Comments on Just Bloggled: When Life Gets a Little Baffling: The Cable Company Can Kiss It

That's my opinion, too, but good luck getting anyo...

2009-11-14T18:34:06.000-05:00

That's my opinion, too, but good luck getting anyone to believe me or you.

Surprise, surprise. Here I am a week later and guess what box #4 is doing...Yep, it's going to black & white. I put the 13 incher in there to see if it's going to do the same on a different TV. The 13 incher is only 5 years old; the big one in my bedroom & the guest room TV are 10 years old. Since I had to unplug the box to do so, it may take a few days for the problem to reproduce. Meanwhile, I'm going to go blind trying to see 13 inches across the room. I swear the writing on the guide is the size of an ant.

I might as well try the flood excuse. Maybe it will work. Water probably did get in, seeing as the neighborhood kids keep taking the green cover off the junction where several houses converge and sitting on the thing.

Last night I googled the problem that I'm having. It seems a lot of people have the same or similar problems with Comcast boxes, and Comcast gives them the same "it's probably your TV line" instead of fixing it. Must be the cable guy motto everywhere. Don't blame the cable. Blame the TV, but isn't the whole point of a digital box, whether it be the converter one or a cable one, that it allows an analog TV to receive digital channels? So why then would it be just my TV's fault and not all analog TV's everywhere? (Did that make sense?)

Meanwhile, in case they're right, I looked at Best Buy today. I don't know if I could see a 19 inch TV unless I put it right by the bed. I might be okay with a 22 inch, but 19 seems mighty small. I could switch out with the guest room tv, but if it is the TV, that TV is the same model, same brand, same year, just smaller than the master bedroom TV.

BB had some off brand 26 inch on sale for $250. It looked like it had a good picture, but it got mixed reviews online, and I don't know about an off brand...Walmart doesn't even keep its 19 and 22 inches in stock. I want a display model even less than an off brand.

TV & cable shouldn't be so complicated.

Recent blog:=- Bursting My Own Bubble

staci, it sounds like they need to rewire your ups...

2009-11-14T17:58:25.000-05:00

staci, it sounds like they need to rewire your upstairs honesly.
I had problems with my reception on one of your tv's and sure enough
it was the wiring. they get pissy but you have rights too girlfriend.

tell em, either you rewire, or I will contact"Georgia Public Service Commission" and ask all by blogging buddies who have you to do the same and we'll file major complaints against you with the cable commission.

trust me those are the words that get their attention - use em.
that means you intend to prevent them getting their license renewed.
that makes them think twice and get to the root of the problem.
also let them know that you were in a flood area, which means that
probably water got into your cable junction. if they ask did your house get wet - tell them EVERYBODY"S Houses Got Wet Biches.
*DONT_KNOW* :(

Recent blog:=- Katt You Hold Up, Wait A Minute; Let ME Put Some Pimpin In-it

Thanks. I had never heard of that one, just Hulu a...

2009-11-09T17:48:18.000-05:00

Thanks. I had never heard of that one, just Hulu and Fancast. I'll definitely check it out.

Recent blog:=- Take a Memo Monday

Staci, I found a link for you to watch dexter. htt...

2009-11-09T17:29:19.000-05:00

Staci, I found a link for you to watch dexter. http://www.casttv.com/search/dexter/1?host_name_exact=MegaVideo

Casttv.com is a great place. Years of no cable has made me more resourceful around the web, lol. I watch all my favorite shows and football. You have to spend some time to find dependable sites but it's worth the hassle of cable. This link gives you a time limit but gives you enough time to watch a few episodes a day. Plus Casttv give you more options for other streams. I'll look around for the other show.

Recent blog:=- Second Day of Vacation

That's true. I can even watch General Hospital now...

2009-11-09T15:00:11.000-05:00

That's true. I can even watch General Hospital now online. About the only thing you can't is Dexter and United States of Tara, at least as far as I know. Right now that's about the only thing keeping me from canceling.

