No. 23: Get Cable or The Adventure in Customer (Dis)Service Begins

No. 23: Get Cable
a.k.a.
 No. 23: Pull my hair out and scream

Getting cable TV is a big one for me. I am somewhat of a Luddite when it comes to TV. The great digital conversion came and went and our house bought bunny-ear antennas and carried on with our same local channels as before. 

It is impossible to take a decent picture of bunny ear antennas.

They are just too awkward.

Like my girls.

My kids have not grown up with cable TV.  They assure me they are "socially awkward" because they can't discuss The Walking Dead on Monday mornings. They are always a day late knowing what peccadillo the Kardashian sisters have gotten themselves into. I've been okay with that. 

BUT, times change. From hotel stays and visits with friends I have picked up an HGTV habit. Sometimes the bunny ears don't work 100% and the TV picture goes catty-wompus, usually right at the climax of a show or when the best punch line is delivered. So I am willing to finally join the 21st century.

My husband is delighted. He bought a new 55 inch flat screen HDTV yesterday in anticipation of new (to us) shows. This TV is too big for any room in our house but the hubby is in Heaven.

Godzilla TV.  

The box is as big as the cabinet it is supposed to hang over.

Then....

The cable installer arrived Monday morning right on time at 8:00am.  He was so polite. 

By 10:00am he was asking me if the location for the satellite dish was okay. It wasn't so he moved it to the back where it needed to be.

This looks promising...

At 2:00pm he was recharging the batteries on something that had run down. 

By 4:00pm I was still waiting for the first cable to be strung, the first connection to be made. 

...alas, this is where that cable ends.
After. TEN. Hours.

At 5:00pm, after 9 hours at our house, he admitted he was in over his head and had called a Master Technician.  

Since this was New Year's Eve I politely informed him he needed to reschedule. I had already invested nine hours waiting for him to install something. He finally left at 6pm,  ten hours after he arrived and NOTHING had been accomplished. 

We were no closer to having cable than we were a month ago when I had never spoken to any TV service company.

So I have to admit my confidence in DirecTV has been shaken. 

We are rescheduled for this Friday. I spent an hour on the phone while I was typing this trying to get that date moved up. 

The only thing I accomplished was the promise of a credit and a follow up call. 

Maybe I need to rethink No. 23 while I still can.