Just Plug This In Here....

TBG and I decided to put the whole Comcast/Xfinity cable box upgrade on hold for a while.  Our tv was still our tv, all our shows were viewable, and what we'd saved was still saved.  He was satisfied, and as the primary viewer in the household, that was enough for me.  

I'd like to finish watching Ozark, but Netflix is on my laptop so I wouldn't really care if the tv sets suddenly vanished into thin air.  Not so my husband, who saw a message reminding him to replace the boxes or else.  He couldn't remember what it said exactly, but that it was enough to make him sigh and say it was time to move on. 

I drove past the big building with the big COMCAST sign on the big road through town today and took action into my own hands.  I drove around the parking lot several times.  I followed all the signs that said COMCAST.  Everything led to Employees Only signs.  Sometimes those were accompanied by NO TRESPASSING signs.  I could not find an outer door;  I made a u-turn and drove around the front again, just to make sure. 

This was not a friendly, welcoming environment.  I opened Google Maps and found an Xfinity store 1.1 miles away.  I walked in, was greeted, waited less than a minute, and was at a table with Justin, a delightful young man who listened to my tale of woe and nodded sympathetically as I ended with I want someone to come to my house and install it and I don't want to pay for it because I am old and I've tried 4 times and I'm just done.  I was smiling and Justin was smiling and even his manager was smiling when he came over while making his rounds.  

The manager left a new box on the counter.  Justin looked, smiled, picked it up and went back to the store room and brought me the correct device.  I just kept smiling as he unpacked and plugged in and secured a small pin in an even smaller hole.  Just plug this into the wall and this into the back of the tv and you're good to go.

I don't usually go into places like this without one of my children.  There were words and phrases I'd heard before but couldn't pick out of an electronic line-up.  I smiled, took my bag of goodies

and drove home.

TBG couldn't believe I was going to do it myself, but I was confident and smiling..... until I turned the old box around and saw many more wires going in than there were holes in the new device I was holding.

I spent half an hour or so with Sheik, chatting by typing as he helped me make an appointment.  By the time he was able to connect to the proper people and secure Saturday between 10 and noon for me, I wrote to a Chicago friend and admired my newly manicured front yard out the window.  

I'm still smiling.  I'm going to be smiling when the tech comes and smiling when I plead my case for a free home installation of something that was supposed to be just plug this in here......

I'll keep you posted.