Welcome to the award winning blog of The Constant Complainer.

First, I would like to wish all of my readers a Happy New Year!  Thanks to you, this blog had a very successful 2008.  Thank you for everything and don’t worry – we’ll keep on complaining in 2009!

I was very disappointed to learn that Time Warner Cable and Viacom could not resolve their ongoing dispute.  As a result, at 12:01 a.m. tonight, the 13 million subscribers, who have Time Warner Cable, will loose 19 channels.  The channels will simply go dark.

The channels that will be affected are: Comedy Central, CMT: Pure Country, Logo, Palladia, MTV, MTV 2, MTV Hits, MTV Jams, MTV Tr3s, Nickelodeon, Noggin, Nick 2, Nicktoons, Spike, The N, TV Land, VH1, VH1 Classic, and VH1 Soul.

The full story can be seen here.  This issue began with a channel increase proposed by Viacom.

The way I look at it is this – this problem will affect every Time Warner Cable subscriber in a different way.  From my end, one of my favorite comedians has a weekly show on CMT, my daughter watches Nickelodeon and I often tune in to Spike a few times per week.  I’m pretty sure that families who watch MTV, VHI and Nicktoons are going to more upset than I am though.

The article I linked to suggests that Viacom’s price increase would affect each Time Warne Cable customer by only $0.23 per month.  I don’t know about you, but I think I can live with that.

What upsets me is the general antics of Time Warner Cable.  They took the offensive here and said they are standing up for their customers.  I don’t believe that for one second.  I think arranging a deal where the channels would stay on the air (in the meantime) would have been a better alternative.  I think them realizing that an additional $0.23 per month on a cable bill wouldn’t bother most customers.  I think doing everything in their power to resolve this or negotiate a lower fee is better than nothing.  But that’s not the Time Warner Cable I know.

The Time Warner Cable I know would rather bill you for pay per views you didn’t order. They’d rather place you on hold for over an hour when you call.  They’d rather not offer the channels customers say they’d like to see.  They’d rather not have timely or well trained field service providers.  They’d rather not respond to complaints and letters.  Those are my opinions based on my own personal experiences, but I don’t think I’m alone.

In the six years I’ve been living in my house, Time Warner Cable is our third cable provider.  And their service, to me, is the same that I received from Comcast and Adelphia before them.  I’ve never been convinced that any cable company can get it right.  I think Time Warner Cable is just another example of a company in trouble – and rather than try to work it out, they’d rather tick off more customers in the process.  I’ll tell you what – I don’t think I’d want to be a Time Warner Cable telephone operator tomorrow for anything…

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