Sound Politics: The Evils of Modern Cable Systems

February 23, 2009

The Evils of Modern Cable Systems

I am utterly sympathetic with Jonah Goldberg's plight here.

So, we need a technician to come out. The soonest one will be available from our overlords at RCN: Friday.
And yet, in this country, if I were to kill someone from the cable company, I would be the one to go to jail.

I started having problems with Fox in HD through my Comcast service in December. Being an NFL fan, this was not a small lament. Comcast managed to keep bungling the issue all the way through the BCS Championship Game...on Fox. I finally had it partially addressed after one episode of 24...on Fox. It would appear the problem has been f-i-n-a-l-l-y addressed in full. I note that it is now nearing the end of February

Oh, and along the way, a misdiagnosis of the problem resulted in me losing my previous DVR containing nontransferable recordings of the Summer Olympics (not a small issue for this Comcast customer).

I refer you again to the last sentence of Goldberg's post.

Posted by Eric Earling at February 23, 2009 05:13 PM | Email This

Comments

1. I thought you were unemployed, I guess you have nothing better to do in your loads of free time.

If this is all you have to whine about it must be another slow day at the Earling house.

Posted by: Cato on February 23, 2009 05:10 PM

2. Believe me there are far worse things than Comcast, try being a Broadstripe customer. Those idiots are clueless.

Posted by: Dingo Rossi on February 23, 2009 05:18 PM

3. Use the free market, switch to another cable supplier.

Posted by: meanie on February 23, 2009 06:22 PM

4. Your problem is easily diagnosed. You see Comcast and it's personnel are far-left-radicals and you are being monitored accordingly. It's obvious that you are watching too much of the Faux News Channel...ergo PAY-BACK! :)

ps: remember to pro-rate deductions from your bills for this non-service...I do.

Posted by: Duffman on February 23, 2009 06:24 PM

5. If this were government-run medicine, Eric, you'd have had to wait 8 months for any kind of help. By the Left's standards, your situation was a success.

Posted by: Michele on February 23, 2009 06:29 PM

6. Meanie: All cable providers have franchise agreements with the municipalities in which they operate, meaning they are mostly the only show in town. Most of Pierce County is Comcast with the exception of the city of Tacoma, which is Click, and maybe by now University Place. Gig Harbor, I think, has both Cox Cable and Comcast, but that is an exception. I guess one could switch to Satellite though.

Posted by: katomar on February 23, 2009 06:40 PM

7. Much as I sympathize, this just confirms the fact that conservatives complain about EVERYTHING.

Posted by: demo kid on February 23, 2009 07:16 PM

8. Of course, it's funny to me how Goldberg whines and complains when he's on the business end of globalization...

Posted by: demo kid on February 23, 2009 07:20 PM

9. I find the the "demo kid" comments ironic - since as metioned earlier, there ISN'T competiion because these are government established monopolies.

Oooops. Guess this isn't a failure of the free market after all. Fail.

Posted by: midknight on February 23, 2009 08:04 PM

10. Demo Idiot,

This is a direct result of gov't. regulation, doltus maximus. Yet another gov't enforced monopoly through regulatory fiat.

Of course, the problem is easily solved. Cancel the cable, and read a book instead.

Posted by: the sasquatch on February 23, 2009 08:16 PM

11. Maybe you guys should get a consumer bill of rights for cable subscribers....ooops si daisy, Newt and the boys knocked that one down. Well, you can always complain to the management and threaten to take you business.....eleswhere?

Posted by: gop in exile on February 23, 2009 08:17 PM

12. Why is it that the trolls have to turn even the quirky issues of day-to-day life into something political?

Lame.

Posted by: Eric Earling on February 23, 2009 08:45 PM

13. Because the hypocrisy is on you, boy!

Posted by: Rupert Murdoch on February 23, 2009 10:16 PM

14. #14: Because they run on negativity and nastiness 24/7. But I thought that was obvious.

Posted by: Michele on February 23, 2009 10:28 PM

15. @11-12: I said NOTHING about whether it was a monopoly/free market/whatever, just that having your customer service call answered in Bangalore by someone that doesn't know crap is another sign of globalization. Sensitive, aren't you?

Still, plenty of companies with equally as horrible records of customer service that operate in the "free" market.

@16: I could say the same thing about your sorry lot!

Posted by: demo kid on February 23, 2009 10:54 PM

16. I gave up on cable around 95 when Directv became available. I never looked back. I have never had an issue (except for occasional rain fade) and they have better rates and more HD available. Use cable for internet access though - it is the best.

Posted by: Jim Sanchez on February 24, 2009 06:23 AM

17. If I could switch to DirecTV I would (tree issues). So I'm stuck with Comcast.

It's pretty sneaky how they've timed their conversion of channels 13-70 to digital to coincide with the national digital TV transition. So now I've got to have a box on every TV in the house, even if the TV is digital ready.

Posted by: Palouse on February 24, 2009 07:36 AM

18. Verizon is bringing FIOS service to more and more neighborhoods. This is an excellent competitor to Comcast (I'm switching as soon as my hubby gives up his old WinME computer), and they are selling complete packages including wireless and TV. I've already saved 50% on my DSL by switching from Earthlink.

Posted by: Carol on February 24, 2009 08:24 AM

19. Reason mag covered this issue years ago. Cable has traditionally been such a paragon of rotten services and ever-increasing rates because the model was to get in bed with local gov't to create a monopoly.

This is why, while other forms of electronic entertainment grew ever-cheaper over the last 25 years, your cable bill did the opposite.

Posted by: travis t on February 24, 2009 10:25 AM

20. 14. Why is it that the trolls have to turn even the quirky issues of day-to-day life into something political?

Nothing political. Just you sounding like a pathetic whiney sack.

"I wanna be an uber-capitalist, but never have to deal with the consequences! WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA"

Posted by: mercifurious on February 24, 2009 10:26 AM

21. Back when I worked in the cable TV industry local governments, holding franchise rights over our heads, compelled us to provide cable TV to public schools. I wondered why it was so important for kids to be watching TV at school. Didn't they do enough of that at home?

It isn't as if the cable guy can just drive past a school,(or anywhere else), and just magically throw a piece of cable at the building and voila! you've got cable.

You've got to dig up streets, sidewalks, flower beds and lord knows what else. And then put it all back as if you were never there. It isn't cheap. We had to extend the cable on many occassions which sometimes required us to set utility poles, or underground the cable for extended distances.

I don't mention any of this as an excuse for poor customer service. The cable industry never seems to get how fundamentally important that is.

I am saying that people often don't realize what an immense infrastructure has to exist in order to make cable TV possible. The dish companies don't have any of that to support and they still don't exactly provide great service from what I hear.

Posted by: Bill Cruchon on February 24, 2009 04:41 PM