I hate my cable TV company. They are this horrible necessary evil in my life. I know they’re not really “necessary”, I could eliminate them but in order to actually watch any TV (to which I’m addicted) I’d have to either get some big antenna, some converter box, or satellite/dish, none of which seem particularly better options. Ironically, while I feel I’m “hooked” on TV and must record my favorite shows, while they are actually playing I’m also working on the computer and multi-tasking and if you asked me the plot of the show I just watched I’d be hard-pressed to tell you what really happened. How they caught the “bad guy” or why the “bad guy” did what he/she did.
Anyway, I bought a new TiVo last weekend. (I LOVE my TiVo. My old one is over six years old and I fear it will someday die and I will be TiVo-less, plus the new one has a dual tuner and was on clearance.) So, I see I can use “cable cards” – so I had to find out about getting these cable cards.
Of course, I couldn’t access my cable account for reasons unknown. So, I had to CALL them.
I got super upbeat staff guy, Shawn! He was happy! He wanted to help me! I tried to explain what I had and what I needed… and he convinced me it would be better to change plans. He said if I upgraded to um… something… digital, maybe? … something with On Demand and stuff – he said that cost an additional $1.99 per month and included a cable box.
Right now I pay like $5 a month for a cable box, so he said this would SAVE me money. I don’t *really* need a cable box now that I have my new TiVo, but I had planned on putting my existing cable box in the living room as visitors have commented they don’t get all the channels because there’s no cable box. (I typically watch TV in the den while on the computer, as I noted.)
Shawn said I could pick up my cable cards at their office so I don’t have to have a tech come out! He’ll ask them to put two on hold for me. Well, that saves me a day of waiting around for a tech who may or may not show up, so I decided to do that on Saturday.
Shawn said when he got On Demand he had to take a day off work as there was so much stuff to watch! I don’t want more stuff to watch. I have more than enough stuff to watch. Though the nice thing would be rather than renting online if I want a movie, and waiting for it to download, it’d be available right away… though it sounds like it costs more.
So today, I head over to the cable office and stand in line, and stand in line, and stand in line, for about 30 minutes. I stand there with other people invading my personal space, and kids crying. I fortunately brought a book with me and did a little reading. People returned their cable boxes, and tried to arrange service transfers, and asked why their service had been turned off just because they hadn’t paid their bill. I was finally called to the window and told the guy I was just picking up two cable cards on hold for me. He gathered my information, and headed to the back.
He came back a bit later and told me they had no cable cards. Well, there must be some mistake as there were two put ON HOLD for me. No, no mistake, someone gave the cards ON HOLD FOR ME to someone else. ARGH! He says if I drive across town to another office they might have some. I don’t think so. I ask if they can simply MAIL the cards to me. Well, not from there. I’d need to call (AGAIN) and arrange that.
So, after a wasted hour and a half, I’m back home calling the cable company. Ira seems as surprised as I am, as there were supposed to be two cable cards ON HOLD for me at the office. He agrees to mail out the cards, and even waive the shipping fee. Woo hoo.
