UPDATE 3-25-09: Expired Coupon Holders can now Reapply!
The last day to request a tv converter box coupon wll be on March 31st, 2009.
As the coupon deadline looms, there are some interesting redemption statistics (updated weekly) available at the NTIA Website. We do want to note that certain stores have been selling converter boxes for $15-$30. A total of 21.3 million coupons have been requested, and at the time of this posting, the coupon redemption rate is 54.6 percent for households that rely on over-the-air broadcast analog, DTV, and HDTV signals only.
Considering the amount of media attention lately surrounding frustrated consumers not being able to find converter boxes before their coupons expired, it’s not suprising to see such high expiration figures.
At a recent Capitol Hill oversight hearing on the state of the transition, legislators were argueing in support for re-application of expired $40 DTV converter box coupons.
The main problem re-issueing the coupons lies with the cost to make more of the coupon credit cards that consumers use to purchase the converter boxes. The original contract with IBM (maker of the converter credit cards) only covered the costs to manufacture, not reissue the cards.
What should consumers who are holding expired coupons do now?
TVConversionHelp Take: Keep waiting! As news breaks, we’ll keep consumers informed by posting details about re-ordering digital converter box coupons.
my converter box coupon said it was valid thru 12/05/2008
well i tried to purchase a converter box @ walmart on 12/05/08
and the scanner would not allow it. it had not expired yet.
what gives with that. i need a coupon reissued to me.
we also didnt realize (and wondered why) there was a expiration on the coupons and threw our expired coupons out. we live in a rural area — cant afford dish and no cable comes our way. I am resentful of having to go to “electric tv” as we often have storms & we can watch the weather if it comes our way. our storm shelter has a little 9″ battery tv we can watch while there. and the radio in the storm shelter is our only solution if that too doesnt go down. thankfully the longest weve been there was 2 hours during debri on doors but it sure helps to keep in touch. please help us get 2 more coupons…for our safety and sanity can be at stake here.
Did not see expiration date on cards and when we went to buy boxes, we were told the cards were no good, but we could resubmit for a new set of coupons. However, we can’t get an answer from the phone number listed and can’t find out from website how to re-apply. Since our current cards have NOT been used yet, what do we do now??? We were only 3 days late from our card date…..
my coupons have expired. i requested them early so when money was available i could run out and buy the box at my convenience. when i had the money and time i find that these coupons have an expiration date far before the transition date feb 09! what sense does that make? you force me to buy something i don’t want and you limit my time to do so. give me a break! allow us to reapply and get cards with no expiration since this isn’t the peoples’ decision, but the politician’s demand.
Glad Im not the only one who didnt see expiration date…what a farce. They need to just ignore the exp. date.
I was on vacation when the coupon was delivered. Coming home after 3 wks away I just put the most important matters (bills) in priority order, seeing the coupon I thought I had plenty of time for this. Like many others I didnt realize it had a expiration date. What was the purpose of an exp date? We have till Feb.
When California’s budget was finally signed it did not include the normal Renter’s Rebate that I relied on to purchase the boxes and the few necessities a few extra hundred bucks can provide this disabled granny. Now I guess I won’t be afforded the priviledge of tv in a few short months. I WILL be calling (as YOU should) my elected officials, flooding them with calls until they get sick and tired of this old granny, get off their bumms and get us a solution before 2/17/09. When Obama is sworn in let us choose the day after he officially becomes our President to swarm the white house with our plea for a solution. YES WE CAN! Pass this idea to others for the day after so we can be able to SEE tv in the near future.
