how-to block ads
|
Turbocpe
Premium
join:2001-12-22
IA
1 edit | [Cable TV] Des Moines - Headend issues & Mediacom's Response
After seeing so many issues with the cable TV service here in Des Moines for some time now, I contacted Customer Service through email to list the issues, and ask for some information.
The following is the issues I noted:
1) WGN (cable Channel 21) would often display a "Poor Signal" message for sometimes hours at a time. - This appears to have finally been resolved after weeks of seeing this issue.
2) Intermittent video/audio sync issues that have not been isolated to any one channel, and often displayed on multiple channels - though never all of them.
3) There's been a lot of video picture issues that are
associated with digital issues - freezing, skipping, digital artifacts, etc. Early this morning, a batch of channels (including CNN) were doing this so badly the programming was nearly impossible to watch - though it didn't last very long.
4) KCWI, KDMI and KDSM would go offline atleast by 1:30AM and remain off-air for hours at a time. They shown programming available, and normally do have, programming available.
All these issues have been, at one time or another, intermittently going on for sometimes hours per day, for multiple days. Some of those have lasted for several weeks at a time.
Please note that I have the expanded-basic TV subscription, which is analog. I made this clear when I contacted Mediacom's customer service. I do not have any digital equipment as I don't subscribe to any digital packages from Mediacom.
I even spoke with a local technician in the area one day, and asked about some of these issues. He informed me that he was aware of these issues from the field, but didn't have a lot of information to provide.
The response I received from Mediacom's customer service was that I need to schedule a service call to have these issues fixed.
It appears to me there was either no effort made, and that was the "knee-jerk" response, or someone is not experienced enough to understand the system? How does scheduling a service visit fix these issues? I'm not using any digital service, which is often associated with these types of issues that could be customer related. Again, I subscribe to analog-only service.
Is this normal response from Mediacom? Only reason I contacted the Customer Service was after I did see a fairly educated, with effort, of a response given when someone inquired about digital channel releases. I figured the department would produce some effort. | |
Anonymous
Premium
join:2004-06-01
IA | They do that sometimes. I don't know if it's the lack of experience or just trying to cut down the time of call. If a tech gets out he will check your wiring and note what channels are having issues. | |
Turbocpe
Premium
join:2001-12-22
IA
3 edits | Anonymous, wouldn't any tech with basic knowledge know that the issues I described above ( picture freezing, digital artifacts, video/audio sync issues, locals going off air (KDSM,KDMI,KCWI) ) on an analog-only package (such as myself) are not going to be anything within the customer's side? There is no digital equipment here. Signal levels would not cause any of those issues on my list.
That list is a cumulative list from the past several months. I'vee never seen so many issues on the TV side in all the years as a customer, as I have in the past several months. And I'm not watching TV any more than I was in the past.
As well, those issues largely occur during late night.
I would think if it actually gets to the stage of a schedule technician visit, the technician would cancel the ticket on the spot knowing not one of those issues would be anything remotely on the customer's side - analog only speaking.
I guess I view this largely the same as when Mediacom (and probably any other ISP) schedules technician visits (during the day) for reports that concern performance when the NOC probably knows very well that there has a utilization issue. I understand that it's probably standard practice, but it's a waste of Mediacom's and the customer's time. Especially in this case. As this is an analog only system that I subscribe to, not one of those issues listed can be resolved with a technician visit because not one of them is on the customer's side.
I guess I was expecting a little effort and time from the Customer Service side to check to see what types of reports are in about the Des Moines headend, and provide some "comfort". Instead, this approach is similar to denying the issues even exist.
These types of issues I listed has to be affecting a lot of customers in the Des Moines area. I'm guessing not many are reporting them, and because they are infrequent, and commutative, perhaps they're going under the radar. | |
drr
@grm.net
| reply to Turbocpe
Sir,
in an effort to see if anyone else had internet issues in WDM, i saw your post on the tv cable. I have had those similar problems since June. I have the digital cable box, but I have other TVs which are not hooked up to the box. Here's what I can tell you..
1) my digital cable box and tv's without the cable box behave the same, although it is more exagerrated on my tv with the cable box
2) for about 8 days about 2 weeks ago, sunspots effect channels 2-78. couldn't tell you why, but they do, and it happens every year. (of course, my problem has been since June, so its not the sunspots).
