Waiting for the cable company, in their dreaded “window” of service, is one of the things I like the least.  Today’s comic was inspired by a recent experience of mine, although we posit a slightly different scenario as to why a technician may miss his appointment.

So about a month ago, I got a television for my room – I didn’t necessarily think I needed/wanted one, but between sharing DVR space with a roommate (particularly a roommate whose DVR list is filled not with new shows but old ones, shows that are in syndication and thus are recorded at nearly every hour of every day) and spending lots of time in my room (ostensibly working), it seemed like the pragmatic thing to do.  Thinking the process would be simple, I called my local service provider and asked them to bring a new box.

They said it would be a week before their guy could show up.  I was annoyed, but I understood – after all, they have only so many hours in the day.  I made the appointment, and a week later, the technician showed up to install my brand new box.

Except when he went to the “communications closet”, he found that apparently so many people have cable in our building, the closet was out of slots and I wouldn’t be able to use my box that day.

“No problem,” he said, as he outlined our new gameplan.  He would return at a later date and time that I set up with the service provider, and by then they will have fixed the problem in the closet.

So once again I called the service provider, and once again an appointment was made for one week later.  I was starting to get a little annoyed, but it was only one more week.

The following Monday, I got up extra early, just in case the guy showed up early.  I stayed home when I could have been taking care of other business I had to attend to.

And the technician never showed.

Annoyed at this waste of my time, I called the service provider – who said that the problem that needed to be fixed hadn’t been fixed, even though they had been given a week.  She also mumbled something about how she was “just about to call me” about my appointment being canceled – which is what I was even more angry about, considering I had spent half of my day waiting for the technician that never showed.

I was also told that I could not make another appointment at that time, as the customer service representative promised she would call me once she knew they could, in fact, complete the installation.

After not hearing from her the entire day, I called her back – and she got annoyed at me for calling her back.  She promised she would call and make an appointment.

Two days later… still no phone call.  Now having gone from annoyed to full-blown anger, I called them back – and this time the woman allowed me to make my appointment (after putting me on hold for several minutes, which makes me believe that she hadn’t actually done her follow-up until right that second).

The story ends reasonably well, with the tech actually keeping his appointment, and me getting my television installed.  But it took three weeks and much more of my energy than I had planned.  I would switch providers, except they have a deal with my building and so I can either go through them or have nothing.

Even writing this now makes me angry.  I think I need a nap.

-Dan

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My little part of the blog is coming a little late, due to my 3 jobs, all of which seem to be wanting something from me right now, but it’s ok! I actually finished on time, and without rushing this time! I don’t have too many terrible customer service stories, a la Dan, but I do have a pretty miraculous one.

A few years back, I had a Nintendo Gamecube, which for one reason or another stopped working. I called customer service, and they said they’d send someone over right away. In 10 minutes, there was a guy at my door with a label and a box. I have no idea how this was done. He packed the my Gamecube for me, and sprinted off to his vehicle. Two days later, the same delivery guy rang my doorbell and delivered my repaired Gamecube. i checked the serial number just to see if they sent me a new one, but it was the same one. Holy crap.

I think Nintendo is actually run by magical faries, elves, menehunes, and oompah loompahs, because I have no idea how they could do such a kick ass job in such a short amount of time.

My story is in sharp contrast to the doom and gloom that Dan brings, because let’s face, I am the ying to his yang, but in a hetero way.

-Spencer