An Open Letter To Time Warner Cable

Dear Cable Company,
I have been a customer of yours for awhile. I haven't had many complaints about your business besides wishing you charged lower rates (but who doesn't complain about that). Recently, however, I joined the HDTV owners ranks. Since making that switch, I have to say I am surprised how behind the digital revolution curve you are.
First of all, the people in your local office act as if they could care less about the customers they're serving. In addition, when I tried to exchange my digital cable box for an HD cable box, there weren't any in stock. That seems to indicate a shortcoming in your Product Forecasting Department. I returned two days later to find I could get an HD box, but only if I wanted to add HD DVR service (another $7 a month). Fortunately for you, my wife and I had already decided to do this. Otherwise, I might have cancelled my account with you there and then.
While there, I asked about switching my package from Showtime to HBO. I was told my particular programming package wasn't available anymore, so making that change would actually cost me more for everything I'm paying for. Here's a helpful hint: Let your current customers switch things around within their plan, whether you've discontinued that plan for new customers or not. That promotes goodwill instead of making your customers feel you're just out for more of their money. What harm is there in letting me switch from Showtime to HBO without making me reconfigure everything I'm paying for?
Next helpful hint: DirecTV is currently offering 80 channels in HD. Time Warner Cable is offering only 12, three of which are my local HD channels. Seems to me you'd be wanting to add more HD channels right and left in order to keep competing with satellite!
Lastly, I have a hard time understanding the picture-in-picture capability you have provided with the HD-DVR. While I get to watch HD programming in the widescreen 16 x 9 format, you have chosen to place your PIP capability on the screen where a standard 4 x 3 format would be. Thus, your PIP is always going to interfere with a major part of the picture, while the wide edges of the screen are wide open. For some reason, Dish Network subscribers don't have this problem. They can adjust where their PIP goes.
Feel free to take me up on some of my suggestions. In fact, feel compelled to do that. Because I can very easily become an ex-Time Warner Cable subscriber in the next couple of months. I'm sure there are also a lot of other TWC subscribers that might do the same if you continue to lag behind your competition in adapting to this new era of television.
Sincerely,
Me

I'm Not A WGA Member

Contrary to popular belief, I have not been silent for the past month because I am part of the Writer's Guild of America strike. I should be so lucky to do something worthy enough to require my joining that union. No, I have merely been entirely too busy with other things to keep up my blog. I hope to do something about that over the next days. With a week's vacation coming up, I hope to find some time to rant and rave about a few things.
I am actually torn between two positions by the Writer's strike. The Dr. Jekyll writer in me agrees wholeheartedly that Guild members deserve more compensation to account for the explosion of DVD sales and on-line viewing. After all, if it wasn't for the writers, much of what we see would never see the light of day.
But there is also my Mr. Hyde- the one who views all these TV shows and movies. That persona realizes there is now such a proliferation of choices, there is no longer enough time to catch up on all of the current shows, some of which are undoubtedly quite good. For Mr. Hyde, the longer the writer's strike goes on the better, because once his regular shows go into reruns, he will finally have the time to sample some of those other shows.
So WGA members, I hope you get what you want and deserve. I guess I just don't want you to get it too terribly soon so I can see more of your current work!