Reader Brandon had emailed with a dilemma. He lives in an apartment building that provides his cable via Qwest and DirecTV. After dropping $100 on a DVR, Brandon was informed that the dishes on his building were too old to receive local channels, which is the whole reason he bought the DVR in the first place. To add insult to injury, Qwest decided Brandon wasn’t paying a bill they never actually sent him, so they cut him off and are demanding $65 bucks.
television
Where’s My TiVo, TiVo?
By 9.18.06
TiVo’s managed to alienate quite a few of its most hard-core cathode-ray acolytes with their Series3 “special offer” debacle.
Help Save Screech’s House!
By 6.15.06
Unbelievably, there’s only so long you can draw out a career as a throat gobbling doofus in Hollywood. So it’s to Dustin Diamond’s credit that he somehow managed to stretch what should have been a two year stint as ‘Screech’ on Saturday Morning television into a career that spanned two decades. The man became the definitive television doofus in the minds of many Americans, a favorite subject of drunken conversations about what child actors had most likely gone on to become gay porn stars.
DISH Runs Away With Spoon of Injustice
By 5.30.06
John has a right to be pissed, he worked in consumer electronics customer service after all, so it’s all the more galling when Dish Network treated him poorly this weekend, asking him to pay for shipping for a new tuner to replace the one he just replaced not a month ago.
Guy Kewney’s Congoese Doppelganger to be Deported
By 5.22.06
Poor Guy Goma! For a brief moment, that Congoese crackerjack who expertly bullshitted his way through a BBC interview on the Apple Records vs. Apple Computers judgment when he was mistaken for Guy Kewney looked like he was well on his way to television stardom. We personally envisioned a syndicated call-in show where Guy Goma fielded questions about subjects on which he knew absolutely nothing. While the real Guy Kewney fumed and sputtered, Guy Goma became a star, dreaming of capitalizing on his sudden fame to find work.
UPDATE: Where’s My Ebate?
By 4.19.06
David said he had tried to get his Ebate for months upon months and hadn’t heard any response to his multiple inquries by email, web sumbissions and phone. Thanks to a tip by Anne-Marie, we got the name and email of Ebate’s customer care manager. We pointed out David’s plight and our post on the matter. The manager responded and we forwarded his response to David, who just sent us this email:
Tivo Troubs
By 4.18.06
Eric had some trouble with his TiVo and went through three tiers of customer service reps before reaching a critical point, that delicate juncture when the truth butts fiercely up against the facade of happy customer service and one of two things have to go…
Television Stations Airing Seeded PR News Reports
By 4.7.06
You might remember last month’s Wal-Mart blogging scandal, in which it came to light that Wal-Mart was feeding information to bloggers. Many bloggers were posting the propaganda wholesale without attributing the (obviously) subjective source. Slimy MSM toads chortled as a chink in blogging’s armor appeared: why, mainstream media is objective. They’d never betray the precious sanctity of their journalistic integrity, as holy and binding as stone tablets handed down from YHWH. They would never simply ejaculate PR propaganda into our faces wholesale — they were better than that.
DirecTV Loses Customer Over Hi-Def, Doesn’t Care
By 4.5.06
Chuck from Brooklyn, “one of the lemmings who bought a HD TV recently” writes that he’s “puzzled by the nonchalance with which [DirectTV] let me switch over to their mortal enemy [TimeWarner].”
How To Lower Your Cable Bill And/Or Self-Respect
By 2.16.06
Our luscious sisters over at Lifehacker have called our attention to this advice on lowering your cable bill:
Popular Mechanics for HDTV Lovers
By 1.3.06
We’ve been surprised to have so many requests by readers for a good buyer’s guide to HDTVs—it’s easily eclipsed requests for purchasing legitimate Kristy McNichol autographed glossies on eBay. (Hint: Go for the Empty Nest cast photos that were accidentally left unsigned by David Leisure for big savings.)
Blockbuster: Some Stores Charging Late Fees Again
By 12.15.05
Looks like the ‘No Late Fees’ policy isn’t working out for all Blockbusters, as franchised stores in Arkansas are doing away with the program. While not all Blockbusters chose to participate in the program in the first place, if you live in Arkansas, Alabama, Mississippi, or Tennessee, be sure to ask your local store if they are still doing the ‘No Late Fees’ program.
