Charter Going Bankrupt and Other Stuff

Charter is declaring bankruptcy on April 1st. Wouldn’t it be kinda funny if they were in court on April 1st to declare bankruptcy and then all the sudden they said, “April Fools! We have buncha cash! Boo-yah, baby! Boo-yah, indeed!” and then they strutted out of the court room.

I like that toward the end of the article, it says, “It also had a poor customer service reputation that it has had to work hard to overcome.” I just think that’s funny. Every company, no matter how good it is, has some people who’ve had horror stories about something that happened with that company. But with Charter, it’s so bad that it IS the company’s reputation.

The Better Business Bureau actually posted this on their site about Charter:

“The Better Business Bureau has received numerous complaints regarding this cable, digital TV, and high speed internet access provider. Complainants primarily allege that the firm had improper billing practices, referred customer bills to collection agencies in error, provided poor customer service, used misleading advertising, provided defective internet or cable performance, used improper sales tactics or misrepresented the actual costs of installation and service, failed to properly install or maintain service, damaged customers' property, and failed to honor service appointments.”

I can attest to the failure to honor service appointments. They were supposed to come out and install a router (because they wouldn’t let me pick it up from their store and install it myself). I sat at home all day waiting for them to show up. I called at 3pm to see what was going on and was told they were still on their way and that they were running late. I called at 4 and was told they’d been by at 1pm and I didn’t answer my door. I was there at 1pm and my couch is right next to the door. No one knocked on my door and why exactly was I not told at 3 that they’d already been there? The rep didn’t know and said that my door had been ‘tagged.’ What, does Charter play It with doors? Is my door supposed to tag something else? ‘Tagged’ means that a note was left behind. There was no note anywhere. The rep asked me to check the doors of other apartments to see if they’d been ‘tagged.’ I checked around and there was no note anywhere.

The crazy thing was, I was told that a) they wouldn’t be out there until the next day and b) that I’d be charged $30 for ‘not being home’ when they came by. How’s that for a racket? They can not show up and then charge you $30. Comcast didn’t show up a couple of times when I had them but they didn’t charge me $30 each time. I spoke with a supervisor at Charter who waived the $30 charge and I cancelled the appointment and just bought a router, which is infinitely cheaper anyway.

I’ve had several other issues with them as well. And currently, my HD channels aren’t working right. Half of them are either not coming in at all or have no sound. I’ve stopped complaining about this anymore. Charter has never been able to fix it before and I simply waste my time calling. They never give discounts on that kinda thing and it happens once every couple of weeks. I almost get used to it.

Once when I did complain about it, the rep explained that there was nothing wrong and that it would come back on its own. Then she tried to sell me an upgraded package. I asked ‘Would these new channels be ones I could actually watch or would they be out too?’ She said she didn’t know.

She’s better than the one that started screaming at me or the one who asked me to upgrade and cancel it later so that he could at least get credit for the sale.

And are their prices high? Well, I mean, that’s relative. They’re in line with what I would expect from a cable company. No matter what you go with, you’re going to have channels you don’t watch and wouldn’t want to pay for. You’re going to have fees that don’t make a lot of sense. Most likely you’re going to have subpar service.

The most you can ask for is a company that provides consistent cable, you know, one that doesn’t keep having channels go out and one that when there is a problem, they can fix it. Charter can’t do that. And going into bankruptcy won’t change that.

Valentine’s Day Update

My girlfriend is excited about Saturday. I’m a little nervous because I’m not sure that she understands that the card I got her is medium. I mean, she knows that but I don’t think she understands my definition of medium. Hopefully she’ll still be excited after opening the card and seeing what I got her.

So I went by the florist to buy her flowers and I went to the same place I went last time. Last time, they weren’t convinced I was getting the right type of flowers, at one point asking me, ‘The flowers are for a woman, right?’ I thought the flowers I picked out last time were nice.

This time, I explained what I wanted and she suggested a lily instead. I reiterated what I was looking for and she again pointed at a flower and said, ‘Lily.’ I agreed that she was pointing at a lily but that I wanted something else and described it again. She said they didn’t have what I was describing but that women really like lilies. Uh, yes, lilies are lovely flowers but no. It wasn’t like I was requesting robot flowers, though if that was real, robot flowers would totally kick ass.

