I went through something similar for three months when I switched to cable phone service. Finally, four days before going into the hospital for surgery, I spoke with one of their supervisors. I told him that, when I returned home, should I need to call 911 in the middle of the night, I expected to get a dial tone. Otherwise, since I had documentation of all trouble calls made with no resolution, my attorney would attempt to become much wealthier.

A veritable army of maintenance folks showed up that very afternoon with two bucket trucks and my phone service has been reliable ever since. A guy on one of the trucks even gave me his cell phone number and told me to call him personally with my cell phone if I had any other problem.

PS: I use a satellite dish so I don't see cable ads at home. I saw ads for this phone service while I was in the hospital and it seems that reliability is a cornerstone of their pitch.

The Hill Online

I did take off work yesterday in order to be home for Comcast "between 3:00 and 5:00." They called around 6:00 and said they were running late, be here around 8:00! They didn't leave until 10:00. And they were nice.

I never could get Bell South to give me DSL, then they were rude to me on the phone so I went for the $99 package with Comcast for phone, internet and cable TV. I used to think Comcast was the evil empire but now that Bell South and AT&T have combined, I think they're it.

But I also think I'm tied straight into Homeland Security. I have a box that has lots of lights and keeps track of all my email and phone calls and can be tapped at any moment. Did I go over to the dark side?

When I moved into my condo, I had a thing with DirecTV and Dish Network. On one day I would get DirecTV, the next I would schedule with Dish. Whoever hooked up my TV first would win. The guys did not call ahead when on their way (a requirement since I only work down the street and am not going to miss a day of work for them), they did want to go on the roof, they didn't like my letter, dispatch needed to okay it, blah, blah, blah. After 4 visits by each I reverted to Comcast who I truly hate. Everytime DirecTV or Dish tries to sell me, I explain to them why they do not have my business.

However, Comcast did a software upgrade to my cable box over the line. It has never worked right since. I called and they wanted to send a guy out. He forgot to call and then dispatch called me on the cell while I was driving home and was almost there. She pissed me off in a minute and I told her that I was on my road but was turning around to go back to work and she could tell the driver to leave. I explained I would be changing to DirecTV in a few weeks. So now I have to start over again. If I did not need a new box for HD/DVR I would just hook it up myself. I am much more reliable than the idiots who do installations for a living.

Knology was supposed to show up today between 2 and 5. They showed at 2:30. This is not my first experience with them. They have shown every time when they said they would. Too bad their expansion is not as complete as they said it would be.

This is why you shouldn't give up that $13/month landline.

Your land line is also handy if you use your computer as a fax machine.

The Hill Online

Go to http://www.consumerist.com/ and do a search for any conmpany currently pissing you off. They have quite a few "executive numbers" that will get you directly in touch with a real person who can usually handle your problem. Pretty sweet site.

My dad purchased a nice Sony Plasma TV a couple of months ago. The picture was good, but without going to the HD box and cables he wasn't getting that great of a picture. He insisted that it looked as good as it could.

Around the same time I upgraded a ton of audio/video around my house. After coming by and seeing how much better my picture was he decided to call comcast and go to the digital service with HD box. . . .

On the fourth attempt (two Saturdays ago), they were scheduled for 8-12. At 12:15, he called to ask where they were. The dispatcher said they were almost there. At 1, they called and told him that the techs were there, but he wasn't. He walked out on the porch to find the techs two doors down. He yelled to them that he was waiting on his HD box (or something like that). They yelled back that they were on a call, but would "make a note of it". After about 10 more minutes of beating on the neighbors door, they left. Dispatch called back to let Dad know that since he wasn't home they'd need to reschedule. . . . . .

For my birthday, my wife got me a Tivo Series3, which is a HD DVR, but to provide dual tuner capability, it requires installation of two CableCards.

You'd think I was asking Comcast to saw off their own limbs with rusty spoons. It took me over an hour to arrange a dispatch to have them install these devices (which, by FCC regulation, they have to provide to any CableLabs certified device). The customer "service" rep and I went back and forth over what Comcast would and would not provide.

