One other reason why I haven't been able to keep up with my weblog is the fact that my high-speed Internet has been intermittently cutting out.
Since I got back from Denver on Monday, I've been having sporadic service with my high-speed cable through Mediacom. It would work for an hour, then it would act like it's not getting a signal at all. Then it comes back on like nothing happens, then 15 minutes later, it goes off.
I called the repair line yesterday and they had a recorded announcement which said there was an outage problem in my area and they were working to fix it as soon as possible. But all through the afternoon and last evening, it was still going on and off.
Finally this morning, I'd had it. It was working when I got into the office at 7:30, but suddenly it went dead again. I called up the service line. This time the recording said there were no outages in my area. I talked to a service guy. He had me reset the modem (which I had done numerous times since Monday when the service is down, to no avail). He said, “Well, there's an upstream problem and I'll have to send someone out for service.”
He then proceeded to tell me the earliest anyone could come would be next Wednesday afternoon. NEXT WEDNESDAY FRIGGING AFTERNOON! (Sorry, my stress meds haven't kicked in yet this afternoon.) I about shit on the spot. Even after I told him that I rely heavily on a high-speed Internet connection for my work, he said, “I'm sorry, but there's no way we can get there until next Wednesday.”
Since I'm scheduled to be in Lincoln, NE next Wednesday I told him there was no way I could do that. He once again apologized and said that was the soonest he could get a technician over to check on the problem.
Finally, I thought I'd bluff him and say, “Well, then I guess I'm going to have to call AT&T or Qwest and get their high-speed service since I need a high-speed connection now.”
The service rep said, “Well, if that's what you have to do, sir, then I'm sorry. But we're backed up in your area and that's the earliest possible time we can get repair service to your house.”
And then the little bastard had the nerve to say, “Is there anything else I can do for you today?”
I almost said, “Yeah, you can shove Mediacom and their shitty service up your ass!” But I opted to slam the phone down before I could give an answer.
Earlier this week, my friend Tony Jobe, who lives out in Ohio, was conversing back and forth with me about getting a new HD Antenna to pick up his local HD channels now that he had DirecTV.
Tony told me that when he called Time Warner to discontinue his cable service, the customer service rep immediately offered to knock $40 bucks off his bill for him to keep TW cable. Tony said to me, “Why don't they take some of that money and apply it to getting the Big Ten Network?”
(Not having the Big Ten Network on Time Warner was the reason Tony went to DirecTV. The large cable providers in the Midwest are still balking at the Big Ten Network's demands to put their fledgling network on basic cable, while cable providers continue to push for the Big Ten Network on a digital sports tier.)
He told me that he has a local friend in Ohio who grew up in Nashville and he has no interest in the Big Ten Network. Tony told him to call up TW and say that he's going to drop the cable service and get DirecTV. That way he could get $40 bucks off his monthly bill.
So, I got to thinking about Tony's conversation with Time Warner and wondered if I could pull off a similar scam.
I called Mediacom’s Customer Service and got a representative on the phone. After all the verifications and the like, he asked, “How can I help you today, Mr. Veber?”
I told him I needed to know the procedure for discontinuing my Mediacom service. He immediately said, “Well, I can connect you with that department.”
I was on hold for about three minutes before I was finally connected to a guy that sounded like he was much more mature than the first customer service rep I had gotten a hold of earlier this morning. I told him that I wanted to know the procedure for shutting off my cable service by the end of the week. He immediately asked, “And may I ask why you're wanting to suspend your service?”
I told him that I had a service issue that couldn't be resolved in a timely fashion. Then I added, “And the Big Ten Network situation not being resolved is another reason.”
I explained to him that I needed high-speed Internet for my job and it was having intermittent problems since Monday. Even though they said there were service outages in my area the previous day, there were none reported today, but I was still having problems.
I explained to him I was told the earliest anyone could come out would be next Wednesday afternoon. I said I work in my home office and travel on the road. Even if I could wait until next Wednesday, I was scheduled to be out of town.
I said, “I realize my $160 a month payment may be just a drop in the bucket to you guys and maybe you don't care if you lose customers because you can't accommodate their schedules. But to me, $160 bucks of perpetual monthly income would be a big deal. I wouldn't want to lose that kind of income.”
The customer service rep said, “OK, Mr. Veber. Let me tell you what. I want to put you in touch with the head repair supervisor for Mediacom. I think he may be able to take care of your problem.”
