Well, it has finally happened. I've broken the umbilical cord with my cable TV service provider. Actually, if you follow my blog, you know that I declared my divorce from them over a month ago. The service termination date, if you can call what we got from them service, was last Thursday. They were supposed to pick up the equipment that day, and that my friends, was the seed for this blog.
You know how the cable company does business... you call them for something that requires them to actually send someone out to your house, and they generously give you your choice of two or three huge blocks of time for the so called appointment. How many other businesses do you know that can get away with that? Anyway, as a result of my request to terminate service, I got an "appointment" which allowed their technician to arrive at my home anytime between 11:00 AM and 2:00 PM, on the date of termination.
Guess what, Bunkie! He didn't show up! Three phone calls with "customer service" later, I was told that the company "couldn't find him!" Turns out, he's some kind of independent contractor, who schedules his own pickups, supposedly within the framework provided by the "appointment." I didn't find that out from the company, by the way, he told me himself, when he finally called me an hour and a half past the end of our scheduled tete-à-tete, to tell me he couldn't make it before 6:00 PM.
"But you will be here at 6:00 PM, right?" I foolishly grunted.
"Of course!" he replied (paraphrased).
So at 9:00 PM, which is the point at which my eyes begin to slam shut every night, I'm still waiting, angry and frustrated. An entire day... AN ENTIRE DAY! Wasted! Just! Because! No good reason. I finally gave it up for the day and went to bed.
The next day I started calling "customer service" every hour, asking where the pickup technician was. Each time, I got assurance that the "customer service agent" would personally see to it that the pickup of my equipment got rescheduled at top priority, and a promise of a callback. Well, it must have fallen off the table, because I never got the call back, until about 8:00 PM Friday night.
I was a little surprised, when someone with whom I had never before spoken called me, to try and reschedule the pickup. A nice-sounding lady with a Southern drawl, who tacked "sweetie" onto the end of every sentence. Like a fool, I believed her when she promised faithfully that my pickup would without doubt occur at 9:00 AM, Monday (today). My middle child says I got suckered by the "grandma" customer service agent. She's probably right.
Would it surprise you to hear, that as of 2:45 PM today, it still hadn't happened? Actually, at precisely 2:57 PM today, I got a call from a fellow, saying he was with the company, asking to verify my address. When I did, he said he would be at my place in 30 minutes to get the equipment. He was an optimist, but I have to say, he actually did show up... only 30 minutes later than he promised... and over six hours late for today's appointment!
But all that is past now... I have the receipt to prove it! The cable company and I have parted company for good, hopefully never to cross paths again. It only cost me three days of my life to get them out of my life. I won't be inviting them back.
Mariner.
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