Cable installation
So...today I had to take the afternoon off to sit around and wait for the cable guy to show up. You know, cuz they're so precise in their service estimations. Anytime between 2 and 5pm. Geez...that meant I had to leave work at 1, so I could bus back by 1:30ish, because they're supposed to call you a half hour beforehand so you're ready for them. I was a little sceptical that they actually would call (they did), but wanted to be sure I didn't get screwed over considering they told me they already had a crazy number of appointments booked through the better part of the month.
Interestingly, this all started rather strangely. I called to make an appointment last week, but yesterday, while Matt & I were sitting around my apartment....well, actually Matt was absorbed in DDR....I got a phone call from Rogers reminding me of my cable service appointment the next day. At first, I was a little confused by this since the service tech I'd made the appointment with had told me my appointment was Sept 20th. (Also, this guy had told me this was the absolute earliest appointment he could get me, due to the crazy bookings mentioned above...) Then I got frustrated because the only options the recording gave me were to keep the appointment by saying "yes", or change the appointment by saying "no", or something. So, I'm sitting there all perplexed, because A) I don't have an appointment scheduled then to my knowledge, and B) I don't want to change the appointment I don't have.
Finally, the recording must've realized I didn't like my limited options, and prompted me to say "agent" if I wanted to speak with one. So, I did, and she confirmed that they had an appointment and, lucky me, I would get my cable a week earlier.
Oh, yay....so, not only do I get to pay you a ridiculous rate for digital cable I'm not sure I really want (I just want regular cable people! Not to have to pay you for your digital box and whatever else you can charge me for...), but I get to do it even earlier than I expected! :-( And, I have to go into work and hope my boss lets me have the afternoon off so I can sit around and wait.
Fortunately the guy got here just after 3. Not so fortunately, he tracked dirt onto my new rug :-( But, I now have cable...let the bills begin.
posted by skeeter @ 4:20 p.m.
7 comments
7 Comments:
I have a few questions/comments that you could send my way via email, or thru these comments.
I, too, just ordered cable and they said I would have to wait until Sept 24. Boo. So you're saying all I have to do is call back and get them to change it?
Also, how much are you paying for REGULAR cable? I ask because the lady said they don't give regular cable anymore. What up with that?
Anyhow, I got this cool deal in the mail from rogers.com/more which gives me digital cable, a free theme pack and a rental of the digital unit for $30. Then when a year goes by, they'll start charging me for the rental of the unit.
So, my question is, should I call back and ask them for the regular cable package (aka, is yours underneath $30?)
No, I didn't change the appointment....apparently they did. I'm still not sure what happened there. It was weird.
As for the cost, the guy told me he could give me digital cable, including the box rental for $40 for the first 4 months, and I think I'm getting one of the high end packages. But this is only because when I asked about regular cable, he told me yeah, you can get it, but it's like $48/mth for Basic only....so like channels 2-28. RIDICULOUS!!
I'm curious about the package you got now, except that I'm not a fan of the theme packs. There aren't really any I like. Also, it's like next to impossible to find anything out on the rogers website. Even with a rogers employee trying to help ;-)
*sigh* I hate rogers...
Go check out http://rogers.com/more
and you'll find the info relating to the pack that I have. Sounds like you are getting ripped off royally for $48/month considering I"m getting digital cable for $29.95/month.
well so far I'm only paying $40 for the full digital package, but it included the box rental, etc....I think regular price is liek $60 something + box rental...
but I will definitely check out the link...
thx
Being a former Cable guy, this is the worst time to get connected since all the students are coming back now.
does DDR stand for Dance Dance Revolution? Jacob just got one of those (under a different brand name) for his birthday.
Being a cable guy myself, it sounds like you need to walk a mile in a cable guy’s boots.
So let’s try these first……………..Here are a few tricks……………..
When phoning Rogers….don’t say OR press anything…it will then say, after some time ….. “I did not hear your response” wait to hear that three times and it automatically connects you with a customer service rep
If the earliest call you can get booked is too far away, you can ask to be put in the cancels line up…. So if someone else with an earlier appointment cancels then you get theirs, but you better be able to jump when they call, that is the problem, they always seem to forget to notify customers when they do bump you ahead in the place of a cancellation.
Order the full cable package with the digital box & you always get freebies for a couple months
Mark that date on your calendar, that those deals end…very important! Call a week before they end and tell them you are canceling them because they don’t meet your expectations, they will usually give them to you for another couple months for free.