Another three minutes passed. Finally, a man comes on the line and introduces himself (didn't get his name, but he did have the title of chief supervisor for technical service - or something like that). He asked what the problem was and I basically said the same thing that I had said to two previous Mediacom technicians.
Then I added, “Look, I spend $160 bucks with you people each month and I think that YOU should have to work around MY schedule, not me around yours. High-speed Internet is important to me for my work and if I can't get it taken care of in a timely fashion - one that fits into MY schedule - then there are alternatives like AT&T and Qwest who bombard me with offers in the mail on a weekly basis.”
The supervisor said, “If we can resolve this service issue immediately and get someone to come out to your house today, would you stay with us?”
I said, “Well, that's a start.” But now I was feeling cocky. I said, “But let's talk about this Big Ten Network thing.”
He said, “Well, let me do this first. Let me get a hold of one of the local dispatchers in Davenport, explain the situation to him about how important it is for a high-speed connection in your work, then see if he could get someone to come out today.”
I said that would be fine and he put me on hold for about three more minutes. He came back on and said, “Mr. Veber, I have contacted the lead dispatcher in Davenport, told him of your situation and he said he would be calling you shortly to set up a time for a service technician to come by within 24 hours and possibly as early as this afternoon. Will that work for you?”
I told him, yes, that would be acceptable.
The conversation then turned to the Big Ten Network and Mediacom's refusal to pick it up. Even though I'm siding with Mediacom in this matter in a big way, I played the poor disconnected consumer, caught in the middle of two bull-headed behemoths slugging it out in the pits.
He told me the cable provider and Big Ten Network are in final negotiations in bringing the network to Mediacom. He said, “There are a few minor details that need to get worked out by our legal department. We hope to have this issue resolved within the next 7 to 10 days.”
Now, I don't know if that's a standard answer Mediacom uses to hold off those who are looking to abandon the service in favor of satellite, but this guy seemed to be a significant “higher up” in the Mediacom food chain. He talked openly and frank about this situation and definitely had his facts in a row.
But he refused to answer my questions about possible rate hikes, per subscriber fees paid to the Big Ten, and whether it would be on basic cable or the sports package. But other than that he seemed to be at ease (as in, someone definitely in the know) in talking about the situation.
He said, “Believe me, we've gone round and round with the Big Ten Network on this, offering them every possible scenario to make this work. They've finally come back with some reworked points over the past couple of weeks and it's something we believe is more feasible than earlier demands they were making.”
It remains to be seen whether or not this will happen as quickly as he says it may. But as they say on television, stay tuned.
Oh - the resolution of the above story regarding my high-speed Internet connection through Mediacom.
The chief supervisor apologized up and down to me about having some underling say they couldn't come out until next Wednesday. I mean, he was falling all over himself apologizing and saying that it's quite evident that I use my high-speed Internet for my livelihood. Which I do, quite a bit. He couldn't have been more accommodating.
About 30 minutes after the last phone call to Mediacom, my high-speed came back and has worked flawlessly ever since. A technician called me at 4:25 and said he was on his was over. I told him that everything seemed to be working normally, but he said, “Well, I'd still like to come over and run some tests on the modem.”
He came by about 4:45 and took a look at my set up and then ran a diagnostic on the system. He changed a couple things out for me and he said it improved my Internet signal-to-noise ratio by 6 db - which is significant. He was here all of 20 minutes and there was no charge. Well, dammit, there shouldn't have even been a mention of a charge.
But just the bureaucratic crap that goes on at places like Mediacom is enough to make me crawl up a wall. It was like the first guy I talked to didn't give a shit about me going to AT&T or Qwest for my high-speed Internet. As I told the chief supervisor, “I would have thought there would have been more of a sense of urgency if your customer service rep heard that I was cutting my service.”
He said, “There should have been more of a sense of urgency on that person's part and for that I truly apologize. He was falling all over himself to appease me. It was kinda fun!
Well, I didn't get $40 bucks taken off my monthly bill. My high speed cable is working better now that the guy came over and changed the cable and the coupling out. But the aggravation I went through with Mediacom today - even though they were “Johnny-on-the-spot” in getting over and addressing the problem - still leaves somewhat of a bad taste in my mouth.
Maybe it's time for a beer...
I don't know who I've gotten more mad at in the past year, Charter Cable or Direct TV. I dropped Charter because they pissed me off. Now I'm ready to drop Direct because they're REALLY pissing me off. My wife wants us to have just regular old over the air TV for awhile. I may have to go with that.
Posted by: Warren | September 13, 2007 at 06:41 PM