The Battle Has Begun…

So, the story goes like this: A few months ago, we decide to switch from Charter Television to DISHnetwork, ’cause they’re cheaper and we get the DVR service…which rocks tremendously… Well, shortly after switching, our service goes out, and the hub where cable lines head from outside the building to inside the building was locked and protected (so you can’t steal cable from Charter, of course). Well, DISH sent a technician out, who subsequently broke through the barrier to reconnect our line from the dish to the coax cable that heads into the building. The DISH technician also makes note of the fact that Charter, in disconnecting the line, didn’t just unscrew the coax cable connection, but also cut the line off so I couldn’t reconnect it without having DISH fix it.

Fast forward to this past Friday, 6/16/06. Well, I call Brooke up to tell her I’m heading home from the lab around 4:15 and she says, “oh, the TV just went out.” So, I told her to look outside and see if anyone was standing around that hub again. No one was there. I get home and start investigating… The green barrier where the hub is was re-set back on its base like it hadn’t been before, so someone had been there… But, I couldn’t find the cable that came from our dish anywhere, that was supposed to be plugged in to the line heading into our building.

I notice some ground disturbed. I grab our trowel. I move the ground.

I find the line cut and re-buried. The line from the dish. Deliberately cut. DISH is charging $100 for them to come out and repair it.

So, I’ve put in an e-mail to the FCC to check on the laws, specifically, to see if the lines within the building are owned by Charter…or by my apartment complex… If the lines are owned by Charter (somehow…), then I’ll have DISHnetwork run a separate line. If it’s owned by our apartment complex, then what Charter is doing is illegal.

Believe you me, this isn’t over.