Bullet Proof Glass

Most of us have been there at least once,  the local cable TV store.  it's where the magic of On demand TV viewing leaves the puffy happy world the TV commercials show us, and the service itself meets the cold hard in your face street reality of person to person interaction.
This is mostly why there is bullet proof glass there, well...... I should say that and a host of other factors that all tend to lead to the inevitable escalation of human conflict.  Lets explore some of my observations as I stood in my line today at the cable TV store with my cardboard box of boxes that we now for some reason have to turn in to get new ones which will in turn enable Comcast to honor the deal they made and have broken, for the last 5 months.

What would we expect from the store based on the TV commercials?  Probably something similar to a cell phone store.  What we get is something that looks more like a convenience store that stays up late for people who took drinking the whole way to 2:30am and now need the large industrial hot pocket to be able to fall asleep by 4am.  These people at 3am are possibly dangerous, but why are the people in line at the cable store, at 11:30am dangerous?

The reason they are dangerous is because they have been told to come here by people on the phone.  These people who seemed to know everything magically, just like the TV commercials. They were helpful and they were sorry but for some reason you are a special case and you need to simply proceed to the cable tv store where you have been told they will easily be able to complete this change and you will be all set.  That's what you go into the door thinking however when you get up to the bullet proof glass thing......... change.

The first thing you will notice is that the person behind the glass is unhappy.  You might notice the person items they brought with them to work, shoved on a cluttered table behind the desks under the bullet proof glass.  Kind of dropped in place as if the store was literally on fire when they all arrived that morning.  Yo may next notice that these people look normal... average, they could be seen working at wall-mart, or a grocery store but what they do not portray is a tech savy, go getter my blog, my face, remote controlled wire jockey who understands what all those button do.  No, you are not at the Apple iPhone genius store. You are at the equivalent of a hoagie shop trying to return or get answers about a device that costs hundreds of dollars and service that costs hundreds each month from a little old lady behind bullet proof glass because her employers know that what they have done combined with her hire, at this location may result in bodily harm.

What you will discover next is that somehow in 2014 the people who stream all your information and visual, audio entertainment, who sell you TV as needed, when needed at any time day or night.....even though these people and the little lady in the hoagie shop work for the same billion dollar company, their computers are not hooked up to the lady's computer at the sub shop "cable TV store"  She has no idea who you are.  They did not tell her about your problems, or how they were fixed magically on the phone, not 15 minutes ago...... you drove fast......so you would remember everything they told you on the phone........ but they didn't tell the old lady behind the bullet proof glass anything you talked about with...... hmmmmm  what was his name...... the guy on the phone, oh that's right, he didn't give a name.  I wonder why?  and the dance begins.......

The dance consists of some eye rolling.  You asking questions that are instantly squashed by the people behind the glass.  A feeling of being stupid....or possibly  deceived in some way..but you just can't put your finger on how.  They get up and go into a back room that you can not see.  This gives you more time to look at all the things in the room behind the glass, now with no people in it.  If you look back into the lobby where you came from, you will see now a line a people holding cardboard boxes.  The ones with out cardboard boxes look even more tired, as they assumed the boxes, wires and remotes would be easy to keep together while walking in.  They too had a positive phone conversation with a person with no name who fixed everything.  they did not however count on the line once inside, and now all the stuff is slowly falling out of the arms.  The hoagie lady reappears with devices that are the complete opposite of what you thought you were getting in your mind on the way over.  You ask if it's right, they reply yes, eye roll.  old stuff goes in, new stuff comes out, you carry it to the car, drive it home, forget about it.....then remember about it at 6pm, hook up all the boxes and.................................nothing.

The next part I do not do.  I used to.  then I got xanax.  I don't take that anymore, and I don't field calls from the cable company, ever....for anyone.  Talking with me for them has got to be like a slow hell, so it's better all around.  But for the next 2 hours my wife is on the phone with the cable company, all over the house, back and forth because despite everything to this point, when you call in they have no idea what you have been doing and no idea what you brought home from the hoagie shop...

Miss a payment, they know you.  and they know what you have enough to turn the shit off.  We need to take back some basic rights with utility company's.