Dear dimwit on the phone

That's a pretty damn good answer. Hope you shared it ... or, at least, the key aspect of it. Sometimes it's important to remind readers that this is a human endeavor.

 

I did. Haven't got a response yet, so I'm curious what it will be.

 

When the Ole Miss NCAA tourney games were on TruTV, we got a ton of "where is that on my TV" calls.

 

I got one of those "what channel is the game on?" calls last fall. I suggested the caller phone their service provided and she replied, "oh, would they know?"

 

We had to stop running that (channel numbers), because there were multiple cable systems within our circulation area. Add to that DirecTV and Dish Network and such and CBS could be anything. When people would call and ask, I'd always preface it with "It's channel 8 at my house and I have (such and such)....."

 

Hope you are doing OK, mate. Sounds like scary stuff.

 

Had a guy call up once asking for the number for ESPN because he might've said he was from out of town visiting friends or family. Since he wasn't using the cable provider I knew the channel number for and I wasn't about to look it up for him, I told him to call the cable provider and he claimed he didn't know that either, so he hung up defeated.

Then he calls back later asking for the number of a different channel and we go through the exact same thing all over again!

Another time an old lady called for TV information and she prefaced it by saying she knew her cable provider was busy and didn't want to bother them... so she called us instead.

Another lady called to ask what number ESPN2 was on. I responded that it depends on her cable provider, so she simply asked again what channel ESPN2 was on.

 

Thanks. I'm doing well. Seven weeks ago, I was in the hospital waiting for the surgery the next day. A little frightening, but I made it through.

And now I'm back, dealing with the dimwits on the phone. By the way, the guy e-mailed today and apologized.

 

Comcast in my area apparently quit offering TruTV on its regular lineup, but it's included in the digital one. I tweeted that out on our Twitter one afternoon and got a few replies. One guy emailed me, saying he was pissed I said it wasn't on the regular Comcast lineup. I tried telling him I had no control over that and that he should call Comcast. Don't know if he ever did.

 

Isn't that a valid question?

I am not stupid, but I would not know what cable channel CBS is on.

(Don't watch much TV)

 

If the Channel Guide had never been invented, then, yes it would be a great question.

 

There will always be one or two stations that aren't carried by the local carrier. I used to have to fight like the dickens to get OLN (which became Versus and now the NBC Sports Network). Of course, the marketing strategy in growing a network is to acquire properties that people actually want to watch, thereby increasing demand --- sort of like NFL Network is doing with live Thursday games. It does take time, though.