Removal of Advanced Search - a catastrophe for Premium subscribers - When is it going to be reinstated?

From September 10th I have been trying to find out why Dstv removed the Advanced Search facility from its Search menu. I have used Facebook, email, and the enquiries number. I tried to use the Dstv forum but found that my account had been blocked. Nevertheless, via Google I managed to find the relevant forum post: YOUR REASONS FOR DROPPING ADVANCED SEARCH - "Theme Search and Advanced Searches were dropped as they do not provide a lot of value to the customer and require significant test effort. Value to the customer was measured by completing customer surveys in 2017 and 2018. It was found that (averages over the 2 years): - 93% of the respondents are aware of Advanced Search. Of these people, 40% never use the feature and a further 40% use it less than twice a month. - 95% of the respondents are aware of Theme Search. Of these people, 43% never use the feature and a further 38% use it less than twice a month. - Theme Search and Advanced Search are the least used of the menu searches. Further reasons behind dropping this functionality: - The searches operate on a fixed list of genres. As a result, any piece of content which is mapped to a genre outside of the fixed list cannot be found using these searches. This makes the searches ineffective as a content discovery mechanism - 62% of people using the Advanced Search more than twice a month are using it to search for titles. This functionality is still available using the word search." HERE IS A RESPONSE FROM ONE OF YOUR VIEWERS - "Re: Where is the Theme Search? Lets look at it another way and using the 60% that uses it rather than the 40% that only uses it once or twice a month. Just looking at it differently Multichoice reported a 6 500 000 subscriber base in November 2017 I will have to take a stab at the number owning Exploras but lets use 15% as an educated guess. That mean that around 600 000 subscribers that used the advanced search facility monthly are now without it and not very happy subscribers."

I AM ONE OF THE 600 000 VERY UNHAPPY SUBSCRIBERS

My numerous communications to Dstv help have garnered the following responses: 1. Your decoder must be faulty. I had my repair man check my system - he replaced the eye on my dish. My decoder was working properly. I still couldn’t get Advanced search. 2. I was phoned late one night by one of your representatives and told that I wasn’t the only person complaining and that your technical team was working on the problem - it would all be “fixed” in a week or so. 3. I waited “a week or so” and made renewed contact. Failing to get a response from DSTV (“we are waiting for feedback”) I was told by my repairman that I should upgrade to the Explora 2. I did so and found that I still couldn’t get Advanced Search. The installer told me sadly that nobody could get Advanced Search any more. He also told me even more sadly that it was no use trying to contact you because your service “has gone down the drain”. This was a very sad waste of money seeing as you have now sabotaged your entire search system and intend to keep it that way. 4. I now started emailing on a regular basis - I always got the same reply - “we are waiting for feedback”. 5. I have also received a collection of the most idiotically stupid recommendations for alternative ways to find the programmes that I used to be able to find on Advanced Search. Most of them involve telling me that everything that I want can be found on “Word search”. My responses to this piece of stupidity have gone from patient explanations as to why this is utterly futile, to downright enraged. 6. I gave up on communicating with your enquiries staff who are evidently kept in the dark and have to make up their own weird answers to customers’ problems. I now asked to be put in touch with the senior management. It appears that your senior management has no interest in communicating with or making themselves accessible in any way to mere customers. There have been no responses from any of these lordly types - just silence. 7. I have consistently pointed out that my subscription to the premium package is useless without Advanced Search. There is no longer any way to search for documentaries, shows, music, youth programmes, or quiz shows. And NO, you can’t look them up in Word Search UNLESS YOU ALREADY KNOW WHAT THEY ARE. At first your representatives begged me fulsomely and profusely not to cancel my subscription - “it will all be back to normal soon!” Only it isn’t going back to normal, is it? Further complaints solicited the ultimate insult - things are staying as they are now and if you don’t like it where can Dstv send your refund?

Really? You are haemorrhaging customers and want to encourage more of us to ditch your product?

SO - HERE IS MY COMPLAINT: DSTV USED TO BE A QUALITY PRODUCT. WHAT IS YOUR PROBLEM? YOU SHOULD HAVE KEPT AHEAD OF THE INTERNET INSTEAD OF WHINING ABOUT ITS COMPETITIVENESS. YOU OBVIOUSLY HAVE NO INTERNET SAVVY - YOUR WEBSITE IS CLUMSY AND DIFFICULT TO USE - YOUR SEARCH OPTIONS ON THE DECODER HAVE NEVER RISEN ABOVE THE LEVEL OF EVEN THE SIMPLEST ONLINE SEARCH ENGINE. IT WAS LIKE USING DOS, BUT AT LEAST IT WORKED, AFTER A FASHION. NOW YOU HAVE TOTALLY MESSED IT UP AND WERE TOO ARROGANT TO WARN YOUR PREMIUM CLIENTS OR EVEN THINK TO SOLICIT THEIR OPINION. INSTEAD YOU CANVASSED THE “MAJORITY” OF YOUR CUSTOMERS, WHO DO NOT PAY FOR THE PREMIUM PACKAGE, AND USED THEIR ANSWERS TO JUSTIFY CUTTING BACK ON AN ESSENTIAL SERVICE. SHAME ON YOU FOR DESTROYING WHAT WAS ONCE A REPUTABLE PRODUCT. YOU WERE SO OBSTINATE ABOUT NOT ALLOWING CUSTOMERS TO PICK THEIR GENRES - NOW LOOK WHERE THAT’S TAKEN YOU. I HAVE BEEN A LOYAL CUSTOMER FOR A VERY LONG TIME - FROM THE DAYS WHEN ONE COULD ENJOY A SCIFI CHANNEL, CARLTON FOOD NETWORK, FABULOUS MOVIES, ANIMAX, DOCUMENTARIES, YOU NAME IT. DESPITE THE INCREASE IN CHANNELS YOU HAVE GRADUALLY REMOVED EVERYTHING THAT CATERED TO MY INDIVIDUAL TASTES - BUT I FORGAVE YOU BECAUSE USING THE ADVANCED SEARCH FACILITY ALLOWED ME TO PICK OUT THE GOOD STUFF FROM THAT HUGE MORASS OF MEDIOCRITY. NOW EVEN THAT HAS BEEN TAKEN AWAY. I AM GIVING YOU ONE MORE CHANCE - I WANT A RESPONSE FROM A REPRESENTATIVE AT THE HIGHEST LEVEL: (1) ARE YOU ARE GOING TO SEE REASON AND MAKE YOUR PRODUCT VIABLE AGAIN BY REINSTATING ADVANCED SEARCH? (2) ARE YOU REALLY ARE THAT EAGER TO CHASE ME INTO THE ARMS OF NETFLIX ET AL?