bobafred

I can’t stand automated phone support machines where I have to speak to answer questions. I hate how they have them setup so it’s like they’re actually talking to me. ‘Ok, I can help you with that’. Annoying. Yes, this is how I spent my Sunday morning.

First, my Tivo has been complaining about not having up-to-date program information, even though its been successfully connecting everyday. Normally I use the network connection, but I figured I’d try the phone line to see if that would magically work better. This is when I discovered that I have no dial tone (but the dsl still works, thankfully).

Here’s where I called BellSouth (the shiny new AT&T) and discovered that they don’t have Sunday live customer support hours. That’s awesome. Because shit doesn’t break on Sundays. So, I went through the automated thing answering all the questions, getting forwarded to other support places and their automated systems where I *might* have to re-enter my 10 digit phone number, just to find that there is something wrong with my line. Thanks. Estimated fix, tomorrow. I can live with that since I never use the land line anyway.

Next, I called Tivo to find out what was going on with my program info. They actually have live support on Sundays and it took almost no time to get through to an actual person. Tivo +1. The support lady had me go through and reset my cable lineup. This is the part of the original Tivo setup where you put in your zip code, cable provider, and they ask what you see on channel X and what you see on channel Y, etc. Apparently, if the cable company changes channel lineups it can mess up how Tivo gets program info. This makes sense because Comcast made changes to the channel lineup on March 01. So far, it seems to have worked because now my program lineup extends past 8:00 pm tonight. Tivo +2.

Conclusion: BellSouth, via the new AT&T, sucks. Tivo is awesome. Also, I don’t really like Comcast.