If they don’t, then ask for basic cable (only if you don’t have a digital box) but only order this around Sept/Oct as they will be too busy with installs to get around too
If you have a digital box they can cancel those changes over the phone. So the only way around that is to bypass the digital box, but if you do that you lose all your channels past 60 or so anyways
Just remember…Basic cable means exactly that. They strip out all the channels everyone loves. But hey $15/mth difference is a lot of money to some people especially students
They charge you $5 per month extra for a digital box….so what are you getting for that $5 per mth? Well you go from 60 channels to 200 channels plus 40 or so music stations, you can now order movies without getting of your couch. It really helps when it’s pouring rain or blowing snow and you just don’t feel like getting out of your PJ’s on a weekend. A lot of people get it just for the universal remote. But mainly people get it instead of paying $6.99/mth for the 2nd TV outlet
As for the dirt on your rug, that’s a big no-no on his part…All techs are supposed to have cloth booties (not very stylish). They are also supposed to have little dust busters in there trucks and offer to clean up their mess.
I always ask when entering a home/apt if they want my boots off. The problem here is that Worker comp. requires us to have those steel toes boots on all the time when we work. I’ve seen a tech break his toe dropping a digital box on it. Works Comp doesn’t cover us without proper footwear
Not a pretty site, and not a fun afternoon in the hospital either waiting forever to see a doctor, and of course the customer had to complain that there was blood on the tiled kitchen floor?????
So if you think taking three hours out of your day is bad waiting for Rogers, try using a stopwatch next time you go into emergency at the hospital….
If something sounds too good to be true…it is! Don’t believe the marketing hype that Rogers pushes. They tell you can have up to four TV outlets when you get the full digital package. This is true but only works with 10% of homes and apartment’s simply because the Rogers signal is not strong enough in your apt or home.
The reason digital cable is being shoved done your throat is because of two reasons
1) No joke. Rogers actually looses money to give you normal cable TV. They hope you will order enough movies and porn to pay to make profit for this service with the digital boxes. They make money on digital boxes, extra outlets (for those of you who don’t have digital boxes), Internet and in a few years on home phone too
2) They are trying to get everyone ready to know how to use it because next Feb 17th the entire USA is going digital ONLY and Canadian’s will follow suit in either 2010 or 2011. Digital boxes will be the only way to watch TV on older TV sets that only have analog tuners inside them.
3) This should also cut out theft of the cable signal thus making cable affordable again to those of us who actually pay for cable. The main reason cable is so high is because of theft. Think of it this way…..out of 100 people getting a cable signal, 75 people are paying for it. Thus us 75 suckers are paying to support the cable system for the last 25 idiots how are stealing it.
Service Calls
If you ever call in for service tell them the service is not working at all and there are not lights on the equipment. This will make them ask you a series of “idiot” questions but it will have someone to your home fixing any problem within 24 to 48 hours as per Rogers’s own rules
If you say your service is intermittent or that you are still getting service of any kind then they will book the earliest available appointment which could be up to or over a week wait
Calling 30 mins ahead
I always call before I go, but I have never called a customer a half hour in advance unless they are in a different city, simply because we as techs never know more than 15 mins in advance of when we can be there.
Phone numbers & buzzer numbers
Please make sure they put all of your contact phone numbers & buzzer numbers under the special instructions area of our work orders as so we the techs can actually get a hold of you. They usually only put one as the main contact number therefore if its not the one sitting with you, we can call you……
The latest ruling was that even if we could not get a hold of a customer we still go to the home.
1st problems is we might have three other calls in that 2-5 time frame but they are answering their phone when we call so you get to sit around and wait simply because we couldn’t get a hold of you and you now get bumped. We really don’t want to drive all the way over to your place if your not home. We would rather start a call of someone who is home for sure. I can’t count the number if times I have called a customer and arranged to meet them at a certain time just to sit and wait around for them to show up….we don’t have time for waiting around either. If you don’t show up on time (2-5) then we have not choice but to go to someone’s home willing to be home.
2nd problem is when we get to your apt bld and you forgot to give us your buzzer number. If you’re just moving in chances are good the landlord hasn’t updated the names on the buzzers for us to guess which one is yours. We can’t even get inside the building to knock on your door sometimes
Letter of Permission forms or Release of Liability forms
Theses are the least mentioned things that never seem to get talked about over the phone while a customer is planning their install with a Rogers’s customer service rep.
It is very important that the renter of a home/apt has a signed copy of one of these forms to give to the installer if drilling through an interior or exterior wall is needed or if stapling is needed in a newer apt/home. This also covers the install tech against moving furniture or breaking knick-knacks.