Recent blog:=- The Cable Company Can Kiss It

Sorry you are having problems with the cable compa...

2009-11-09T12:07:03.000-05:00

Sorry you are having problems with the cable company. I don't know much about cable. But I never hear good things about the cable company around my area, which is Comcast. I don't have cable at my place. It's too expensive and there's nothing good on tv anymore, besides football. You can watch almost anything on the net these days and not pay a penny. Hulu.com is a great site that has a lot of tv shows and movies.

Recent blog:=- A Short Interview.

Maybe my ex boss, the chief judge, is like the god...

2009-11-09T11:27:28.000-05:00

Maybe my ex boss, the chief judge, is like the godfather, and all these people go to his church, or the creep solicitor who told me on my last day that he was going to make me his mission. It wouldn't surprise me in this town. It's only "metro" when it's convenient. The rest of the time it's still small town, and I'm still an outsider. Watch me not even be able to get decent service at Chik-fil-A next. :(

I wasn't rude. Honestly, I wasn't. Maybe it sounds like I was in the post, but that's just my anger coming out after the fact. In reality, I just kept saying I wasn't making it up, that this is what happened, that I didn't understand a word he had just said about + and -12, and, once it was obvious he wasn't going to do anything else, just never mind. I also kept asking him could it be these various things and got shot down every time.

Maybe I just give off some weird vibe that it's okay to run me over or swindle me. *DONT_KNOW*

Recent blog:=- The Cable Company Can Kiss It

Are you blacklisted with all of the service compan...

2009-11-09T10:36:10.000-05:00

Are you blacklisted with all of the service companies in your area? I think you are, you must have offended someone very high up in the service man heirarchy!

Recent blog:=- Gift Giving

Motorola was the one he took away today. :( That's...

2009-11-09T01:42:48.000-05:00

Motorola was the one he took away today. :( That's ok. I'll look it up tomorrow just in case I have to use it. Maybe just by looking it up, the box will miraculously be the only box to work, and I'll be able to stick it away in a drawer somewhere.

I looked up something like that once when my mom's box went out in the living room, but it was a different brand and I could never get it to work right. Her cable co. was even worse because it would take two weeks to get someone to your house. My sister took the box by one day to switch it out, and they wouldn't let her. They said it had to be via a service call. All that time wasted over something she could have done herself.

Honestly, seeing as every time I call, they try to get me to upgrade my box to a DVR, I wonder if they keep giving people duds on purpose. The DVR is $15 more a month. $15 more times however many customers that are forced to switch because they get so frustrated by the regular boxes equals a lot of money. However, if they have to rewire a home that is covered by the wire maintenance plan ($5 a month), they may be out money.

They also send me a special offer every other week trying to get me to lock in a price on HD. The price they're offering would give me a whole other movie tier (I'd have all the movie channels then), a HD DVR, and the HD tier for about $5 or $10 more than I'm paying now. I know the HD tier is $5 extra on it's on. The HBO/Cinemax package is $10 to $15 extra. The DVR is $15. Basically, I'm losing money by not having it, but I don't have a HD TV.

Again it makes me wonder if they do these things (bad boxes) and too good to be true offers to force people to upgrade. Maybe the maintenance on old boxes and having to deal with analog TV's costs them more than all the brand new, HD, digital stuff since the digital conversions. Like maintenance calls are less, they don't have to employ as many workers, etc. Plus, 2 years from now, when the locked in price is up, they can hit you with larger fees.

It just makes you think.

Recent blog:=- The Cable Company Can Kiss It

The hard/soft reboot thing was a different set of ...

2009-11-09T01:14:37.000-05:00

The hard/soft reboot thing was a different set of buttons I had to push on
my digital box in a specific sequence. Our digital boxes are both Motorola
and I honestly can't remember the sequence of what happened. It was a combo
and unplugging, pushing buttons, dancing a ceremonial jig and praying.

I've unplugged them, waited awhile, & plugged it b...

