DRRofWDM
join:2007-11-01
West Des Moines, IA
| reply to Turbocpe
Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response
Yea, I can certainly confirm a crap load of off air channels tonight as well.
Ch 6 (fox) was working. I did get family guy in (ch 31) from 1000-1030pm, then switched to fox at 1030pm. At 1100 pm, went to watch Whose Line on Ch 32. It wasn't working, just a blank screen. Started switching thru channels, most did not work, just blank.
I called, and after the 16th time of getting a busy signal, got thru, then gave up after being on hold for 45 minutes.
And this was in my office (which means that my tv is not hooked up to a cable set top box).
In fact, just as I write this, literally about 2 paragraphs ago, I lost channel 44 (fox news). Which now is back. Still, these are strange issues for TV's that aren't on a digital cable box. I can only imagine the effect this has on my cable box.
Glad I didn't set anything to record tonight. We can only hope that tonights issues are maintenance related and in the end, the tiling is fixed.
Mediacom is going to owe me so much money.
DRRofWDM |
|
marigolds
Gainfully employed, finally
Premium,MVM
join:2002-05-13
Saint Louis, MO
| Anyone who tried to call in and got busy signals or put on hold, you might find this form letter useful that I handed off to Turbocpe. I used "this city" because people on the DSM headend might be in other cities. I would suggest contacting the cable franchise authority first, then sending this letter.
•
Dear (city council member's name),
On January 15th, 2008, a service issue with Mediacom cable expanded basic service apparently affected numerous customers in this city. When I called to report this issue, I [received busy signals for X number of redials and then] was on hold for over X minutes. I have since spoken to other Mediacom customers who had the same experience on this day. This appears to violate franchise rules regarding the timely answering of calls for cable television repair. [I have been in contact with the cable franchise authority and they were not able to satisifactorily resolve this issue.]
So, I am writing you today to ask that the city council look into this issue and request from Mediacom statistics on their answer time, answer percentage, and average hold time for our calls for repair originating from our city or concerning accounts within our city boundaries. If you like, I would be happy to address the council directly at a regularly scheduled work session or council meeting. If you wish to talk to me directly, you can reach me at:
(Your contact info. Include address in the city limits, a phone number, and an email address)
Sign,
(Your name)
CC: (each member of the city council listed separately and the city clerk)
•
Make sure you send the letter to the city clerk as well as the city council members. That way, it goes into the official correspondence.
Feel free to use as much or as little as you want of what I wrote and to pass it on to other people. Just remember that not answering the phones is a bigger issue from a city council standpoint than the headend problems.
--
ISCABBS - the oldest and largest BBS on the Internet
telnet://bbs.iscabbs.com
Professional Geographer
Geographic Information Science researcher |
|
Anonymous
Premium
join:2004-06-01
IA | They are answering the phones. But it takes several attempts to get through.
I guess the system gets overloaded. |
|
Turbocpe
Premium
join:2001-12-22
IA
| said by Anonymous  :They are answering the phones. But it takes several attempts to get through. I guess the system gets overloaded. Understand that this is for Cable TV repair, not for Internet Support/Repair. Different rules and regulations apply. As I understand it, it is not "normal" to wait on hold for any length of time when calling for Cable TV repair, unlike the holds times that are "normal" for Internet Support/Repair. |
|
burner50
Pinlifter
Premium,VIP
join:2002-06-05
EN22wm
 ·Mediacom
 ·FrontierNet Intern..
| reply to DRRofWDM
said by DRRofWDM :these are strange issues for TV's that aren't on a digital cable box. I can only imagine the effect this has on my cable box. Welcome to the conversation... I believ that was discussed within the first few posts |
|
DRRofWDM
join:2007-11-01
West Des Moines, IA
| reply to Turbocpe
Thanks,
Yes, I this was discussed in the first few posts, b/c that was me. I hate to repeat myself, but this thread is 6 pages long. And we all know some people don't like to read it all, so I guess I repeated myself. Regardless, this is an issue.
Tiling now effects my OnDemand service. Usually, the signal would just be lost, and I wouldn't be able to finish whatever movie I was watching. But tonight, I just had tiling. Severe tiling.
This is a shout out to anybody who might be or who might know or have some sort of connection to Iowa franchise authorities. You have the power to put pressure on Mediacom to stop this and fix it!! I not only had tiling with OnDemand, but I had tiling with tonight's Greenbay NFL game.
This is a notice to Mediacom. Prepare for the worst, b/c I'm done with this. It's my life mission to correct what has been done wrong. The main issue remains with channel black outs and tiling on channels 2-78.
I'm sorry I may seem short with other members of this forum. I'm just so frustrated that no matter what I do, nothing gets resolved. There will be another thread regarding tiling, it will be a simple 'tiling' thread. Please sign there if you experience the problems that are shown here. They will be relayed to the Iowa Attorney general's office, b/c at this point, I'm running out of options of people to help me here.
DRRofWDM |
|
burner50
Pinlifter
Premium,VIP
join:2002-06-05
EN22wm
·Mediacom
·FrontierNet Intern..
| Your on demand problem has nothing to do with the issues being discussed here. They are 2 separate services that have little to no effect on each other.
My guess is that the problem with your OnDemand is low SNR due to a crap signal hitting the box.
