Time Warner Cable

Add another data point to our decline...

Wednesday morning, we had high winds and my cable internet went out. I called that evening when it was still down. They sent a tech out the next morning. He determined that the problem was not in my house. So they sent out a lineman who griped and made swearing noises while working on a pole next to really thorny tree. I felt for the guy.

Later last night, still no internet. I called them up and they said the problem was fixed. I told them I still didn't have internet. They said someone would be out in about an hour.

An hour later, the door bell rang. I thought it was the cable guy. Nope, it was a neighbor going door to door, checking to see if anyone in the area had working cable service. He said that Time Warner told him there was not outage, so there was nothing to fix. He had determined that the entire block was out. For him, it was especially annoying because he had cable TV and his wife was missing her shows...

Late last night, I called again. The techie informed my that my internet connection was repaired. I corrected him and asked him to reopen the ticket, and asked when the lineman was due out. He told me that no one was coming out. There was no outage in my area. I asked him how they determine if there is an outage, and he said he had no idea. but he assured me that none of my neighbors were having problems.

So I asked him again to please send someone out to fix my service. He said he would put me down to be monitored, and if in a few days it was determined that there was an outage, they would come out and try to restore my service.

I'm still a bit incredulous that they would do this to their customers. Back in the old days when I used to spend time on the phone talking to vendors, I learned to be mean and to push hard to get the things we were promised. I considered going into Jack Ass Mode with Time Warner, and push to get a technician out there pronto. And I decided it's not worth my effort. If they are going to do this to me once, they'll do it again. If they don't care about providing me with service, I'll quit sending them money.

A little while ago, I ordered FIOS from Verizon. I'll be dropping Time Warner Cable after I get all of my email contacts moved over. This solution will save me a bit cash. It's also twice as fast. It's too bad that there are no vendors in my area that follow Constitutional Law. They all help the government spy on me, while violating my right to be secure in my person, house, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures. Oh well, if my rights must be violated while providing me with a needed service, then I guess I might as well choose the vendor based on quality and price.

I just hope I don't need to work from home before this debacle is over. I'll be using sneaker net for my homework for a time, rather than a secure private network.