[NCLUG] Cable Horror

Sat Mar 3 00:49:13 MST 2001

Man. . .I watch so much LESS television since getting a Tivo.  No more 
channel surfing. . .Just the shows I want to watch whenever I want to watch 
them.  Of course, my wife eats up a lot of storage space with stupid soap 
operas. . .

Jeff

____________________________________
From: Quent <quent at pobox.com>
Reply-To: nclug at nclug.org
To: nclug at nclug.org
Subject: Re: [NCLUG] Cable Horror
Date: Fri, 2 Mar 2001 17:15:30 -0700

All I can say is: Tivo ROCKS!

Fearing Tivo but having satellite TV is like having a car but pushing
it around manually because you're afraid you might get hooked on driving
it if you started the engine :-)

	Quent

On Thu, Mar 01, 2001 at 12:21:30PM -0700, Michael Dwyer wrote:
 > ----- Original Message -----
 > From: "Luke Light" <llight at oneimage.com>
 > > > (Well, there was that time when I had my Cable TV disconnected.... 
grrr.
 > > > The cable guy disconnected my modem, then they told me the couldn't
 > > > reconnect it because 'I wasn't their customer.' I'll share that story
 > will
 > > > you all some other time.)
 > >
 > > I must say I'd love to hear this story : )
 >
 > "Lemme 'splain.  No.  Too long.  Lemme sum up."
 >
 > o Digital cable TV rates go up, I hate the set top box's slow redraw and
 > annoying ads. I hate that I can't hide the channels I don't subscribe to 
or
 > want to view.  I can't killfile the Home Shopping Channel!
 > o I go shopping.
 > o DirecTV is cheaper, and I can BLOCK the channels I hate!  I can buy a
 > receiver with a faster processor!  I have CHOICES again!  I was too cheap 
to
 > buy the Tivo version and infinitely increase my choices... mostly because
 > I'm afraid it would destroy me if there was always something good on 
TV...
 > o The receiver box is only $50, and the professional installer (Davcom) 
does
 > an INCREDIBLE job - free! (Part of the package)  Monthly service is still
 > cheaper, even after I add the $6 local channels package and the Starz
 > channels.
 > o TV Bliss!
 > o I bundle up the digital cable box, and take it to the AT&T office.
 > o "Here. I want to cancel my service. BUT I want to keep my cable modem."
 >   "Oh, don't worry.  They wouldn't disconnect you."
 >   "You're sure, now?"
 >   "Oh, no.  That would never happen."
 > As I walk out the door, I *know* something bad is going to happen.  I 
can't
 > help remembering this story:
 > http://www.geocities.com/flutocracy/cablemodem.htm
 > http://slashdot.org/articles/99/04/26/1229227.shtml
 > o 48 hours of bliss
 > o Cable modem is dead.
 > o I call TCI "I'm sorry, sir. We can't help you.  You aren't a customer."
 >   "But YOU wrongly disconnected it, YOU can fix it!"
 > o I call @Home.  They are happy to come out and fix it.  But it will take 
7
 > days before someone can be out.
 > o I call TCI again.
 > "So, you can disconnect it in 48 hours, but you are unwilling to fix your
 > mistake?"
 > "You need an @Home technician to reconnect your service."
 > "It didn't take an @Home tech to disconnect my service!  Your techs are
 > perfectly capable of fixing this."  They aren't budging.  I'm not their
 > customer, and they don't make mistakes, apparently.
 > o I fume for 7 days.  Nearly go crazy from lack of bandwidth. (Its sad, I
 > know...)
 > o While fuming, I write letters and make phone calls.  Public Utilities
 > Commission, Better Business Bureau, AT&T, @Home.
 > o PUC Doesn't deal with broadband service. Sorry.  I ask that they 
remember
 > events like this when AT&T comes back wanting to provide home telephone
 > service, like they tell you in their commercials.
 > o BBB is interested. I think they love stuff like this.
 > o AT&T doesn't want to talk to me. I'm not their customer.
 > o @Home is really nice to me, but they can't really send the installer 
any
 > sooner than 7 days.
 >
 > > >--- "AT&T @Home Customer Care" <customer.care at tci.com> wrote:
 > > > > To solve your problem we will need to send some one out to fix the
 > > > > problem with the line. but I can not book some one to come out 
using
 > > > > email. So please call 1-888-262-6300 and we can book some one to 
come
 > > > >
 > > > Someone is already booked to check on the line... They are due
 > > > Wednesday. Can you move that up any?  Or how about a whole lotta
 > > > refunds for the time spent offline?  Could you maybe tie the person
 > > > responsible to a tree so I can hit them a couple of times?  I mean,
 > > > really...  make this worth the aggravation caused me.  Its really
 > > > tough to suggest cable modems to my users when I have had such a
 > > > dismal experience with them.
 > >
 > > I sincerely apologize for the unpleasant experience you had recently
 > > with our AT&T @Home service and I thank you for writing to us.  We need
 > > to hear about any unsatisfactory situations in order to correct them
 > > and to enhance our level of customer service.
 > >
 > > I have forwarded your comments to the appropriate members of our
 > > development and management teams for further review and action.  We
 > > sincerely appreciate that you took time from your busy schedule to help
 > > us keep our commitment to quality customer care. You are a valued
 > > customer and we appreciate your business.
 > >
 > > We apologize for any problems this may have caused you,
 >
 > o Installer shows up, reconnects the cable, I'm back on line. I had to 
take
 > the morning off work to wait for him. He glanced at our setup, went 
straight
 > to the box and plugged it in.  I don't think it even took five minutes, 
and
 > he never actually had to see the inside of my house.  I'm still thinking,
 > "Why the hell couldn't an AT&T tech been out in 48 hours to do this?!"
 > o Yay! I gorge on a weeks worth of on-line comic strips, and pull down a
 > copy of NetBSD for SPARC.  Ahhhhhh. Baaaaandwidth.
 > o Happy for a couple days.
 > o Letter arrives from AT&T via BBB.  AT&T thinks I don't have a 
complaint,
 > since not only am I not their customer now, I wasn't their customer when 
the
 > problem happened.
 >
 > Okay, break for a story.  When you live in a house with a bunch of 
people,
 > it is often a good idea to have a trustee of sorts who manages all the
 > bills.  This person was Matt.  Matt moved out of the house, and tried to 
get
 > the bills transfered to me.  He was successful in everything EXCEPT the
 > cable bills.  AT&T wouldn't transfer the account.  (I had a couple 
problems
 > with Qwest, but they /were/ able to finally resolve it.)
 >
 > o I send letter back. "I wasn't going to mention it, but since you 
brought
 > it up, that's another complaint I have.  Why can't you transfer billing?!
 > Anyway, Matt is the person on the account, but the complaint is from me."
 > o Still haven't heard back from them.
 >
 > I'm very happy with the DirecTV service.  I could do without the sales 
calls
 > ("Wanna upgrade to Total Choice Supreme with Cheese and get 41 new
 > channels?")  I'm still ambivalent with @Home. Their AUP sucks, the 
bandwidth
 > cap sucks, but its the only choice I have right now, and they have been
 > 'nice' to me.  Its not that bad of a choice, really.
 > But I would strongly recommend that you leave AT&T for your cable TV.  
The
 > DSS solution is so much better in so many ways -- price, selection, 
service.
 > The only channels I can't get are UPN and WB.  I haven't missed them yet.
 > (Not a huge Buffy fan. I think I can get that from WGN anyway.)
 >
 > _______________________________________________
 > NCLUG mailing list
 > NCLUG at nclug.org
 > http://www.nclug.org/mailman/listinfo/nclug
 >
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