OnDemand could also be affected by over-utilization but I doube that this is your problem. |
|
DRRofWDM
join:2007-11-01
West Des Moines, IA
| reply to Turbocpe
oh, who really cares about the OnDemand. I just like to bitch about how every service i have is failing, and failing faster than they will fix it. Franchise authorities don't care about the problem. Nobody cares. And since Mediacom denied me my credit that has been accumulating since my last credit in October for channels 2-78, that's just another problem.
But again, it doesn't matter. I started the other thread in an attempt to find out how big the problem was. My bad.
And even when I mention a point that I mentioned or at least recognized earlier in the thread, I got told 'welcome to the conversation' or whatever it was. The thread is 6 pages long, and I'm not going to read it everytime to see what I wrote several months ago.
But it doesn't matter. Sorry for discussing my problems. I could create a thread for each separate Mediacom problem I have, but that might take 7-10 threads. I just thought that i'd 'mention' other problems, but obviously, in most instances, retaining the purpose of the thread, which is tiling on channels 2-78.
So whatever, I'm done with Mediacom. Whether I cancel in a week or in 4 months when I move, its not going to matter. I'll get my credit. I'll move on. Nothing can be done about Mediacom. Which makes this thread pointless.
I'm done with Mediacom, and I'm done with this forum which apparently is lead by Officer burner50, aka forum police.
later all
DRRofWDM |
|
Turbocpe
Premium
join:2001-12-22
IA
| reply to Turbocpe
Re: [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response
Today was the second day in a row where just before 3:20PM CT, the following channels started to tile, freeze and then go off-air:
17
23
29
30
31
43
I noticed that channel 43 was displaying "Poor quality signal." then "Unstable signal." and then finally "No signal.".
The outage, both times, lasted for about 5 minutes. |
|
danawhitaker
Space...The Final Frontier
Premium
join:2002-03-02
Urbandale, IA
·MSN
·Mediacom
| I've been noticing periodic issues over the past few months, but nothing as extreme as yours, Turbo. However, I can definitely confirm today's outage of 17 and 23 at that exact time, as my daughter had just gotten up from her quiet time and I tried to turn on CNN to find a black screen, again. I only checked on the TV that doesn't have the digital box. I know it wasn't a very long outage, but I've definitely seen some long ones before. I often found that annoyingly, it always seemed to be one of the five channels I actually like to watch.
I get a fair amount of timeouts with my OnDemand service too, but nothing bad enough that just re-connecting to OnDemand doesn't fix it.
I've never bothered to call about the blackscreen or the tiling - which I've also experienced, usually on TLC for some reason. I probably should, just to let them know that they've got an issue - which they already know, I guess. But the squeaky wheels will hopefully get the grease. Eventually.
--
You're watching Sports Night on CSC so stick around... |
|
JasonU
join:2006-01-06
Memphis, TN
| reply to Turbocpe
I didn't have the TV on at that time today, but I've noticed since about Friday that the audio sync issue has returned on the aforementioned channels, mostly in the 20s on up. Some channels worse than others. Also, the tiling issue has returned, albeit intermittently. |
|
Turbocpe
Premium
join:2001-12-22
IA
1 edit | I hadn't noticed the audio sync issue recently, but the split second audio stutter that channel 23 (and sometimes 24) has is a bit annoying. Channel 23 does it each and every day, multiple times per minute on average. It's been that way for months. |
|
Anonymous
Premium
join:2004-06-01
IA | reply to danawhitaker
VOD E3106?
Let me guess you have a Pace box? |
|
danawhitaker
Space...The Final Frontier
Premium
join:2002-03-02
Urbandale, IA | Anonymous - yes, the E3106 error. The model # on the bottom of the box is DC100X.
--
You're watching Sports Night on CSC so stick around... |
|
Turbocpe
Premium
join:2001-12-22
IA
| reply to Turbocpe
Well, this is the 3rd day in a row that just before 3:20PM CT, the following channels started to tile, freeze, and then go to a blank screen:
17
23
29
30
31
43
Like yesterday, channel 43 is the only channel showing a "Poor quality signal." then "Unstable signal." and then finally "No signal." message. The rest listed above are simply blank. |
|
Turbocpe
Premium
join:2001-12-22
IA
| reply to Turbocpe
Well, today around 4:00PM CT, the following channels suddenly cut off for a few minutes. They then returned for a few seconds, and went back off for a minute or so.
2
17
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
35
36
37
40
41
42
44
45
47
48
49
50
52
53
54
55
57
58
63
67
69
70
71
72
77
That's a lot of channels - on the analog only package (no digital receiver or signal issues to fault). Really, 4 days in a row of the same issue does not really make Mediacom look very good.  |
|
danawhitaker
Space...The Final Frontier
Premium
join:2002-03-02
Urbandale, IA | I noticed it too a little while ago, we were watching election coverage on CNN and poof. It happened on both the digital and analog sets.
--
You're watching Sports Night on CSC so stick around... |
|
Turbocpe
Premium
join:2001-12-22
IA
| reply to Turbocpe
Anyone know how long the following channels were offline this morning/afternoon, then coming on after 12:39PM CT?
2
25
26
27
32
35
36
37
40
41
44
45
47
48
49
50
52
53
54
55
57
58
63
67
69
70
72
77
They were offline for atleast 5 minutes, atleast. I happened to check channel 2 to see it was out. Normally, 17 is always a part of these issues, but it wasn't this morning and wasn't a part of the list above. |
|
