Right now I am way beyond mad!! I have a few choice words I'd like to put in here, but i hold back!! Please let me explain my situation:
Almost 4 years ago, I sign up with our local cable company, ...unfortunately, the ONLY cable provider in this area! When I signed up, I got both cable and internet through them (b/c I was a new customer, it was cheaper than having one company for cable and another for internet). After my "I got you" fancy package expired, the rate went up, of course. So, I cancelled my internet through them and got it from another internet provider. For my cable, I changed over to the cheapest package they had at the time which was approximately $30/month. I was happy with it b/c even though it didn't have all the nice movie channels, it was enough for my preference. And besides, I don't watch enough tv to need all those other channels anyway. The only tv in my house that has a box hooked up to it is in the den. The tv in the bedroom has cable hooked to it, but no box (obviously, w/out a box, I don't get all the channels in the bedroom that I do in the den, which I'm okay with). And the tv in my daughter's room doesn't have cable hooked to it at all. She's not allowed to have that right now so she can only watch DVDs on that tv (and it's considered a treat when she gets to watch a DVD on there).
So, I've been happy w/ my cable since making the change to the cheaper package.....until March 25, 2012. I come home that afternoon, tired after running a 5k, ready to sit down, relax and watch a tv program or two, and maybe take a nap on the couch. I turn my tv on and discover that over half of my channels are no longer coming through. The message on the screen says: NOT AUTHORIZED, For Ordering, Press Info. And, OF COURSE, all the channels I like to watch are the ones that are missing!! Needless to say, I was a bit upset. So, I get on the phone to the cable company. The CSR I am speaking to advises that I should have those channels and that we needed to do a couple things to try to get them back. He first asks me to turn the box off, unplug if for about 10 seconds and plug it back in, of which I do. Once the cable box finally came back on, it was still showing the same NOT AUTHORIZED message. So, CSR then proceeds to send about 4 different "signals" to my box w/out any change happening. After messing with it for 20 minutes, he advises me that I would need to schedule a technician to come out to my house to take a look at the box. While I'm speaking with this CSR, I turn the tv in my bedroom on and decide to see if any of those missing channels in the den are showing on the bedroom tv. Well....wouldn't you know it, they are!!! I advise the CSR of this discovery and, as expected, he's perplexed (did I really expect him not to be). He also advises me that I will have to contact them the next business day to schedule an appointment b/c he doesn't see any available appts in the near future (....just great!).
B/c things were absolutely chaotic at work the first 2 days of the week, I didn't get to call the cable company until the 28th of March. When I spoke to the CSR that day, she also advised that I should have those channels and that the only available appt was for the afternoon of April 7th. I basically told her she was crazy if she thought I was going to wait that long and told her I would call back. The next morning I call and am advised that they have an appt for April 3 between 1 and 3pm. I hated it, but I took that opening. So, I make arrangements to work from home that afternoon so that I could wait on this technician to NOT show up. And true to form, 3pm came and went and NO technician. So, I called them up again about 20 minutes after the tech guy was supposed to be there to try to find out where he was and how much longer he was going to be before getting to my appt. I was informed that he still had 3 appts before me that still showed open (meaning he hadn't gotten to them yet) and that they didn't know how long it would take him to finish those appts. I advised the CSR that I was not going to wait around until 8pm for this tech to finally show up. I was then told that the next available appt was April 13th...Friday the 13th of all days. I said that I was not going to wait that long and that they either needed to get the guy there and FAST or rearrange other appts to get my in sooner than later. After we hung up, I was even more ticked off. Amazingly though, within just minutes of hanging up w/ the CSR, the technician called me...sounding rather irritated...advised that he was on his way and according to his GPS, he was 40 minutes out from my house. So, I hung around and by the time that he arrived, he was 1 hour and 15 minutes LATE (giving me a $20 credit towards my bill)!!
When this tech walked through my door, he REEKED of cigarette smoke, which is blatantly obvious to someone that doesn't smoke. Immediately after turning the cable on and realizing what the message on these missing channels said, he proceeded to get irate w/ me stating that he was NOT in charge of authorizing channels and that someone in the office needed to take care of that. So, I let him know that, yes, I realize that, but I was informed that after attempts to fix it from the office, the CSRs advised that a tech needed to come out to my home. He again made me aware that he was not responsible for that and that he hated dealing with their customer service b/c they don't have a clue (that's good to know), so he got on the phone to his dispatcher advising of the issue. She told him that I was not authorized to get those channels and that it would cost me an additional $30/month to have them. I told him that I would be calling the cable company up to cancel my service b/c they were out of their ever loving minds if they thought I was going to pay even more to get the channels back that I should already have. When the tech got off the phone w/ his dispatcher, he again with a degrading tone, advised me that I was wrong for having him come out to my house when it wasn't up to him to give me authorization. WOW!!! I mean, can you just imagine the look on my face when he said that??? I told him that he could just stop right there...that he was not going to talk to me like that and that I was advised after contacting them that he was needed to come look it it. I also advised him that he could pack his crap (not exact word used, but...) up and leave my house b/c he was of no use to me and I was not going to listen to him tell me the same thing over and over and over again. As he's walking out the door, he is still berating me w/ what should have happened and what shouldn't have happened.
I called the cable company's CSR again...with yet another attempt to fix it after being advised that I should have them. That attempt to fix it was to no avail. So, I contacted them this morning advising of the issue and that I needed to cancel my service. The CSR I was speaking w/ transferred me to the dept that does the cancellations. When I spoke to the guy in that dept, he asked me why I was cancelling and I flat out told him "b/c your company has screwed me over and I no longer want their service". He asked the situation and I explained it to him. He then looked at my file and realized that apparently, there was a change made to the package I have (changed was done between 3/25/12 and 4/1/12), which moved those "missing" channels off my package. I advised that b/c of that I no longer wanted my cable through their company. He advised that he could move me up to the next package and I would stay at the same price I've had all along! Now, don't get too excited folks. That upgraded package doesn't have any more channels than I had to begin w/. So, all this and I get what I originally had at the same price. I guess it does pay to call and advise you want to cancel!
....maybe I'll do that more often!!
God Bless!!
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