Anyway, I called the main Comcast number back and was told that nothing was likely to happen until Monday. I was told that the installer’s supervisor would call me on Monday. Naturally he didn’t. He did finally call me today, but I missed the call and didn’t have time to call him back. Duty calls and all that. I’m going to call him first thing in the morning, when I’m good and fired up.

I’ve given up hope of actually getting my gear back, I just want money to replace the hardware I’ve lost. I’d rather not have to take it to small claims court, but I’ve put the wheels in motion, should that become necessary.

The woman who called (Trish) was very nice, and totally apologetic. After our first talk, I hung up the phone feeling pretty good about the whole thing, feeling like it would actually be resolved today. She even gave me her direct line, so I wouldn’t have to wait through the Comcast voice jail. She promised someone from the local office would be back in touch with me shortly, and we’d set up a time to get my hardware back. Trish gets an A+

By 4PM, no one had called, so I called Trish back. She said she’d take care of it, and to call back if I hadn’t heard anything by 5. Still pretty good. I’ll give this conversation a B-

At around 5, the local dispatcher calls me and says, “Our technician’s at your house to fix your cable, are you there?” Of course I’m not there. Unsurprisingly, I’m at work. I tell the dispatch person that I wasn’t told that someone would be coming, and I’m still at work. I suggested that the guy could either leave my hardware with my neighbors or slide it under the front door, and I even offered to meet the guy someplace to pick up my gear. They said he’d be in touch with me, but naturally he wasn’t. D+

When I get home from work, I give the Comcast line another call, knowing that Trish is now off the clock for the next three days, but wanting to know when Comcast is going to cough up my hardware. Up until this point, I’ve been pretty well behaved. I didn’t drop the f-bomb or even raise my voice to any of the people. I’ve handled the entire thing with good humor and even an occasional chuckle. I’m done with that now.

On my final call of the evening, the operator first gave me shit about not being a customer, then made me repeat the entire story (twice), and finally put me on hold for about 30 minutes, before telling me that she couldn’t tell me when he was going to arrive, and that I’d have to call back Saturday morning after 8AM to schedule an appointment. I flipped.

I explained to her that if the Comcast representative didn’t call me, apologize, and ask me when it was convenient for him to drop off the hardware in question (with a specific time, not the typical 9AM to 2PM cable-company bullshit), then I was going to file a police report for robbery.

I still haven’t gotten a call yet. I’m going to give them til 9AM tomorrow.

Before this whole debacle, I was ready to get a Series 3 TiVo and sign up for Comcast HD service. Now, it will be a cold day in hell before Comcast ever gets another penny from me.

Edit: Part 3 is here.

As I sat down to watch a little TV this evening, my DirecTiVo told me that it’s lost the satellite signal. It was a little windy last night, so I figured maybe the dish got blown a little off axis and I’d have to make an adjustment. I’m really glad I checked the basement wiring area before I dangled my ass over the 30 foot drop you have to go over in order to reach our roof.

Apparently, during the day today my new neighbors had Comcast come hook up their cable service. Interestingly, despite the fact that the wires going to each unit are clearly labeled with the apartment number, the Comcast guy took it on himself to disconnect the lines from my dish to my home and remove my $300 multiswitch.

Admittedly, it’s possible that my neighbors are just trying to steal cable and are really, really bad at it. They don’t seem like the types to steal random bits of hardware though. I usually reserve that kind of maliciousness for faceless multinational telecommunications corporations.

The worst part is that it was Survivor night. Assholes.

Edit: Part 2 is here.