It’s Comcastic!!!

OK, so I know LOTS of people who are quite unhappy with their Comcast cable service (especially after the recent takeovers). But I have TV. For the first time in a month. I even got to see Willy-Buns at the end of PTI today. I haven’t seen PTI in a month. I think that’s the longest I’ve gone since the show premiered!

RT was happy to watch a little boob tube as well.

Skip this if you are easily bored.
After 4+ years as DirecTV customers in LA, we were originally scheduled for a July 3 installation here in Pittsburgh.

They didn’t show up during the 8-12 window. The guy showed up at 1 pm, but that timing wasn’t gonna work. (flashback)

So we rescheduled for Monday, July 9. But over that weekend, the Hubster spent two hours (yes, TWO HOURS) on the phone with a DirecTV “retention specialist” who attempted to make amends by upgrading us to an HD box, gave us $150 in credit (to that point) on our account and scheduled an install for the afternoon of Thursday, July 12.

Which they didn’t show up for. And they didn’t call. At all. We spent another 90 minutes or so on the phone with a retention specialist. And got another $100 credited to our account. And were promised that we’d get a call from a supervisor. The local person said that they didn’t show up because they didn’t receive their shipment of HD boxes and they wouldn’t (not couldn’t, wouldn’t) do a “partial install.”

I actually did get a call from a supervisor the next morning, telling me that this was a lie … that they had actually assigned the install to a guy who hadn’t been working for two weeks. Nice, huh?

He gave me his specific name and direct phone number and promised that his best guy would be here on Monday to do the install. Monday morning there was a DirecTV guy here at 8:30 am. A different guy than was supposed to be here, but a guy nonetheless. He came in and looked at the two spots where the TVs were to be installed. Noticed that we did not have an HD-capable TV in the spot where we wanted that receiver. So sue us! We just moved and haven’t had time to get the plasma we want for the space … it’s a tricky room … Anyhoo, he then asked where the wires to the dish were located. When I said we don’t currently have a dish, he got cranky b/c we were down as an “upgrade” not a new install. Then he did a few laps around the house and told me my only option for putting a dish on the house was to bolt it to the aluminum siding on the FRONT of the house.

Not gonna happen. I told him that I needed a phone call from his supervisor, who he was going to call on his way out. I called the dude I had spoken with on Friday, told him the name of the installer and what had happened and the name of said installer’s supervisor. He said I’d get a call back pronto.

I never heard from another human being who works for DirecTV. I got three, yes THREE calls from a computer, confirming an appointment for the afternoon of July 19. But I refused to confirm something that no human being had ever set up with me, so I hung up on the computer. Hung up on it again when it woke me up on Tuesday morning. And when it called again yesterday, it told my voice mail that they’d see me Thursday afternoon. Whutever.

After Monday’s SNAFU, I called Comcast. They set me up with a Thursday afternoon install window (12-4. What’s with these people?). Which they missed. I called at 4:01 pm ready to blow my top. They said they’d check with the tech and get back to me. I started to feel sick. I was also pissed that they were unwilling to acknowledge a missed window until 4:30 pm. I mean COME ON! You miss a FOUR-HOUR window, and you need 30 extra minutes of grace period? That’s just obscene.

So I got a call back at about 4:15. The tech called at 4:30 saying he’d be here in about 20 minutes. As soon as I hung up with him, I called Comcast and insisted on my puny $20 credit for the missed appointment. Hey, it’s better than nothing, which is what we've had for way too long.

The tech showed up by 5 and was out of here by 6. Once they were here, he and his supervisor were extremely nice and very efficient in their work. And yes, I now have TV at my house! Woo-Hoo!

And now, back to our regularly scheduled programming!

So the other big event today was the return of the Boomerang Furniture. Exciting stuff! There were several pieces I knew were coming and another group of pieces where I was fuzzy on the details. Here are the highlights.


This was my tack trunk for probably the last 5-6 years I was doing the horsey thing. It lived at the barn and held all of my stuff. It’s a great piece of furniture, though, and I really want to use it for storage. I figure I can put a lot of my plastic storage in there … mostly my knitting stuff rather than my quilting WIPs. Then I opened it.


Ruh-roh. I can get rid of this stuff, but this is primarily horsey stuff and smells appropriately. Any un-smell-ify stuff anyone can recommend? It’s not BAD, but it makes me hesitant to put yarn or fabric in there before I’ve done something to at least air it out.


I know this isn’t much different from the pic from the other day, but we have a desk! And I unpacked the printer! Woo-Hoo!

The room with the biggest difference is the previously almost empty living room. It needs a little organization, but this is pretty much the furniture we’ll be moving around.


This is the back window of the living room. Overlooks the back yard. The loveseat will probably stay where it is. Chairs will probably move to the opposite end of the room.


And this is the couch that’s going to live in this spot.

There are more pictures, but I don’t want to bore you, so I’ll save some of them for tomorrow night, from the Lake. Have a great evening!