My internet connection has been unreliable since … well, the first time I called them about it was in March. It’s part of the reason I’ve played a whole lot less online poker. Nothing like checkraising the pot with bottom set, and then getting disconnected. (This happened a few weeks ago, but lucky for me the other two players in the pot folded while I was gone.)

The problem is not entirely their fault. For most of the time since the first time they looked at it, I’ve been too busy or lazy to press them on it to get it fixed. It disconnects several times a night, but comes back with a simple cable modem power cycle, or just waiting a few minutes. Unlike playing the best solitaire app ever on my phone, it stays out long enough to time me out of a poker hand, or end a Gears of War online co-op game. It sucks.

I decided that after Thanksgiving, I would deal with this and really get it fixed. I’m calling them every time it goes out. Now I’m going to post about it every time it goes out. I even gave it a nice new blog category. I was supposed to have a tech come out last week. The only times they had were in the middle of the day during the week, so they said they’d call me before the appointment so I could drive home from work. Then someone called to reschedule, and misunderstood me, apparently, and just canceled the appointment.

I called Wednesday about that, and was told someone would call me Thursday to set up a new appointment. No call ever came. I called Friday, and got an appointment set up for Sunday between 2-4 PM. Again, they would call first, as they always do. (I once missed an appointment because I was in the bathroom when they called and it took me 30 minutes to get in touch with someone again through their damn phone menu system, and by then it was too late.) I was home well before 2. I was playing Guitar Hero 2 , but would hear my phone if it rang. Also would have heard my doorbell. Around 3:30 I decided to go wait outside instead. On my door, I found a “sorry we missed you” door tag from Cox. No doorbell, no phone call. I doubt he knocked, I probably would have heard that too. The time written on it was 2:30. I was home the whole time.

So I called back, and the guy on the phone couldn’t get in touch with dispatch to get the guy back out to me. Rescheduled again. Except he couldn’t schedule the appointment, so he said he’d have to call me back today. And he did, of course, when I was in the shower. That’s not his fault, and he went ahead and scheduled me for Wednesday between 8-10am. Hopefully, I’ll actually be able to have someone look at my wiring to tell me everything’s fine then.

The sad part about all of this is that the technician who comes out won’t be able to do anything. There’s nothing wrong with my house wiring, cable modem, or the tower I’m directly connected to. The problem lies somewhere between my house and where the signal comes from. When I had a tech out in March, he said other people on my block were having the same issue. The guy I spoke to on the phone last night said he referred it to Maintenance, who apparently never did anything about it. So, the tech who comes out Wednesday not only won’t be able to do anything, but likely won’t see any problem. Only if it happens to go out while he’s here…

I won’t call them with outages again until after Wednesday. I will be posting here every time I see it go out. On the plus side, it means I’ll be posting several times a day, now. 🙂

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