The Cable Guy Truck Driver Knew Best

How many times have you called your cable company and:

1.Kept on hold for ever.
2.For English press 2
3.Even though you enter your phone number they all ways ask for it again, or
4.It doesn't match their records.
5.You get disconnected.
6.You try hitting 0 for the operator and the message says..."Goodbye"
7.You start all over again

They also tell you they must go to your house or apartment.
You are dealing with people that are just reading off a computer screen and have very little if any knowledge about Cable television or how to repair a problem.

Always ask for a Supervisor, and get that person's name and ID info.

One time I called about a problem. If you have ever seen a bar, about 3 inches wide gliding up your TV screen, it is called a 60 cycle hum bar. It is not an audio problem but a video one.

I called and after quite awhile I got a human to talk to me. I told her I wanted to speak to a technician at the "Plant" as they call it. She informed me that I had to let her solve the problem and she refused to pass me on.
I told her she would not know what the problem was and that it was not taught to her in Cable Customer Service school.
She didn't like that.
I told her I had a 60 cycle hum bar on my Television. Her reply was, "oh, you have an audio problem".

I asked her if she know what I was talking about. She firmly said yes, I was experiencing an audio problem with the cable system.
I tried to explain to her what it actually was and that I needed to speak to a technician.

It was now 20 minutes into this call, and I was getting nowhere.

I always try and do speak softly and slowly. If you yell and curse, you won't get anywhere.

Finally, I guess a light went on in her head and she said that she needed to transfer me to a technician.

He wasn't sure either.
So, they would have to get back to me and research it.
About 3 days later I get a call from the head of the "Plant".   He and a supervisor wanted to come to my home to see the problem. We set up a time and they all came over, the head of the "Plant", the Supervisor, some executive in a suit and the cable truck guy arrived.
No, I didn't serve cake and coffee.
I remained calm.

They checked the cable going into the apartment building, the line from the box on the corner. The great minds we confused.

Nothing was working.
Then the lowly truck driver/tech had an idea.
Why don't we upgrade the cable box?
A chorus of nooooo came out of the performers. That won't work.
I said, "why not?" you have no idea what's going on.

Well, guess what? Ta Daa, it worked.
The picture was clean and bright and everyone was embarassed.

I told them to give the truck guy the supervisors job.

Since then I have been given a number when I have had problems to call.
NOT, the general one.

Always ask for a supervisor.
Be firm in your requests. Research what may be the problem so that you have some idea of what is going on.
Google the problem, it really works!!

Other Cable Company stories to come.