2009-11-09T01:09:53.000-05:00

I've unplugged them, waited awhile, & plugged it back in. I've had Charter send a new signal (the new signal always takes an hour upstairs, but downstairs it's instantaneous). I've even unplugged the cable line itself for awhile. It helps for a couple of hours, and then it goes back to acting crazy.

I don't know if that's considered a hard or soft reboot. I guess I'll have to look up the model and see. I've had three General Instruments and one Motorola upstairs in six years. I've only had a General Instrument & whatever the other brand is downstairs (much smaller, faster box).

I'm not going to issue a verdict on this box until tomorrow since all three services were in and out all night. I do know that the outside of the box, however, looks like it's been through the ringer. That's never a good sign.

Any chance your box is a General Instrument & you can tell me how to do the hard reboot?

Recent blog:=- The Cable Company Can Kiss It

I am most definitely not a cable expert but we hav...

2009-11-09T00:57:02.000-05:00

I am most definitely not a cable expert but we have had some issues with our boxes over here too. I don't know what kind of box you have but have you tried to reset them? A couple of weeks ago one of our boxes was acting all crazy and our cable company didn't believe us so I looked up the model on the internet and did a total reboot of it. I'm pretty sure that's what it was called - not a soft reboot but a total reboot. It took a couple of hours to reset itself but then everything worked like magic.

Recent blog:=- It's So Much Nicer With Friends

I'm just tired of things breaking or, to be a litt...

2009-11-08T22:37:18.000-05:00

I'm just tired of things breaking or, to be a little more particular, things breaking but no one believing me. Trust me. If I wanted attn, there are a lot better ways for me to get it that scheduling repair calls with Charter, like going to Double D's in a low cut shirt and a push up bra. I don't want attention. I just want my cable to work.

I talked to the Twitter Charter people afterward. They said they would put it through to corporate escalation or something like that if this box goes out, so long as I went through them instead of the 800 #. They advised me switching tv's out, too, with the little one I have in another room if it happens again. That way if it happens again I'll have more proof that it's the TV. I just wish the Twitter people were the same people that came to your door.

Problem with switching TV's is that TV is tiny, tiny (13 in I think), but I'm super nearsighted. It wouldn't be a long term use tv. Now that my cable and internet are back on (ironically enough, an area outage occurred about 30 mins after I posted this post), I can look at what TV's run. They're a lot, and when you say 19 in with a LCD TV, you're talking about a much smaller TV than a 19 in old school TV b/c of the diagonal.

I've always had problems with this room, and I'll be in this house 6 years in March. I would think that after 4 boxes they might believe me that just perhaps I might be a unique case that they weren't taught about in trade school. If it's the TV, great, but tell me that for sure. Don't mumble, "I don't know." That's a very expensive I don't know. Either it is or it isn't.

And I still say that a wire can have a short in it. I don't care how much plastic wrapping there is around said wire. All it takes is bending it enough or having a bad one come off the manufacturer's line. Hello, recalls. They happen, even to Charter I'm sure.

I may ask for a tv for Christmas, but I doubt I'll get one. That's the kind of thing my mother would have gotten because she understood that we'd rather have one good present than a bunch of little things that added up to the same amount. My father doesn't get that. He's always like, "You've got to have something to open, sport." In that case, just give me several checks in several envelopes or something.

Anyway, enough rambling. Trying to help my sister figure out if she can take an old pain pill of my grandmother's.

Recent blog:=- The Cable Company Can Kiss It

I am so sorry that things seem so tough right now....

2009-11-08T20:29:29.000-05:00

I am so sorry that things seem so tough right now. You need perhaps to get on the phone with a supervisor, or the supervisor's supervisor. And that's the only advice I have. No comfort, I know. We used to have this weird thing with Comcast where the cable would go out for a few hours especially when it was hot out - they changed everything they could change and even re-wired. Conclusion: There's a problem with the cable somewhere "down the line". But they never said we were crazy. Every repair person changed or fixed something, no one had an answer but they kept at it.

Here's hoping that things start going better for you. Major {{huggiez}}