Cable Companies

When I hooked up the VCR/DVD combo I carefully considered the order that my machines needed to go in. I have the VCR/DVD box, the Cable Box and the TV. After contemplating this I decided that the cable should go into the VCR/DVD, out to the Cable Box and then to the TV. This would allow the VCR to independently set stations as opposed to being locked into what the Cable Box was set at.

I hooked everything up and it worked as desired.

It was months before I tried to use the On Demand feature of our Digital cable - a waste of money if I ever saw one, more on that later. For some reason it just wouldn't work so I called the cable company and after trying a few things they sent out a technician. Lo and Behold the problem was how I wired the boxes. The Cable Box has to be first, the VCR is a slave to the cable box making it virtually useless for recording shows.

This got me thinking - I constantly see adds for the cable company provided DVR. By setting up their technology to require my VCR be a slave to their box they are attempting to force me to use their DVR. I could get around this by hooking up a VCR to a different cable outlet or what not but that means more equipment that I have to buy and maintain. Why shouldn't I pay the cable company more money for a DVR they ask?

Like all companies, cable companies want to make more money off their customers. Since they can't hit up the world for a buck like the oil companies they have to siphon it from their limited pool in the US. The first step in this is Digital cable. I don't need digital cable, the old one was just fine. The only thing I use on digital cable is the program guide feature. In a year I have used on demand once and have no desire to do so again. I rarely see any station above the on demand stuff which starts around 100. Scrolling through 1 to 100 even with the gaps (I think there are some but am not really sure) takes a long time. Getting through the on demands stuff is ridiculous. If you are a station after the 100's on Time Warner you should be complaining REALLY loud. There is plenty of garbage in the 100's you could replace, feel free to contact me and I will tell you which stations can go.

I am addicted to the program guide. When that thing isn't working I am like a lost puppy. I don't know how I ever survived before the guide. For some reason I frequently lose my guide and it says NO DATA. When this happens I freak out. A few times this occurred and then it corrected itself and I was relieved. Then one day it went out and was gone for 2 or 3 days straight. It was then that I overcame my inertia (we discussed that previously) and called the cable company. They said they had done an upgrade and I needed to unplug my box and they would send a signal and correct it. It worked, thank goodness.

I doubt I am the only addict to this feature, how many customers were having apoplexy until they called and got it fixed?

It went out again yesterday. Based on prior experience, that one call, I unplugged the box and started it up again. Sure enough, the guide was back. Life was good once more.

So now the cable company wants to bump my bill again with a DVR or with a premium channel package or with a digital telephone (the telephone company wants to do the same in reverse). I already spend around $100/month for my digital cable and internet access. If they think I want to pay them more they are mistaken. I find the cost for their service to already be excessive and seriously wish I could once again overcome my inertia and set up a website from my home computer that ate up bandwidth to make sure I get my moneys worth out of them.

Just to make matters worse, I own stock in the darn company that provides my cable service. I get really mad everytime I have a problem and remember that fact. Every upset customer is costing my stock value.