I scheduled my cable company (Charter) to come out today to install a cable card into my new HD TiVo so that I can watch all the HD TV stations. They were supposed to be here between 10 am and noon. They called at 10 am to say that the installer would be here between 11:20 am and 12:20 pm. Sounded good. Patrick came over and set up my new TiVo and we waited.

At about 12:45 pm I called them. Their installer didn’t have the cable card with him so someone from Charter had to deliver it to him. I was *guaranteed* he would be here between 1-3 pm. Patrick went home. At 3:30 pm I received a call from Charter to verify that the equipment I have is a TiVo. When I asked where the installer was, they said he was at another location and was still waiting for the cable card to be delivered to him. Also, the original installer didn’t know how to put in the cable card, so they are now going with a supervisor. Once again, they are *guaranteeing* that he will be here no later than 5 pm.

So far they are giving me $20 off on my next cable bill plus they are waiving the installation fee that was never mentioned previously.

If I had to bet on all this, I would probably not be willing to bet that the installer arrives by 5 pm nor that I have the HD TV up and running tonight. And the cable companies wonder why they have such a bad reputation when it comes to being on time.