So my cable went out today. First I checked to see if I could find a loose connection. I check out the cable “tube” outside, which is unlocked and just sitting there. My cable is unattached and on the female connector where it should go is a plastic thingy that sort of locks it. The only other connector, to the neighbor’s house has cable attached. On a hunch, I call the cable company and say that I know my neighbor canceled, but some moron unattached mine instead. They look it up and say, yes, my neighbor canceled but that was taken care of on 27 Feb. I could just unhook theirs and hook up mine but I have broadband internet, which I doubt they did, so it doesn’t do me a lot of good. I don’t really care about TV, I care about the broadband, which my kids use daily for school. I tell them that not only was it done today, but they disconnected mine by mistake. They tell me that I have to be home when they come between 12 & 4 tomorrow. This is problematic, as I have a job. I point out that I didn’t have to be home when they screwed up. Anyway, the plastic thingy looks amenable to intervention by either vice grips or a dremel tool. Given the fact that they unhooked the wrong cable, what are the chances that if I remove this “lock” I will re-establish service? Seems likely to me that the outlet is still live.
Since they have been made aware of the problem, let them fix it. The time to deal with it would have been before you called.
Plan B is to have the neighbor ‘notice’ that they still have cable and have them call the cable company under the guise of not wanting to appear to be stealing cable.
Call them up, ask for a supervisor, whenthey ask you why, don’t give the rep any answers, just keep asking for supervisor until they let you talk to one. Give them the same story. (I would suggest having your neighbor do the same thing, except saying that they still have cable and don’t want to be billed). Also, from a friend that works for Time Warner, they HATE hearing about Direct TV, Satellite, Dish etc. Threatening to switch usually speeds things up. BTW I wouldn’t go cutting off any locks, you could get in ALOT of trouble for doing that. Also, be sure to ask for a credit on your bill for the outage.
Don’t. I know it’s a sucky situation, and it’s entirely their fault, but that box and everything in it is their property, and messing with it, even justifiably, could land you in hot water. Shouldn’t stop you from writing an angry letter to whoever is in charge of these things though.
How about if you simply demand that they stop billing you, effective immediately, until they reinstate service? I bet they’ll figure out a way to get your service back on without you being home. 
I think the supervisor thing is the way to go. See, the problem is that I (my kids) really need the service. Their school is way overboard on the internet thing, and it is a very rare day that they don’t have homework that requires using it. What I want them to do is come and reverse their problem without me having to be home. I didn’t have to be home for them to turn it off. I don’t see how I could possibly get in any trouble messing with it though. No way to prove it was me, and I am paying the bills. No theft of service or anything. Not like I am trying to steal anything. And they don’t have a clue as to what is going on. As I mentioned, their records show that the neighbor’s cable was disconnected on 27 Feb., yet I know with absolute certainty that the problem occured somtime on 1 March. I would dislike being inconvienced if something went wrong with the cable at all, given the fact that they unhooked my cable without my permission, and then insist on treating it like a routine service call where, for their convenience, they have someone home to insure that service is restored really burns me. I don’t want to mention names, but if the merger goes through I would not recommend the roller coasters at Disney World any longer.