A Venting Rant -or - A Ranting Vent . . .

We have a business - http://www.lovelightboutique.com/ - and we have Comcast cable and internet down at the shop. We don't have a TV there, but we might want one down the road, and we already pay for TV as part of our package. Comcast "upgraded" their service (again) so now I need a digital converter box. Happened at home, too. For our home account, they gave me the boxes, I hooked them up and activated them. Unexpectedly, it worked like a charm - not common with these kinds of things. So we know if we get a TV at the shop we are going to need a box. They won't just give us one like they did for our residence. Same box. They want us to pay $15 to have a tech guy come do it. Nope, we say, we can do it ourselves. They won't budge. Can't do it that way. We get them to agree to have the tech guy come and drop off the box, and we don't get billed $15. Tech guy shows up today with an order to install not only the box, but a new cable drop for it, which we NEVER asked for. He has the box under his arm. Same box I've already done successfully several times. I tell him the arrangement. He calls his dispatcher. Nope. Can't do that. He installs it or nothing. There's no TV here, so even if he does install it, he can't verify it is working, which I GUESS is their whole point about having a tech guy install it. I call BS on the whole situation. He calls the office. YES, they say now, I can come and pick up the box at the office with no tech or installation. Wait. He has my box under his arm. He can't give it to me. He has to take it three blocks over to the cable company office, and I have to go get it. No shit, and what do you want to bet I get charged $15 for this AND get a hard time when I call to have it taken off our bill? I would change my cable/internet provider, but I can't. You can do whatever you want when are the only game in town.

FOLLOWUP POST -- Went to the office to get my converter box. Guess what? They know nothing. The job number I give them doesn't help. The lady working basically does not want to deal with me at all. "We don't do business acounts here." I try to explain what happened above. I am pleasant, smiling, She blatantly interrupts me twice in a way that tells me she really isn't listening to me at all. The second time she interrupted me, I just basically went silent and stopped telling my tale. She doesn't ask me to continue. She wasn't listening anyways. And finally she says, "Look, I'll just give you a box, even though we're not supposed to do that." I took the box. Even said thank you . . .