Is Sam saying she just got screwed and will be paying for it, or she’s going to be doing some work for them? Which means she’s going to be getting screwed and not in a good way if it were by Zed…
August 18, 2017 at 12:28 am
JIMV
Screwing Sam, while a noble endeavor, is a trifle dangerous!
August 18, 2017 at 12:24 am
WayneM
Unless things changed remarkably, Sam doesn’t normally need much persuading from Zed, if any at all… & likewise Zed from Sam.
August 18, 2017 at 12:29 am
JIMV
What we need is good sexy job interview…You know, like folk did in the olden days of hot applicants…
August 18, 2017 at 5:53 am
eon
The more people who “cut the cable”, the more aggressive the companies become in demanding that you sign up. Their sales practices are extremely deceptive, and their main objective is to force you to pay for things you have no interest in, because they were stupid enough to sign binding contracts with content producers who never have had a big enough “audience” to justify their charges or their opinion of themselves.
(HackESPNCoughGolfChannelAahemmMizlouACHOO.)
My ISP, ATT/Yahoo, has been told repeatedly that I am not interested in CATV, and that I do not want to be solicited. They agree, put me on their “opt out” list- and continue mailing me, emailing me, and knocking on my door at all hours anyway. “You KNOW you want ESPN!!! ” says the bright-eyed millennial doing the shilling at the front door. “You KNOW you need CNN!!” spouts the guy with a nearly-incomprehensible accent over the phone.
The “No thank you” they get invariably puts them into shock for two seconds and then they start in again.
I had hoped the Verizon buyout would change things. All that’s happened is that their other functions have apparently been put in the hands of stupider people. (Now all my emails, incoming or outgoing, show up in SCREAMING BOLD CAPITAL LETTERS, no matter how they were originally typed.)
The FCC should administer mandatory IQ tests to people in this business every year. Failing the test should be grounds for license withdrawal.
High-pressure sales tactics should be an automatic fail. As should any multi-pierced Silicon Valley type justifying any new “feature” in anything with the “explanation”, “But it’s COOOOLLLL!!!”
clear ether
eon
August 18, 2017 at 7:50 am
PaulS
IQ tests aren’t really “failed”, but I get your point.
So,,,, I get this packet with a Nielsen survey and a crisp dollar bill. Since I was taking their money I filled it out, 2 TV’s , no cable service, watch only streaming sources, DVD, and digital signal, about 6-10 hours a week. Forward 3 weeks, Nielsen sends 2 journals and 2 dollars to record the channels and times watched on each TV, I toss them in the garbage, pocket the $2, and plot to tell them I have 1 million TV’s the next time they ask.
Why the idiots sent me journals that I could provide no content for is a mystery, especially when they prescreened.
August 18, 2017 at 8:33 am
The Nth Doctor
If by “digital signal”, you mean over-the-air broadcast stations, then that’s why they still sent you the journals. Nielsen doesn’t just compile numbers for cable channels; they also compile numbers for broadcast affiliates and local channels.
Sorry brother, more gov is never the right answer for anything.
They could never keep up with tech market disruption anyway.
August 18, 2017 at 5:00 pm
Pamela
Aren’t some of the agencies still using 9 inch floppies to run critical systems? That’s what government involvement and oversight will get with our tax dollars.
August 19, 2017 at 12:50 am
TomZ
I think they have all upgraded to 5 1/4.
August 18, 2017 at 7:25 am
MasterDiver
I used to be a satellite dish installer in Vermont. I didn’t sell the service, I just installed and maintained the hardware. As isolated as the DD is, I would expect they use dishes for both TV and computer service. Getting Comcast or Warner to run that much cable to one customer would never happen. That was why so many rural Vermonters use dish services. When we moved to Upstate New York in 1986 it was over 3 years before the Cable company ran the line from its terminus 1/2 mile away. There just weren’t enough houses in our semi-rural area until a new subdivision went in.
Zar Belk!
August 18, 2017 at 7:53 am
noncom
Nice profile, Chris…
August 18, 2017 at 9:32 am
Larry
Hmmm….I wonder what trial Chris just went through. It might be interesting to see the cable industry as the felon in an upcoming story line. ; )
August 18, 2017 at 9:33 am
Larry
trials and tribulations that is…
August 18, 2017 at 11:26 am
Shonkin
Master Diver is right. A remote location in South Texas would never have cable. Shoot, I live just 6 miles from Helena, Montana, and there’s no cable here. We get our local channels off the air and other stuff from satellite.
(The most aggravating thing about our local paper is that their TV listings only show cable channels, which of course are not the same as the broadcast channels for the same stations. When we moved here in 2008 it took awhile to find where the local stations were on the spectrum.)
