I just basically kicked out the cable tech that came to try to fix our cable. Told him to send the next tech out with a supervisor. (then I called the cable co, and told them put a note on my account to send a supervisor like they keep promising to do)

He's the SEVENTH tech to come to my house since february. They've replaced cables, wires, amplifiers, the wire that brings the signal into my house, an odd cable box or two, and all the wiring on the side of the house.

Nothing has fixed the problem (picture pixelates at night, constantly. Makes it fairly unwatchable, and I end up downloading my shows from iTunes, so essentially I'm paying twice to watch my tv shows)

You would think that after replacing wires, cable boxes and the cable that brings the signal for all our services into the house (we get cable, internet, and telephone from the cable co) that they would decide that the problem ISNT in my house, but somewhere on the other side of the box at the end of my yard. (basically I think the problem is in the wires that bring the signal from wherever it comes from before it gets to the box at the end of my yard)

The tech who showed up this morning didnt get past the tv upstairs. Which was working fine. He started telling me what to watch for (umm...after the first 6 techs, I think I have a good grasp on what the problem is)

I was feeling lectured, and really tired because my insomnia has returned and I didnt get any sleep last night. I asked him why the supervisor that they said they were going to send the last 3 times didnt come, and he said "he's in a meeting till noon.".

I kind of went off on him and while I was trying not to be a "bad word", I'm pretty sure I was a bit of a "bad word" to him.

I am so frustrated that our cable signal sucks so much. Last night it was unwatchable. This morning, on my tv at least, it's *almost* unwatchable. (keeps pausing and pixelating) Before I went "bad word" on him, he was already calling the appointment line and getting another tech to come to my house tomorrow between 5pm and 7pm (there goes my friday evening)

This problem has been going on since at least last fall, but I didnt realize it was the cable signal right away. I thought it was my Tivo dying. I found out on the 2nd or 3rd tech call, that my Tivo was fine, it was the cable signal.

I would just like to watch my shows on my tv, and not on my computer or ipod. I also am tired of paying the cable company for a crappy signal that's unwatchable and then paying iTunes to watch the shows I've already paid the cable company to be able to watch.

I'm going back to bed. (3hrs of sleep last night. Had to be up at 7am for the tech, who didnt show till 9am)

I want my bleepity-bleep-bleep-bleep cable fixed!!! I'm really losing patience.

Lawn mowers are outside right now. There's a big orange cable running across my lawn bringing the cable signal into the house. I'm totally expecting the lawn mowing company to run over the cable today.

I hear ya Erin and I'm ranting with you.

Rah Rah Ree, kickem' in the knee...

Switch to Dish Network?

I HATE my cable company. I talk on the phone and it randomly cuts off. The TV works when it feels like it. The DVR records when its good and ready and skips shows at random. They keep showing up and each and every tech blames the guy that was here before him. Its been 4 years of this. They are the ONLY game in town that would net me high speed cable. Any switch would require me going back to dial up or paying a fortune for satellite. ugh! im ranting with ya!

Thing is, the cable company has always been really good. I've not had many complaints about them until this problem started.

Now it's driving me to distraction. It's so difficult to watch a show when the video is hiccuping every half second or so. I've had about 7 (or 8? starting to lose count) techs at my house to try to fix the problem in the last 10 1/2 weeks.

Right now, I have a good stable picture. No problems with it. In a few hours I'm going to have a blipping, blinking, screwed up signal. Oh...and when I called the cable company after the tech left to tell them to have a supervisor come with the next tech. (they've been promising me a supervisor for a few visits now) there was a little "oh, by the way" message on their automated menu to tell me that our cable, telephone AND internet will be out later tonight. (that probably has nothing to do with what's wrong with the cable right now)

I'm either going to Blockbusters in a little bit to rent something, or I'm downloading a movie/bunch of tv shows off of iTunes to watch.

Tell them you're not paying your bill till they get their act together. If your TV is unwatchable due to their service keep track of the hours you're unable to watch it.....and tell them you're not paying for service you don't receive.

I just keep complaining and asking that they credit me for the days that the shows I watch are unwatchable because of the bad signal.

I got a $310 credit a couple of weeks ago when I called for what I think was the fourth tech to come out. (my dad was REALLY happy about that one)

I havent been kvetching at the cable co for credits too much since then, in fear that they'll drop us from using their service. I was happy they credited us that much. I'm just really frustrated and annoyed by their massive FAIL at fixing the problem. I havent been feeling good the past few days, and just want to sit and watch tv. (when I'm not being tortured at my physical therapy sessions, which end monday) and I cant really do that when the cable is so choppy.

I just found out a favorite show that I liked about 20yrs ago is out on dvd, I'm seriously considering ordering the complete set of disks so that I'll have something to watch if they cant fix the problem anytime soon.

I remember when my TV had that awful pixalating and my cable company was acting the same way. And I was acting the same way. I have said 1 curse word in my life and my co-workers knew I was in a medical emergency because of it. And I was! Anyway, I just kept on telling them that their service was unacceptable, I wanted no apologies, only service. When they finally got it fixed I called back to tell them how much I appreciated that they finally got the problem fixed and then asked what they were going to offer me to stay with them. Biggest problem was that we have digital cable upstairs where we were having the problem and regular cable downstairs and it was fine. So we knew that their signal was good.

I have regular cable in my bedroom. Think it's still considered digital, but I dont have a built-in DVR in the cable box. (I have a Tivo in there. Love the Tivo because it burns dvds for me) The other cable boxes are all DVRs, and they get HD on them. My box doesnt.

The crappy signal is on all of our cable boxes. So, it's not our boxes that's the problem. I'm fairly sure that the problem is between the box at the end of my yard and wherever the cable company sends the signal from to us.

If my Tivo dies (expecting that to happen soon, it's about 6yrs old) I'll probably get a DVR box from the cable company. (probably move one from another room, instead of going to get a new one from the cable company) or I'll go buy another Tivo that has dual tuner and HD capability.

I like the Tivo because I can record my shows onto DVD, or I can transfer them wirelessly from the Tivo to my Windows computer. If I'd bother to buy the program for it, I could use my computer to burn the dvd's. I can also put Tivo-ed shows onto a pin drive and just plug the pin drive into another Windows computer to watch the show. (for some reason, this doesnt work with my iMac, so I guess Tivo is exclusively a Windows recording...altho the dvd's I burn on the Tivo will play on my iMac)

Plus the Tivo holds more tv shows than the cable DVR does. I did see our cable company will soon have a fancypants DVR box that you can access from any cable box and it holds up to 500gb of tv shows. I'd get that if my Tivo crashes.

I miss my Tivo. The cable company went completely digital so you can just plug the cable wire in the back of the machine. you would need an IR receiver, and I dont feel like doing that mess. I have a HD DVR, and it stinks! it records when it feels like it, double records things I didnt ask it to record, and it a bad machine.

I want better service for such a high price.