Ever waited on the phone/cable guy? I have. *long*

[CaptainCaveMan]

The background:

I recently picked up a big screen HDTV but I was using the old homeowner’s (my mother in law’s) dish network service until she got her new house built and moved in. Well she moved out but hadn’t taken her dish/receiver yet so we still had them hooked up to our tv.

Friday:

She comes by and grabs her dish/receiver because dish network is coming to her house to do an install today (Monday). So the wife calls up direct tv and tells them we want the HD receiver package and all that shit and she made an appointment for them to come out today (Monday-afternoon).

Monday 7:00am:

I get home from work that morning and like a kid on Christmas-eve I just didn’t want to go to sleep because I wanted to be there when he hooked everything up so I could play with my new toy. I make myself go to sleep and dream of the oh-so-wonder tv viewing experience I will have when I wake up.

Monday 5:00pm-ish:

I wake up with a stronger morning wood than normal and I go to check out my new toy. As I scratch myself while walking into the living room I look at the tv stand where my receiver should be and I was floored with a very sad feeling for there was no receiver sitting where it should.

As I lay there a sad and broken man, my wife walks toward me and starts telling me how she just got off the phone with those assholes and the guy that was going to install it said he couldn’t because he ran out of equipment. After her calling him a dumbass and threaten to cut his balls off he started yelling at her over the phone and hung up on her.

Well, if any of you ever have a chance to run across my wife you will find she is a very loving wife at the same time of being queen-cunt the superbitch. She has been the boss of many people for awhile and she doesn’t put up with stupid people.

I know she has everything under control so I go to take a piss and grab a smoke. While I am doing this she is talking to his supervisor on the phone. The supervisor was not impressed and must have called our young cable guy hero right after she talked to him for he called not 3 minutes after she got off the phone with the supervisor.

He then said he found the parts and will be there between 7-8pm.

8:30

Wife calls back up. He says he is getting off work and not coming tonight because it’s going to take about 4 hours to install. When my wife explained that she took the day off just for this and how I’m not going to stay awake all day for his dumbass he started yelling at her again which caused her to yell back.

Something happened this time.

As they are going back and forth another woman pops on the phone and asks “I have a couple questions.”

It seems that when you hear that “your call may be monitored” message when you call someplace really is true. And they pretty much bitch-slapped this asshole right in front of the wife. Asking stuff like “Why did you tell this lady you would be there at 7pm if you weren’t going to” and things like that. He said he would be out here around 10pm and told my wife sorry. The wife kept talking on the phone with the “monitoring lady” and she apologized and gave her some big discount and something about disciplining the guy.

Well, our cable guy hero (who thought he was just going to make us wait while he went home to his family and watched tv) showed up at our house at 10:30pm. It took him 5 hours to install everything. I have no idea what was taking so long but every time I looked he was working and he didn’t know I was looking either. So instead of ruining our night he was hooking up our satellite at 3:00 in the morning. I work nights and this was my night off so I was more than happy to sit there watching pulp fiction and another movie while he was out in the rain at 3 in the morning. Life is great.

On a side note, my mother-in-law who took her receiver and dish back so they could install it today, didn't get her's installed. They never showed up to install it. Not only that, but when she called the gave her a new appointment for next week.

[t/as&dds]

This is why you should go with cable. Those dish guys are just contractors who get paid by the job and could give a shit about your service. Cable people are locally employed (usually) and have a vested interest in your satisfaction. They are in business because they provide you good service. My .02 cents.

[CaptainCaveMan]

This is why you should go with cable. Those dish guys are just contractors who get paid by the job and could give a shit about your service. Cable people are locally employed (usually) and have a vested interest in your satisfaction. They are in business because they provide you good service. My .02 cents.

I'm out in the sticks. If they had cable lines running out here i wouldn't be on dial-up that's for damn sure.

[2k1 6t8]

It isn't hard to hook up a satellite system.

I can't imagine it taking 5 hours for a professional.

Something aint right.

[CaptainCaveMan]

It isn't hard to hook up a satellite system.

I can't imagine it taking 5 hours for a professional.

Something aint right.

That's what i was thinking. I know he had to dig a hole to put a pole and the wires in, then he put cement in it and put the dish together and all that. Maybe the fact it was dark and he had a long day slowed him down. I don't know. I know he had to re-adjust the dish a few times or something. The signal wasn't right the first couple times.

[J3ff]

It isn't hard to hook up a satellite system.

I can't imagine it taking 5 hours for a professional.

Something aint right.

I have the same experience with Dish Network.

I made the appointment and the date was A WEEK later. You'd think they would figure it out in a WEEK.

So it was for between 8am and noon. Took the day off. 11 45 rolls around and there's NO GUY HERE yet. So I call. Dish network doesnt know anything but will be calling "dispatch" I explained to them that I took the day off, and if there is ANY PROBLEM with this I will cancel service before they even make it out here.

So 1 and 2 pm come, no install. Now I'm getting livid, they call at 2 30 and ask to reschedule. I dont remember my exact words but without cursing I said something about cancelling and never recommending them to anyone else if they cant even get the install right when they knew about it for a week.

I then get to talk to a supervisor. The supervisor seemed to say "sorry sir this happens" etc etc etc.

Then i got angry. So on a friday afternoon that was supposed to be great, I was heated. I live about 45 mins from NYC

so what ended up happening, is they got two poor kids in a shitty van to come from the city to hook it up.

They showed up at about 630 and left around 10ish.

We only had three tv's to hook up, I dont know what took so long, I coulda done it faster myself....

I sorta felt bad for them, but god damn it was like pulling TEETH to get that shit hooked up.


So then 8 months later, a cable person comes and offers me an incredible deal for, Internet+phone+cable, about 97 dollars a month and I get HD, movie channels, a phone line, and a cable modem. I was paying about 80 for just TV from dish network.

So I signed up on the spot.

THE CABLE GUY WAS AT MY DOOR THE NEXT MORNING AT 8AM, He had everything done by 9, and I got to work by 930!

I am a big fan of cable, let me tell ya!

[Motrv8d Steve]

+1 for the Cable guys (not Larry)
I guess when you have to settle for dish, they screw ya b/c you don't have a choice...

[RainMan]

Sorry to hear all the horror stories with the Dish! Heard bad things about Dish Network down here as well.

However;
I've had DirecTV for 6 years now and never had any problems with them. They were kind, courteous, and very professional.. . .and they were on time. When I moved I signed up for Movers Connection and had an appt for the following Tuesday, (moved on a Monday). Guy showed up and was in and out in 45 minutes, and that's with running new RG-6 cables.

Brighthouse (formerly Time Warner Cable) was nothing but trouble for me. Rude, inconsiderate and they constantly lied to me about what they couldn't install because of the house and wiring.

House is only 10 years old and I have a Military background in Satellite communications and ground radar systems. Worked with RF systems and cables all day back then, so they couldn't bull shit me.

Plus. . .in 2004 after all the Hurricanes went through central FL. I still had my DirecTV while all the cable subscribers in my neighborhood were without service for weeks. Even when we lost power. . .fired up the generator and had my TV

Brighthouse can

My $.02 worth