While I realize that I’m may be an exception to the “learning curve” to electronics of any form, I find it quite frustrating and insulting that companies make the automatic assumption that your incapable of nothing more than pressing the play button. Adelphia Communications, within the past 2 or 3 months, started offering DVR (digital video recorder). It simply works as a replacement to your current cable box, increasing the the box rental by around $4, and then the service (which sits at about $5)… Don’t quote me on any of those prices, as all I remember was it was going to make about a $9 increase to my bill.
Either way, when I spoke with them they said to simply run by the local office and swap out the box. Since I had a doctors appointment I figured I would stop by afterwards since I was right next to the office. When I finally sit down with a person, and ask about grabbing the box they said that simply swapping wasn’t even an option as they needed a “Professional Installer” to put it in. Now I don’t know about you but I have taken a look at manuals and specs on other boxes (like TiVo), and have found that it’s connected in the exact same manner as our current box is. Soooo, what is it… that makes this installation so difficult that I have to have someone come to my house to do it? They told me at the time that the $25 installation fee was going to be waved, but I told them that there never will be an installation fee as long as they were going to send someone out to do something as stupid as plug the box in. How many hours of “training” did this person have to take to plugin a coax cable? I digress… there might be the possibility that he would need to show how it works, but that would be the point that I say RTFM.
What is more fustrating is the reason companies have reached this assumption towards all users. It’s due to all the idiots out there who do think that they know what they are doing, install it incorrectly, and then call up Adelphia expecting them to “fix it”. So at some point I can see why companies would be forced into this mind set… BUT if you have a user who is totally willing to accept the responsibility behind it being correctly installed, then why not let them. Regardless, I couldn’t get the service without the “Professional Installation” which is scheduled for 3-5 tomarrow.
So does anyone have bets as to whether it’s as easy as I’m saying it is?
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