How I came to have no TV

I had Charter Cable.
A truck knocked the line down.
I called them. Was told they could not come and fix the line because I was not a subscriber. I explained that not only was I a subscriber, and had been for years, but that I was a subscriber in both Missouri and Illinois. I was passed to a supervisor who essentially accused me of trying to get cable for free.

So, I called DirecTV. I may have mentioned this before -- the installer left during the installation to go play in a basketball game. He returned much later wearing his basketball shorts. The system never worked properly, big surprise, so I called and asked what it would cost me to throw all four of their receivers and the antenna into the lake. We compromised and they sent boxes so I could return the receivers. The antenna is still on the roof.

Enter Dish Network. The installer was very nice. He said I needed a telephone jack for each of the receivers. I explained that no one had mentioned that and that none of the TV's were near phone jacks. I talked to his supervisor who said I needed to run telephone cables along the baseboards to all the TV's. I suggested that was not going to happen.

Hello again Charter Cable. I had it for a couple months and then I started receiving telephone calls from them saying my bill was past due. I explained that was impossible since they sent an ebill each month to my bank and my bank automatically paid the due amount. They kept insisting so I kept sending them more money. Then last week I got back from Missouri late one night and no cable. I called. It had been disconnected for nonpayment of the bills. I explained that I was looking at my bank account and they had been cashing my checks, two in April alone. "Oh gosh," was the explanation, they had me in their computer twice, and they would have the cable back on between 8:00AM and 10:00AM the next day. When it was not back on by 3:00PM the next day, I called again. I was told, oh gosh, that it was not scheduled to be reconnected for a couple days. I told them not to bother. So, after cutting off the cable for delinquent bills, they now have to send me a $87 refund because, oh gosh, they had been getting my money all along.

Baseball I watch on MLB.com. Many other shows and the local news are also available online. CNN is also streamed live. Charter, DirecTV, Dish Network, you can