Could cable CSR's be any dumber?

[dvdguyjt]

Hi all --

First off, I DO own Dish network and I don't subscribe to cable. :)

Just for S & G I called AT&T Broadband today to see if they were planning on adding HD programming in my area any time soon. Not one, but TWO CSR's told me that HD is NOT dependant on the cable system, but rather on whther or not the affiliate was broadcasting in HD. When I informed them that an affiliate's HD channel was different from their SD channel, I got silence (twice). Then I got to a supervisor who was just as clueless. He said that I probably wasn't seeing HD because I had something hooked up wrong!

Idiots

Just thought the ignorance of the cable co. would amuse everyone. :)

JT

[MarkIndy]

You have no idea. I've finally made the plunge for Direct because a CSR called me and told me she was going to shut me off for being $200 behind on my bill. Only problem is my monthly bill is $200. I couldn't make her understand that I was going to be $200 behind EVERY month, between the time the bill was sent to me and the time the bill was due, 15 days later.

Just so you know, the bill for $200 was five days old when she called me and threatened to turn off my service.

After a good TEN MINUTES trying to describe to her that I would pay the bill as soon as my work reimbursed me for my $95 cable modem charge, I finally said that she could turn me off all she wanted, but I had to go make a phone call to DirecTV. *click*

I hate Comcast. This is only one in a looong line of billing problems, including them charging me for my whole street in June ($800+ bill for one month).

[TopCat99]

How 'bout cable modem CSR's? My aunt has a company that claims to cover all the equipment in the lease/rental/whatever regardless of what happens--just like Ma Bell used to. When their water tank burst the week they were out of state (Murphy's Law) and flooded the basement, the motherboard, NIC, case, and sound card died.

Their cable company wanted $275 to replace the NIC. I dug around in my junk box, pulled out a $12 RealTek, and got her back online :)

[TopCat99]

I forgot to mention...the service call was only $40. The remainder was supposedly the cost of the NIC!

[TNGTony]

Well.... I'm jumping back into bed with the local cable company for their broadband service. The cable company has really tried to stop me from being a customer again on several occasions. After two weeks of trying to get things going, I may actually go to Road Runner today. (I'll let you know in a few hours).

I called up Time-Warner two weeks ago and talked to a CRS that had NO clue what he was spewing about RR service. Eventually I just asked him to get me the service. We set the date for the installer. Then he asks me a question that made no sense to me at the time: "Is your computer 8 feet or less away from the cable outlet?"

HUH? One of my computers is next to the TV and the other is 8 feet across the room from another TV and they both have cable.

"Oh, no. The computer needs to be 8 feet away from the cable outlet"

After explaining that the cable comes from the pole to the gable of the garage and accross the garage attic, down the garage wall, into the house basement, accross the house and then to the TV nearest the computer, he tells me that the cable outlet is then in the GARAGE!!!!!! And he coulnd't do anything. ::::CLICK::::

Pick up the phone and call again immediately. Next CSR "Is your computer 8 feet away from the cable outlet?" Me..."YES".

So the installer comes a week ago Wednesday. He unscrews the cable from the back of my TV and he puts a splitter on it and takes one cable to the TV and one to the computer. Not enough signal. The TV picture on the lifeline cable I have looked like crap after the split! He informs me that there is not enough signal. He informs me that I can't get Road Runner. After talking to him about anything that can be done, he tells me that the hous would probably need to be rewired. I asked him how much that intallation would cost. He says he didn't know. He was ready to leave when he asks to use my phone to call the office. He calls in and while he's on the phone I ask about getting my house rewired. Well, he finally asks about it. And we set up an appointment for the following week.

So...the following Wednesday comes and two VERY professional cable guys come and have me show them the house wiring. They size up the situation and start to work from the pole! These guys worked their butts off for three hours and had cable drops to the three TVs that were previously wired and a special direct line for the RR servie. It was done in a "home run" style. Excellent! Now that was more like it. These guys were courtious, clean, friendly and explained exactly what they were doing before they did anything and sought approval for everything! They even tested the old systme and told me that there wasn't enough signal getting into the HOUSE let alone being split 3 times. So, I thought, Warner does hire people with brains. Come to find out, these guys didn't even work for Warner...they were contractors. :) Oh, and they found that the splitter the other installer used was bad to boot.

Anyway, after jumping through 3 flaiming hoops, today between 3 and 6p some one will come and finish the RR install (which includes a home DSL system so I can plug in another computer to any phone line and get RR service.

I'll let you know what happens today.

See ya
Tony

[Scott Greczkowski]

Geesh Tony you go all out to do your Holiday Channel Special :D But once it's all in you will forget about the headaches and will never want dialup again. :)

[TopCat99]

The same cableco as my post above refused an install because they found an ungrounded outlet in the house--not even the the puter was on! :lol:

[TNGTony]

YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEHAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!

I'm now online with two PCs on RR at increadible speed! The guy who came out today not only was a riot, he really knew his stuff. It took him about an hour to get both PCs working well. The phone connection between the two PCs is using a standard phone line. A mere 460kbs downstairs. Up here I've gone to plaid! 1550 kbs according to C-net!

What I found interesting was, after a while, he looked at me and asked: Anyone tried to talk you out of your dish yet? After I said no, we got into a real good intelligent discussion about the pros and cons of both services. It was a great experience. So...soon I will be losing my old (spam-ridden) e-mail address and dial-up account.

See ya
Tony

[Mike123abc]

I have both cable and dish. I use cable for the local channels, I ended up running my own RG-6 cable for both the satellite and the cable to get it done right the way I wanted.

My house suffered from bad cable wiring. It made a huge difference on the cable channels to upgrade the cable, splitters and amps. I really get a good picture on cable for the local channels. In fact if the cable company was not $40 more than dish per month I would switch back.

[scooper]

Just goes to show that everybody's situation is different - I think for me, the price of everything is pretty comparable, but the E* epg has got us spoiled (I couldn't stand having to watch a TV guide channel anymore), and DSL offers one thing that cable modem (Roadrunner) here doesn't - a static IP.

[TNGTony]

The static IP on DSL costs a TON extra here. But it doesn't matter. I'm too far away (in wire miles) from the CO to get stable DSL anyway.

See ya
Tony

[AJ2086]

Nothing beats when I called my cable company and they told be that we already get it on channel 53. What idiots they hire.

[Ontarian]

IF you want a static IP I'm assuming you want to run some type of servers. My cable company recently blocked all the common ports used for http, mail, news, ftp, etc. If you have your own domain the best way to get around this is to use a service like
www.no-ip.com. It works great and it makes no difference if your IP is static or dynamic, and prices are really cheap. They are kind of like a Re-direction service . If your ISP blocks your server ports they will re-direct all requests to the port your server is actually using seamlessly.

[Claude Greiner]

When they came to my house to install my cable modem, I didn't want them drilling any holes and running their own cable. I ran my own Quad shield cable.

When I told them I ran my own cable, the guy had a big smile on his face when he asked me where I got the cable thinking I got it at Walmart. Funney thing is that the stuff I used was better than the cable he had on his truck :)