About two weeks ago (actually, I now know it was the 8th) I came home from work and sat down to watch the evening news. I couldn't do it though, because my cable was not working! I checked on my Tivo for the programs that were supposed to have recorded that day, and the last one had finished at 3 p.m. I fiddled around with the cords and cables, and could not make it work.
I called the cable company and told them what had happened. When I mentioned I had a Tivo, they told me to check and make sure it wasn't an issue with my Tivo. I rebooted my Tivo, rechecked everything. Still didn't work.
My dad suggested I talk to my apartment management - maybe they had accidentally drilled/cut through the cable line. I had to wait till last Friday after work (they are closed before I get off, except on Fridays). The lady I spoke to just kept repeating that they don't mess with cable or phone lines (yeah right on the phone lines - but anyway.)
On Sunday my dad was here for Father's day and he pretty much did everything I had done - and came to the same conclusion. The problem wasn't my equipment.
I procrastinated until Friday to call the cable company. I called and explained to them all of the above. They scheduled someone to come out here on Sunday afternoon at no charge. Whoo!
Now --- on to this afternoon. I was working around my apartment doing some general pickup. One pile I hadn't touched for a while was the junk mail pile. Usually, I'll just toss it or shred it. As I was going through the pile, I noticed a letter I'd received from Comcast for "Current Resident". I figured it was just a promotional deal . . . but, I decided to open it in case it might give me something to persuade a better deal.
Lo and behold - it was a notice that they had performed a cable audit and found that my apartment had cable, but no account with them - on the 8th - so they turned it off!
I quickly went to check my latest account statement from them - and sure enough - they had the wrong apartment number for my address! When I first moved in, back in February, and had the cable installed, somehow on the work order they had had 2034 instead of my #. We managed to catch the guy before he left that day. I thought at the time, that that was that.
But apparentally not.
I called Comcast and explained the whole thing to one of the billing department ladies. She hadn't ever dealt with anything like this - so she sent me to a customer care person. In the end, both ladies I spoke to were very friendly and apologetic. I will be getting my cable working again tomorrow afternoon -- and I will be getting a credit from the 8th of June plus an extra week.
Just in time for Big Brother to start.
Moral of the story: Check your junkmail!
KIF
Check your junkmail!
June 24th, 2006 at 09:51 pm