Cable's Out

My cable company, Time Warner, is boasting big improvements. Caller ID shows up on your TV, browse shows and movies up to 2 weeks in advance. Search for a show by keyword, subject, title, star, etc. And to do this they send my cable box the upgrade overnight... It's actually a series of upgrades over time.

About six months ago here was the story. I woke up and the cable box was flashing letters and numbers. I call the cable company and tell them the problem. They say something went wrong with the upgrade and to wait and it will fix itself. I wait, call back and they say to wait longer. I wait longer and call back. They go through various tests and diagnose and tell me they need to send a tech to my place. He'll show up a week later and fix it. I ask if I can go to their store and trade out my cable box for a new one. That's what I did. 1 short paragraph, but it took all day.

So today here is the story. I wake up and the cable box is flashing the exact same letters and numbers as six months ago. I call the cable company and they tell me to wait and it will fix itself. I wait and call back. I tell them the problem and explain why I''m familiar with it, they tell me to wait a little bit longer but as opposed to the previous times, they aren't saying call back a X o'clock, they just say 'later'. And now I'm wondering what we can do 2 hours from now that we can't do now.

"This has happened before. It doesn't fix itself. Let's take the alternate route." I don't want to trade out cable boxes (I have shows saved on there) but I'll bring that up later after their tests and such.

She comes back and tells me, "Right now there is nothing we can do. If you are still having this problem later than call us back and we will assist you then."

"Well when is later? Should I wait 1 hour? 3 hours?"

"We are available 24/7 so you can call us any time you like."

"I'd like right now."

"But we can't do anything right now"

"I know this problem, I've had this exact problem before. Why must I call back later to get something done. Why does it always take 3 or more calls to get my cable fixed? Let's do it right now."

"Right now there is nothing that we can do. But if you will call back later..."

"Later when?"

"We are available 24/7. You can call whenever you like."

OK, we are now officially going in circles. "Please, give me some sort of resolution. If this will fix itself, tell me when or by what time. If you can't give me a time, than let's get to fixing it NOW!"

After this was all over. I got the worst answer that I could have received. She told me noon, then she followed it up by saying that she was only guessing at that number and it came from no actual information.