Long time no see, right? I knew it had been a while since I posted anything here. I didn't realize it had been over a year. That's a little pathetic on my part. I apologize
But guess what? Since we all get to stay at home right now (well, those of us in New York state), I've got some time on my hands. I'm not going to write about COVID-19. Not really. I'm sure we all see and hear enough about it on the news and social media to scare us, freak us out, worry us, and/or depress us on a regular basis. I mention it now only so that future readers, months or years from now, have some frame of reference when they stumble upon this post. Yeah. I'm totally going to pretend like people are going to be intensely interested in my ramblings at some point in the future. Humor me.
No, this is going to be a letter to my cable company. It also has a lot of pictures in it. Fair warning, in case you're on a super slow connection, or watching data limits. Gotta save it for the important things like crushing candy and what not. I understand. But if you're working from home and bored as hell, consider this a nice little break you can take while still being on the computer and looking busy.
Dear Spectrum,
Last night around 6:45 pm, as I was watching television, my cable froze up. The picture froze, couldn't change the channels, nothing. It was a little strange. So I rebooted the cable box. Everything loaded up just fine, picture was working again, all the info loaded. There was just one little problem -- there was no sound on any channels. Weird. I've never seen that happen before.
I double-checked to make sure I hadn't accidentally hit the mute button. I turned it on and off several times to make sure. What if it's my television? I switch over to my Amazon Fire TV. It works just fine, no volume issues. Guess it's not my television.
That made it a little stranger, Spectrum. I have all my services through you -- phone, cable, and WiFi. Clearly the WiFi was working. I called my parents at their house to see if they were having a similar issue, as they also have your fine services. Nope. They had no problems. At least I knew my phone wasn't having any issues.
I tried rebooting the cable box a couple more times, as I thought maybe it just glitched the first time. Nope. Everything loads fine but there is still no volume.
So I went to the MySpectrum app on my phone, and went through the trouble shooting steps there. It restarted again, but still no volume. And that is when I began waiting to talk to someone in support.
Please note the time stamps.
I'm a patient person. I don't mind waiting. I honestly wasn't even sure if anyone would be there working. It's not like I had anywhere to be since we are all supposed to be staying inside here in New York.
I can wait. Not a big deal. I live alone, so it's not like I have kids running around and freaking out because they can't watch television.The internet still worked. I wasn't about to look at anything else on my phone in case it meant I would lose my place in line, but not a big deal. I can keep trying to reboot the cable box, and in between I can watch the Yankees' game from last year on the YES network. I don't really need sound for that. I already know we're going to win.
I kept trying to reboot, and I started reading a book. Books are great.
Have you ever considered like hold music or something?
I still wasn't sure if anyone was actually there.
Was anyone actually there? And where is support even located? Were there still people working here in New York, like is cable considered an essential service? Was I now in a queue waiting for someone in a different state to help me? What if it's somewhere in California? I'm not entirely sure they would be allowed to be at work there, either.
Progress!
Check that out! It had taken a couple of hours, but I was finally next in line. This is so exciting!
By 11 pm, after many reboots with no solution and waiting for over 3 hours, I decided to give up for the night. I closed out of the app after sending that message. Maybe the problem would magically resolve itself over night.
Spectrum, you probably will not be surprised to find out that it did not, in fact, magically fix itself overnight. Kind of a bummer. So I did what IT at work always advises when technology goes awry. I turned everything off. I mean the router, modem, cable, television. I unplugged everything in the world for several minutes, and then I plugged it all back in and waited for it all to reload. I figured that might be a suggested step anyway, so best to try it beforehand.
It still didn't work, Spectrum. Guess it's back to the support queue on the MySpectrum app to wait. So I open the app and this is what I find:
No way!
I mean, it was the middle of the night. And it was 3 hours after I had been told I was the next person in line, but some lovely person named Danyelle had eventually gotten to me.
And I missed it.
Thanks for trying, Danyelle. I hope you were at least amused by my previous comments.
I went through the steps and waded back into the wait line. Maybe it would be shorter this early on a Sunday morning. I mean, still not like I have anywhere to go.
Let me list all of the things I have tried one more time
And so I re-entered the wait line. And then I made some coffee, as I was pretty sure this was not going to come to a swift resolution.
Holy cow!
Not going to lie, I was pretty stoked to see I was next in line so quickly. And then I remembered how long it had taken for someone to get to me when I was "next in line" the previous night. I decided to reboot again and drink my coffee.
Ah, familiarity. Feels like we're old friends at this point.
I was not sure anyone was actually reading anything I typed at this point.
Like really not convinced.
And then something exciting happened, Spectrum! As I was sitting there, drinking my coffee (yes, I really do drink a lot of coffee), and trying to keep up on the latest news, I had this beautiful sight on my phone screen:
I love you, Chris! I mean, I don't know you, but I'm so happy to see you!
This is why they say patience is a virtue. I think we can both admit that it was a tad ridiculous for it to have taken over 7 hours total at this point, but I did finally connect with someone.
None of you reading this need my address. Sorry, internet peeps.
And then I reiterated my problem, in case he didn't want to read through all my random comments.
It was all going swimmingly. Things progressed really quickly after that, Spectrum.
Chris was great, Spectrum. He was polite and professional. I assume he was doing everything he could on his end to solve my problem. I mean, nothing happened at all on my end of the situation, but I feel confident he tried his best. He didn't even mention all of the weird comments I had made while waiting.
Alas, Dear Spectrum, we finally came to a problem point.
Um...how do I politely say no to that offer?
That's the best I could come up with
Like I said, it's not that I don't trust you, Spectrum. I just really don't want anyone -- particularly someone I don't know at all -- coming into my home right now. I don't even let my parents into my home at this point, and I don't enter theirs. Stay home and stay safe, as much as possible. I'm more than a little surprised that an appointment was even offered. I can't imagine your techs are overly thrilled to be walking into people's homes, not knowing what they might find inside. I hope they at least have some protective gear.
And so I turned down the offered appointment, and asked Chris to make a note that I would call for service at some point in the future. Maybe the problem will resolve itself before then. Who knows?
I totally believe Chris made the note. I'll never know, but I bet he did.
Don't forget to wash your hands, Chris!
And there you have it, Spectrum. All that time, and no resolution to my problem. I believe Chris tried his best, and he did everything he could. I never got the survey he mentioned, but I wanted you to know I appreciate that he tried.
So I guess I just won't have sound with my television for a while. Maybe it will start working again at some point when I reboot. Maybe the 47th time is the lucky one. Who knows?
Mostly, I really hope that you are making sure your techs have protective equipment if you are sending them out into people's homes right now. Especially here in New York State.
And if my sound starts working again, I'll be sure to let you know.
Thanks,
Tammy
