Medialoper

Chasing the long tail of new media

Charter-Communications

Adventures With The Cable Company

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charterlogo.gif SATURDAY
MY APARTMENT

“NOOOOOO!!!!” I screamed into the phone, loud enough that the poor Third Customer Service Rep from The Cable Company probably didn’t need his phone to hear it in Bangalore. But it was nearing 10:30 Saturday morning and I’d just been on anger-building hold for 20 minutes (“Your call will be answered in the order in which it was received”).

“I WILL NOT RESCHEDULE MY APPOINTMENT!!! THIS IS YOURRRRR ISSUE!! YOU NEED TO FIX IT!!” Technically, it really wasn’t the Third Customer Service Rep’s issue, it’s just that he got stuck with me just as my asshole-o-meter had gone to 11. I was trembling with righteous fury, storming around my apartment with the cell phone jammed in my ear. I was as angry as I have ever been, and that’s really saying something.

“Please hold, sir, while I try to see what I can do.”

[Read more…] about Adventures With The Cable Company

HD DVR: Hi Definition Disappointment Part 2

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Recently, I wrote about how disappointed I was with my first cable company-supplied Hi-Definition DVR.  My main issues were that, compared to the Replay I had been using for several years, the actual functionality and usability were a huge step downwards.  In addition, the cable guy kept going on about how it just too bad that I wasn’t getting something called the “Moxi,” which he said was much better.

And he was right: after being contacted by a guy from the company that made the Moxi,  I did some research, and, yup, it pretty much has all of the features I want.  Fat lot of good that does me.  After all, it’s not like its easy to find a day to unhook everything, wait for another cable guy; rebuild my entire setup, and learn yet another DVR. 

Meanwhile, I’ve discovered even more issues with the Scientific Atlanta box:

  • Nowhere does the cable guide tell you whether an episode of show is a repeat or a first-run episode.  
  • If a show I’m normally recording is being pre-empted by another show, the cable guide still shows that the timeslot is going to be recorded. 
  • For the NBC HD Channels, the sound doesn’t sync up with the picture.  The Olympics were on when I wrote that first post, so I had no cause to record any NBC shows, but since then, it gets very annoying when sound gags on Scrubs don’t match the visuals.  Or this upcoming weekend when Arctic Monkeys play SNL. It’s only NBC HD — nobody else — so I don’t know if the problem is with the cable box, Charter, our local affiliate, or NBC itself.  All I know is that it’s dammed annoying.
  • Finally, despite all of this, our cable bill has risen $20 (twice as much as they told me it would) and — best of all there is a line item on the bill for DVR Moxi Service.  That’s right: it looks like I’m being charged for the thing that I didn’t even get.

So I’m thinking that rather than upgrading to the Moxi, if we’re going to make that much effort, we might as well switch to the satellite company that has the TiVo HD DVR.