This is really a sad program I went to best buy to purchase my aloted converter boxes butt the sale was over and had no choice but to buy the boxes at regluar price. I used my coupons two buy but i found them cheaper at aother store I returned just one within five minutes of the purchase and couldn’t get my coupon back but i got my cash so now what. I need another box so how do i get aother coupon while on the other hand best buy they got the money for the coupon this is turning out to be just a SCAM!!!!! Now what us, the public, just has to eat it for the BIG CHANGE some imporvemnet. This will be JUST MORE MONEY FOR THE CORPERATIONS OF THE WORLD. THANK YOU FOR DIGITAL TV.SO NOW WHAT IS NEXT HOW IS THIS MESS GOING TO FIXED. ALL I CAN SEE IS TURNING OUT TO BE JUST A BIG JOKE WITH NO HOPE OF ANY SOLUTION. I wish i could wave the magic wond and everything would be ok but my seems to be broken. So now it is up to you all. SO FIX THIS COUPON MESS and do it soon Febuary is comming really fast.
I AM JUST AOTHER PERSON WHO IS JUST BLOWN AWAY BY THIS COUPON PROGRAM THAT DOES NOT WORK. The first problem I ran across was the fact that I share the same address as my landload. I live in the apartment in back, so now he can not get his coupons so NOW WHAT. The next thing is what do i do with COUPONS THAT ARE EXPIRED. This looking more and more like big pain in the —. SO NOW WHAT OR HOW IS THIS GOING TO BE FIXED AND DO IT ALL BEFORE FEBUARY.
What a brilliant idea. Put a 90 day expiration on these cards and don’t tell anyone, it will save the goverment billions on nonuseable cards. When ours arrived I put them in a safe place until we could get to an electronics store that had then in stock. Now they are expired.
I have 1 more coupon that expired June 13 2008 which like everyone else can not use. Expiration date on these cards is useless. Another one of those things that the government will benefit from & John Q public will get *******. The government is supposed to be for the people that helped put them in office, it’s no wonder that folks don’t trust politicans & that they are all crooked as they think only of themselves.
I was amazed at how many people had weird things happen with the expiration date, etc. on these cards. I felt alone. In my family, some came expired. In one situation, no one ever ordered the coupons and none ever were delivered. But it shows that they were requested in the system. What I don’t like about this is that with these types of glitches, unavailability of converter boxes, it puts additional stress on the poor (particularly disabled and seniors). I fall into the disabled category. I agree-no expiration date should be there. The first couple of posts said it all and I hope they fix it. Expecting people to ask others to use their address is insane. Lots of people reacted immediately and there coupons expired because of all the hype. I am glad that there are others, because perhaps the pressure will cause reaction from the government. I am not holding my breath.
Another way to get us to FIX something that wasnt broke to begin with!!!…I was perfectly happy with my TV!!…Now i either have to BUY a converter box or a new TV …and trying to use the cards before they exspire …What a joke and yesss a SCAM i think …If it wasnt broke whyyy did we have to FIX it?…Tell me again how this works again..>..”we the people”??…requested this?..WHEN, WHERE, HOW and WHYYYY??….This is all just a pain in the Arse!!…What a MESS !!
If we vote our officials into office and we all agree that this 90 day expiration is uneccesary then why is there an issue? Contact your legislator and request that they take action. We pay them to represent us, make them work for their pay like we have to.
when i went to redeem my coupons my local stores were waiting on a shipment of converter box’s .then along came 2 storms by the time we went to redeem them they expired.
same here i got coupons for me and my mother and they expired and thing is we can’t even find the coupons we most have throwing away so now we wont beable to watch tv cause our tv are old and we are disable.
Well I can say also that my coupons are expired, I would not have cost again if the expiration date was not put on there to begin with- the boxes are hard to find in small towns-I vote for the cancelation of the valid date and secutity card – what elce could you use them for anyway.
Tell all stores to honor them as is! Mrs Holladay
Obviously the Government was banking on the consumers being stuck with expired cards. When the program was first introduced, it appeared as though the Government was serious about assisting consumers who still utilized analog. Now I’m not so sure about the Government’s sincerity. It is odd that the designated retailers could not keep up with demand resulting in many retailers running out of converters before they could fill the consumer’s Government Coupon purchase.
Since the card could only be used once, there was not need to have an expiration date on the coupon. The only expiration date used should have been the expiration date for the entire program. Just another way in which the Government has jerked the consumer around. The Government should belly up to the bar and honor all the coupons that were distributed in response to the consumer ordr.
