I Must Kvetch!

kvetch definition:
kvetch (kə vec̸h′)
intransitive verb
to be urgent or insistent; press; strain
to complain in a nagging or whining way
Etymology: <>

I interrupt my usual happy, hopefully informational, blog posts today because I feel a need, as we say in Brooklyn, New York, to "kvetch."

Instead of enjoying these last beautiful, albeit hot and humid days of summer outside, or doing my usual activity of enjoying visits to everyone's blogs and responding to your comments, I have been held captive by one of the local Brooklyn cable companies at my daughter's apartment for the past two days and a half!

I will not name names, but we have three possible cable providers in the NYC area, and two of them have given my poor daughter nothing but heartache and trouble for the last two weeks, I'll let you guess which ones they are. I am beginning to feel like they are all the same.

This saga began when my daughter had trouble for over a week connecting to the Internet via her cable modem. After repeated calls to cable provider # 1 they finally told her they must come out and check the problem where she lives. She scheduled an appointment, took a precious day off from work, and waited and waited, and waited.

No one showed up.

Angry, she called the company and complained, and they assured her she would be first on the list the next day. Instead, she arranged for them to come in the late afternoon, as she would work a half day and come home early.

No one showed up.

Angry and upset, she called and canceled her service with company # 1 all together.

Next, she called cable company # 2. "No problem!" they told her! "We are happy to have you as a new customer!" Can we give you the moon and the stars and, hey, we'll throw in a few constellations, they told her! ( of course at this point I am being facetious )

Since my daughter did not have anymore time to take off, I volunteered to wait at her apartment for her appointment to have this wonderful, promising cable company arrive and connect her to their modem. I waited and waited and waited.

No one showed up.

I called, she called, my husband called, all through the day complaining that no one showed up. "Oh! We are so sorry!" they said. "Our technician ran into a few problems and is running late, but don't worry -- he will show up! Please be patient!" So I waited and waited and waited. My husband came home from work. My daughter came home from work. It was 8 PM

No cable installer showed up.

Oh! But he did call her! Yes -- the cable modem installer called her to tell her that now it was too late to come, and it was dark, and he couldn't work in the dark anyway, so why didn't she call and reschedule her appointment? My daughter refused. "No!", she said, "I will not let you off the hook. You made us wait 8 hours. I want my modem installed now! If I showed up eight hours late for my job I would be fired," she told him. He told her she was unreasonable and hung up.

Customer service at cable #2 was so apologetic when they were called with our complaints! "We are so sorry," they said, "we will schedule you first thing in the morning, from 8 AM until 11 AM. So, at 7:30 AM this morning I went over to my daughter's apartment, which is on the other side of Brooklyn from where I live, and I wait and wait and wait.

No one shows up.

I call the dispatch number to see what has happened now, what possible excuse they can give me, and they tell me they have no record of a work order for this address! Now my blood pressure is boiling! They assure me that they will send someone in the next four hours. "Please be patient," they said.

No one showed up.

Unfortunately, my daughter can not try cable provider # 3, as they don't serve her area. We are stuck in this horrible cycle of waiting for someone to show up and do their job. In this day and age of recession and lay offs I would have thought that everyone was concerned about keeping their job, and to that end would be working at top performance. I guess not.

So I wait and I wait and I wait.

If you are still here, thank you for listening, and if you have any suggestions I'd love to hear them!

Update 8/25/09 My daughter finally has her cable! It didn't end, however, without one more headache, because her friend came over to wait for the cable man today, and in the process got a parking ticket because she forgot it was alternate side parking. YIKES!