ugh!! Cable company vent

[dreamcometrue]

so my DVR isn't working...my life line...my American Idol is on there, unwatched...along with a ton of other shows that I haven't watched yet!

Anyway, it keeps rebooting, but not actually booting up. It says "launching" and then just back to booting up! I call Time Warner! Yes, I know, it's 10pm, but I wait on hold for 40 freakin' minutes!! Then, someone in India picks up the phone (nothing personal against Indian people, but... ). First of all, does everyone outsource to overseas customer service now?? Second...if they MUST do this, can't they at least get someone that speaks English and that we can understand??? This guy tells me to unplug the power source of the DVR, which I tell him I have done and it didn't help! Do it anyway...ok, fine. I tell him it will take me a little while because I have to reach behind the entertainment center which is no easy task, and DH is asleep! He says ok, no problem! So I put him on speaker phone and go about my business. I have one arm behind the entertainment center, one arm fishing through the hole to connect the darn thing, and on comes his voice "ELLO MAM, ELLO? ELLO? ELLO?" I wanted to strangle him!! I get the phone and said "It's kind of hard to connect this thing, and can he please be patient" UGH!! So, I connect it again, and it does the same thing it did before, and I told him that. So then he tells me he will send someone out in the morning! I tell him I won't be home until about 2:15pm. He says, ok, I will send someone between 1 and 4. Again, I tell him no, I won't be home until 2:15, and he just doesn't get it! I give him my cell number and ask him to mark on the work order to call this number before they come out, so hopefully he will and I can tell the person who will actually come out and hopefully understands me!

I don't have my DVR, and if they have to replace it and all my shows will be gone, well...then I hope there is a space for me somewhere in the mental hospital. And if the DIS goes down now, I have reached the end of my rope!
So webmasters, have mercy on me, please?!

 

[bicker]

Don't feel to bad: You're not alone. DVRs are still in their infancy, and it will be a number of years before all the kinks are worked out of them, so that the cheapest ones (the ones we get from our cable companies) work as well as we might hope. For now, I just keep in mind that I'm only paying about $10 per month for the DVR, instead of paying $800 plus $16 per month (which is the price for the best DVR out there).

If you're looking for alternatives, there are more reliable DVRs out there, but they all have some drawbacks -- something extra you have to do to get them to work with your service provider, or something you lose by switching away from your service provider's equipment.

 

[sorcerormickey]

We had our cable-provided DVR die about a year ago. Of course it had a bunch of stuff on it at the time. We just had to take it in to the cable place and get a new one. Hope they can fix yours so you don't lose everything!