As an update to yesterday’s post about how Bell ExpressVu subjected my children to pornography I received a call today from someone who tried to placate me and didn’t do such a good job at it. I did, however, get told to send a formal complaint to the executive office at the parent company. So I did:

Hello,
I’m writing to you as a result of conversations with several individuals at Bell ExpressVu.  My name is________________________________(edited out my personal details)

On August 17 at 8:pm EST we ordered the PPV event for WWE SummerSlam on channel 401. I need to begin by telling you I am outraged at what happened following the event. We don’t typically order pay per view events and placed an order on the telephone due to the fact our account wouldn’t accept an automated remote purchase because we had never before ordered an event this expensive.

The event ended slightly early and myself and my family (including my two children) were chatting in our living room after the event ended. On the screen was the VU logo and some music playing.  All of a sudden advertisements for ADULT events were on our screen. There were censored banners covering naked body parts and women engaging in very sexual activity and the language was definitely not appropriate for my children.  I  got the tv turned off as quickly as I could and contacted your office who assured me that there was no adult programming on channel 401 and I was told that the adult programming is slated for specific channels. I invited the individual on the phone to view my PVR which contained the material in question as it had been recorded.  The event replayed at 11:pm EST so the following program after ours was the exact same program with a rating of 14+.

As I was speaking to your tech support department we checked channel 401 again just prior to 11:pm (with our children out of the room) and saw a woman’s bare breasts  during an advertisement for some “couples only” adult films.

Today I spoke to someone else in your office as well who suggested if I wanted to make a complaint I send an e-mail to this e-mail address. I was given the impression today that because the event played on a channel that does have adult only programming as well there’s a chance that this can happen. If I had known this through a warning on the screen, I’d have changed the channel immediately. In my opinion, Bell ExpressVu did not act responsibly at all.

Not only was the program we watched rated for age 14+ (not 18+ or NR/AO) but the lapse between the PPV event and the racy commercials was not lengthy at all at less than 2 minutes or so.

In my opinion, Bell ExpressVu should consider separating events that are rated for younger audiences to control the rating of the advertisements placed in between programs.  I am outraged that I was charged $40 to watch an event that subjected my children to pornography! Not only do I hope that Bell will see fit to credit my account but I hope that this complaint will prompt change in your policies so that other families are not involuntarily subjecting their children to pornography.

Responsible programing would ensure that following an event rated for viewing by younger audiences, there would never be adult commercials played. These commercials left almost nothing to the imagination and I don’t appreciate that I didn’t have an opportunity to do my job as a parent and protect my children from seeing such things.

I anxiously await your response.
*****

We’ll see what happens next.