The Campaign

The cable company was out today by 10:00 am to climb over the fence, or however, and got to the pole on the neighbor's property to flip the switch--after hooking up the cable and removing the old one--they finished, and we won our campaign.

I am not triumphant, although I am pleased. I had called the cable company 3 times this morning, and the Twin Cities dispatcher was quick to say things were completed. I thanked him and hung up. I told him that I was about to build a gate into the neighbor's yard so they would feel enable to get in there and climb the pole.

What have I learned from all this? It reaffirmed my confident belief that even one person can make a difference, wage a campaign and make the system function again. If enough people were politically active like I am, and took on the system in a unified, systematic, persistent way, we would conquer the system, reform it and restore America to its former greatness, and make it the showcase of the world once again.

I am still a pure believer in capitalism, although the shocking dysfunction of the country-wide cable company could shake one's faith in capitalism. Actually, capitalism is far and away the best economic system, imperfections notwithstanding.

What went wrong? I believe that these cable giants are a utility that have a monopoly in the suburb that one lives in. Monopolies create giantism, corruption, dysfunctionality, high bills, lousy service, inept communications and the inability to complete even the simple task like burying the cable in our yard. Employees become nonentities, lazy, dull, discourteous, uncaring, indifferent, sullen, intimidated and broken.

Think what a workforce of individuating individualists would do for customer satisfaction.

The giant loves sales, but service is farmed out to subcontractors, not completed by employees any longer, a huge mistake, resulting in poor, uncoordinated service.

As a maintenance technician, if I do a work order, it is not done and well done, until the carpet in the office is vacuumed by me after completing my work. Complete customer satisfaction is guaranteed and provided.

The cable company hooked up a temporary cable. They sent a contractor to bury it, and the cable provided was too short reach the house. Instead of calling another truck to provide a longer cable, they just left, and did not come back for 12 days to complete the task, until I beat them into submission.

I went to the Richfield office to see a manager and trigger action. It worked. She told me to make the calls to the field coordinator. She did not offer to do it herself, a lack of service that is appalling. When I said this had better work, or I would go to the city and state, she got mad and accused me of threatening her, which I did not do. Nice way to deal with customers.

Big is not better and huge and colossal are worse. Direct TV is tempting, and Century Link offers Internet service at 1/4th the price. The patience of the public is limited.

All businesses should make a solid profit, but mechanics are conspiratorial thieves charging $150/hour to gouge stuck consumers.

I want businesses to rule America but be honest. I gave the cable company monthly checks for over 20 years. In return, they should provide great service. They broke the contract, and resented me for pressuring them to honor the contract. They took my money, and then did not do their job. That is unacceptable and I called them out on their deliberate, heedless failure.

It worked but I am shocked that a consumer has to work that hard to get them to function at all.