Well, install day came. The first card went in and configured fine. The second card would not configure. It would only do basic cable, not the HD, not the digital channels, not any pay channels. The tech swapped out the cable splitter and ran new cable. Still didn't work.

Dispatch #2. They brought two cards and neither of them would configure. Remove both cards & reboot. The first one (the one I got on day one) would configure in either slot. None of the additional cards would work.

Dispatch #3. Three more cards before they would find one that worked.

I had a couple of hiccups for the first week or so, but it's worked fine since.

____________________________

I'm a guy in a Reagan mask -- and I'm running for President!

For my birthday, my wife got me a Tivo Series3, which is a HD DVR, but to provide dual tuner capability, it requires installation of two CableCards.

You'd think I was asking Comcast to saw off their own limbs with rusty spoons.

Bingo.

Dumping the Charter Moxi DVR and replacing it with the Tivo S3. Called Charter two weeks ago to order two cable cards.

First they told me they had to be ordered and it could be two to four weeks before they'd come in. They said someone would contact me when they came in to schedule the install. I said fine.

A few days later (5/24), I called to check on the status of the order. They said the cards had come in, but when they called to schedule installation nobody answered. Not sure what would have happened if I hadn't called. Anyway, scheduled the install for yesterday between 1PM and 5PM.

4:45 PM no show. Called hoping to catch them before the local office closed or something, they said the tech was running behind and had one other appointment before mine. Assured me someone would be coming.

6:30 PM still no show. Called back, and they said the tech had done one job in the morning and "disappeared" and nobody could find him. Said they would track down whoever was handing his calls and get somebody over right away. I asked about the cards they had "ordered" that the tech would presumably still have. They said all the techs have them on their trucks, no big deal. (So why all the drama about ordering?) Gave me a $20 credit for the missed appointment.

7:30 PM get a call from a local at some other company (turns out to be a subcontractor). They apologize for the missed appointment and said they are having trouble locating the tech. Supervisor can't find him, friends can't find him, but they will get somebody over right away. Now I'm worried about the guy, feeling bad about being mad at him while he could be laid up in the hospital or something.

8:15 PM get another call from the same company. Said they just realized this is a cablecard install, and they are a subcontractor and aren't authorized to install cablecards. Somebody from Charter would have to be dispatched. They said they would take care of it and somebody would be here first thing in the morning.

9:30 PM called Charter to confirm they had contacted someone and set an appointment. The guy said he had no record of any new appointment. I unloaded on him and said either send somebody to install the cable cards or somebody to uninstall the cable service. He put a note on the account and said the local dispatch would see it.

9:00 AM this morning, called Charter again. Still nothing scheduled. Offered to reschedule the appointment for Saturday or one day next week. I said I'd wait some more and if nobody showed up I'd call back to reschedule, not wanting to lose my place in line in case somebody was actually coming. They said they would put another note on the account.

10:00 AM, Charter guy shows up with the cable cards. Said he wasn't scheduled to work today but had gone in to fill out his timesheet and somebody asked if he would do it and he said sure.

12:00 Cable cards finally installed and working after much drama. The cable guy had never seen a Tivo S3 or any other device with two cards. Took six or seven phone calls to at least four different people to get the cards in the system and provisioned and for them to send whatever signals they have to send to activate them.

(The Tivo does seem to complicate matters a little. You have to do the cards one at a time, and there's a lot of waiting for signals and rebooting and rerunning the setup menus. The Charter guy said it's a lot easier to setup cablecards on a TV.)

Why they won't let you just order the cards over their website and have them Fedexed and then let you enter the codes over the same website is beyond me. The Charter guy said that's all they are doing when he calls in the codes - he reads them the numbers and they type them into a webpage and click some buttons to activate everything (and apparently that's too complicated for some of them).

Sheesh!

Also, the number to call to get execs. It's a relief to have some good reasons for keeping the land line. Comcast nightmares seem to be common!