3) channels 2-78 are now digital, even for you. What that means is they come into mediacom as digital. For instance, i can now see pixellation on tv's that are not hooked into the cable box. It is analog going into your tv. But digital going into mediacom's infrastructure. hence, the problem is on their side, not the wiring in your house.
4) Mediacom has little to zero communication between the call center and their actual offices in DM. I learned that b/c techs coming to my house had a clue, whereas techs in the call center repeatedly told me that they are not told what new hardware is getting put in (for example, a new node getting put in on the west side. I finally learned its not, which is hilarious b/c they are overloaded, which various techs have admitted).
Quite honestly, most people do not report these types of problems, because when you think about, with a minimum hold time of 25 minutes just to get thru to the call center who will do nothing but send a tech to your house, is not worth the hassle.
If you want results, or if you want to be sure they know, walk right into their office on Ingersoll, and demand to see a tech supervisor, and inform them of the problem. Trust me, they will let you do this, though they may give you a hard time.
I hope this helps and lets you know you aren't alone. Also, be sure to DEMAND credit. And fight them every step of the way if you have to. But really, the call center handling credits is much easier to work with.
good luck | |
marigolds
Gainfully employed, finally
Premium,MVM
join:2002-05-13
Saint Louis, MO | reply to Turbocpe
Systematic cable tv issues really need to go to the local franchise authority listed on your bill. | |
burner50
Pinlifter
Premium,VIP
join:2002-06-05
EN22wm
 ·Mediacom
 ·FrontierNet Intern..
| reply to Turbocpe
said by Turbocpe  :wouldn't any tech with basic knowledge know that the issues I described above ( picture freezing, digital artifacts, video/audio sync issues, locals going off air (KDSM,KDMI,KCWI) ) on an analog-only package (such as myself) are not going to be anything within the customer's side? hence mediacom's biggest problem... call center techs don't know how to do anything but schedule a service call for the most inconvenient time available when techs probably are not working anyway...
--
--Semi Trailers belong on Rail cars
--If my post offended you, then I have done my Job | |
drr
@drake.edu
| reply to Turbocpe
my cable franchise authority seems to be completely clueless that they have any authority with mediacom. In fact, I don't even think they know that they can put pressure on mediacom. Makes it silly.
Last time I called them, they said "call the FCC." (which, its not an fcc matter, its a franchise authority matter.) So then I call the FCC for kicks, "call your local franchise authority." Great. Bureaucracy at its finest, and mediacom fits right in. | |
marigolds
Gainfully employed, finally
Premium,MVM
join:2002-05-13
Saint Louis, MO | Is your LFA a city, county, or other entity? | |
tsduke
Premium
join:2006-03-04
Waterloo, IA | Frachise authorities are a joke. Call the number for Waterloo and they don't enven know who to direct you to. | |
marigolds
Gainfully employed, finally
Premium,MVM
join:2002-05-13
Saint Louis, MO
| LFAs are what the government and people make them to be.
If the LFA is a county, it is going to be tough to get much done because it is hard to get a county board to listen.
If the LFA is a city, pressure the council. Just show up and tell them about your issue and how the administrative staff was unable to solve it.
You can actually get some help by contacting a city with a competent LFA (Cedar Rapids, Iowa City, North Liberty, Muscatine, Cedar Falls, Ames) and perhaps asking them to right you something very brief about how they would handle the situation.
I don't know why WDM and DM are so incompetent, but sadly they are. I think they forget sometimes that they are city governments who need to deal with city issues and not just extensions of the state government.
Just remember that your worst case scenario is that the city council appoints you to do something. The Mediacom government reps are actually pretty good guys and seem to be just as annoyed with incompetent LFAs as the citizens are; they would much rather people lodge 1000s of resolved complaints than 1000s of people simply cancel their account because Mediacom drops the ball and then the city drops it too.
--
ISCABBS - the oldest and largest BBS on the Internet
telnet://bbs.iscabbs.com
Professional Geographer
Geographic Information Science researcher | |
Turbocpe
Premium
join:2001-12-22
IA
1 edit | reply to drr
said by drr :
my cable franchise authority seems to be completely clueless that they have any authority with mediacom. In fact, I don't even think they know that they can put pressure on mediacom. Makes it silly.
