I would imagine the competition for "America's Worst Cable Company" is pretty fierce, but I'm pretty sure that the company I am cursed with, Cablevision Systems Corp. of Bethpage, NY, has a good chance of winning the crown.
Cablevision calls their service “Optimum” – what a joke; I carry basic cable and HBO. I have been without half of those channels since at least Sunday, Sep 19. That means today is Day 13! I didn't notice it till I looked at Tivo on Tuesday the 21st and saw that shows had not been recorded. I called Cablevision. They sent someone out the next day. He checked everything here and found no problem; he admitted that he had been on calls like this for a week and that the problem had something to do with the cable cards the company supplies its Tivo users, and frequencies. He assured me Cablevision was working on a solution. That was eight days ago. Since then, nothing.
I have called them six times now. Every single time I have to tell the whole story as if no one had ever heard of this before. Every single time they ask me to try the same fix. Every single time it doesn't work.
Then they put me on hold and come back to say that, yes, the engineers are aware of the problem and are working on a solution but, sorry, there's no resolution date yet.
Cablevision is, let us not forget, a government-regulated monopoly. I have no choice of companies. It's CableNOTvision or nothing. I can't get AT&T Uverse and I am not interested in either DirectTV or DishNetwork because even their minimum packages are too expensive and too garbage-laden and in both cases include local channels from Hartford, not the New York locals I am used to.
So I'm stuck.
With the WORST CABLE COMPANY IN AMERICA!
Well, maybe I'm not stuck: I just ordered an antenna. We'll see what I can get over the air. Imagine the irony if, in 2010, I can get better TV reception with 60 year-old technology than I can with the best that Cablevision can offer! They should be ashamed.
Is there anyone out there who still wonders why I'm a cynic?!
