Oh...that station is just too far away for cable.

Area-wide problem... - cable television

Posted By: comler on 1/15/2007

Location: Coolville, OH

I thought that maybe with the takeover of Adelphia's system by Time Warner, that they would take care of the maintenance that was badly needed on the system. I subscribe to Broadcast Basic, which is the minimal amount of channels on regular (non-digital) cable. In the past, I had asked the Adelphia technician about poor reception problems with certain channels on the system.

His reply made it clear he knew of the problems - he knew before I mentioned that we were having problems with channels 6 and 10, the ABC and CBS affiliates out of Columbus, OH. He made the claim that the problem was due to the distance my town is from Columbus. I knew he was just trying to appease me, as with cable that shouldn't be an issue. Besides, stations from Charleston, WV were coming in just fine, and they are just as far away.

So, I was relieved to find out that Time Warner took over and called customer service to request that someone come out and experience the problem in order to figure out where the fix should be applied. I made a service appointment for the next morning. Stuck around the house and by the phone, but no one called or showed up. When I called, they claimed the service call was canceled because it was an "area-wide problem" they were aware of. They claimed to have fixed the problem, so I just waited.

It wasn't soon after that the reception problem occurred again. This was not a constant problem, but quite erratic. It was not time-dependent, neither did temperature or weather have any affect. However, it did seem to occur more during programs that were very popular.

This canceled service call scenario occurred two or three more times, so I began to talk to supervisors. That didn't help much, though. They appeared to be sympathetic, and even promised that a technician would show up - to pick up a DVD I recorded of the problem.

However, their promises were empty.

One day, while viewing channel 10, WBNS (CBS - Columbus, OH), reception became so poor that another channel appeared. I could clearly see the WILX logo, and the NBC peacock symbol. I recorded this on my DVR

and burned it to DVD. I called the customer service desk, asked for a supervisor and described in detail what I saw. She said that it sounded like a "head-end" problem, and that she would put in a work order. Well, it's a good thing I didn't hold my breath. That was a month ago, and I still am having the same problems today. The odd thing about the other station bleeding through - WILX is in Lansing, MI, more than three times farther away than Columbus, OH. I have to ask, why would a customer in southeast Ohio be getting a bleedthrough of one network onto another from a station that is hundreds of miles away?

That's a good question, but I'll bet Time Warner has no idea.

I really hope they come through and fix this problem. This is a service my family pays for. We have been very patient and very understanding in regards to waiting for them to fix the problem. I understand they took over a great number of systems that were badly in need of repair, but they need to get on the ball and start repairing the systems that are not functioning properly. We only get 13 channels on our plan, but 2 of them are usually unwatchable. That's not a good percentage considering the cost of service. I hate to moan publicly about this, but what am I to do when customer service reps keep making empty promises?