If you have items you are worried about breaking then please pack them somewhere safe during an install. If you have furniture to be moved, call a friend because we are Rogers’s cable, not Rogers moving company. If we help move something for you, we don’t want to be held liable for helping you if something breaks.
The reason for these forms is so the landlord doesn’t come after you of us after you try and move out.
I have been through 3 of these problems myself over 8 years of doing cabling. Dollar store knick-knacks become priceless air looms from dead relatives after the cable guy leaves.
Or the wife comes home after the cable guy leaves and the husband has decided it was ok to drill a hole outside and run around the home. The wife decides different that night and calls to complain.
Rogers gets threatened by wife to be sued, then out of the install techs paycheck for the next month comes the bill. It’s not coming out of Rogers’s deep pockets people. That money is coming out of the barley scraping by cable techs while Rogers gets rich.
Please if a cable guy breaks your dollar store item, ask him to replace it with something of the same value or pay for it, but never, ever call into Rogers after he leaves and claim it was a family air loom worth thousands of dollars because its not coming out of Rogers pockets
It doesn’t matter if there are already 10 lines strapped to the building outside. We still need a letter of permission
We need one for that day. It purpose of these forms is to take the liability of both the renter and the cable Installer from any and all damaged occurred during install because of the renter changing their mind about location of a hole or if a water pipe, or and electrical line is hit
Signal
- Without it, none of our equipment works
- Without enough of it, our equipment fails to work properly
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Imagine a pie….lets cut that pie into all your services….remembering that Rogers home Phone, Internet, and digital boxes all require a good strong signal to perform properly. TV’s without Rogers’s digital boxes do not need a good strong signal.
Back to our pie….home phone wants 30-35% of that pie, Internet wants 30-35% of that pie and digital boxes also want 30-35% of the pie. TV’s without digital boxes can give a great picture with 5% of the pie
What’s that you say??? You want four TV outlets plus phone, plus internet, plus a digital box on each TV??? Sorry, Marketing promotes this, but in real life it’s a long, time consuming challenge to get enough signal to a home/apt to create this fairytale and usually cannot be done that same day which then the customer gets upset about because he feels he has been lied to about the ease of the install.
More Tips
Since people usually wait until the end of the month to move there are a lot of bookings the first couple days of the each month.
Try always to book a call a minimum of a week in advance just like everything else you have to order in this country.
If you are a college or university student like I once was, and moving into a new place for Sept or Oct., always book a month or so in advance because you have just picked the busiest time of the year for Rogers. There is anywhere up to 10 times the amount of calls being made during those two months.
I realize that this sort of thing would not be at the top of someone’s mind, the normal Joe is not a cable guy and just moving away from Mommy & Daddy. Where most likely they did all your planning for you?
There is more than one type of home and apt in this country, so as a result…different places will usually result in different amounts of time do wire the cable, internet and phone.
Please do not expect the cable guy to be in and out within 30 mins, as it almost never happens.
I’d say that over 70% of my work orders for a day have extra work involved in them, as the customer wants 2 TV outlets instead one and swears up/down and sideways that’s what they ordered. I usually give them the benefit of the doubt.
Well if I get 70% of my calls playing that same game I’ll be late for most of the day. Every customer thinks they are the only one getting cable that day and that it doesn’t matter if the next customer has to wait for theirs a little longer.
Each time a customers decides they need something that isn’t on the current work order the tech now has to call the sales department to make a new work order. This is NOT a very quick process
The problem is that it takes longer to create the work order though sales then it does to do the work or the tech could be doing that extra work instead of being held up on the phone for a half hour to 45 mins
The tech has to first finish the work order he there to do first, so the sales department can’t mess up the call he’s already on.
What people don’t understand is that if Rogers books us three calls in that 2-5 time frame. How much time does that give us for each call?? An hour? What if the first two calls are two hours long each??? Are you starting to get the picture????
Please don’t show up and expect the cable guy to perform miracles, if you rush him the job doesn’t get done properly and then you are the one without service if he is in a rush for you and forgets to do something. He goes home to cable that works and you now have to wait another week before someone comes back……
Several times a day our dispatch will just throw on calls to us that are in an entirely different area of town then we are working which wastes a lot of time
These extra work orders usually involve extra equipment that we don’t have in our trucks as we stock our trucks once a day in the morning after looking through our calls for the day. So we now have to travel all the way back to our warehouse to pick up the required equipment for that call before we can even head out to it.
I hope this has be helpful to walk a mile in my boots, I would never expect to be an expert in your field of work either.
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