More Cablevision, Verizon and me

When we last left our protagonist (i.e. me), I was arguing against switching from Verizon to Cablevision. As you might recall, among other problems, my wireless connection stopped working the second we signed up with Cablevision, and Cablevision, after pretty much stalking me to get my business, now doesn't give a rat's ass about the fact that I had to pay $70 for a new router to get everything working again (and it still isn't as good as it used to be). So, twice in the past week, I've called them up and made the point that I should get a $70 credit on my bill and the people on the other end dutifully say they'll pass it up the food chain. I'm happy to provide the receipt. Needless to say, I haven't heard back. Here I am, giving them my business, and they are turning their back on me like this? For now, I'm refusing to pay my cable bill and emailing them the links to all of the posts I've done on this. I feel betrayed. UPDATE: So, just got a call from them. They are only willing to reimburse me for one month's online service, which still leaves me $40 in the hole (not counting, of course, all of the time I've spent on resolving my issues). Their point-of-view: they don't handle routers. My point-of-view: I acted in good faith by giving them my business, and deserve that they act in good faith and give me a $70 discount on my bill. When I asked the person I just talked to whether I could talk to a supervisor, she responded, "I am a supervisor." "Do you report to someone?" I said. "I want to talk to that person." Awaiting their reply.

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?

Cablevision, Verizon, and me

We just completed installing Cablevision's IO triple play in our household, save for a few particulars like the fact that the WiFi doesn't work, and, all I can say is, man, did we ever earn the alleged savings we'll get for dropping Verizon. It all started about six weeks ago, when Cablevision courted my husband when he called them to subscribe to some European Soccer package. If we signed up for the triple play, they said, we'd get the European Soccer package for free! We told them we'd get back to them—it was more a matter of me not wanting to part with the three voicemail boxes Verizon permits you to have, which come in handy when your home is also your business address.
Then, before I'd had a chance to see if Cablevision offered such a thing, the phone calls came. The cable guy was apparently at our house for the scheduled appointment—the one, of course, that we hadn't scheduled at all, so no one was home.
Then came the calls to "reschedule." And when I say calls, I mean calls. Like multiple calls, every day, at just the wrong time. Most of the time, Cablevision seemed to leave a message, and those messages had two variations: heavy breathing or muzak, as though the people who make calls at Cablevision haven't ever left voicemail before. None of those messages contained human speech.
Finally, one day I was there to pick up the phone: "Well, I want to switch but I just have one question about the voicemail service. Do you guys give people multiple voicemail boxes?"
"I don't know," said the voice on the other end. "I'll find out and call you next week."
The week came and went, with no answer, and continuing calls from Cablevision to reschedule the appointment we'd never scheduled. Finally, one day when they called, I was available to pick up the phone again. "Well, I've been trying to answer the question of whether you guys offer multiple voicemail boxes and no one has ever gotten back to me."
"Oh, let me check on that," said the voice on the other end. After a pause, "No, we don't offer that service."
Since, in the intervening weeks, my brother had told me how complicated he thought the multiple voicemail boxes were anyway, I decided to drop the issue, and give Cablevision my business. There were multiple questions I had to answer, including one about whether I wanted to keep our current phone number (yes, though it's a $40 one-time charge). Then, I was transferred to another department, where, I thought, The Great Scheduling of my installation was about to happen. But I ended up in dead air. "Oh, well," I thought. "At least I know they'll call back."
Within two days, an ExpressMail envelope arrived. It was a one-page letter from Verizon, with a huge "Stop" sign on it, asking me to reconsider before switching my service. There was no turning back.
Finally, a week or so later, after more voicemails filled with either heavy-breathing or Muzak, I was available to answer one of Cablevision's calls. The cable guy would be coming, the very next morning! And he showed up more or less on time!
So, you'd think that the last thing I'd have to do to complete this arduous process is cancel my Verizon DSL service, and I'm trying. Really. But when I called Verizon the other day, they started in with the scare tactics, based on the theory that a shared cable pipe was less secure, and less available, than a single DSL line into the home. They've given me thirty days of free DSL service, even though to use it I'd have to crawl under my desk and start fooling around with any number of phone jacks and filters. Hell, I can't even pick up the phone when Cablevision calls. It's not going to happen.
OK, so that's the story of Cablevision, Verizon and me. After reading this, you may be as exhausted as I am.