I Hate My Cable Company

It's not shocking really. Most people have a love/hate relationship with their cable provider. It could be the long wait times on the phone or the inaudible people they have working once the person picks up. It might be the cable technicians who show up late, never or on the wrong day. Some people even hate them for their exorbitant price gouging with few additional services.

Why do I hate them? Take your pick. Yesterday I needed to have digital cable put into my apartment. As a TV blogger, this is kind of a big deal. I had it done in the morning so I could still check out all of my good stuff at night. No such luck. They messed up the box and I was missing 50 channels. I'm not a pharaoh, I can't afford to pay for all 900 channels. I pay for 74. So when 50 are missing, again, it's kind of a big deal.

I call the company, they ping the box, I wait, I unplug the box. Nothing. I call back. They make me do it again. They give me the worst appointment time ever for them to come back and fix it. They make me sit on hold. I've been in a relationship with Charter for less than 24 hours and already they've kept me waiting for assorted reasons for 91 minutes. That's a pretty big chunk of the day, not to mention an awful first impression.

The head of the FCC, Kevin Martin, is making it his personal mission to break up some of these cable monopolies and make cable service more affordable and a better service for everyone. It's a shame he can't make this his number one priority, as he's too busy sifting through hundreds of thousands of indecency complaints and media conglomerate messes.

I just hope something happens soon, because if I have to sit and listen to Charter telephone ads for one more minute, I may do something I regret.