OK, so today I wasted 3 hours with Time Warner. Channel 4 Padres hi-def went out on my cable a few weeks ago, but only on my TV. The initial call went like this:
Me: I am calling to report a problem with channel 704 on my TV
TWC: Is this on your Tivo?
Me: No, it’s my TV
TWC: Do you have a cable card?
Me: Yes (Thinking, how the hell else would I get 704 on the TV?)
TWC: Oh, we can’t help with that, we have to send someone to your house.
Me: <sigh> Ok, I need an evening appointment
TWC: sorry, the latest we have is 4pm – 6pm
Me: <sigh> Ok, I will waste my weekend and have you come then.
A week later (this morning), they show up at 7:30am. The guys comes in and I show him the problem. He says he will replace the cable card, and goes out to the truck. 15 minutes later he comes back with a cable box and tell me he is going to test. I look at him funny as he starts to plug it in to power and ask him how he intends to hook it up? I explain that:
1) I have no free ports in the TV or my reciever and I will not be uncabling anything
2) How is this testing my cable card, as the box does not have a removable one to put this one in and since all my other cable cards are working it’s not the cable.
He finally gets it and then admits to me he doesn’t have any spare cards in the truck. I am dumbfounded and ask him how he can be dispatched for a cable card problem and not show up with spares? He makes some lame excuse that TWC doesn’t like these cards and they don’t carry them. I am just shaking my head at this. I politely told him he is full of crap since Tivo’s are not going away anytime soon so you will not be going away.
Anyway, he disappears for another 30 minutes. He returns from meeting another service tech. He has two more cable cards. One is a single stream and the other is a multi-stream card. We them in the TV and they both generate a 161-1 error. He calls it in and nobody in tech support has a clue and passes him off from one group to the other.
HUGE SIGH!
I do some quick internet searches and tell him this is a known problem when a card is bad. I notice that neither card was in a sealed static plastic pouch so they are probably bad. I finally gave up and sent him on his way and told him to make sure the notes on the account so when I call them back they will know what we have already tried.
I wait about 30 minutes to call them back and get the standard on hold music. It tell me the wait is 6 minutes. 30 minutes later I get a service tech. I explain my problem and what has already happened and she tells me that a few weeks back they changed the frequency that channel 704 is on and that I should do a re-scan of channels.
I do this and Eureka, 704 is back. I had a long chat with her about why the very first tech didn’t know this as well as put in a complaint about the guy who showed up this morning being totally unprepared. (Oh BTW, he had to use my phone to call in because the cell phone he had was crap and kept dropping calls).
The second thing of the day was I planned to take my jet ski into the shop. I go out to hook up the trailer to my truck and discover that one of the wheels is flat. Not a big suprise because it has been sitting for 3 years. It appears the sidewall has cracked and split. No biggie, I will just take the wheel off, go get a new tire and then return. You would think it would be that simple, right? Well no!
I get out my jack from the truck and get the wheel ready to be removed. I am able to remove four of the 5 lugnuts. But for some reason the 5th one will not come off. It appears to turn, but is not unscrewing. It does not appear that the bolt is turning and the nut does not appear stripped. I spend a good hour trying to figure this one out when I just give up!
If anyone has any idea, I am all ears 😉