Fry’s did deliver the new TV as scheduled and of course it made absolutely no difference in the problem (of having to power cycle the Comcast box or unplug/plug the HDMI cable). What a fracking waste of their money and time, and a bit of my time, but that’s the stupid low level thinking Fry’s always seems to show. No doubt they are a very profitable business, so it must work for them, but I’ve yet to meet a customer or floor worker who likes it.
In fact now that the 30 day wait period is expired I may call again and this time they will have to send a repair person out. Doubtful that this will have any chance of a real solution, but not my problem.
Comcast gave me a new HD DVR and, with help from an online support rep, I got the two missing channels. Actually the Universal HD channel turns out to be quite useful since I’m catching up on the two Law & Order spinoffs, Special Victims Unit and Criminal Intent, which I’d never watched before, plus it has a bunch of SciFi channel shows that are cool to watch in high def.
There was a bit of panty twisting with the cable company before this pleasant resolution. In order to try and force the set top box to show UHD and MTVhd the rep sent it a reset signal but afterwards I no longer got FoxSoccer Channel or Starz. The rep claimed these were simply not part of my package, despite having received them for years and through any number of reset signals, and restoring them would cost an additional $15 a month.
Ha! You readers surely now by now my sense of entitlement would not let that stand and I pushed back. The rep went off to confer with the supervisor, for more than ten minutes, long enough that I thought he just blew me off, but the rep (whose name I wasn’t really given) turned out to be a good advocate for my request and a very good public face for Comcast.
He said that the Starz would just be turned back on, which I could see had already happened, though to get FSC I’d need the sports add-on at $4.95 a month. However, Comcast would waive the $6.95 a month box rental fee! Very nice, eh? I get a few additional channels–GolTV being by far the most interesting, with lots of Spanish, German and other international league football coverage, albeit in Spanish–and save $2 a month.
The new report card:
- Fry’s: F, no change, though I’d make it lower if the American school system had it
- Olevia: B-, up from C, because I’m really loving the HD
- Comcast: A-, up from C+, thanks to some great customer service–and will go higher if the promised TiVo service is $5 a month or less
BillSaysThis 