Friday, March 28, 2008

I almost believed the hype

Against my better judgement I decided to try and save us some money by getting our phone service through Charter Cable and not through the company formerly known as Sprint. I called the Evil Ones at Charter and they said that they'd give me phone service, internet service, and digital cable for what I'm paying for internet and digital cable now. Basically that meant we'd be getting free phone service for a year. Reluctantly I agreed, although I sensed that there'd be trouble.

So this morning the guy comes to install our phone service and he asks which phone we want it on. I was somewhat taken aback by his question and I answered that I wanted it on all our phones, we've got two downstairs and two upstairs. He said that their service didn't work that way and that it ran through a modem like my internet does. He said whichever phone we wanted it on had to be near a cable outlet so that he could hook up a modem to said phone. I then informed him that if he could not give us the same service we have with the phone company then I did not want their shitty internet based phone service. He sputtered and said he would try to install a splitter that would enable us to use all our phones, then he quickly added that maybe he could do that.

The next thing I know he's rolling around on the floor and unhooking wires and cable connections and he's grunting and asking me to unplug stuff. Then he crawls under my desk, the same desk at which I am sitting and typing this now and the same desk I was at when he was working here, and he starts to unhook and re-hook up cable connections and power cords. For some unholy reason I looked down at the large cable man who was writhing under my desk and I saw, you guessed it, his hairy ass crack
He wasn't quite as fat at this dude but he was big. And his ass crack was big as well. I decided to sneak a photo of it but the picture I took came out blurry. It was all I could do to keep my morning oatmeal down when I saw his moon come out early.

In pretty short order he figured out that his splitter idea wasn't going to work and that Charter Cable could not give me what I wanted, which was the same level of phone service I was getting from Sprint. I told him to just pack up all his stuff and leave and that I had no intention of getting the shitty phone package that Charter Cable is offering. So once more he hit the deck to unplug all his wires and cables and once again I saw the his gruesome backside smile. This time I just got up and left the room.

The bottom, pun intended, line of this story is don't fall for the ads the cable companies are running. Their phone service sucks balls and it's not anything near as good as what you're getting now.

Once again you've let me down Charter Cable, is there no end to your suckiness?

9 comments:

Fran said...

That is such horse manure! As evil cable companies go, I think Charter may be among the evilest.

And when the moon comes out in the middle of the day, you know you've got trouble.

We have 3 phones, one in the basement, one in the upstairs bedroom and one in the kitchen and I must say that there was no issue when we got our phone service from Time Warner.

This sounds like some bullsh*t Charter thing and no Monkey - there is no end to their suckiness. No end at all.

The only end in sight is... oh nevermind, the mere mention of that midday moon is enough to make me ill!

Randal Graves said...

I was about to praise you for not posting a picture of THE ass crack, and then you go and post a picture of THAT ass crack. I hope Drano makes eye wash!

SamuraiFrog said...

It's stunning to me how hard it is for cable companies to figure out that people need more than one phone in the house. I've got Comcast, and the guy who hooked it up told me the same thing. Since I desperately wanted to get away from Verizon (I've saved a lot of money in the long run, plus I have free long distance now), I told him I'd put the phone in the living room next to the TV. I just went to the grocery store and bought a couple of splitters and connector heads for about four bucks, hooked up some extra cord, and bought an extra cordless phone for about twenty bucks. Now I just charge the phones and use them where I need to.

I just can't believe the so-called professional who installed the thing couldn't figure that out when even I could. I also had to show him how to run cables over the patio door so they were out of the way, and how to reverse the network I already had. And I still had to hook the TiVo back up to the new cable modem, because he didn't know how to do it.

What did I pay for, exactly?

Deepti said...

Aaaaaggghhhhhhhhh!!!!!! I hate phone/cable companies!!!!!

Dr M, I was getting over my rage issues, and here you have fueled them again! You'd better write a funny post next! :P

Anonymous said...

I was just considering the same switch. Thanks for helping me make up my mind.

Barbara Bruederlin said...

That's insane (not the ass crack, the cable thingy - although the ass crack is pretty insane as well). We went to digital phone years ago and it covers everything, but maybe it's sort of like our medicare.

Mnmom said...

We have the Charter bundle and so far, so good. They didn't charge us extra for all the phones in the house though. Maybe we just have cable magic in Minnesota. And their tech support is pretty good. Holy Cow, am I actually speaking good words about a corporation????

joshhill1021 said...

For a while i had the cable phone package from Time Warner Cable, now I just have my cell and no home phone, but anyway. I had the TW cable phone and it wasn't too bad, it worked pretty well and i had two phones et up no issue and with no extra costs. The only issue was that when my cable would go out so would my phone and so sometimes my phone would be out and i wouldn't even know it right away as my cable would be working again. But from what i hear Charter cable is pretty sucky.

Distributorcap said...

i have avoided the time warner cable phone -- no matter what they charge i dont want to give them one nickel more --- i already pay a ridiculous amount for crappy service

when i asked to drop HBO -- they told me i would save $2..

they all suck