We picked up the cable converter box last night, but I didn’t hook it up until just before leaving for work this morning. I didn’t have time to put the batteries into the remote, but when the TV was tuned to channel 3, I did get a cable channel.
Tonight when we got home from work there was a message from the cable company saying they had a man at my house at 3:15 PM to upgrade my service and I should call back and reschedule. Huh? I didn’t need any upgrade, when I asked for the converter box I told them I wanted it so I could have the digital basic line-up. As the woman handed me the box I also asked did she need to program it or anything (the last couple years this was the procedure) and she said no. So I was mystified as to why they needed to send someone out, until I checked the channel line up, I didn’t have any of the upper channels (which is what I wanted.) Guess I better call them.
I dialed the local number and was greeted by a message stating that the number was no longer in service and I should dial the 1-888 toll free number. I did and it was answered after one ring and I was dumped into voice mail hell. Press 1 if you blah, blah, blah, Press 2 for yadda yadda, Press 3 for whatever, etc. I try 1 and get a secondary menu with no options that I need, press 9 to back up one menu. Try 2, but that leads no where as well. Third time is a charm because I just punch in zero for a customer service representative. Wait, wait, wait while listening for advertisements for their internet service, their phone service and a friendly reminder that on February 19th of 2009 I better have all my TVs hooked to their cable or I’ll be out of luck. The office is less than a mile from my house so just about the time I decide to just unhook the box and take it back, I get a human. Dan takes my info and asks some basic questions: Is the box hooked up? Am I home and in front of it? Do I have any picture? Yes, yes and yes. He says, “Let me send a signal to your box.” “Try a channel above 100. Anything?” No I tell him. “Let’s try again,” he says. “still nothing. He suggests “re-booting” the box. I unplug it, wait 10 seconds and plug it back in. A sequence of lights flicker and I’m in business. Dan comments that he didn’t know why they didn’t do that in the office. I tell him I didn’t think that the woman I was dealing with yesterday in the office was the sharpest crayon in the box.
How come I can set a couple different lists of favorites, but I cannot subtract channels I don’t want to see, or hear, in the case of the music channels?
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