I scheduled a visit from my cable provider to install cable in another room of my house. They gave me a window of 8:00am to 11:00am. So I woke up extra early that day to make sure I got the phone call they make before they come out. And I also had to take the day off from work.Things were looking good early on. I got a phone call at 9:00am asking whether I was going to be at home for the visit. I said yes. Then I waited, and waited, and waited. At 11:00am I still had not given up hope. In fact I have gotten to the point where I almost expect these guys to be late. A truck pulled up around 11:20am.
I started to get concerned when the cable guy was wandering around the neighborhood a bit. He was looking for the cable junction box. And things started looking worse when, after finally finding the junction box, the cable guy could not remove the cover on the box. Eventually he came in. I showed him where I wanted the cable. In fact, I pointed out that there was already a physical cable in the room. I went outside to show where that existing cable led to. The cable guy said he thought he know how to hook that cable up.
Then the cable guy asked me for a ladder. I have heard this story before. They cable guys do not come equipped with ladders. WTF? Don't you need a certain tool set to qualify as a cable guy in the first place. However I did not sweat this too much since I have a couple ladders myself. But something still did not feel right about me paying for a guy to come use my tools. Cable guy proceeded to hook up the cable to the room. I got a receipt from him and he took off. Before filing the receipt I took a closer look at it. Apparently my cable company had an "on time guarantee". If the cable guy does not show up within the scheduled window of time, I can either get a free install or a $20 credit.
Based on the days experience, there was no way I was going to schedule another install for the heck of it. So I called up the cable company and they gave me a $20 discount on my bill. Now there was a lot of pain from this cable service visit. However I was pleased that the company had a policy which penalized them and rewarded me when some agreed upon terms are not met.
P.S. Not all is well. My Internet service through the cable company broke down after the visit. And one of my e-mail addresses has been deleted by the cable company. Such is life.
