(Update below)In the last 24 hours our local cable TV provider, Charter, has done much to convince me I should get satellite TV from Direct TV or The Dish. We have been WITH OUT TV for the last 24 hours. It started last night about 10 pm when all 4 or our TV's lost reception. About 11 PM when it still had not come back I called Charter Cable and got a very nice man in what I think was a call center in India or Pakistan. I didn't ask, but he sure sounded the part. He checked his computer and said there had been some outages in Medford, Oregon and they were working on it. I figured they would have it fixed by the time I woke up in the morning so I went to bed. Well, at 7 AM there was still no TV. So, my wife called Charter Cable and got a call center in Rochester Minnesota (she ask) and was given a work order and said they would check it out. Well, I had Oregon Duck Club lunch at the Rogue Valley Country Club during the noon hour so on the way back to the office I stopped at home to see if the problem had been fixed. Nooooo!!!! So I called Charter Cable ( the 3rd time one of us had called) and got a very nice lady at a call center. She said she was going to get to the bottom of it and put me on HOLD! I was on HOLD on and off for about 25 minutes. She said they had an appointment to come out to our house on Wednesday ( Tomorrow) to check on the problem between 1 and 5 pm. Of course this was the first we had heard about it and my wife and I both work and have clients scheduled most of the day. She asked me to go outside and check "the Box" so I went to the "The Box" on the side of our house and everything looked OK. She then send me to the "neighborhood" box to see if it looked OK. I worked my way through the blackberry bushes and it looked "OK". She then said no one else in the neighborhood had called in with any problems. She asked if I minded going next door to see if the neighbors had Cable TV problems. I went next door and no one answered the door. I then went to two other houses on our circle and no one was home. I had my portable phone with me and was updating the nice lady from Charter as I worked my way through the neighborhood. I then went to the house of another neighbor where they home school their children. The were home but they don't have cable TV. The only other neighbor on the street has "The Dish" so I figured they didn't have cable TV... lucky them. The lady at the call center then said since no one else has reported a problem I would have to wait till Wednesday between 1 and 5pm. By then I was late for an appointment at the office so I got ready to drive back to work. Just then, one of the neighbors came home and I checked with her to see if she had cable TV.... NOOOO. Then another neighbor came home and she said they did have a problem and I asked her to call. She said she would. Well, when we go home at 5:30 PM, after work, there was still NO TV. It is now 9:30 PM and there is NO TV. I rearranged all my afternoon appointments at the office to be home tomorrow afternoon. I sure hope the cable man shows up. "The Dish" is sounding very good at this point. Will update this blog as things develop. I have to have TV by Saturday, when the Oregon Duck play the Washington Huskies in Seattle on TV.
UPDATE: Today, Wednesday, October 18th, we got our cable TV back! I rescheduled my office appointments to be home from 1 PM till 5 PM to be home when the Charter Cable Man arrived to see why we are not getting Cable TV. I arrived home before 1 PM and waited. I swept off the front deck.....no Cable Guy. I swept off the driveway and the sidewalk and picked up leaves.....no cable guy. I raked the leaves off the front lawn... no Cable Guy. Finally, I got a call from my wife at the office that they had called the office and they were on the way. The cable Guy arrived and he was very nice. I showed him our TV's and the fact we were getting no signal. I then took him to the cable box on the side of of our house. He checked it out and there was no signal. I then showed him the "Neighborhood box" out back near our property line and he checked it and it was getting a signal. I then took him to the point where the cable comes out of the ground near our foundation and he tested again and no signal. Problem identified. He then strung a temporary above ground line between the "neighborhood box" and our box on the side of the house. In a few weeks they will come out and put in an underground line from the back of our property line at the "neighborhood box" to our box on the side of the house. The old line has been there since the 1970's. After he connected the temporary above ground line we go an excellent picture. The Cable Guy was very professional and my impression of Charter Cable has improved a great deal. Since it was outside of our home the expense of putting in the new line will be Charter's. We now have such a good picture maybe we will upgrade our service beyond expanded basic.... just kidding.
