Lincolnite

This is an interesting issue. I don’t think it’s really a city council thing, but I’m glad they’ve been publicly called out on the carpet. I finally voiced my concerns directly to TWC, but I think the action by the city council will help spur them to make snappier decisions and fixes. Oddly, the council members that all voted for the review are not the members that I would, let’s say, align with politically. It’s like the cable situation is almost the most bipartisan thing I have seen, but yet the council voted on straight party lines. It’s all very odd to me—I did enjoy watching TWC squirm at the meeting on Channel 5 last night. I could watch that all day. I don’t think the remedies will be good, but if it’s a huge pain in the tush for TWC, I figure that’s fair since they’ve been a big pain to their users for several months. I really don’t care about the review, to be honest, I just want my stuff to work like it did, and then they can worry about improvements. Called ID on TV? Who cares? How about working cable TV on TV—there’s a concept.

I for one think it is rather silly.  Yup the navigator has issues, but it is still better than what we had years back.

Hey Beer - the only response that I would make is that although it may be better than years ago, I am paying WAY more than I did then. And I am paying more now than I did in November, for something that simply doesn’t work.

The DVR is kind of like crack for a TV junkie—they worked so hard and long to get us hooked, then they did, then they took it away and made us pay more. The concept of it is nice - but they could have asked for volunteers to beta test it, or dropped the price for a few months until it’s fixed, or let people roll back to the Passport software. The local folks lied to us, outright, in November when they said the contract is up and they can’t use Passport any more—it’s still on nearly all the TWC systems in the US. They also may have bent the truth, even at the council meeting yesterday, about it being rolled out in KC, Milwaukee, and Charlotte, NC. I am pretty sure that in those markets, it’s only gone out to digital boxes, NOT in DVR’s since there are so many issues.

It is silly—from watching the meeting yesterday, it sounds like J. Cook has had an ongoing dialog with TWC for months—it just must not have given satisfaction to him if he put the resolution out there anyway.

yup I agree with ya.

I don’t trust the BBB either, though. (I’ve read a few places that they can be biased towards members) Sigh. Where to turn?

You hit it on the head before- the ONLY thing that will make Time Warner really do anything is a mass drop in sales. But that won’t happen, because people don’t want to go without cable for a month or two.

Is it because cable companies are licensed to sell thier product through local regulations and licensing overseen by the city council? (Not sure what the official name for this arrangement is, but in concept I think it is something like that.)

Is this being pushed forward by citizens or other cable companies who are angling for a different or perhaps second or third cable TV company in Lincoln based upon an argument of poor service?

*If* that is indeed the case, I am all for pressuring Time Warner to provide better service or face competition. I don’t have a DVR, so I am a rather uninterested bystander, but that would be a win for the citizens of Lincoln I’d think.

If it is not the case, leave them alone. I’ve been on the bad side of technology roll-outs in the past and am sure that the people at Time Warner are working ther tushes off.

TWC operates under a franchise agreement with the city, so why shouldn’t the city council be involved?

Neal - thanks for the correct terminology.  I was pretty sure from previous cities I lived in that there was such an agreement that had to be entered and lived up to.

I didn’t think I was drunk this early in the morning!  %)

I say it’s mostly a political play by Mr. Cook. If he really wants to get serious, initiate discussions about how Lincoln can bring competition to TWC’s monopoly.

“They worked so hard and long to get us hooked, then they did, then they took it away and made us pay more.”

This has been the cable company’s M.O. ever since I’ve been here.  They used to require set-top boxes not because technology dictated it (as they said) but because they had a truckload of them and it was too expensive for them to offer the service any other way.

Now they offer the same lame excuses for DVR.

I am sick of my cable bill jumping up every year and then having the cable company tell me what a great deal it is because they’ve added TV Land, another golf channel and PAX.  I don’t want that crap, I don’t want to pay for it and I resent the price increases being forced on me for things I don’t want.

Still, I can’t justify going to a dish because the cost is a wash by the time you pay the extra fees for converters, etc…

<i>I am sick of my cable bill jumping up every year and then having the cable company tell me what a great deal it is because they

I’ve come to give props to Time Warner. Amidst all the bashing (including by me) I contacted them about my problems, again. To say they were responsive and helpful would be an understatement. I got a lot of personal attention, I was listened to, my ideas for improvement were heard, and my problem was fixed. I was helped by phone and in person. The people at the top listened to my feedback. They’ve taken a lot of heat, but I thought in fairness I would come back and give them a much-deserved public thank you!

First a disclaimer: unlike Fletch, I do tend to align on the same side as those Council members who voted for the resolution; if that makes me suspect in the eyes of some, then just go with Fletch’s answer and burn mine.

For the rest of you, I agree absolutely with Fletch.  This is a bipartisan issue.  Take a look (if you have a fast Internet connection) at the e-mails to the Council for the February 26 meeting:
http://www.lincoln.ne.gov/city/council/agenda/2007/022607/d022607.pdf
And go down to the Election Commissioner’s office & look up the voter registrations of the writers.  My count (unverified, probably not 100% accurate but should be ballpark) is 5 Democrats, 10 Republicans, 6 NonPartisan,  1 mixed couple (Dem & Rep), 2 that appear to not be registered voters.  And I’ll be darned if I can find anyone there who’s suggesting that they were in opposition to Mr. Cook’s resolution.  If you find I’ve miscounted or incorrectly categorized a “no” as a “yes”, let me know.  I’d be glad to correct my count, and you should hold me to that because I’m on the Cable Board and may use the statistical information if someone tries to paint this as a partisan resolution.  But I think you’ll discover that TWC’s characterization of this as a partisan issue is just a feeble attempt to divide the citizenry.

And think about it:  If you bought a computer and someone tried to force you to use a freebie Word Processor with zilch for features, you’d at least consider looking around at other types of Word Processors, right?  That’s the same type of thing that’s going on here, except the “computer” is now a TV, the “cheap software” is the Navigator, and the “good software” is the Passport, which we already know can run on the Set Top Boxes (because that’s what’s been running on them for the past ten years or so).  How is restricting the choice to the cheap stuff anything other than trying to stifle the free market system and strengthen a monopoly?