Last time I called them, they said "call the FCC." (which, its not an fcc matter, its a franchise authority matter.) So then I call the FCC for kicks, "call your local franchise authority." Great. Bureaucracy at its finest, and mediacom fits right in.
These issues aren't getting better. This morning a chunk of channels continuously kept freezing up, then going totally off-air. One occurrence had all the following channels off-air for nearly 2 hours, in one occurrence.
DRR, can you state what franchise authority is listed on your bill? I thought Des Moines and West Des Moines were actually different.
This morning (10/25), the following channels repeatedly kept going out:
02
23
24
28
29
30
31
32
33
35
36
37
40
42
44
45
47
78
49
50
52
54
55
57
67
70
72
40
41
44
45
47
48
49
50
52
53
54
55
It started around 4:39AM, then again at 4:49AM, again after 5:00AM, again around 5:18AM. Then, around 5:29AM those channels went off-air and remained off-air until 7:06AM. That's nearly 2 hours that the above channels were totally off-line.
Just before they would go off-air, they start breaking up, freezing, then go totally off-air. It has been occurring to the following channels for a few minutes at a time.
That looks like a lot, and is, but interesting it's not the entire 2-78 channel lineup. All channels between 3 and 16 are OK, and the entire block in the 60s is OK, as well as a few channels in between the ones listed above (like channel 51 - TV Land is not affected).
During the time that the above channels were off-line, the following channels were working normally:
03
04
05
06
07
08
09
10
11
12
13
15
16
18
19
20
21
22
34
39
43
45
47
48
51
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
68
70
73
74
75
76
78 | |
drr
@grm.net
| reply to Turbocpe
Ok,
glad I decided to check this thread again today. I am in WDM, and WDM is my listed franchise on the bills. I can't say that when my cable has been particularly bad that I have gone around just all of the channels. I just know that I haven't actually had issues with any channels other than the ones in the 2-78 block. Channels like AMC, all ESPNs, cartoon network, comedy central, even the major networks. I haven't had any problems with my hbo or starz channels, or even HD versions of the major networks. (Well, one time HBO glitched on me on a nonHD channel, but "one time" I consider a fluke).
I don't get a lot of TV watching in right now, mostly just football saturdays and a little each night. I watched, family guy at 1030 last night on cartoon network. The picture quality was crap, but it never fully glitched out.
To update on my internet issues. They said they'd change signal levels and call me Monday. It's now Thursday, and getting ahold of my contact here in DM has proven impossible again. Looks like I'm heading back downtown to the offices. I bet they love me.
good luck to all, and I will check back here frequently.
ps, despite the name, i'm a mediacom customer, grm is my work isp. | |
djdanska
Premium,MVM
join:2001-04-21
Glen Ellyn, IL
clubs:
 ·Sprint Mobile Broa..
·T-Mobile US
·A + Net
·Mediacom
·RCN CABLE
| reply to Turbocpe
I have been getting the "poor signal" message on a few channels over here too. Animal planet and fox news gets it a lot. (with stuttering, thank gosh i don't watch fox news). Our cbs channel looks pretty bad too. Channel 43, some religious channel gets barely watchable. White snowy dots all over the screen. I just got mediacom cable. I am used to comcast. They treat their system much differently then mediacom does. I never got any of these issues with them.
--
When you do things right, people won't be sure you've done anything at all. | |
Turbocpe
Premium
join:2001-12-22
IA
1 edit | reply to drr
Drr, I was able to check all the channels because the channels in the 1st list was completely off-air for nearly 2 hours Thursday morning (5:29AM-7:6AM). That gave me plenty of time to check all the other channels and note that the channels in the 2nd list were OK.
An interesting thing, is that customer service informed me that not all channels on the analog package (which is all I have) is not digital, only some of the channels are. This makes me wonder if the channels in the 1st list are the digital channels on the analog package, while the channels listed in the 2nd list are still sent in analog on the analog package. I'm not up to speed on how it all works. I just know some basics, and apparently, a bit more than some that supposed to be able to answer these questions at Mediacom.
And come to think of it, I've only noticed the freezing, video/audio sync and other digital issues associated with digital signals have been occurring on the channels in the 1st list. I do not recall any of the channels in the 2nd list experiencing those issues - albeit - in my opinion, they aren't exactly the top tier/quality channels so I don't watch them as much as the other set. | |
Anonymous
Premium
join:2004-06-01
IA
·Mediacom
| reply to Turbocpe
The only problem I noticed is with ch 817 (local FOX affiliate KDSM in HD). Bright colors have white dots. My friend who used to have satellite had the same problem. I think it's a feed issue.
