Ummm….Hello?

I had to call Time Warner technical support today because I have been having trouble logging in to HBO Go and the Time Warner Roku app. I actually reached someone who was helpful. He said he would have to reboot my router (because that is always the solution) and then wait 2 minutes for the router to come back online.

The phone sounded like it went dead, but I figured that he put me on hold while the router rebooted.  After two minutes (with the phone still silent), I attempted to try to log in to HBO Go.  Much to my surprise, rebooting the router solved the problem!

Thinking that maybe the tech had put me on mute, I said, “I don’t know if you can hear me, but rebooting the router worked.”  Then, I realized my phone was dead and I was angry that the tech hung up on me.

Wait a minute!!!

I literally just realized why the phone went dead and I feel a little dumb. He did not hang up on me. I used a VOIP phone to call tech support. When he rebooted the router, I lost connection to the Internet, therefore, the phone went dead.

I suppose I should be upset that he didn’t call back, but that is ok. He solved my problem.

About 15 minutes ago, a Time Warner robot called me to answer a survey on my tech support experience. At the time I answered the questions, I thought the tech hung up on me, so I was not very kind. When I tried to leave a recorded message, the robot told me that I would have 1 minute. About 2 seconds into my message, I heard a beep and I was disconnected!

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And now a haiku:

Internet trouble
Reboot the router, of course
Always works wonders

More Time Warner Issues

I thought that I had gotten to a point where I was relatively happy with Time Warner Cable. However, I just hit a snag. When we were in the process of moving, I was stressing out about watching my hometown sports teams. I had figured out a solution that I was happy with.

With baseball season on the horizon, I went to MLB.TV to sign up for the 2013 season. For $25 for the season, I could watch any Orioles or Nationals game live. Then, I started reading the fine print talking about blackout restrictions. I entered in my ZIP code not expecting any teams to be restricted. I was stunned and extraordinarily perturbed to see that I am in a blackout zone for both the Orioles and Nationals.

I thought that if you could watch the game on TV, then you were in a blackout zone. Other than DirecTV, there is absolutely no way for me to see the games live. If I subscribed to MLB.TV, I could watch the games starting 90 minutes after they end.

I have called MLB.TV to complain.

I have written to MASN to complain.

I have called Time Warner to complain.

I have searched the web and found that MASN and Time Warner are in a dispute.

Time Warner just recently added the NFL Network. If they can delay a channel that their subscribers around the country were screaming for, what is their motivation for making a deal with MASN? My only other alternative is subscribing to the most expensive tier of DirecTV, which has MASN.

Other options:

1. Use my sister’s Slingbox to watch games (when my sister and her husband aren’t trying to watch something else).
2. Figure out how to route my Internet through some proxy server so that MLB.TV thinks I am not in a blackout zone.

I am very upset about this. Especially because my son and I enjoy watching O’s and Nats games together.

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And now a haiku:

Orioles and Nats
Quality time with my son
Nixed by corporate greed

All Tivos are GO

Today, I received a package from Time Warner: two tuning adapters and two cable cards. These were the tuning adapters I ordered two weeks ago that I now no longer need because TW could not figure out why they had not been sent yet and sent a tech out instead. Fortunately, I used one of the new cable cards to replace a non-functioning one and just had it paired successfully. I now have closure.

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And now a haiku:

All Tivos are GO
Activate couch potato
Now entertain us

Cable card failure

The cable guy came out again today. No one would believe me that the Tivo Series 3 needs 2 cable cards even if one of them is an M-card…until one card only activated one tuner like I said would happen.

When they finally believed me and tried to add the second card, for some reason, it wouldn’t pair.

Then, Time Warner told me something ludicrous about the Tivo, which I confirmed was ludicrous when I called Tivo. Now I have to call Time Warner back to figure it all out. Not fun and a waste of my time.

On the plus side, Time Warner called and I think I will definitely get my tuning adapters tomorrow.

So, now I have one Tivo with two tuners that gets half the channels and one Tivo with one tuner that gets half the channels.

And now a haiku:

Cable card failure
One tuner is not enough
What’s it gonna take?

Cable Card Incompentence

Time has passed since my last post. We are all moved into our new house in Wake Forest. However, the purpose of this post is to bitch about Time Warner Cable. As I feared, the one thing that I would miss the most when I moved from Maryland is my Verizon FiOS service.

The Internet service from Time Warner is not too bad — 30 down and 5 up. Verizon was superior with 35 down and up (and the option for much faster speeds), but I will not complain, since 30/5 seems like it works ok for my purposes.

The TV service is where I am currently having the most issues. Time Warner contracts out their installs, so a tech from Kablelink (which sounds eerily similar to 30 Rock’s fictional cable company Kabletown) came out last Monday. I requested 3 cable cards for my 2 TiVos. In my experience, it seems like every time a tech (from any company Comcast, Verizon, TW) arrives for a cable card install, at least one of the cards is bad. This time was no different. Two of the three cards were bad and, as usual, the tech did not bring any spares.

The tech says that he should have new cards in by Friday and that another tech will come back. A new tech came back on Friday WITH THE SAME TWO CABLE CARDS THAT DID NOT WORK ON MONDAY!! The tech said they should get more this week. I am not holding my breath.

Can I live with one operational TiVo? Of course. Can I live with one operational TiVo that only gets half of the channels that it is supposed to? No, but that is what I am dealing with (First World Problem…I know). I am only getting half of the channel lineup because the tech failed to tell me that Time Warner requires tuning adapters because they use Switched Digital Video — something I never had to deal with before. I called up Time Warner and they supposedly shipped them to me. I am expecting them today, but, again, I am not holding my breath.

Fortunately, everyone at Time Warner and Kablelink have been very pleasant to deal with, so I have refrained from “asking to speak to a manager”. Hopefully, by the end of the week, I will be able to watch the other half of my channels. Fortunately, AMC runs the most recent episode of The Walking Dead many times during the week.

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And now a haiku:

Cable incomplete
Partial TiVo is like hell
Want to watch zombies