If the Govt. wanted to have an expiration date on these coupons it should have been “one year” after the official change over to digital. A “90 day after mailing” makes absolutely on sense unless it was a GOVT. SCAM to make people think that the Govt. was really giving them something good, vice the shaft.
People ahould not have to reapply. The Govt. should change their computers to either eliminate the expiration date or set the date to sometime well after the analog to digial change over.
Like so many others have said already, I requested my coupons early. Set the coupons aside for safe-keeping while I did my research on the offerings, reviewed ratings and comparisons, etc., only to discover my coupons were expired when I went to buy some converters today. @*&*! expiration date!!??!?!?? This is asinine! Has anyone organized an online petition to push our representatives in Congress to fix this? No need to reissue new cards to those still holding their expired cards–just extend (or drop) the expiration date.
coupons expired 5mos ago I did not know if I would need them in Feb 09 hence disposed of mine.. tried to reorder and was rejected cannot get a reply on an appeal process through the website what do ido??
Another idea is that if cost of printing is such a huge issue another method could be to use an e-coupon which would allow the customer to use their own ink and paper. Especially when it comes to expired coupons. This program is to help ease the transition of analog to digital for the American people, right ? It makes no sense to have an expiration date that does not go through March 2009 and what is this limit of two ? We’re Americans with families all in one household.
[...] DTV Coupons are issued with a 90 day expiration The #1 complaint at TVConversionhelp and DTV USA Forum, consumers are faced with challenges like lack of converter [...]
In need two coupons. The two I received in the mail has expired. In the beginning, we were not told that there was an expiration date. Why did they have one in the first place. This just messes up everything. Please help.
I’m agree with every one above ,because these coupons don’t need to have expiration day ,because those people that had request these coupon in the past has expired. And a for the time that it was intent for 90 day expiration coupons was a little time for every one that had to buy the box
I had request 2 coupons in the past and i will like to know how can I get 2 more coupons since when i went to buy the box there were an expiration day on them,what can i do to recive back 2 more coupons
I ordered 2 coupons for my home in Columbia, but they didn’t get here and expired. So, no one will honor them. I also ordered coupons for my lake house but someone took the coupons out of my rural mailbox down there and I have been told they will NOT be replaced.
I don’t think it is fair I have old TV’s and tried to get coupons but got old ones and got NONE at the other address. How can they just OUTDATE OUT EQUIPMENT?
I also agree with the idea of eliminating the expiration dates. I,too, applied and received two coupons, and I,too, went to purchase the hard to find converter boxes, trying to find the best deal possible to minimize my out-of-pocket expense. When I went to pay for them, I realized that I was 2 DAYS!!!!! late. Yes, the coupons had expired 2 days earlier because I misread the expiration date. This is RIDICULOUS!!!! We did not vote on this conversion. We were not given a say, and now we are being punished because of an expiration date!!!
I had request 2 coupons in the past and i will like to know how can I get 2 more coupons since when i went to buy the box there were an expiration day on them,what can i do to recive back 2 more coupons
I’m agree with every one above ,because these coupons don’t need to have expiration day ,because those people that had request these coupon in the past has expired. And a for the time that it was intent for 90 day expiration coupons was a little time for every one that had to buy the box
I have 2 coupons which will expire on Aug. 12 08. The problem is that none of the stores where I shop have any converter boxes available. They all tell me that the warehouse is out and they do not know when they will have any boxes. I only have nine days left to find a box before I leave on a 9 day trip with know way to find a box. What is happening. We need these to access a TV yet tere doesn’t seem to be enough converter boxex available for the consumer.
same thing happened to me i got the coupons and they expired before i could find a box and the fact that when i finaly had the money i looked at them and they had expired as i am on a limited income and it is hard to come out with money to do things with at times.they should not have a had expiration date on them in the first place,
I am writing to see how to get new coupons because I was unaware of an expiration date when the letter came back. I just put it up to use it around the holidays. Now I realize you have placed an expiration date on them. I feel like this is totally unfair and it doesn’t say on the t.v. commerical that the coupons have an expiration date. I am in agreement with the other consumers that the ending date would at least be in February. Please resend these coupons so I can get my converter boxes. Thank you, MS. Adams
I order the coupons when this was first advertised but my husband said we still would have to pay something for it. We are both retired and on a fixed income so he said not to worry. We have cable now buy don’t know how long we will be able to afford. I am disabled and TV is my company. Please let us use the expired coupons.
