded it for you. (In checking the names of these products I’ve found that IceTV now have IceBox, their own device so I may now have the alternative I spoke of earlier.

Roll on the demise of FetchTV so we may all be put out of their misery!

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I loved EyeTV and IceTV, still have the eyeTV gadget but I don’t think it gets any support from Elgato now. Pity. I’ll take a look at IceBox too, the last iteration of the UI on Fetch is intensely annoying!

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I’d actually forgotten that IceTV went belly up & that was why I stopped & looked elsewhere but it was rescued & has gone much further in the interim. I too have an Elgato device that would be more a museum piece today but am always looking for an answer to the problem of FetchTV. You’re far too kind to classify it as “intensely annoying?, LOL

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I had several problems with Fetch. Much poorer product than Telstra TV. I replaced it with firetvstick HD. Much happier with this.

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Firesticks etc give you streaming apps but won’t give you the integrated free to air and recording that Fetch provides, while those looking to IceBox will get the FTA but not the streaming apps. I got Fetch specifically because it provided both these in a convenient integrated package. While recording is no longer a big deal for many, I still want the integrated environment. And I agree, the Fetch UI started out poor, and has become worse with every major update. I do get the feeling that some apps are slowly improving, but the overall experience is still frustrating, poorly executed and unstable. Specifially, the business of search/ff/rewind/pause/play and associated progress bars is just awful. Clunky, inaccurate, fragile, and generally very ‘annoying’, made worse by the god-forsaken banners that appear all the time covering much of what you are trying to see. And not just poorly performing, but also inconsistent across different apps and FTA. How many times have I tried to move 10 seconds ahead and actually moved 15 minutes, or to the next program, or not at all? When TIVO died, I don’t know why Fetch didn’t buy the rights to the TIVO UI software – superb in hindsight, but you never know what you’ve got till it’s gone. The question remains, why is Fetch software so awful even though it has the support of Telstra?

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How does a ChromeCast device compare?

I know it won’t record or support recording. Maybe there are apps for that purpose or some work around.

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Metoo, thats why I still have my Fetch Mighty. Its getting a bit long in the tooth but still handy for recording. For bit of news, its SBS or ABC on my appleTV.

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The FTA channels typically include access to their live broadcast channels from within their streaming Apps. We have a CromeCast. Assume the Apple TV device works similarly.

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