I hate digital conversion!

I am getting so annoyed at this countdown to the change over to digital. We bought a digital TV almost a year ago. We asked the salesmen if this tv would be 100% compatible with this upcoming change. They said it was totally compatible, so we assumed we had nothing to worry about. I recently bought a converter box for my little TV, but the antenna on my small TV is rabbit ears, so I have little hope for it. Just last month, our local channel did a test for us. I thought I had nothing to worry about. The test showed our "100% compatible" FAILED! I tried tuning in all channels again, and no digital channels could be found. I even tried hooking the converter, no good. Now we are being told that we might need to buy a new deluxe antenna, when we were originally told the current antennae would work with the converters. This is why I am so pissed. The way our economy is, people are cutting their cable and other extras, only to find that they may need to sign up for the satellite to get the local "free" channels, or spend money to buy a deluxe antennae (which, by the way, I bought 2 different ones to try, both failed). Are others having similar problems? I think we should start a boycott and refuse to watch or help out all local channels. If we can get advertisers to see that their products will not be seen by as many, and that it would hurt their money, in turn hurting local channels income, we may get changes made. First, I believe that all converters and items needed to prepare you for this new way should be provided and installed FREE, or have the converters hooked to the main source, so all TV receivers would not need to be redone. If you agree, help me start a boycott. Do not do anything illegal, just let them know we are all pissed off. This is supposed to be "FREE TV".