I also agree that the coupons should not have an expiration date .We requested coupons earlier,thinking that I had until February to purchase the boxes.I decided to purchase them today,open the envelope to find they have expired.
My wife also requested coupons for her parents.
Please send us new coupons or notify us of the decision on all of the request receiv,regarding this matter. Thank you
When I applied in February, the model I wanted (with Analog passthrough) didn’t exist (moreover, price then was much higher than a coupon could cover). I wait, wait, wait…
And now when the model I want is available, the coupons are expired. That’s ridiculous!
It seems to me the planners of this program were not good planners at all.
do not order new cards ,just use expired cards ,simple
how embarassing this is….went to walmarts to purchase a converter box….held up the line which was already busy for 30 minutes to find out coupons was expired…..converter boxes were sold out every where we went to find them and finally found one and tryed to use the coupon and was expired….thanks for nothing…i guess thats another part of the dumbing down of america…give us something then take it back before we get to use it….so if you read this please help us use the expired coupons that we got thats useless.
the expiration date should have been feb.19,2009 and everyone after that miss the boat all you’ve done is cause another hardship for american families thats grinding though a bad economy now the only affordable family enjoyment of watching local programing and eating popcorn around the tv will be taken from many.whats next throwing granny under the bus
I agree with the idea of why not just announce that the experation date is not to be recognized….if you have a card, it is good regardless of experation date, no panic, no additional expense for printing/distributing more cards, that would be economical and make sense….not a government objective….no pockets greased.
i belive this is a very good idea
Ok—–So I go to buy the box at the
ALWAYS OUT of
convertor box—–retail store–
—-only to find
the boxes are in—–but now my COUPON is
expired——
EXPIRED–
—no need to print more cards—–
just program the computer
to accept the coupons
for an infinite time—
—CHILD’S PLAY LOGIC ! ! !
—REMEMBER GOV> makes $$$$ off US & DTV…!
I recieved 2 coupons, Jan 2008. When I recieved them, I did not think to look at them for expration date. I filed them away, becouse I did not need them at the time. I pulled them out in December 2008, yhinking I would go get 2 converter boxes, becouse I had seen them adversitised at Target. At that time I noticed they had a expration date. I don’t think they should have had a expration date.
I went to walmarts to purchase a converter box…to find out our coupons was expired…..converter boxes were sold out every where I went to find them and finally,I found one and tryed to use the coupon and was expired….thanks for nothing..I feel like this is totally unfair…This is RIDICULOUS!!!!The Govt.should change their computers to eliminate the expiration date with no question…What was the purpose of an exp date? I still have the coupons, and am hoping there will be an extended date to use them.
After reading above posts I took another look at my expired cards, the enclosed papers & the envelope they came in. I wanted to see if the 90 day expiration was stated anywhere in BIG BOLD letters – it’s not!! It’s only referenced on the card itself (easy to miss unless card is tilted just right and in good light, like on a credit card) and on a seperate enclosed sheet, which includes FAQ’s (where it’s simply part of an answer to one of the listed Q’s & A’s – again, not printed in bold).
Also, the real time is NOT 90 days. I received the cards April 26, 2008 and they had to be used by July 7, 2008 (about 68 days).
Whoever planned this Coupon Program should have easily realized (and probably did) that there would be many problems with the issuance of time limited cards (<90-days). Also, that the majority of people negatively effected would be elderly, of low income, on a fixed income, etc. – sadly, the people who are usually left behind in our society and/or by our government.
