I have DVR ... for around 36 hours
I broke down and ordered Digital Video Recorder (DVR) service from (big cable company) a couple of weeks ago. After getting their "soonest available" appointment (over two weeks from when I called), I stayed home from work on Thursday, for my 1pm to 5pm appointment. You see you need to have your DVR converter box "professional installed" by (big cable company). Apparently, they used to let people install these things and nobody did it right so they do it now. No exceptions. OK, fine.
5pm comes. And goes. No technician. One call to (big cable company) - OK, we'll page the technician and have him call you with an ETA. 5.30pm comes. No call. Second call to (big cable company) - OK, we'll call the technician and tell you, please hold, OK he'll be there within 15 minutes. OK, fine. He shows up, at 5.45pm (for my 1pm to 5pm appointment). He looks at my digital cable box (the one he's replacing with the DVR box) and immediately looks confused. Apparently, he's never seen one hooked up where the Cable Out isn't directly connected to the TV - I guess nobody besides me has a home theatre system. So I hook it up myself. I asked if he had a S-Video cable I could use to hook this thing up - "You mean that thing?" as he points to a RCA cable. Huh. Well I can clearly see why (big cable company) needs this guy to come out and install the DVR boxes because customers can't do it themselves.
So, after I install the thing myself and pay the man for his professional expertise, he leaves and I cook dinner for me and Cindy. Then we watch TV. I experiment and get the box to record a show. And then realize I don't know how to access the Recorded Programs list. So I hunt around on the Internet and find out that the installer left me the wrong remote - the DVR buttons are missing. Wonderful. So I had to go out the next day to (big cable company) and swap out the remote - atleast I didn't need to schedule a technician visit for that. I get my new remote and all is well. I setup the box to tape both Stargate shows and Battlestar Galactica and head on our for the evening.
I wake up Saturday morning, go to my Tai Chi class, run some errands and then come home, ready to watch some TV before starting working on Chapter 2 of my thesis. I look at the cable box and it's all flaky. The front, instead of the nice display of the time, keeps alternating between "boot", some funky symbols, and "HAL2." It will not turn on and it's not putting out a video signal. I do some WEBINT and find out that this pretty much means the box is hosed. I call (big cable company) and their technical support claims not to have ever heard of this before, they try to contact the box over the cable network and fail, and then say I need to setup a service call - a week from now. Oh joy. Nope, I can't swap the thing out at the lobby - I can't be trusted to hook it up myself (although I did when my installer didn't know what he was doing).
For those interested, the box is a Scientific Atlanta Explorer 8000HD. It you want to see what others think of it, try Googling "8000HD." You'll find alot of people with the boot/HAL2 cycle and alot of other problems. Apparently this box has a reputation for being very unreliable and very flaky.
I sent (big cable company) a lengthy email detailing every problem I had since day one of DVRness. Their response - call the 800 number and let's talk about it. I did that. The guy was quite rude and was unrelenting in his "policy is..." statements. He did credit me the $17 I paid for the "professional installation" since that was not quite up-to-par. He didn't seem to think that waiting two weeks for something to be installed, having to do that myself anyway, only to have the thing break after 36 hours, was a big deal.
Bottom line - another day I have to take off work, the loss of those shows I already recorded, no digital cable for a week, and alot of frustration.
(big cable company), you don't have a very good reputation for customer service. This is why.
5pm comes. And goes. No technician. One call to (big cable company) - OK, we'll page the technician and have him call you with an ETA. 5.30pm comes. No call. Second call to (big cable company) - OK, we'll call the technician and tell you, please hold, OK he'll be there within 15 minutes. OK, fine. He shows up, at 5.45pm (for my 1pm to 5pm appointment). He looks at my digital cable box (the one he's replacing with the DVR box) and immediately looks confused. Apparently, he's never seen one hooked up where the Cable Out isn't directly connected to the TV - I guess nobody besides me has a home theatre system. So I hook it up myself. I asked if he had a S-Video cable I could use to hook this thing up - "You mean that thing?" as he points to a RCA cable. Huh. Well I can clearly see why (big cable company) needs this guy to come out and install the DVR boxes because customers can't do it themselves.
So, after I install the thing myself and pay the man for his professional expertise, he leaves and I cook dinner for me and Cindy. Then we watch TV. I experiment and get the box to record a show. And then realize I don't know how to access the Recorded Programs list. So I hunt around on the Internet and find out that the installer left me the wrong remote - the DVR buttons are missing. Wonderful. So I had to go out the next day to (big cable company) and swap out the remote - atleast I didn't need to schedule a technician visit for that. I get my new remote and all is well. I setup the box to tape both Stargate shows and Battlestar Galactica and head on our for the evening.
I wake up Saturday morning, go to my Tai Chi class, run some errands and then come home, ready to watch some TV before starting working on Chapter 2 of my thesis. I look at the cable box and it's all flaky. The front, instead of the nice display of the time, keeps alternating between "boot", some funky symbols, and "HAL2." It will not turn on and it's not putting out a video signal. I do some WEBINT and find out that this pretty much means the box is hosed. I call (big cable company) and their technical support claims not to have ever heard of this before, they try to contact the box over the cable network and fail, and then say I need to setup a service call - a week from now. Oh joy. Nope, I can't swap the thing out at the lobby - I can't be trusted to hook it up myself (although I did when my installer didn't know what he was doing).
For those interested, the box is a Scientific Atlanta Explorer 8000HD. It you want to see what others think of it, try Googling "8000HD." You'll find alot of people with the boot/HAL2 cycle and alot of other problems. Apparently this box has a reputation for being very unreliable and very flaky.
I sent (big cable company) a lengthy email detailing every problem I had since day one of DVRness. Their response - call the 800 number and let's talk about it. I did that. The guy was quite rude and was unrelenting in his "policy is..." statements. He did credit me the $17 I paid for the "professional installation" since that was not quite up-to-par. He didn't seem to think that waiting two weeks for something to be installed, having to do that myself anyway, only to have the thing break after 36 hours, was a big deal.
Bottom line - another day I have to take off work, the loss of those shows I already recorded, no digital cable for a week, and alot of frustration.
(big cable company), you don't have a very good reputation for customer service. This is why.
posted by jeffsix at 4:57 PM
3 Comments:
I hate them.
If you're going to bash a cable company, at least leave their name so we can curse them too!
This comment has been removed by the author.
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