Comcast rocks my world. Seriously. I mentioned here earlier that we'd finally moved into the 21st century and gotten ourselves a DVR (like TiVo) from Comcast because the old digital cable boxes just kept crapping out on us. We'd had something like four different boxes in the last three years. They'd just refurbish the old ones and send them back out again.
We were hoping with the DVR that we wouldn't have that problem anymore since it was new equipment. Once we got the new DVR box home, however, we experienced some issues. Every so often, the box would simply die, and snow would fill the TV screen. It was only a problem if we were recording something on the DVR.
It didn't seem to happen every day, but it was annoying when it happened. Tonight I was trying to catch up on some Dr Phil when the DVR crapped out on me again. I was also recording something for Kurt because I wasn't sure if he was going to be able to watch it while he was on duty, so that recording was missing a few minutes of the show. Then when I was finished with Dr Phil and attempted to watch another show on the DVR, the darn thing died again!! Twice in one night! That's it; I was calling Comcast.
So call I did, and I was really hoping to get a lady on the phone. I much prefer ladies because they can be friendlier. I also much prefer to call Comcast late at night as well. I did get a lady this time, much to my delight, and she told me as soon as I described the problem that it was something that was occurring with many, many, many DVR boxes, and fortunately they did have a fix for it! Yay!!
Apparently the issue is something of a power spike which causes the DVR to shut down. I was really afraid it was us, and not the DVR or Comcast, because this house is wired REALLY oddly. I know for certain that the wiring comes into my house near the garage door, through the attic, across to my coat closet, down into that wall, then all the way down into the crawlspace, and across underneath my living room floor to another wall where the TV is. Now the crawlspace part is my fault because Kurt just ran the co-ax across the room to be able to put the TV against another wall. But still.
The Comcast lady asked if I was done watching TV for the night and then downloaded software into the DVR in order to fix the problem. Then we proceeded to chitchat for the next 20 minutes. I don't mean to get all chit-chatty, and in fact I tried to get off the phone when I thought I was getting too chatty, but she kept asking me questions! It was nice, though. She seemed like a very nice lady.
She also offered to refund my DVR subscription (an extra $10 per month) for this month, as well as send me vouchers to watch Pay-Per-View movies for free!! How awesome is that??
My only criticism of the whole experience is that at the very end, the lady called me Carolyn!! Why, oh why, do people not realize my name is simply Karyl and not Carolyn or Caroline (though Caroline is a very nice name!) or Carol Ann.
Oh well. It's a small price to pay to have a properly working DVR box. :o)