Destination services

I had two of our utilities changed today at lunch – telephone and cable (tv and Internet). I had tried to use both companies’ online moving tools but one didn’t give me a success/failure answer at the end (blank screen in the browser) and the other sent me an email saying they couldn’t migrate my service and to call them (that was the cable company).

I called them at lunch. I first had the phone service transferred and that took a while because they had trouble finding my building in their system. I’ve now seen the building listed under Toronto, North York and York (this is where the phone company found us). Complying with utility policy, there is a $55 charge for moving my service like this. It should be working Saturday morning at 10. Our number is XXX-XXX-XXXX so give us a call after Saturday!

The frustrating episode with the cable company came next. I said that I wanted to move my digital television and Internet services. She took my address and suggested that I get “digital television” and “cable Internet” with them to have a cheaper overall rate (by being a V.I.P. member). I said to her that I already had Internet service through them, in fact I paid to buy their modem to get faster speeds. She realized her mistake and put me on hold. She came back and told me that the building that I’m moving into does not have an agreement with the cable company to provide digital television and cable Internet service. Now that definitely is not a good thing because that means I’m going to have to look for an alternative solution if this is in fact true (I left a message with the building manager).

In preparation for the inevitable “this is true” response from the building manager, I took a quick look at satellite service this afternoon. I can get a comparable package for a bit cheaper for month but I need to purchase the dish. The other thing that might cause complications is that we don’t face southwest as is required when you live east of Manitoba. We face due East though we can certainly point something southeast. Southwest though? That seems out of the question. I can get my Internet access through the phone company so that’s definitely a potential though I’m sure I can find cheaper/better service with a local ISP. That requires a bit more work however.

So right now things aren’t looking very good for us to continue our enjoyment that is digital cable, high-speed Internet service. I’m hoping to get this resolved this week either way.

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