Job: 123 Fake Street, Anywhere

Over the years I’ve been subjected to some of the absolute worst berating at the hands of angry customers. People who have tried and tried to get something fixed but have not been satisfied. Most likely a number of techs have been out and for various reasons could not resolve their problems. Maybe it was out of their hands. Maybe they did not have the necessary skills to actually correct the issue. Maybe the problem was intermittent and never showing itself when the tech arrived. Maybe the customer was not able to describe what the problem was so it could be fixed.

It doesn’t matter really. When a customer gets to the point where they are ready to explode oddly enough, that seems to be when I would show up at their house.

Strange really.

Even stranger, is just how happy and thankful these same people get when someone finally finds and fixes their concern. It’s like night and day. The same person that had so many terrible things to say is trying to shove money in your hand as you are leaving.

That’s where the trouble begins…

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No, this is not a tutorial so if that is what you are looking for you may stop without fear of missing something. In fact, it is just some ruminations about things I have seen and who really pays the price for them.

So many years, so many different systems. One thing that they all have in common is illegal hook-ups. These can range from the downright ugly to very professional. When someone makes one of these connections to steal service they are of course reducing themselves to a mere thief.

But who really pays the price…

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A short time ago I was talking about working at night and the possibilities of having the police stop by to see just, “what the heck are you doing in those bushes?!?”

Well, last week I got a real eye opener and it was at about 10:30 in the morning.

Anyone that knows me knows that I can be very vocal about idiots that use cell phones while driving. In fact, I sometimes wish the story told by Stephen King in Cell would actually happen to them. They are more than just a nuisance, they should be ticketed more aggressively than the non-seatbelt wearers.

Here is what happened… Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve been doing cable television work for some time. Nearly two decades have passed since I started. To say things have changed would be an understatement. The amount of channels available to the average customer has probably quadrupled. Services that would have been unheard of are now commonplace. More bandwidth, more services, more, more and a little bit more than that. Somewhere along the line we went from an entertainment medium to a utility. With that came a much larger change. The change of reliability of all services at all times period.

So how do things stay running all the time? Quite simply they don’t, they just seem to. For me, tonight is one of those nights … Read the rest of this entry »

I have to apologize. I got a bit sidetracked learning how to manipulate the blog instead of just talking. I think though, I may be over that for now. Instead, I’d like to restart myself and maybe explain what I hope to do here.

Look for a moment at the top of the page. That is a bucket eye view of the way I see a cable system. Winding off into the distance, houses and homes just around the bend. People that I don’t know at all, that could be customers one day. Or not. Really, it doesn’t matter. I really just enjoy the view. I guess it helps that I love the work.

Anyhow, I really haven’t decided if this blog experiment will work for me. It seems that what is needed is a serious desire to “keep with it” and keep things from going stale. In order to do that there must be fresh things to talk about. Things that others will find interesting.

Do people even care how the internet gets to their house. Or are they like my better half who says, “don’t spoil the magic.”

One of my all time favorite things to do at work. Hands down.

No Contest

For full effect you have to picture it. You have to see it in your head. Ready? Good. Read the rest of this entry »

Every few days there seems to be a customer that has found their way through the cracks and has the full attention of the Office.

Maybe they are a previous customer. Maybe they live in an upscale new neighborhood. Maybe they were just lucky.

It really doesn’t matter… Read the rest of this entry »