Great Cable "Service" Rant

marco_polo

My cable and broadband service stopped working about last Thursday or so, I am fairly technically savy so it was pretty clear to me immediately that there was no signal, most likely because the drop in the appartment block for my appartment had been disconnected.

I pay by direct debit so the non payment of bills was not the issue, so I decided to ring customer support of my cable company in order to find out what the story was. I had to endure a good few minutes of being patronized, asked to make sure it was turned on, cables plugged in etc. (She also assured me that she send a signal down the line to my stb and connectivity looked just fine :rolleyes:)

Having covinced her I wasn't a complete idiot, I eventually managed to arrange for a technician to call out this morning. To facilitate this I took about 3-4 hours off work this morning. So about 11 O'Clock or so he arrived and plugged the signal measurer into my cable port, sure enough the line was dead. He asked me to show him to the cabinet in the appartment where the drops for the block are located. We get down to the unit and it turns out he has no key to access the unit. With a perfectly straight face he informs me that I will have to arrange for another appointment and also that I will have to arrange myself get the management company to open the cabinet (even though the guy that installed the cable a few months ago had no problem opening the door). I called customer support after this and was informed that they could do nothing untill the have recieved the technicians report into the nature of the problem.

Working on the assumption that what has possibly happened is that they either disconnected the account of the previous tenant (I still get letters encouraging me to sign up) or someone else was messing with the cable drops. Why should I have to take more time off work in order to let them reconnect the my cable that should never have been disconnected in the first place? Secondly if they can disconnect the cable without anyone needing to be there, then surely they can reconnect the cable without needing my presence as well.

Mountjoy Mugger

I wonder did the technician lose his key?

marco_polo

Mountjoy Mugger wrote: »

I wonder did the technician lose his key?

He said he thought he might have broken it or something to that effect. I would have thought it was part of the basic equipment that a cable technican should have in his toolbox TBH. With a small bit of effort surely he could have located another one somewhere surely? Either way looks like I will have to take another half day off work to get it sorted. :mad:

paulm17781

Demand they fix it. They don't need you there to get access, you're their customer not their slave. I've seen NTL guys at the junction box for my building that seemed to get in themselves, they weren't with any residents anyway.

LEIN

I would be deducting money from the bill for the duration of your disconnection too. Don't pay them for a service your not getting!;)

Kenpo

Put everything in writing and send it to the Managing Director of UPC.

Also include the exact dates you had no service - and demand a refund.

I had massive problems with them in the past, but found the best policy is to ring them once (to give them a chance to resolve the issue) - and then a letter to the MD. I don't waste anymore time/credit on calls to them after the first.

You should get a response very quickly after that.

Good luck

K