Turbo some people with analog service have the same issues with channels going out, no signal messages, audio/video sync issues etc.
BTW do you ever sleep?  | |
East Sider
@mchsi.com
| reply to Turbocpe
I've been seeing performance issues in my neighborhood as far as what appears to be bandwidth/headend issues. Certain HD channels freeze up momentarily, especially during prime time. I had neighbors with the same problem and now several months worth of complaints later and a couple of them switching to satellite, it's not happening quite as much, but it's still annoying. I think the fact that they freed up a bit of bandwidth is what's making it better. We've tried new cable boxes and wiring, we have a good S/N ratio. I just don't think their system can handle the demand being placed on it.
As far as the outages you are experiencing early in the morning, I will check mine out and let you know if I experience the same issue.
Has anyone seen certain channels in the 2-78 range that only have the left or only have the right audio channel? I have channels that randomly have this problem - Comedy Central, CourtTV, along with a few others. | |
Turbocpe
Premium
join:2001-12-22
IA
2 edits | reply to Turbocpe
This early morning (Friday), while there wasn't any extended outages on half of the analog channels like there was on Thursday morning for nearly 2 hours, around 5AM there was several periods of time where those first batch of channels listed in my prior post, was skipping, freezing, and a few times went completely offair for a few seconds or minutes at a time. So it wasn't nearly as bad as Thursday. Honestly, Thursday was the first time I've seen half of the analog channels offline for that amount of time (nearly 2 hours). I don't think that is a frequent issue. But it was another thing to add to the growing list of issues with the TV side.
However, the skipping, freezing, audio/video sync and other digital artifacts on those analog channels have been common for months now.
As far as left or right channel (stereo), I can't say I've noticed. I have noticed, that for the past day now, a few of the channels (Nick, TWC) appear to be "muted", requiring the need to turn up the volume notably to hear the audio. Then, if you switch to another channel, like CNN, it's "blasting" loud. This wasn't an issue until just recently.
I really do wonder what's going on at the headend. I know it's an arm-chair view, but it's like either the budget was slashed at the headend, or experienced crew left the building. Multiple, long-term, issues for the past several months now. | |
JasonU
join:2006-01-06
Memphis, TN
| I don't have much to add other than I've been experiencing exactly the same issues, and I'm also a WDM resident on the analog expanded basic package. Like Turbocpe, I'm often up early in the morning, and that's when I notice the worst issues, particularly freezing and/or channels going out for periods of time. The audio/video sync issue is a constant nuisance.
It's unfortunate that Mediacom can't ever seem to get their act together. :-/ | |
Turbocpe
Premium
join:2001-12-22
IA
| reply to Turbocpe
Last night, actually early this morning (Saturday 1:30AM-) KDSM cable channel 6 was once again cutting in and out. After about 2:30AM, it went completely offline and stayed offline.
Odd thing is that usually KDMI and KCWI also have some sort of issue at the same time. Initially, KCWI was offair, but they had a prior announcement about tower maintenance. However, once they came back online and returned to normal, KDSM was still having issues for hours later.
Here's the picture quality for KDSM during all of this:
The rest of the channels looked normal so it defiantly wasn't a signal level issue on my end.
This KDSM, KDMI and KCWI may not be Mediacom's issue (not sure yet), but the rest of the issues do appear to be related to Mediacom's side. | |
drr
@mchsi.com
| reply to Turbocpe
ok, let's see if i catch all the comments. I was not aware that only some of the 2-78 channels were digital while others were analog. I would say that perhaps there is something to that.
You mentioned that you only have 'digital' effects problems with channels, which would suggest those channels are the digital ones. Since I primarily only watch the tv that is hooked up to my cable box, it's hard for me to determine.
Yes, I have noticed channels with only one side of audio. And yes, comedy central is certainly one of those channels. I believe that one only has the right side, but i haven't paid attention.
Mediacom has apparently completely forgotten about me. It will comeback to haunt them, I can guarantee that. I will remain active on this thread until then with any updates of anything they've done for me.
They did give me a credit today. So that's worth something.
DRR of wdm. | |
|
