Time-Warner problems, Milwaukee digital cable-TV, HBO channels...

I would say that Time-Warner's service in Milwaukee is lousy, terrible, incompetent, blundering, etc - but that might be libelous or slanderous so I won't say that.  Instead, I present this chronology and will let you, the reader of this page, decide for yourself...

 

15-July Monday original call, several channels had not worked properly for a few weeks, broken-up pixellated video and sound.  I had hoped others might have had the same problems, and it would have been fixed by now.
17-July Wednesday first technician, Carl Drummond,  missed his appointment window, arrived late at 5:30.  He did not fix the problem.  He said the level was low at the set, but ok at the back of the house,  and that a new wire was required.  He said the wire should have been replaced when the digital service was installed, and he made an appointment to come back on 22nd to install a new wire.
22-July Monday No one  came, no one called, missed appointment.
25-July 9:45 am Called Customer Service and spoke with Dorothy.  Dorothy took all the information, said that she needed to connect me with a supervisor to schedule the rewire, and promptly disconnected me.  
Called back, spent another 20 minutes on hold,  Nakita said that she would send another technician, appointment for Monday 8-10.
29-July Monday 8-10 Technician arrived within his appointment window.  The level outside measured ok, but low at cable box.  He replaced the box, just to make sure, no good, will have someone call to schedule a rewire - no one called.
I hate spending time on hold, found Time-Warner's Internet page, with a place to make comments.  Left a comment about Time-Warner's terrible repair service.
10-August Saturday 4:25 pm from Internet message: Bryon called, went through the whole scenario with him.  He said he could not schedule the rewire, but someone would call and do that.  Company policy says that calls must be returned within 48 hours.
5:40 pm Bryon sent a followup email.  The email was all about some other customer's problem.  Nice work Bryon.
5:43 pm Bryon sent another email, asking me to disregard the previous one.  Never sent a followup to me.
Either Bryon didn't follow up on the rewire request, or someone else doesn't understand the 48-hour policy. 
No one called.
16-August Friday Bryon's not in, suggested that I call back Saturday
17-August Saturday 10:40 Called 414-425-5693 to speak with Bryon, Bryon's busy,  Sandra scheduled a rewire appointment for friday 8/23 8-10.  Sandra was able to do this herself.
19-August Monday 9:45 Gidget checking on problems, will call 8/26 and make sure all is ok   414-771-0087
23-August Friday 8-10 am rewire appointment
8:58 am Gidget called to see if anything had happened yet.  Told her that the channels were somewhat better today, but still having problems.
10:10 am No technician, I called Gidget regarding problems and missed time slot
10:14 am Time-Warner called, said tech was running late, promised he would be there and there would be a credit for the missed timeslot
10:30 am Technician "DW" arrived, ran a new wire for the one box.  Two wires go through the basement window casing to the outside splitter, rather than drill another hole, DW cut one wire and reused the hole.
That seemed like a good plan.  However, I would have cut the old wire leading to the box that he just strung a replacement wire for, instead of cutting off the OTHER perfectly good wire running to the bedroom set.  OOPS. 
25-August Sunday The two channels that were the ones misbehaving are doing it again.  I taped 8 minutes from channel 319 at 2:30 pm with 14 instances of breakup, 7 of which lasted longer, up to 11 seconds.  And, 13 minutes from channel 318 at 3:35 pm, with 16 instances, 4 of which lasted longer, and 9 minutes of total mess on channel 318 at 5:20 pm.  We'll see if Gidget calls back tomorrow to check as promised.
2-September Monday Not too many problems, now today in the morning channels 311 to 320 are bad, fairly solidly, on both sets.  Gidget hasn't called.  I tried calling her number and Bryon's number Saturday, everyone must be gone for the holidays. 
3-September Tuesday 9:35 am Called Gidget.  Filled her in on all the problems since the last tech visit. I told her I was unhappy she hadn't called on Monday as she promised.  She said she had tried, and had talked to the tech who was here.  I told her she promised to call me.  Caller ID showed no calls from 414-771-0087 as her other two calls had shown, and she certainly didn't talk to anyone here or leave any messages.
I told Gidget that I didn't think the problem was inside any longer. Gidget said that I should call customer service and ask that a 'tech 2' be sent out to look at the signal levels outside.
I asked Gidget what HER function was, she said it was to followup on the service quality forms.
I'm unhappy that she isn't willing to DO anything, or HELP fix the problem.  I already know how to call customer service (and wait on hold for 20 minutes), what good is Gidget doing for me?
10:15 am Terri at customer service promised a 'tech 2' on Thursday 9/5 between 12 and 4
Status to date:  out of four tech visits, only one was within their time block, and one didn't show at all

Four callbacks promised to either make an appointment for rewire or to check on results never happened, one by tech #2, one by customer service, one by Bryon, one by Gidget
5-September 1:30 pm Tech arrived, measured signal levels, inserted an amplifier in the basement before the splitter, checked levels again, and left - total time on site about 15 minutes.
Editorial comment:  why does it take two months and five service calls to do this, when the first tech here knew the signal level was too low.