They didn’t have much to choose from, just like last time and I went with the closest thing to what I was trying to describe. At the checkout, she kept trying to get me to buy chocolate or a stuffed animal and I said that I already had everything else. She said that women like chocolates and that if I spent $35, I’d get a free balloon. I didn’t really want a balloon though. I was okay with the flowers I was getting. She said that I could pick out one of those small cards you put with flowers for free. I picked out one and she said that I needed to write something on the card because women don’t like be given a blank card. Which I guess makes sense. I’ve been giving everyone blank cards my whole life and now I understand that’s where I was going wrong.

I didn’t want to fill out the card there though but the cashier kept insisting that I needed to do it before I got to the car. It was weird. She told me that I had to make sure to put it in the envelope because that's what makes it special. Hmm, write messages on cards and place cards in envelopes...This explains so much now.

As I was leaving, she called me back and said that she was going to give me a free balloon anyway because I had a sad face and that she thought the balloon would make me happy. I thought it’d be one of those shiny balloons, which may have made me happy but it was one of those regular balloons, and those don’t make me all that happy.

Single Ladies Update

Yesterday, I had Beyonce’s ‘Single Ladies’ stuck in my head. This song is insanely re-tupid. It’s like someone had the line, ‘If you liked it, you shoulda put a ring on it’ and nothing else. So that’s all the song is, repeating that line over and over again followed by a set of call outs and a few Oh-Ohs that remind me of the Hm-hms that the Dave Clark 5 sang 40 years ago. Does anyone remember the DC5?

‘Single Ladies’ is an incredibly catchy song, though it’s mainly repetition and a wall of noise. I finally got it out of my head, only to hear it on the radio again on the way to the florist. Now it’s back in there again.

San Francisco Update

I’ve run into a bit of a roadblock with the San Francisco trip. It’s minor and it’s still a ways out so I can get past it. I don’t feel any sense of urgency with this trip. I don’t see how the pieces fit together and I’m not altogether motivated to try to figure it out either. I collected a bunch of resources to go through and when I get the chance, I’ll go through them and narrow down the list of things I want to do. I just would like to feel a little bit more urgency about it.

Before I Forget

Next to the florist, there was a gym that said it catered to ‘unique physiques.’ What the hell does that mean? I’m picturing Greg Valentino. He’s pretty unique. Does he train there? A two-headed man is unique, can he train there? It said that you could only enter by appointment but that consultations are free. How can I get my free consultation if I can only enter by appointment? I’d hafta call them and I don’t think I’d want to do that. It sounds too much like a country club and that’s why I’ve never joined one…that and the whole money thing.

I Hung Up on a Guy With HIV

I just got a call from Magic Johnson. He wanted me to know about Jackson-Hewitt. Apparently he likes them…or he gets paid by them to say he likes them. And if I got paid by Jackson-Hewitt, I’d like them too. But Jackson-Hewitt doesn’t pay me and I feel largely indifferent toward them.

As for HIV, did you hear that story about Roberto Alomar supposedly having AIDS? Isn't that crazy? I know!

Speaking of Taxes

I did my taxes the other day and the refund from federal taxes is MUCH smaller than last year and smaller than what I expected (and I expected it to be a little less than last year). What’s worse, I actually owe state taxes. I’d expected for the tax refund to cover the trip and not only will it not cover the whole thing, it’ll cover less than a third of the trip. I’m not sure I would’ve picked San Francisco had I known what the tax results would’ve been. Or maybe I would have. I don’t know.

Last Thing

I got out of bed before 8:30 today. How sad is it that I’m actually happy I got out of bed so early. The other day, I didn’t get out of bed until 10:30, so it’s an improvement.

Today’s Friday the 13th. Did you know that next month the 13th will also fall on a Friday. November also has a Friday the 13th. I think that might mean this year is cursed. I don’t know though. I’ll have to check with my Witch Doctor and find out.

I’m going to go now and get something to eat.