Saturday, October 14, 2006
I Heart my Cable Company II: The Revenge
I know I’ve written about my cable company and how much I love them before, but that was a previous cable company. I have since moved, and found out just how good I had it with the last cable company. Sure, there were very few people who spoke English on more than a rudimentary level, but at least they did what they said they were going to do.
When I first called my new cable company to set up service, I was pleasantly surprised to find that the person on the other end of the line spoke English well. What surprised me more was that they couldn’t get to me for at least a week. Charter, my last cable company, who I owe apologies to for my unkind words, would almost always show up within 24 hours. They were even willing to send people out after normal business hours. Time Warner, my new cable company, takes upwards of a week, and must be within normal business hours.
I’m sure most people are familiar with “installation windows,” meaning that someone will be there between the hours of 11:00 and 2:00. I used to get frustrated with Charter because they would usually show up towards the end of that time window, say at 1:59:59. Oh, how naïve I was! How I wish I had known how well they were treating me. Time Warner, promising to show up between 11:00 and 2:00, had not shown up by 2:15. I called in to make sure I had the day correct, and was assured that I did. They promised to have the “technician” call me within 10 minutes with an updated arrival time.
Do the math with me here, folks. That means he should call by 2:25, right? He called at 3:30 to tell me he was running late. Really?! Good thing he told me. I asked what time I should expect him, and he told me “No later than 6:00.” Keep in mind that I had been waiting for him since 11:00. Here’s the fun part: He arrived at 5:50. He also had no idea how to hook up the high definition receiver, so I did it for him in the interest of saving time. Also, if I had watched him blankly staring at the color coded cables in his hands and try to figure out what went where (here’s a hint: green to green, red to red, etc.) for five more minutes, I would have had to hide his body in my crawlspace and dispose of his truck somehow.
When I first called my new cable company to set up service, I was pleasantly surprised to find that the person on the other end of the line spoke English well. What surprised me more was that they couldn’t get to me for at least a week. Charter, my last cable company, who I owe apologies to for my unkind words, would almost always show up within 24 hours. They were even willing to send people out after normal business hours. Time Warner, my new cable company, takes upwards of a week, and must be within normal business hours.
I’m sure most people are familiar with “installation windows,” meaning that someone will be there between the hours of 11:00 and 2:00. I used to get frustrated with Charter because they would usually show up towards the end of that time window, say at 1:59:59. Oh, how naïve I was! How I wish I had known how well they were treating me. Time Warner, promising to show up between 11:00 and 2:00, had not shown up by 2:15. I called in to make sure I had the day correct, and was assured that I did. They promised to have the “technician” call me within 10 minutes with an updated arrival time.
Do the math with me here, folks. That means he should call by 2:25, right? He called at 3:30 to tell me he was running late. Really?! Good thing he told me. I asked what time I should expect him, and he told me “No later than 6:00.” Keep in mind that I had been waiting for him since 11:00. Here’s the fun part: He arrived at 5:50. He also had no idea how to hook up the high definition receiver, so I did it for him in the interest of saving time. Also, if I had watched him blankly staring at the color coded cables in his hands and try to figure out what went where (here’s a hint: green to green, red to red, etc.) for five more minutes, I would have had to hide his body in my crawlspace and dispose of his truck somehow.
