Thursday, August 21, 2008

Think twice before you complete the "Triple Play"

Those of you who follow me on Twitter, or read my earlier post on Cablevision, Verizon and me, have no doubt gathered that I've been in the midst of an infrastructural makeover.
And what a disaster it has been.
For awhile, my husband and I courted the overtures from Cablevision to switch to the "triple play" of Internet, cable and phone service for a low, low $89.85 per month, and finally switched from Verizon. And, though I have never professed any particular love for Verizon, which seems to always find a way to get the bill you worked to reduce back to its previous level and beyond, I'm now wishing I'd never made the switch.
Here's the deal: the moment we installed our cable modem, the wireless connection went haywire. Either it didn't work at all, went offline for no reason, or, in the weirdest of its permutations, would be working, as would the cable modem, but mysteriously keep the computer from being able to go online.
I consider my wireless connection important. It helps me work at night, particularly when it's time to put the kids to bed and I don't want to keep them awake with the continuing clatter of the keyboard from my upstairs office, located way too close to their bedrooms. Yes, that's one reason I haven't been blogging as much— I can't take the laptop downstairs.
In the weeks since early July when we made the switch, I've been told various reasons for why this situation exists from the two sides involved: that something was wrong with the Ethernet cable (I went to a Cablevision walk-in center and picked up a new one), that cable modems have problems with electrical surges and go out more than DSL lines (you can guess whether it was NetGear or Cablevision which told me that). You get the drift. Cablevision promised me I'd save money by switching, and yet, here I am, almost two months later, with a non-working router, which seems only fixable by buying a new router for at the very least $50.00 (but probably more) and countless hours trying to fix the problem. Cablevision keeps saying that the problem with my router is not its problem, but all I know is that my router worked just fine until the very moment the cable modem entered the picture. The company seems to forget it is in the customer service business. It promised me it would save me money. In fact, it is costing me money, and time, and aggravation after weeks and weeks of trying to court me. So far, my pleas to them to give me a discount in the amount it will cost me to buy a new router have gone unheeded. And yet, I've checked the Web site. There is no disclaimer that I could find that said, oh, by the way, if you switch, and your wireless router goes awry, it's not our problem. There is nothing in the reference guide that discloses this either. But here I am, left holding the bag on a problem that started because I took Cablevision up on its offer. I talked to a very nice supervisor tonight named Jordan, but he's off duty until Sunday. In the meantime, I can't take it anymore, and am set to buy a new router tomorrow. After all the crap I've gone through, I may not see this as objectively as many of you, but what do you guys think? Should Cablevision reimburse me for the trouble I've gone through to give them my business?

4 comments:

Anonymous said...
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Anonymous said...

Yes they should. Problem is, they don’t care—and they don’t have to. I am going through almost the same thing. We have both cable and internet in one package but no phones. Just moved and switched service to the only cable provider in the area. Had to wait 10 days for them to come out.

I have no choice if I wanted cable—I had to go with them. (Monopoly much?) Thanks to the kindness of unprotected routers in the neighborhood though, I was able to get by until they came yesterday. (Hey, it’s not my fault, password protect your wireless routers people.) ;-p

Knock on wood, no problem with cable modem set up and three computers running off wireless router. (Two Macs, one PC.) Not saying PC is the prob, but the Mac has been trouble-free in connecting, always has.

Unknown said...

They, and every other company that finds itself in a similar situation, need to make it their problem to help you fix the problem, but, in my experience, they rarely do. Cable companies offering TV/phone/internet bundles know when they've got you and seem bent on charging you as much as possible, in money and aggravation, for as little actual service as possible.

I've yet to hear a good, happy customer service story about any big cable provider, so you are not alone. Small comfort for the frustration, I know.

Yes, you should be reimbursed for every purchase you make to fix the problem, and it would be in their best interest to throw in something else for your trouble: a month of free service, extra channels, something.

HighJive said...

i believe bob garfield can get you a deal on comcast.