Do you live in a Bright House?

I finally called the cable company. I put in an order for them to install internet for both of the computers in the house (Yeah, no more dial up!!!) and to put in digital cable in my room. The order was put in and the next day I was brutally attacked by an area rug my Mom likes to put in front of the front door to keep out the cold air. Unfortunatly, if you are leaving the house it is impossible for one to put it in place, so it winds up just laying there at the bottom of the stairs. So a week goes by of me recuperating, moaning, oh God it hurts it hurts!! Then it was cable day. It was supposed to be like Christmas you know. A fabulous day when I spend tons of money and wind up giving my family this wonderful present! High-Speed internet, which they never had before. Of course, because I ordered it, it didn't go off without a hitch. They came out practically every day last week to install it.

A timeline of the cable experience:

DAY 1- Tuesday: Not very bright looking cable guy comes to the door. I hop down the stairs to let him in. (because I'm still on crutches.)At which time my mother came home. He takes what I considered an insane amount of time to run the cable to the house. When hooking up the digital cable, I had prior to his arrival kneeled on the floor somehow and cleared a spot for the receiver, despite the excruciating pain, I rearranged it so there was an open spot for it to go. Instead of putting it in the obvious place, he removed things from on top of my t.v. breaking something (not anything expensive so of course I wasn't mad, but come on, there was a clear spot for it.)This of course proved that these guys will do whatever they feel like. To install the cable internet to my computer, I should say my computer is in a large computer cabinet, it's very heavy, after all it's not some shitty Sauder compressed piece, it's actually oak. He tried to move it on his own to put in the modem. Not necessary, but like I said he didn't seem very bright, and the first impression was further solidified with every single thing he did. Then he tells us, my mother and I, he can't get the internet to work, he has installed the modem on one computer, but he needs a tech to come and check his work. He didn't know if he'd connected the cable right at the box on the telephone pole or if the modem didn't work or not. He hadn't even installed the wireless modem thingy onto the other computer. I asked him if he could get that one set too so that it was ready when it was working and he said he would. He installed it then called his office to see when the tech could come out. He said maybe 45 minutes. He couldn't wait because he had somewhere else to be. He left no software for the tech to reinstall if necessary. He left me in no way confident of his job. I was just glad he was gone.

Ok, then the tech got there, said it looked like everything was set up right. He also said there was some corrupt software on the system at headquarters that they needed to reinstall. He said they would re-install it and then give us a call to tell us it was working. Which they never did, and it never worked.

DAY 2- Wednesday: I get a phone call from the tech who came the night before saying to call him. This was my first day back to work after a week, I wasn't home to take the call. So I called in the evening, couldn't talk to the guy that called me and talked to someone else instead. After I told him the problem he said he didn't know what I was talking about reinstalling software at the home office. He instead set up a time for a tech to come out the next day.

DAY 3- Thursday: I get home from work to find my Dad standing behind to cable tech guys working on his computer. He sighs impatiently several times like he's being inconvenienced. You know like he just paid a lot for something and now it wasn't working right only he didn't pay. He would have gone on indefinitly with dial up if I hadn't done this for him. He was kind of rude to the techs, constantly muttering things like, "This is so much trouble. So much more trouble than it's worth!" The techs tell me my computer works, it's online but for some reason, the network isn't working, my parents computer isn't online. They needed yet another tech to come out and fix that part. They also said they were highly dissatisfied with the job the very first installer. He never should have left the house until at least one computer was up and running, and why did he not leave software. Then they left. The next tech guy came and couldn't get it to work either, he didn't have the necessary software either and he thought we'd need a new modem, he didn't have that either. They could send another tech crew out the next day. Also he said he'd speak with billing about the charges for the wireless internet because it hadn't worked yet. Lastly, the initial installer would be dealt with in the morning.

DAY 4- Friday: The time came for the cable guys to show up and they never came. I got a phone call from their dispatcher scheduling a time for them to come in the morning.

DAY 5- Saturday: So the tech guy came, the same guy from Thursday, got everything working. HURRAY!!!!! Once again he said he would talk to billing about not charging us for the wireless until Saturday, because it was all on their end so we shouldn't have to pay.

So now we have cable internet acess and I have digital cable in my room. This in itself is fascinating to my father. He didn't think we could have both a satellite dish and cable in the same house, I don't know why...But he shouldn't be jealous, he still has more channels than me. They have all the movie channels, I only have several HBO'S & CINEMAX. Plus now we can receive phone calls while we surf the net. My parents were probalby the last people with the internet and only one phone line....How bizzare! Now also, 2 people can be on the internet at once. How much fun would that be that I could be on the internet in my room while my sister is on the internet in the dining room and we could talk to each other on instant messanger? Yeah, I'm a dork. But I can message her, "Hey Jax, 'Lost' is on, get your butt in here!" and she can say, "OK!"