Nearly all organizations have a
customer service department which is created mainly to drive customers up the
wall with frustration. I’m not sure what
the qualifications for these particular jobs are, but a lack of common sense
and an ‘I don’t really give a fig,’ attitude, seem to be the main requirements.
Two nights ago I noticed my DVR wasn’t
working properly. It was in fact
recording a beautifully blank screen.
Further fiddling with remotes and screen buttons had me deciding that
one of the HD channels was indeed completely blank. At the time I thought it might be something
to do with the cable provider rather than my TV set, and decided to leave it
until the next morning.
The problem was still evident the next
day so, silly me, I called the customer service number. I should have known it was not going to be a
great experience as soon as the young lady answering the phone asked me ‘on
which island do you live?’ These kinds
of questions always bother me. I figure
if they’re somewhere they can’t see my caller ID, they’re in a time zone that
can’t be of much help.
I wondered if she was sitting on a mat
in India
but no, she was not. As a matter of fact
she informed me, she was sitting on a chair in Canada. Good to know, but again, not much help to me
in Hawaii.
Ah, but how wrong could I be? This young lady had all the answers.
It appears that my inability to get
the HD version of one of my favorite channels was because there was a cell
phone tower blocking the signal. Apparently
this tower was built overnight by some very speedy, hardworking gentlemen,
because there certainly wasn’t any interference from anything or anybody for
the several weeks, even years prior.
But, just in case, my DVR box was
rebooted and rebooted. I think three
times in all by the secret signal direct from the provider. Then, a short time later and while watching
Fox news, the poor news anchor was left with her mouth hanging open while my
DVR box rebooted itself with no request from me or anybody else. Half an hour later it rebooted itself again.
Another call to Canada produced
even less joy. It seems no one in that
vast country could fathom why my DVR box would do that. You know you’re in real trouble when the best
the customer service person can offer is: ‘gee, I’m not sure why it does that.’
Finally, it was determined that an
actual technical person would have to present himself at my house to fix the
problem. Of course that couldn’t happen
for at least two weeks. So now
what? I know there are a gazillion other
channels to watch, but I love all the shows that are broadcast on the
channel that doesn’t work, so bite me!
I guess I’ll just have to stay grumpy
until the cable guy arrives and fixes what I’m sure will be something
incredibly simple. Either that or spend
more time with my Kindle. Not a bad idea
at all eh?
