Okay, So Who's The Idiot Here? Them or Me?

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

I was going to start this in the Pit, but I decided that I’m just too tired of this to flame. And now it’s just stupid.

I started a thread last week about having a Bad Week. In it, I mentioned that my cable had been cut off, but we were now having trouble with the box. We set up a trouble call, and they were supposed to come out today.

I called last night to confirm the appointment. Not a problem, except that I found out from the rep that my cable had, in fact, been turned off at the pole. News to me.

I got home from work today, and there’s still no cable. My husband did have to go out today, but I had set it up for them to call a friend of mine who lives just a few blocks from me, and she would let them in. They hadn’t called her, either. So, we call cable. “Oh, they just haven’t gotten there yet,” they say. “Okay,” we say (hey, I work for a utility, and I know that they do get to running late sometimes). So, an hour and a half later, they’re still not here. I call back. Here’s what I find out:

1)I do have an appointment, scheduled for October 10th.

2)My cable got cut off at the pole–yesterday.

3)Someone was out here Saturday to check out the problem, and determined that the problem was not at the pole. I don’t know when they were here. I was here until 4 on Saturday. Then I was at xploder’s house.

4)The reason I was cut off again was because we didn’t pay enough last week. Now, this is indeed my fault. I recall my husband saying something about having to pay some more by last Friday, but I forgot. I accept full responsibility for that goof-up. But no one told me this when I called Monday or yesterday (I’ve called several times to see if any cancellations had occurred, so that maybe I wouldn’t have to wait so long for the original trouble call).

5)When I called last night to confirm today’s appointment, the appointment I was confirming was cancelled, because I had been cut off at the pole, and needed to pay more. The very nice lady I spoke to yesterday (I’m not kidding here, she was nice, but apparently she was snow-jobbing me HUGE) didn’t tell me she rescheduled or cancelled anything. If I had been made aware of this, I’d have been down there with the rest of the money, today.

I spoke to a supervisor. She began stressing that I needed to make that payment. I cut her off with a firm “ma’am, I am not disputing the fact that I did not pay the bill. That is my fault, I am sorry, and I will pay it tomorrow morning. I am upset because of all of the things that I was not told during the numerous conversations I have had with the various reps that work for your company.” Then she began looking in to things a little further, and began apologizing.

Sigh. At least my VCR works.

2

I had a cable company not send me a bill one month, so the next month, I didn’t rush to pay said bill but did pay it on time (I was in the habit of paying for three months at a time rather than month-to-month). They shut me off. When I called them they said yes they had gotten the payment and credited my account the day before, cable turned back on. The next week they came out and cut me off again. I called and said “why’d you cut me off? I already paid,” cable turned back on. Next bill included two charges for reconnect. The cable company and I then got into a dispute over how much I owed, I showed I had one month credit they showed I was behind by a month, plus there was the dispute over the two cut-off fees. Finally just paid what they said I owed after getting runaround for a few months (I was nice through this whole ordeal).

I finally told them they were fired. Went out got a satellite dish. More channels for less money. Happy ending.

3

Them always Them. did not read the post just have to suport a Doper

4

Having been raised in an era when TV was free (even if it was only 3 channels), I’ve been suspicious of cable ever since it managed to get cable theft raised from a misdemeanor to a felony. (Car theft is not a felony.) My cable company has been raising prices steadily for years, then with this digital thing, it puts most of the good stuff there, leaves crap on standard cable and gives you the option to go digital. At a higher price. You rent a converter for each TV, you pay for the digital service and if you want basics that you had been watching, those still cost the same and are tagged on.

The cable companies own you! They manage to run a monopoly in your town to eliminate options. You have no choice over prices. You have little choice over programming. If phone, computer, TV and other services come in by cable, you will pay, pay and pay. They have you by the short hairs.

Remember the jokes ‘we can do anything. We’re the telephone company.’?

Apply that to the cable companies. Just think, the government deregulated radio, so several major companies now own all of the stations and control them. If cable is deregulated, you might have even less options if two companies control them all.

SSSSSSSSSSHHHHHHH!
Careful what you say. The CABLE COMPANY might be listening and putting you on their list.

5

the cable company can go suck a duck – i don’t watch tv. why? the only reason to watch tv is sports, and all the sports info and news i need i can now get online, and i can go to a friend’s house (my ‘baseball fan’ friend steals cable, my ‘football fan’ friend gets it for free as a condition of his lease) if there’s an event i have to watch. why bug out about it when all you get these days is extra channels on which to watch lame survivor reruns? politically incorrect went network (and lost its edge), southpark ran its course, and all the good sportscenter anchors sold out (keith who? fox what?). except for stewart scott. but the point is, who needs cable?

oh, and since i am morally obligated to adress the OP, they were wrong. not idiots, but wrong… gouging customers is a longtime practice of big companies like that, and once you screwed up by not paying one bill on time, you got identified as someone to mess with. they then began the process of charging you as much as possible for whatever they could think of, and giving you as much trouble as possible in the process. thats the way it works. imho.