I believe the individuals behind this program should be investigated as there has to be a questionable reason why this particular program was implemented – most likely driven by $$$ or other favors – certainly NOT done in the best interest of “the people” it was intented to help.
At this point, the “government” should just DO THE RIGHT THING and simply drop the expiration date on the existing coupons/cards. However, I will not be holding my breath.
So, I along with many, many others, have two expired coupons. I was not aware that the coupons contained an expiration date, because I never took the coupons out of the envelope — why would I as I wasn’t ready to purchase the boxes?!! When we finally decided to go make the purchase, we discovered the coupons expired. Thanks for the inconvenience.
I thought maybe I was the only one that didn’t realize an expiration date was on the coupons. This is terrible – I’ve been trying to get my expired coupons replaced, once they told me my new ones would be sent. I waited 5 weeks and guess what – nothing. This last week I tried to get answers but the e-mails were not accepted.
TALK ABOUT GOVERMENT WASTE!!! HOW STUPID CAN YOU PEOPLE IN WASHINGTON BE– PRINT MORE COUPONS–IDIOITIC!!!,TO SAY THE LEAST. I FIFTITH THE ABOVE MOTION TO LET US USE THE EXPIRED COUPONS!! HOW ABOUT SAVING US TAX PAYERS SOME MONEY FOR A CHANGE!!! REALITY CHECK WASHINGTON BUREACRATS!!! MAYBE SOMEONE COULD NOTIFY PRESIDENT OBAMA ABOUT THIS STUPID GOVERMENT WASTE!!!!
I think this convertor box thing is a scam, Rite Aid was supposed to have them for $40.00 when I called them they said the price was $49.00 and they never had enough delivered so where I live I will also have to have a new antena because I live in an area with a lot of hills and a mountain.
What this government is doing is people are going to have buy a new television because there will never be enough convertor boxes.
And the next thing is all these old televisions are going to be thrown away and will fill up Land Fill space.
Kinds of reminds me of what they did after World War II when there were so many excess Army Jeeps, they were just driven over a cliff into the ocean.
This government has really put people in a fix especially those of us who are on a fixed income.
Kind of like “No Child Left Behind” when the program had certainly left a lot of children behind.
Why not put an expiration date after march since that is the last time you can register for a coupon. They talk about patrolium going up, the cards are made out of plastic which comes from patrolium. Therefore, look at all the waste that would be thrown away due to expired cards because no converter boxes were available when people went to urchase them. So whose fault is that? The Government did not have sense enough to realize supply and demand. That is why the whole economy is screwed up. They give too much away as what is not needed and too little of what is needed. Somebody please lead them in the right direction, give the people what they want and need. THANK YOU!!!
I requested my coupons early last year so I would be ready when the time came to need them. I rec’d them and put them away until I figured I’d have to get the box, sometime in Jan. or Feb. 2009. I heard yesterday that the coupons expire 90 days from mailing them. Yikes. I looked them up and indeed, there is an expiration date on them of April 2008! I got them early so I wouldn’t be caught off guard and not get them on time. Now I find out they are useless. This is ridiculous. The government forces us to use them and then penalizes us for not “paying attention” to the little detail of expiration dates. Who would have thought there’d be an expiration date on something like this. Who cares when you buy the box? There should never have been expiration dates on the coupons. I figure now the government will have lots of extra money on it’s hands b/c they won’t be out the money they thought they would have been b/c many will never be used. And since I obtained 2 right away, I can’t even request another. Makes no sense whatsoever. I do think they should just cancel the expiration dates on them and just let us use what we already have. It makes no sense whatever to print more and pay more postage to re-issue them. I guess this is what we pay our lawmakers for; to think realistically.
I’m not sure why there have been any restrictions at all on these converter boxes! My parents coupons expired before purchase – so now they assume there will be no more TV for them as of 2/17-I’m afraid to tell them that even if they have the box they may have to upgrade their antenna as well, yet another expense! The expiration date was a “slap in the face” to people who needed the box!