August 18, 2017 at 11:37 am
Brasspounder
We ditched our TV in 1990 and I’ve yet to regret it. For those few things that we feel we must see (e.g. Man In The High Castle, Game of Thrones) there’s always Anazon Prime and DVDs on the big computer monitor.
August 18, 2017 at 11:39 am
Grunt GI
So I do kinda like this artwork…simple. And Sam’s profile. Wow, that looks good no matter how Chris shades it.
Yeah Red, that would be like cutting off the nose to spite the face.
Only not the nose and not the face (well, sometimes the face 😉 ).
Just be glad you’re not married to Larry.
August 18, 2017 at 2:01 pm
Pamela
That would never happen no matter what way it was twisted.
I could see Larry married to Skye in a moment of weakness…
August 18, 2017 at 2:18 pm
Old Codger
Not sure why but I have never bought anything I didn’t already want. I am just that hard headed (once had a Doc tell me you could bounce a .45 slug off my forehead if I tilted mt head back a bit). Door-to-door people get told to leave and if they don’t they get to look down the bbl of my .40 cal. Glock. Over the phone, when they start getting pushy I hang up.
One thing you folks need to understand, though. As one who has worked in phone sales, sometimes the sales person is merely doing their job. They are given items to push and if they don’t try they are marked off by QC. They also have to make offers despite a certain number of refusals. Again they have a certain number of refusals they have to take before they can safely terminate the call. If the caller has been respectful I say “No. First refusal. Come on I figure you gotta do at least 3.” They usually laugh but perfunctorily do what they have to do to satisfy QC. If they start off nasty, I give them a ration and hang up. That or (if I’m feeling naughty) I let them do their whole spiel; offer all the add ons all the while acting like a total mark right up until they get ready to close the deal when I hang up. Meanwhile I have done everything I can do to stretch out the call to blow their talk time stats completely. It’s kinda fun and being retired all I have is time. heh, heh
I used to try to be polite, figuring solicitors were just trying to make a living, when it got to be too much I played a few games with them, or told them to get a real job that doesn’t piss off everyone they talk to. That was before robo calls that pretend to be and sound live.
Now in this time of so many scams (IRS, right) and recordings of your voice to use for whatever, I just say “no interest” and hang up no matter what or who it is. I might miss some legit contacts but if they need me and I need them they probably have my email or snail mail so I can look it over and throw it away or follow up.
When I have time to waste I’d rather waste it (er, I mean use it) here at DBD.
August 18, 2017 at 4:38 pm
John
My favorite phrase is “Put me on your Do Not Call List” sounded out word by word clearly and distinctly.
It seems to have cut down on my Robo Call traffic.
I used to simply hang up when I said Hello and got two seconds of dead air, the sure sign of a Robo Call.
August 18, 2017 at 11:31 pm
Greg B
We ditched cable years ago, and have never looked back.
All our entertainment is streamed. Or rented DVDs.
27 Comments
That would not be in your own best interest, would it Sam??? 🙂
In panel two is Sam contemplating uptime, reliability, throughput, entertainment value, customer service, value, or what?
I’m not talking about the cable company….
For which Zed is infinitely grateful.
Some attributions are preliminary.
Is Sam saying she just got screwed and will be paying for it, or she’s going to be doing some work for them? Which means she’s going to be getting screwed and not in a good way if it were by Zed…
Screwing Sam, while a noble endeavor, is a trifle dangerous!
Unless things changed remarkably, Sam doesn’t normally need much persuading from Zed, if any at all… & likewise Zed from Sam.
What we need is good sexy job interview…You know, like folk did in the olden days of hot applicants…
The more people who “cut the cable”, the more aggressive the companies become in demanding that you sign up. Their sales practices are extremely deceptive, and their main objective is to force you to pay for things you have no interest in, because they were stupid enough to sign binding contracts with content producers who never have had a big enough “audience” to justify their charges or their opinion of themselves.
(HackESPNCoughGolfChannelAahemmMizlouACHOO.)
My ISP, ATT/Yahoo, has been told repeatedly that I am not interested in CATV, and that I do not want to be solicited. They agree, put me on their “opt out” list- and continue mailing me, emailing me, and knocking on my door at all hours anyway. “You KNOW you want ESPN!!! ” says the bright-eyed millennial doing the shilling at the front door. “You KNOW you need CNN!!” spouts the guy with a nearly-incomprehensible accent over the phone.
The “No thank you” they get invariably puts them into shock for two seconds and then they start in again.
I had hoped the Verizon buyout would change things. All that’s happened is that their other functions have apparently been put in the hands of stupider people. (Now all my emails, incoming or outgoing, show up in SCREAMING BOLD CAPITAL LETTERS, no matter how they were originally typed.)
The FCC should administer mandatory IQ tests to people in this business every year. Failing the test should be grounds for license withdrawal.
