I was a sorcerer in AD&D. Here I hope to be interesting--at least to someone.

Sunday, March 14, 2010

Blackmailed by Cable Television

Over the course of the last year, I’ve noticed cable TV channels disappearing from my service. When I tried to contact my cable company, I was usually put on hold by an electronic answering machine, and I generally gave up after fifteen minutes.

Today, I noticed that I had lost 6 channels at once. This time the channels involved channels I watch regularly. Concerned, I called the 800 number associated with the cable company. Once again, I was put on hold by an electronic answering service. I waited. I continued to wait. I actually waited 30 minutes (I timed it!) before a service person answered. Her English was execrable. I had to ask her to repeat her statements several times, quite slowly. I asked her why I had lost a total of 16 channels in the last year – including the six channels I had lost today – and yet my monthly service fee had not fallen (in fact, it had gone up!). Her response was that I didn’t have the box.

I asked her to be clearer in her explanation. She said (in a clearer voice than what I had heard until now), “You will not get these channels back unless you get the box.  The channels will continue to disappear until they are all gone.”  A box is something that is attached to your TV and connected to the cable access jack. It is leased to you for a monthly fee which is added to (not included in) your existing charges.

I was infuriated (although I didn’t vent; I have enough anger management and stress illnesses already), and I asked for the location and business hours of the local office. She gave them to me, then asked if there was any other assistance I needed, as the lines were all busy (!!!). I said no, politely, and hung up; then I vented. I think I frightened my dog.

I plan to make a personal trip to the local office before I contact a lawyer. I am truly outraged. The cable company in question is the only one in the area. As such, it has an absolute monopoly over its cable TV holders. The statements made above are no more – or less – than a simple act of blackmail. Do what we want, or else. I am not a wealthy person, nor am I a person who will often allow my anger to lead to a lawsuit, but I refuse to take this lying down.

I will continue to keep my blog-readers (if any) informed concerning this issue. If you are experiencing this same problem, please let me know; perhaps we can make this a class-action suit.

UPDATE:  All channels reappeared!  Apparently the cable company received so many negative phone calls from its box-free membership, that it decided to forget the whole thing.  Hooray for the pissed-off consumer!

Tuesday, March 09, 2010

Are we children?

The government of the United States – that is, our government – seems to labor under the delusion that the citizenry are children who need to be led about by the hand. We are apparently incapable of making any intelligent, responsible, educated decisions regarding how our government is to be managed. Do you doubt my veracity? How many events in our history have been covered-up, made secret, or otherwise hidden away from our knowledge? Our government claims that these acts are kept quiet out of necessity, and that it would be too dangerous for us to be informed of their existence.

Are we children, to be treated thus? I think not! I believe that much of the blame for this behavior can be attributed to our own acceptance of our government’s deception. We listen to the distortions presented to us, and, rather than act to demand the unaltered truth, we allow the subterfuge to continue unabated. A good example is the assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy. It has been forty-seven years since the murder of one of our presidents took place, yet we have done little to bring the evidence of the event forward for full public examination. The government claims the information too dangerous to be presented to the public, and that riots and other acts of violence will break out if so done.

What is it about a politician that makes him decide to treat his fellow citizenry as children, no longer capable of any logical, intelligent act? Has he become somehow godlike due to his ascension to elected office? Perhaps in his newly celestial state, he has become somewhat confused, and forgotten that he was—quite recently—one of us himself. Perhaps we need to remind him that he has not become better than us; and that his representation of us requires him to not only listen to us, but also to act in a manner that befits our election of him. At any rate, we need him to reach out and grasp the information that has been denied us, and finally make it accessible to the public as a whole.

BTW, the representation of the politician as “he” is a generalization. It is not meant to be seen as only male.