[rant]
*I want to start off by saying I acknowledge this is a first world problem.
I just built a new house on two lots in a neighborhood that was started probably ten years ago. Well the building process had its ups and downs, something we expected and others we didn't. For the most part we are very pleased with how the house turned out and moved in almost a month ago. Now I will get to my rant.
A week prior to moving in I decided to start pricing cable/internet companies. The two big ones in my area are TWC and Cincinnati Bell, I didn't exactly want a dish on my house, and regardless of dish or no dish, we needed an ISP to provide internet. My first call was to TWC and got an arrogant salesman who priced the plan and then tried to prod me into committing at the time, I held off and called Cincinnati Bell, found them much more friendly, but a little more expensive and they didn't have the Fox Sports Ohio App that I really wanted. Anyway, I decided to go with TWC, they said they were going to send someone out to my house to see if cable/interment was available and get me hooked up. Our installation was supposed to be done on Dec 6th and to be honest I didn't think there would be any speed bumps in the process. Boy was I wrong.
The first tech who came to my house said that I needed a wire run from the street to my house, I have three utility boxes in the front of my yard that I thought would be fine to do. He said he would put in the work and have it done. Some kind of work was done a week later, running a wire from one of the boxes to my house, another tech showed up, said it was run to the wrong box, I would need a line bored under the street or under a driveway to attach to another box. He said it happens from time to time, that he used to do that work and it could be done rather quickly. After numerous calls to TWC's customer service lines (and a few twitter rants) I was told a crew was going to show up this past Friday, do the drop and bore, and a tech was supposed to show up Sat morning to install cable. I was not confident that TWC would do the needed work, I called Cincinnati Bell just to get a feeling how quickly they could get me cable. Anyway Friday came, at noon, five, and then eight o'clock I called them, I was told they had all day to complete the process, was told that they couldn't get a hold of the crew because it was a contractor, was told they have until eight to show up, and then when I finally called up (after a few drinks) they told me the work wasn't done, but they couldn't tell me why the crew didn't show up. At that point the tech was still slated to show up the next morning and I had a few questions for him, and he pretty much reiterated what the prior two tech said. The night before I decided to schedule Cincinnati Bell in case TWC didn't come through so at least I had that. Anyway after the tech left I called TWC yet again and proceeded to tell them that if I was unable to access cable and internet by today I was going with Cincinnati Bell, I was tired of being lied to and given a run around, in about ten conversations I had one person tell me they wanted my business. This rep told me that the process that needed to be done could take upwards of couple of weeks. After I heard that I thanked her for her honesty, told her I was going to Cincinnati Bell, and I would make sure not another dime of my money went towards TWC or any of their future companies.
Cincinnati Bell is now on the clock, I spelled out a number of times what the holdup with TWC had been, and they have assured me that installation would be on 1/3. If Cincinnati Bell doesn't come through I don't know what I will do. Luckily I bought an antenna a few weeks back to watch the Bengals play, but after a month of the antenna, a DVD player, and about it, my family is growing tired of it. You can't stream anything, can't DVR anything, my girls really can't watch anything on our phones because we are burning trough data at a record pace. Heck we can't even cut the cord because we haven't even been given a cord!
At the end of the day, had TWC been truthful with me, explained what had to happen and how long it was going to take, I would have been ok with it. But the constant promises, lies, and run around they gave me have infuriated me.
[/rant]