Bonita Springs Real Estate | Bonita Springs Lifestyle Report

A Micro Rant About Cable TV & High Speed

Warning, this is not at all real estate related or even related to Bonita Springs, for that matter.

There is nothing more frustrating in life than being held at the mercy of big business, operated by computers, outsourced to Bangalore, press 2 for Spanish - hold the line for English, utility companies. For probably the third time in the last year I tried to fix or improve part of my service on the Comcast network. It’s exhausting to say the least. I don’t have to tell you if you’ve tried to have your communication services changed what a nightmare it is. It doesn’t matter who the company is or what utility it is, it’s just a mad circle of insanity.

My wresting match with Comcast started about 12 years ago. They insisted that I pay cable expenses even though I lived in a condominium on Fort Myers Beach. Most of the time cable is included in the maintenance fees. It was included in my condo fees, too but Comcast threw a big stink so I just paid my $38 bucks (yeah, that’s a bargain compared to todays rates) to keep my cable. I’ll let you know that many years later, after I moved back to Bonita Springs, a check comes in the mail from Comcast for several hundred dollars of refund for their services. Someone locked in a cage at Comcast forced to balance books must have found the error.

After that, not much happened with cable for a while. I mean besides when I moved in my house Christmas ‘97 and got my cable installed two weeks sooner than expected. Turns out the cable man had the right house number but the wrong street number. That mistake was in my favor. Hey, I let it happen too. I had small kids at home and I needed Nickelodeon like a gambler needs Vegas.

With the spread and use of high speed internet I’ve tangled with Comcast on more than one occasion. It seems since I live on a small street with only 22 homes on it I am the low man on the totem pole. Fine. I’ll wait my turn you hacks.

Periodically, something utterly ridiculous happens and I have to call for help. About a year ago the phone rings, “Hello, its Comcast. I’m downstairs buzz me in so I can take the elevator up”. Hysteria set in on me. You see, I live in a single family home in Bonita Springs, Florida. I said, “Sir, excuse me, but if you are at a condo on Fort Myers Beach I am going to kill someone”. You guessed it; he was at a condo on Fort Myers Beach. The Comcast network is so extensive and unorganized that someone found the address where I lived at 12 years ago and sent a poor schmuck out there to fix my cable. I didn’t get my cable fixed and had to wait 2 more weeks for my turn - thereby losing my two week advance at Christmas ‘97. Oh Karma, you hateful woman you.

Since then I’ve gone without cable for weeks at a time only to have a little tea cup in a cubical with a headset say something like, “The computer says there’s no problem”. After about two weeks I end up grabbing a guy in a Comcast truck working down the street who is able to look at and confirm that the transformer has been struck by lightening and melted to nothing. The computer said it was OK because it WAS DEAD and couldn’t communicate. I call back and get a technician that literally got mad at me for being persistent and eventually hung up on me after using the F word. Yeah. Me too.

In the last week or so I have struggled with the cable giant regarding my lost email accounts. I don’t use their stinking email except for my junk mail sign up stuff but still, it’s my email address and I want it. Plus, I have family member that like their ShrinkyDinkPoodleTrainer@comcast.net style names. I blew nearly an hour on the phone with that fix and still only got one of the email addresses transferred. They moved one and deleted the rests. Good thing I didn’t ask them to move cattle or goats. They’d move one and shoot the rest between the eyes. So I spoke will Shar-Rhee at Comcast and I’m now waiting for someone to call me about the deleted emails because she thinks they can be fixed, but she’s not sure. Poof: 42 minutes with Shar-Rhee that I’ll never get back.

My tantrum is almost over. I just thought I’d give a little vent for ALL of us that get held hostage by our utilities companies and their new-age/archaic systems.

Now, I just hope that Comcast doesn’t send someone to a tired old condo on Fort Myers Beach looking for me and my laptop to fix my email addresses.

This rant is complete. Where’s the Tylenol.

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