6

Our cable company installed a cable modem in our house in early June. However, due to problems with the lines, the cable modem didn’t work until early August. When I received my cable bill in late August, they had charged me for the cable modem service back to the date of install (June). I called them and explained that since my cable modem didn’t work until early August, I was only going to pay for one months worth of service. They told me that they would take care of it. Just this week, I received this months bill and the June-July cable modem charges are still on the bill, with a reminder that my service will be shut off ASAP if I don’t pay these charges. I called them again and they again said they would take care of it. I also told them that if those charges were on next month’s bill, they were going to lose my business.

7

This reminds me of an incident I had years ago with my cable company (Yes, when I was actually paying for it).

I was a week or so late in paying. They threatened to cut me off. I said, “Fine”, thinking I’ll watch the local freebies and pay when I can. No problem.

Not so fast there Chris.

My company has an interesting way of gaining compliance. They first shut down the cable at my cable box- O.K… Next, and more insidiously, they made the cable box goto the all-Spanish channel and stay there. No amount of fiddling could change that damn channel. It was clear as a bell, but that was my only option. Either the Spanish channel, or nothing.

I sat through about a half-hour of “AYYYEEE!! Es Super Sabidigo!!” before I got in the car and went in to pay my bill.

Bastards. They knew exactly how to get me.

8

Oh, of course it’s wrong. To keep you calling and making arrangements all day for an appointment they ** knew ** was cancelled? when ya go in to make payments, first hand 'em monopoly money - see how much fun it is to jerk people around???
anyhow. screw the cable co, when are you coming to Lansing???

9

Last month’s bill came with pink slip. Said I had an outstanding balance from last month. Said if I don’t pay up they’re gonna disconnect. However at the bottom there’s a message saying Do Not Send Payment, because…

I HAVE AUTOPAY.

Checked my account statement, no money taken out for cable that month.

THERE’S OVER $4000 IN THE CHECKING ACCOUNT.

IHATETHEMIHATETHEMIHATETHEMIHATETHEMIHATETHEMIHATETHEM

They’ve screwed up like this before. I can forgive a screw-up, what I can’t forgive is that EVERYTIME IT HAPPENS I HAVE TO GO DOWN THERE AND ACT LIKE MY HEAD’S GONNA EXPLODE AND SPLATTER ALL OVER THE OFFICE TO GET THEM TO FIX IT.

Yesterday I got another bank statement. No payment to cable.
I’m foreseeing going home today to find the cable cut off. Expect a pit thread thereof.

10

Myron Van Horowitzski

I think that might be the reason our cable company has an off-duty cop standing around in the pay area.

11

Them.
I personally could live without cable. My reason for living (and doing laundry) cannot live without 50 channels of crap.

The one boon to living nowhere where there is pizza delivery is that when we have discontinued cable in the past (several times, due to ME winning the TV arguement) it takes the cable guy ( who looks like he is about one step away from living in a box in a seedy alleyway) to come out to our telephone pole and flip the doohickies.

We do, however, have a friend who has a long ladder…no, that is not a euphemism for something else. He is an electrician and he said he would come out and flip the switchs for us. I have no problem with receiving free crap on the TV, but I’ll be damned if I’m going to pay for it.

Speaking of which, I have never read or heard of anyone ever getting busted for pirating cable. ( This is usually not written up next to Ann Landers and Dilbert.) What, praytell, is the penalty?

12

Please forgive me. I have had several children here this week who have been monopolizing my computer. I have not been able to respond.

At any rate, I went & paid the bill. Know what I found out? My husband had made an arrangement with them (he did mention this to me, and I forgot about it). He was supposed to pay the balance on that bill–on the 29th. They cut me off at the pole just a bit early. I found this out when I went in to make my payment.

The woman at the counter was exceptionally apologetic. She waived my reconnect fees, scheduled my reconnect for the next day (Friday), and even assured me no one had to be home.

So, now I have my cable back. Since the infestation of children (my stepson and his older sisters) began, I haven’t watched much but cartoons. Oh well. The bill is paid, and my background noise is back. :smiley:

13

Ahhh… this reminds me of my own little story.

Many years ago I moved to a small town with one local cable company. The usual way that my husband and I paid bills was to go out and pay them on his payday, or on his next day off thereafter. I didn’t drive at the time, and he worked shift work, so it made sense.

I got my first bill on a Monday, it was due TUESDAY, and my husbands day off was Thursday. Yup. They cut me off on Wednesday. TWO DAYS AFTER GETTING THE BILL!!! I had only lived in this town for 2 weeks.

I phoned them up, ranting and raving, and the basic response was that I had to put up with it, or get a satelite dish. They did finally wave my reconnection fee, though.

The moral of the story is never to do business with a company that has no competition. Don’t even get me started on how much they were charging for a basic cable package…