Is this the new Time Warner?

[Ghoulish Delight]

So we've been with Time Warner for our cable TV and internet for 15 months. Within the first 6 months, I had to call 2 or 3 times for technical support.

And it was hell. Endless menus, only to be put on hold for eons, only to then end up with someone who couldn't actually help and had to transfer me to another hold queue (why the fvck make me sit through the bloody menu then?!). And several times in all that I'd get cut off or get a busy signal at some point during the transfer process. I've literally wasted hours just trying to get through to someone who could address my problem.

Today I exchanged our standard digital cable box for an HD box (yay). I went to the local service center where, within 5 minutes, they handed me the new box. But I nearly broke out in a cold sweat when I learned I would have to call customer support to have them activate the HD signal.

I was all set to put it off. I don't have an HDMI cable yet, so I can't hook the box up anyway. But I got home and discovered that our internet connection wasn't functioning. Joy. Worried that whatever change on our account was made when I received the HD box might have fouled things up, I knew I had to call.

Preparing for the worst, I dialed the # first, figuring I'd at least use the hold time to do the usual trouble-shooting steps (reboot cable modem, reboot router, reboot all devices, scream, throw things).

But, what's this, I was talking to a technical support person in less than 2 minutes. No exaggeration. The menu was, "What language, what's your phone #, tv or internet, support or sales?" One ring, live person. Not an note of muzak! (on the minus side, it made me look like a doofus when all I had to do was reboot the router to get things working again...)

I actually was so impressed I called right back to take care of the HD signal thing, and once again I got right through in under 2 minutes!

I know there was a major shakeup at the company several months back, due in large part to complaints of sh!tty customer service. Maybe I was just lucky and everyone's too busy watching football and they had zero call volume, but the difference between this and every other experience I had was nothing short of miraculous. Good on Time Warner.