At The Speed of Light

 

Sometimes it is great to be blue.  Recently we finally were able to join the 21^st century of internet service.  We now have fiber optic service on brand new lines supplied by our electric company’s spin-off business “Cumberland Connect Fiber”. 

When I moved out to The Sticks in June 2008, I found out that our in-town internet provider ATT didn’t provide internet service to the entire area we lived in.  But they assured me they would be in my location “soon”.  They still aren’t out here.

We had one choice of a provider for cable service… Charter (now Spectrum).  For 13 years, 6 months, 2 weeks and some odd days we have put up with:

 ~spotty phone service (calls not coming through, disconnecting while talking, heavy static, etc),

~on and off internet every day (up to 50 times a day),

~no internet when it rained, or was windy, or snowed,

~snail slow down loads & uploads (lots of timing out),

~TV service that would pixelate or freeze every single time we tried to watch.  About 5 or 6 years ago we gave up; I cancelled our TV service.

We had technicians out constantly.  The drop-line from pole to house was replaced, lines in the house checked & fiddled with, we had more modems than I could count replaced and so on.  My favorite “repair” was done regularly by “Mark” who would say he’d “set it to the middle”.  When I asked “set WHAT to the middle?”, his mumbled reply sounded rather like “the Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator”.   

After over 30 service calls, I just quit calling.  Seriously, if it wasn’t fixed after all that… it wasn’t going to get fixed.  I got that truth from a tech on his last week of work who told me the lines which ran through some woods about a mile from our house were probably damaged from years of dropped branches hitting them and they would not be replaced any time soon.

Uh-huh…

I had the BEST time when I called to disconnect our service.  The representative basically begged me to stay.  Offered a really great rate - for one year.  Offered free premium TV channels - for a year (right... with service so bad I wouldn't be able to watch).

After saying 'No, nay, never!' over and over, he asked in a rather crabby tone "What did our competitor say to get you to switch?"

I answered, "We're here!!"

So good riddance Charter/Spectrum.  We don't miss you at all!