I’m All Done With My Cable Company

After nine years of service, I’ve finally going to get rid of the cable company.
I’m not usually the type of person to switch accounts from one company to another. I’ve used the same utility companies since I bought my house. The same electric company, although there have been offers with lower prices. The same long distance carrier, until I did away with the landline. The same cell phone carrier. And the same cable company. For nine years. I guess it would be fair to say that it takes a lot to make me switch companies once I’m with them.
It’s not that I have an undying sense of company loyalty. It’s not that I’m afraid of change. And it’s not the idea of “voting with your dollars”.
The fact is, I’m a lazy sod. The hassle of calling, setting up service, and having to switch all my online payments over to the new company just isn’t something that I enjoy doing. Or rather, that I WOULD enjoy, as I haven’t ever actually done it before.
Until now.
After all these years, I’m going to switch. I’ve already ordered the new service.

After the hurricane, there was so much damage to the community that virtually all services were interrupted. We were without electricity for two weeks (to the day). Nothing else could be hooked up until the electric company gave the all clear, because they didn’t want electricity linemen bumping heads with phone and cable line repairmen. So as each area was completed, the phone and cable providers would coordinate to move in the next day and begin work. All fine and dandy, and each company was kept really busy.

The local electric company was awesome. They hired thousands of extra linemen and thousands more tree removers. They hit whole sections of the city at a time, and within a couple weeks they had restored power to millions of people. People would come out of their houses to watch as thirty or more electric repair trucks would roll into the neighborhood and go to work.

As the electricity would come on in each area, the company would update their map online, and they would forecast how long each zip code would take until completion. It was really a well-oiled machine, and they pulled it off exceptionally well. Of course there were some complaints. There are always some complaints. Sometimes they would turn on the power in one area and it would black out the next area over. Then they couldn’t always come right out and repair the newly redamaged section. But overall, they did an excellent job, and IMHO the person who organized it deserves a big fat bonus on his paycheck.

My area was extensively damaged, and it took longer than most areas. I can understand that. They were very up front about it. The map of my area stated “extensive damage” and it told me not to expect electricity before a couple of weeks. When they finally did come into my area and assessed the damage, they gave me a grim outlook by saying “another week would probably be optimistic”.

I can accept that. It’s not their fault a hurricane knocked out the utilities, but they did everything they could to get things back to normal.

The cable company, on the other hand, may or may not have done things a bit differently. Not that I would know, seeing as I haven’t heard anything from them. There’s nothing at all on their website about it. I tried calling the company to ask when I should expect my service to be restored, and I spoke to India. Again. I love speaking to India. NOT!

After a couple of hours on the phone with them, and countless transfers, they finally gave me an 800 number to call for my area. When I called it, I found out that they had set up a hotline to keep us informed as to their progress. The only problem is that it hasn’t been updated since October 1st. So as of October the 1st, they predicted that all service would be restored within a week. Only problem is that that was two weeks ago.

Eventually, I was able to reach the corporate office. I think it’s in Chicago. They told me that they were not aware that the 800 number wasn’t being updated and said that they would notify the people in charge of it and tell them to update it. But that was several days ago, and it seems that they did not. If you want, you can call the hotline yourself at 1-888-254-9271

Eventually, the cable came back on. And then it went off again. And then it came back on. And then it went off.

As it stands, we have a few hours of cable service per day. Whenever prime time hits, it goes away. So no cable and no internet after about five o’clock or so.

None of this has anything to do with why I’m leaving them, however. The simple fact is, AT&T ran fiber past my house, and I’m looking foreward to blistering fast internet connections and 400+ channels for the same price as I’m already paying. They sent out 200 billion advertisements saying that they were offering all these good packages for new customers. So I said yes. The only drawback, however, is that because of all the recent hurricane damage, combined with all the new customers, there is a backlog on new orders, and they won’t be out to hook me up until the 22nd.

So until then, I have a few hours of internet per day, and a fuzzy signal on my TV whenever it actually picks up any channels.