oxymoron: Comcast service

This afternoon, I heard the telltale beep-beep-beep sound that trucks make when they're in reverse, and thought "huh? - this is Thursday (not trash day) and it's Veteran's Day (explaining the lack of s-mail). I looked outside and saw a Comcast truck. Doh! This reminded me to call them and complain that my cable TV is still out (it's been down since Saturday).

This morning (after 5 days!), I deduced that the trouble is probably outside, since the TV in my bedroom no longer sees the cable, either. Yeah, I'm quick on my feet, huh?

A few days ago, I considered cancelling the Comcast service. But .. they do provide some things I don't get via satellite, namely (1) the local weather channel, and (2) that delicious thing called Channel 27 (aka "local access", where anyone with a heartbeat can "be on TV"). I love watching Singing Armadillo Stuffers, or Benny Hinn wannabees ... plus, the cable's useful when thunderstorms neuter the satellite signal. A monthly "basic cable" bill is a hassle, so I pay for 6 months at a time.

After seeing their service truck zooming down my alley, I dug out their customer service number (easier than navigating their website) and made the call. Cable TV outages must be the most common reason people call, since the options I needed to press were (sit down for this) 1, 1, 1, and 1. It's obviously tied into CallerID, since it never asked for my 16-digit account number. The prompts were:

1=English (versus Spanish);
1=service trouble;
1=cable TV (vs cable modem);
1=total interruption.

Eventually, I reached a recorded message saying something like

"We're upgrading the service in your area. This could result in service interruptions or a bad signal. This work is done Monday through Saturday from 7a-6p. Sorry for any inconvenience."

At the end of the call, they say "thanks for your patience," which made me all teary-eyed. They really do care about me as a customer! {swoon}

Now, wouldn't it have been nice for them to notify me of this "service upgrade" via (a) s-mail; (b) e-mail; (c) phone? I guess that was too much trouble. After all, a multi-day service upgrade is Just An Inconvenience, right? Now .. will they cheerfully deduct the percentage of downtime, since they've apparently taken my service offline to suit their schedule? I didn't think so.

Then again, this "service upgrade" could have nothing to do with my outage. It's still possible that an intelligent squirrel found its way into my attic, chewed up the cable TV then chewed through the power outlet next to the TV and fried itself in my attic. Funny, I don't smell squirrel carcass up there. The mystery continues.