I have a bad feeling about this...

(My 300th post! Woot!)

My decision to order high-speed internet through Cox Cable was just plain practical. Straightforward. I wanted internet service, I did the research, Cox was the ONLY provider in our neighborhood (WTF is up with that?), so what else to do? They were our only hope. I ordered away. I kept the guy on the phone for waaaay longer than he seemed to think he should be, while I tried to ask him every question that AJS might come up with. I did okay, some hits, some misses.

What didn't occur for me to ask was whether setting up cable Internet would knock out our satellite and simultaneously fail to work because they would be running on the same wiring. What? That was your first question? Well, you're more of a smartie than me.

So, yikes! Was AJS pissed off when he tried to watch some morning news yesterday and discovered, WHAM, NO TV. Then, the modem arrived, and WHAM, NO INTERNET. (And for those of you who don't know AJS, he can be a very loud, angry dark cloud when riled.)

AJS's next prediction was that the cable people would blame the satellite people and vice-versa. BINGO! I called DirecTV first. It went more or less like this:

Me (to DirecTV): my satellite's out, & btw, we just had cable activated.
DTV: the cable must be running on the same wiring as the satellite. Call your cable people & tell them to install their own wiring.

Me (to Cox): you're running the cable on the satellite wiring, you need to install separate wiring.
Cox: that is OUR wiring that WE installed for your house's previous owner. DTV has no right to use it. They need to run their own wires.

Me (to DirecTV): um, hey, you know that wiring we/you've been using for 4.5 years? Well, you can't use it anymore.
DTV: you should have filed a complaint within the first 90 days, but we'll be there tomorrow to see what's going on between 1 and 5.
Me: how much will it cost? Hello?
DTV: that's not my department. I hope we've been able to provide you excellent service today! Thank you. [Click]

Bear with me while we have no internet or television. I heart my Sidekick! and TiVo! and DVDs! in the meantime.