After much discussion with Comcast and me being ready to cut the cord after 27 years of getting charged for things I never asked for, we came to an agreement last week that I was satisfied with and willing to go ahead with for the next year and forward. For the last ten years, I've only used the modem and cable card (now two years old) provided by Xfinity and also had some cable boxes I hadn't used in ten years for other room--I know they worked ten years ago. The deal we agreed on was one which Comcast likely doesn't offer to too many people, but it kept me from cutting the cord and going after what I estimate is about $3000 in overcharges through the years. For now, anyway. As part of the deal I retained all premium channels and the sports tier, etc., though I'm not sure what is part of the sports tier anymore.
That was last week, and yesterday morning I was to trade equipment (modem, two cable boxes, etc.) for new stuff, namely a new box and mini box and a new modem. When the technician was parked outside my house, suddenly I lost signal on the only TV I watch that uses Tivo and the cable card that I was keeping. I have no idea if the other boxes I had but were now on my front porch were affected similarly. I told this to the technician, and he was trying to figure it out on the outside of my house. After a while I stopped hearing him outside the house, and when I went to look for him, he was gone, but he did leave new equipment. The problem was not resolved, and he said nothing to me about how it might get resolved. He just disappeared.
So, it took me hours to get a live person (I was told multiple times I would get a call and never did), and when I finally did get a hold of someone she walked me through a few things, and I found that while I had lost most of my channels, there were many that remained that I hadn't attempted. Included in these were all the SD Showtime channels (none of the other movies channels except MoviePlex) and a some random channels like TVLand, MLB Network, HGTV. The woman then helped me with the setup of my new cable box at the other two locations, but it didn't work, and she thought I wasn't getting a strong enough signal. I worked all day from 7:30 am to 7pm on Xfinity, and all I had to show for it was losing almost all my channels on the one TV I watch.
She called me back this morning to continue working on it, but we weren't getting anywhere, so now I have to wait until Wednesday of next week to get a technician to come out here to fix something that wasn't an issue before the other technician arrived yesterday. After hanging up with her, I went back to my cablecard Tivo TV to check to see if any channels had reappeared. Instead, I've lost channels. I still have Showtime(s), MLB, and MoviePlex, but I'm struggling to find any others, though I imagine there are a few (e.g. I seem to get the HD version of ESPNU).
Further, I notice for many channels, the Tivo error message now says that the channel is not authorized. This is true for both TVLand, which I was still able to get yesterday after the problem occurred, and for all EPIX and TMC channels (I get all premium package channels), but for all HBO and many other regular channels the Tivo message is "no signal." Again, all attempts at a refresh have apparently failed.
What is going on? Everything was fine prior to yesterday morning's technician being parked on the street outside my house. Now it's FUBAR, and on top of that, while for the last month I've been getting to talk to live people, I can no longer get a hold of anyone. If not for this angel Dawn in the Denver area taking it upon herself to care and call me back, I'd be totally done with Xfinity. Her goodwill is going to wear off quickly, though.
