Migrations and Migraines

I am a long time migraine sufferer. I average about one a month if I’m lucky and they are debilitating to say the least. A migraine can render me useless for several hours. They are brought on by a myriad of things including but not limited to light, certain foods and drink, lack of sleep, and stress. What is unbelievably frustrating is when they are brought on by nothing at all.

Speaking of frustrating…(nice segue, huh?)

Supposedly when my cable company seamlessly migrated from Adelphia to Time Warner (Roadrunner), it would be oh so beneficial to me (note the sarcasm). I was not impressed with Adelphia at all. My connection was constantly down and first level customer support was rarely able to help me.

Actually, I think I’m my own first level support. You know the drill – unplug the computer, then the router, and then the modem. Wait one minute. Plug in the modem, then the router, then the computer. Check that the solid lights are solid and the blinking lights are blinking. Turn on the computer. Attempt to log on to the Intranet. If that doesn’t work, you’re transferred to second level customer support. (And get this, TW even has third level support. I can only imagine the types of problems one must have to need a third tier. This can’t be good.)

I knew it was going to be problematic from the onset. One fine Saturday I fired up the PC to take my on-line exam only to discover it was “migration” time and my Internet was unavailable… until Monday. (TW refused to credit my account for these two days.) There was no warning like a customer e-mail or notice of any kind. Nothing was posted on either website to give customers some advance notice of the migration. I was not impressed. In fact, I am no more or less impressed with Time Warner than I was with Adelphia. I have not gone one full week without interruption of service.

Adelphia was a headache but Time Warner is more like a migraine - useless for several hours without warning or explanation.

On A Side Note:

I e-mailed TW asking the monthly cost for their DVR. The response advised it was $7.95 a month. I felt that was tolerable.

Then I read the next line... (this is a copy and paste from the original e-mail...)

“There is an additional 5.95 per month for subscription to the recording and playback features.”

WHAT? Isn’t that the purpose of the DVR? Why would I need it if not for those key features? So basically then it’s $13.90 a month and why didn’t you just type that in your reply? I wanted to type a clever response to that e-mail but decided to just hit “delete” and share this with all of you.

I’ll be going to Best Buy to purchase a DVR.