High-pressure sales tactics should be an automatic fail. As should any multi-pierced Silicon Valley type justifying any new “feature” in anything with the “explanation”, “But it’s COOOOLLLL!!!”
clear ether
eon
IQ tests aren’t really “failed”, but I get your point.
So,,,, I get this packet with a Nielsen survey and a crisp dollar bill. Since I was taking their money I filled it out, 2 TV’s , no cable service, watch only streaming sources, DVD, and digital signal, about 6-10 hours a week. Forward 3 weeks, Nielsen sends 2 journals and 2 dollars to record the channels and times watched on each TV, I toss them in the garbage, pocket the $2, and plot to tell them I have 1 million TV’s the next time they ask.
Why the idiots sent me journals that I could provide no content for is a mystery, especially when they prescreened.
If by “digital signal”, you mean over-the-air broadcast stations, then that’s why they still sent you the journals. Nielsen doesn’t just compile numbers for cable channels; they also compile numbers for broadcast affiliates and local channels.
eon,
Sorry brother, more gov is never the right answer for anything.
They could never keep up with tech market disruption anyway.
Aren’t some of the agencies still using 9 inch floppies to run critical systems? That’s what government involvement and oversight will get with our tax dollars.
I think they have all upgraded to 5 1/4.
I used to be a satellite dish installer in Vermont. I didn’t sell the service, I just installed and maintained the hardware. As isolated as the DD is, I would expect they use dishes for both TV and computer service. Getting Comcast or Warner to run that much cable to one customer would never happen. That was why so many rural Vermonters use dish services. When we moved to Upstate New York in 1986 it was over 3 years before the Cable company ran the line from its terminus 1/2 mile away. There just weren’t enough houses in our semi-rural area until a new subdivision went in.
Zar Belk!
Nice profile, Chris…
Hmmm….I wonder what trial Chris just went through. It might be interesting to see the cable industry as the felon in an upcoming story line. ; )
trials and tribulations that is…
Master Diver is right. A remote location in South Texas would never have cable. Shoot, I live just 6 miles from Helena, Montana, and there’s no cable here. We get our local channels off the air and other stuff from satellite.
(The most aggravating thing about our local paper is that their TV listings only show cable channels, which of course are not the same as the broadcast channels for the same stations. When we moved here in 2008 it took awhile to find where the local stations were on the spectrum.)
We ditched our TV in 1990 and I’ve yet to regret it. For those few things that we feel we must see (e.g. Man In The High Castle, Game of Thrones) there’s always Anazon Prime and DVDs on the big computer monitor.
So I do kinda like this artwork…simple. And Sam’s profile. Wow, that looks good no matter how Chris shades it.
Yeah Red, that would be like cutting off the nose to spite the face.
Only not the nose and not the face (well, sometimes the face 😉 ).
Just be glad you’re not married to Larry.
That would never happen no matter what way it was twisted.
I could see Larry married to Skye in a moment of weakness…
Not sure why but I have never bought anything I didn’t already want. I am just that hard headed (once had a Doc tell me you could bounce a .45 slug off my forehead if I tilted mt head back a bit). Door-to-door people get told to leave and if they don’t they get to look down the bbl of my .40 cal. Glock. Over the phone, when they start getting pushy I hang up.
One thing you folks need to understand, though. As one who has worked in phone sales, sometimes the sales person is merely doing their job. They are given items to push and if they don’t try they are marked off by QC. They also have to make offers despite a certain number of refusals. Again they have a certain number of refusals they have to take before they can safely terminate the call. If the caller has been respectful I say “No. First refusal. Come on I figure you gotta do at least 3.” They usually laugh but perfunctorily do what they have to do to satisfy QC. If they start off nasty, I give them a ration and hang up. That or (if I’m feeling naughty) I let them do their whole spiel; offer all the add ons all the while acting like a total mark right up until they get ready to close the deal when I hang up. Meanwhile I have done everything I can do to stretch out the call to blow their talk time stats completely. It’s kinda fun and being retired all I have is time. heh, heh
I used to try to be polite, figuring solicitors were just trying to make a living, when it got to be too much I played a few games with them, or told them to get a real job that doesn’t piss off everyone they talk to. That was before robo calls that pretend to be and sound live.
Now in this time of so many scams (IRS, right) and recordings of your voice to use for whatever, I just say “no interest” and hang up no matter what or who it is. I might miss some legit contacts but if they need me and I need them they probably have my email or snail mail so I can look it over and throw it away or follow up.
When I have time to waste I’d rather waste it (er, I mean use it) here at DBD.
My favorite phrase is “Put me on your Do Not Call List” sounded out word by word clearly and distinctly.
It seems to have cut down on my Robo Call traffic.
I used to simply hang up when I said Hello and got two seconds of dead air, the sure sign of a Robo Call.
We ditched cable years ago, and have never looked back.
All our entertainment is streamed. Or rented DVDs.