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Bright House cable vs. me
Last week, on Christmas Eve, a cable technician came to my house to fix the problem with my cable. She gave me a new splitter and a new piece of wire, but basically said there wasn't anything they could do for me, for two reasons. One is that the cable between the tap — where it leaves Bright House's equipment and goes into my apartment complex's — was bad. She measured the signal-to-noise at the tap and then at my wall, and found a big drop. The second reason, the reason it was a problem for this channel, is that it's pushed out on a frequency of 99MHz, which happens to be a frequency on the FM dial, and when there's poorly shielded wiring, such as in my complex, that bleeds in, breaking up the signal. Today I talked to Danielle Wade, who I talked to last week for today's story. She was gracious enough to call me back on her vacation, but wouldn't say much about my problems. In fact, she was disappointed that the technician had told me as much as she did. The frequencies are "not public information," Wade said, and Bright House is "in a very competitive environment." I don't know what damage a frequency would do to competitiveness. And between being a government reporter and having tech-savvy friends, I'm used to openness and technical detail. So personally, I'm glad the technician at least told me why I can't watch the channel I'm paying for. And I'd think that when I'm getting an unending stream of e-mails complaining about the service, more openness is needed, not less. Anyway, I called Bright House the day of the visit, after the visit, and relayed my long sob story, and asked for a credit for two weeks of the digital differential, and I got it. If you're having cable problems, call Bright House at 323-4892. Seriously. I'm not saying this just to suck up or anything, but the company has one-hour service windows, which is something I've never heard of anywhere else. Call them, get an appointment, see if they can fix the problem. Get the technician to explain the problem. (That might not be easy after my conversation with Wade.) Give them a chance to fix the problem. (In the past, I've had cable setups where I've caused the problems, and it's not unreasonable to assume the problem, for at least some of you, is in your house.) Personally, I'm probably going to drop digital. Bright House has the best standard cable lineup I've ever seen (even ESPN Classic!), so digital for me is only two channels, and I can't get one of them. Update: The cable guys are coming again tomorrow morning. This is a higher-ranking cable guy. We'll see if they can fix it in a sustainable way. (FSC was working mostly when the technician came last week, but has been bonkers over the weekend.) 5 comments from 4 users
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posted by
Shwaine
on Dec 29, 2008 at 02:55 PM
Your next step should be to contact the apartment manager and complain about the shoddy wiring in the walls. Too bad it's not the phone line (legally they'd have to fix the phone line if it had an issue), but you still might be able to arrange something with the apartment manager. Maybe the maintenance guy can string a new coax line to your apartment. posted by
GordonDelano
on Dec 29, 2008 at 03:24 PM
James. I have a suggestion for you. You live in an apartment complex. Is Bright House set up to serve all the apartments with cable? If so, do some of the tenants get their TV from other sources than Bright House? If there are tenants that are using another source for TV than bright House, I would bet most of them have unterminated cable ends. It is a rarity to have cable installers going to unsubscribed users and terminating a cable to TV connection. An open connection is essentially an open door for RFI, (radio frequency interference) to enter the cable and mess up the picture quality. An unterminated cable to TV connection is also an open door to allow the TV signal to escape. This lowers the signal strength. I"ll wager neither Wade or the TV Tech. told you about it. Ask some of the tenants if they have open cable ends. It might solve your problem. I live in the Kern River Valley. I used Media-com for a few years. The signal deteriorated badly. I changed to Dish Network. The picture quality of my TV due to the change, made it look like I bought a new TV. It took several months for a technician. to get around to removing the cable from my house. He probably terminated the feed box, but I can't be sure. Good luck, Gordon posted by
citybeat
on Dec 29, 2008 at 03:31 PM
Gordon, What would this entail? Just Bright House turning off the cable signal at the tap for those apartments? I don't know whether any residents get TV from a source other than Bright House. I have not seen any satellite dishes, but that doesn't mean there aren't some there. And of course there are probably some apartments where the residents are getting over-the-air TV, not cable. posted by
reformer
on Dec 29, 2008 at 05:33 PM
Just spent 31/2 hours with a bright house tech. Did upgrade to two HD cable TVs and it hopefully will take care of the problem. I did appreciate the tech's promised coming between 12-1PM and he did work diligently to fix the problem. posted by
GordonDelano
on Dec 29, 2008 at 06:37 PM
James. What bothers me your situation is how many TV's in the complex is Bright House serving. Most likely many apartments have more than 1 TV. That being said, is Bright House's signal strength strong enough to serve complex adequately? Most cable companies are loath to spend the money to upgrade their equipment to adequately serve their subscribers. That is why I moved to Dish. They supply an adequate receiver for the number of TV sets you are going to use. I get a beautiful picture on my TV's even with a 14 inch snowfall recently. I didn't even have to wash the snow off the dish. Rain doesn't affect it either. I have used dish for 11 months now with now problems other than not getting CBS locally. I really don't miss it. I guess it all boils down to the fact that Bright House isn't keeping up with the demand locally. They probably don't have enough Technicians to serve the community adequately and repair equipment. That was the trouble where I live. Again, Good luck.
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