Wednesday, May 4, 2011

5 Guys at a Dunkin Donuts

This morning, my adoring husband stopped at Dunkin Donuts for me on the way to work--our new Wednesday tradition. And, I had a gift card--WINNING! (thanks to Mom &  Dad) We pulled into the parking lot to see not 1,not 2, but 5 Comcast trucks sitting in the parking lot. 5 trucks. For the life of me, I cannot understand why 5 separate technicians would all be at the SAME Dunkin Donuts around 840am when Comcast issues time slots that begin as early as 8am. (possibly 7am, I am not positive though) Is this why we are given time slots? So that when we are told sometime on Wednesday between 8am-12pm it is because our technicians need to meet up for a pow wow over some coffee?

I am back with Comcast now for the third time in less than 10 years. I left them for Direct TV. I left them for AT&T Uverse. I keep returning. Why? They seem to be the lesser of the evils. It's not because they are so wonderful. It's because everyone else sucks so badly. Direct TV would go out on us if a bird flew to close to the house and caused a bit of wind. And, if it rained or snowed, forget it. AT&T Uverse would constantly need to have the boxes re-set and the channels would freeze all the time. The biggest issue was our wireless internet NEVER worked. So, back to Comcast we went.

Comcast isn't any cheaper than the other guys. In fact, we now have no movie channels, Game Show Network or Oprah's new channel, OWN. (no love lost there) We no longer can watch our DVR'd shows from any TV in the house. (the boys hate this) We can only record 2 shows at a time instead of 4. (this is annoying) The more I write about this, the more I realize that we became so dependent on the TV for so many things. It's pretty sad. Even sadder? --that when the Comcast guy came out a few weeks ago to reinstall everything, I got yelled at because I placed the order wrong. I tried explaining to him that had the customer service rep spoke some kind of English, maybe it would've been placed correctly. He didn't seem to care. So he called for backup. (Perhaps one of his buddies who was sitting in a local parking lot having coffee)

Why do we put up with such service? Why not just boycott the cable and satellite companies and just have basic channels like we did way back when? Because, really, who are we kidding. My kids don't understand the concept of only having cartoons on Saturday mornings. They don't understand that there was no such thing as "on demand".  They don't realize that cartoons like SpongeBob and shows like iCarly weren't on 87 times a day in case we missed it the first 86 times it aired. They don't get that there weren't tons of channels just dedicated to kids..and not just for one age group of kids, but for kids of all ages. Nick Jr., PBS Kids, Nickelodeon, Disney Channel,Cartoon Network, and a whole slew of others I cannot think of right now because I have tried to remove them from my brain.

I suppose I could be the ultimate mean mother and get rid of cable all together. But, who would be getting punished here? The kids or me? In the end, it would be me. I admit, sometimes I just need a break and what offers a better option for me to take one than cable. We have enough TV's that kids can disperse and can all go watch Pokemon and South Park and SpongeBob and Tosh.O til their eyes roll out of their heads. And, while they do that, I can head to another TV (one with a DVR) and watch my episodes of Bethenney Ever After or Say Yes to the Dress that I haven't had a chance to watch yet.

2 comments:

  1. Great Blog! After all, it was the TV show, Electric Company, that taught you how to read (and may I add, the newspaper, encyclopedia, etc.) Sometimes I think we had "more" TV, with only six channels.

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  2. This is great! I forgot, until now, that I used to look forward to Saturday morning cartoons (when I wasn't going to junior services). It's very true, now we are spoiled with recording and 100,000 channels that, odds are, we will find the show we want, when we want!

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