Adventures In Obtaining Decent Internet Service (Part 3), And “The Lover” Mini Review
The fact that I have to write a Part 3 tells you all you need to know about how happy I’ve been with Charter HSI.
On the 13th, I got an automated call from Charter. It was a reminder that I had a technician scheduled to install my Charter HSI the next day, between the hours of 8am and noon.
Wha??? If you’ll recall, I did a self-installation of my Charter HSI; why the heck would I need a technician out here for a SELF-installation?
The best part was that I got the message stuck on my answering machine, and I didn’t find out about the call until past midnight of the 14th. I quickly called the number left on the message, got to an operator, and asked to have the appointment canceled. He put me on hold, and the system disconnected me not much later.
(Argh.)
I called back, quickly got to another rep, who immediately advised me that the account holder (my sister, who was still at work) had to call in to cancel the appointment herself. I left her a note on her desk to try to call Charter as soon as she got home, and then I went to bed.
I was told that the technician never showed up between the scheduled time, so I figured that either my sister got around to canceling the appointment, or the techs weren’t going to show up at all. Fast forward to 4:00, and guess who shows up?
I immediately told the tech that I had done a self-installation for my HSI service, and therefore, I had no need for a technician. The tech muttered something to his partner, and then walked away.
Fast forward to this morning, where I woke up to flu-like symptoms (I LOVE that term). I fired up my laptop, and immediately noticed that I could not connect to the internet. I quickly checked my modem lights, and saw that I wasn’t getting four solid greens. I called up Charter HSI tech support, and while navigating through the IVR, I was told that there was a service outage in my area. No problem, I thought.
Several hours later, the outage was still going on. I called HSI support again, and again got the recorded message of the outage in my area. I then ‘borrowed’ a neighbor’s wireless connection, and started researching this supposed outage.
It wasn’t until I stumbled upon speedtest.net (just out of curiosity) that I noticed that the problem might not have been an outage. Speedtest.net reported that the ISP that my neighbor was on was, lo and behold, Charter HSI. Either I was one unlucky SOB and the outage just barely spread to my house and not my neighbor’s, or something else was going on here.
I fired up Charter’s Live Chat support—hey, I had great luck with them last time, if you’ll recall—and immediately got connected to a rep. Again, I asked if there was an ongoing service outage in my area, and she confirmed this. Then, after a bit of questioning, she asked me what ISP I was using. Not sure what she was specifically asking, I told her that I was on a neighbor’s connection, but then added that I was 100% sure I was a Charter HSI customer.
That’s when the rep hit me with this: according to my sister’s account, we did not have Charter HSI among our services listed. Huh? Immediately, the rep advised me to call in to rectify the problem.
I called in, got a real friendly rep, and quickly explained my situation. I also asked the rep to check to see if there were any ongoing outages in my area. She responded by telling me that there was no longer an outage in my area. Wait a sec; the Live Chat rep told me, five minutes earlier, that there was still an outage going on. What gives?
I then told the rep what the Live Chat rep told me (that Charter HSI was not on my list of services), and while she did not confirm this, she did notice the outstanding installation appointment on the account. You know, the installation appointment for my SELF-installation. Yes, on my account, it was noted that a tech was to be sent out for a SELF-installation.
The rep put me on hold for a good fifteen minutes, and then came back on the line to announced that she had ‘closed’ the issue. She removed the installation appointment off the account, re-established HSI on the account, and assured me that I would still be getting HSI at the promotional rate of $29.99 a month for six months.
What probably happened was, upon telling the tech that his services were never needed, that triggered Charter to assume that I never signed up with HSI, and so they removed HSI from my list of services. Next month’s bill is gonna be a ton of fun to go over; I better not see any HSI dis/connect fees. And does anyone know if Charter charges a customer for a ‘missed’ installation appointment?
- Time for a mini-review of the latest episode of The Office.
“The Lover” might have been the craziest episode to date. Who didn’t see Jim and Pam’s marriage get off to a rocky start? Lots of yelling in the episode; I hope the cast had lots of Ricola on hand.
I love Dwight’s new offensive against Jim. Come on, who didn’t see anything suspicious about the pen Dwight put on Jim’s desk? (By the way, can you legally record someone without his knowledge in Pennsylvania?) I can’t believe that some Office reviewers out there actually felt that the writers couldn’t keep the Jim-Dwight rivalry fresh. It wouldn’t surprise me in the least to see Dwight costing Jim his promotion by the end of the season, only to have Dwight passed over as Jim’s replacement.
I loved the whole opera scene with Jim, Dwight, and Andy. Too funny. I absolutely loved how Toby now thinks he and Michael are friends, and I wonder if Toby’s willingness to help out Michael has anything to do with his feelings for Pam. I could imagine Toby’s friendship with Michael not lasting past one more episode.
(Oh, I REALLY loved the scene where Toby walks in and both Jim and Michael yell at him. Toby’s “What did I do?” was priceless.)
Surprisingly, I didn’t particularly care for the whole Michael dating Pam’s mom storyline, though. The scene in the conference room? Didn’t do much for me. I hope this is not something the writers plan on pushing all the way to the season finale. The last thing I need is a “Is Jim’s marriage already over?” end-of-season cliffhanger because of Michael dating Pam’s mom.
(And for the record, I would definitely be bothered if my mom dated my boss, especially if my boss were Michael Scott. Was Pam overreacting? Probably. Was it justifiable? Probably.)
All that being said, however, I wouldn’t mind seeing one Michael/Pam’s mom-Jim/Pam double date. Oh, the possibilities! In a dream world, this happens in the next episode. Michael acts the way Michael does in front of everybody, and then realizes at the end of the episode what dating Pam’s mom is doing to Jim and Pam. He then does the right thing and breaks it off with Pam’s mom.
I can dream, right?