Oh No! We Cut The Cable! Call For Service!

Cable service. Have you realized how dependent you have become?

Not to mention, you are at the mercy of the customer service representative who answers your call.

I found out that day that I am a complete and utter addict to that WIRE! Ours is buried in the back yard, and I use that term loosely. It stretches from the house cable box to the “pedestal” just outside our yard.

When it was installed, they so-called buried it, but it is only about an inch under the soil, and in some places, lying above. Truly, you can see it in our little creek along the back half of the yard.

So of course, when we were doing a big demolition in the yard, the Bobcat just scooped it up. Internet gone! TV gone! Wait a minute! I go to sleep with the TV on. I can’t stand it silent and dark. My grandson is spending the night, and I had to entertain a 9 year old with radio and hip hop. Let me tell you, my hips are not ready for that crap!

But after I persuaded him to do the hip hopping, he is kinda good too, and that’s not just a Nana speaking, he went to bed listening to radio. Praise Jesus I had batteries.  ( Thank goodness our local channel bleeps out all the profanity.)

I had called in to the Cable Service Department as soon as it happened, because I feared a 2-3 week wait to get it fixed. I would probably have been in divorce court or jail if I had to live in the house with my husband and NO TV, NO YouTube! And he can’t play his computer games !  And for me, no access to my website and blog……and Facebook, Twitter…..

I explained to the Had-To-Be-A-Trainee who answered the phone that we are doing yard work and had cut the cable accidentally. Of course, after providing phone number (2nd time) and name and address, next of kin, blood type, favorite colors, dreams and aspirations…..sorry. I am only slightly exaggerating.

She advised me that she checked our area and saw no outages!

Help me, Lord!

I explained to her again in more detail that my husband was using a Bobcat in our backyard and we suddenly see a bright orange “ribbon” dangling from the bucket. He has on headphones because the machine is loud and my son is yelling “Dad!” in his loud voice, and I am chasing the Bobcat, lumbering , shrilling, screaming for him to stop.

Again the representative says that she sees no outages in the county or surrounding areas. ( Did you hear my Primal Scream in Philadelphia?)

Again I explained the situation and told her I was fairly certain that cutting our OWN backyard cable probably would NOT shut down the entire state of Ohio, the East Coast, and most of the Eastern provinces of Canada, but she could review her information and GET ME ON SCHEDULE FOR SERVICE IMMEDIATELY…Please.

After I quietly and patiently re-explained to her my dilemma ….well, something like that, there was another 30 minutes on hold.  And before you get all defensive of the poor customer no-service lady, I have been the one on those phone lines for at least 25 years of my working life, with Sears and MetLife, so now I get to be the one who is The Upset Bee-otch Customer, instead of the One-Who-Has-To-Deal-With-Her.

Service was out That Very Next Day, a Sunday, at 10am, and we had cable and internet back.

“Cable representative gets the last laugh on customer”

The bad side is apparently she got the last laugh. This is my cable line. No, seriously.  They just laid it on top of the grass .

Pray for me… Yes, I held my temper as I called in about this.  (They came a few days later and trench/buried it.)

What experience have you ever had with Customer No-Service? Haven’t we all been on both sides?