In a continuing saga here on the blog, I received yet another notice from AT&T attempting to verify that I ordered Cinemax (which, of course, I didn’t).  I am just about at the end of my rope with them.  I mean, with all of the trouble I’ve had, they supposedly put copious notes on my file saying they should block any movies, channels, etc. that are ordered.  I’ve supposedly locked it out on the box so it can’t be ordered there and, lest we forget, it is literally impossible for the box to malfunction.  Now, all of the people I have talked to since the original person have been extremely helpful and nice.  But I still have to wait on hold for 15 minutes to even talk to someone.  And the last two times I’ve called the person wasn’t sure if you had to lock out the pay-per-view and channels on just the main remote or on both remotes.  Well, if any of you AT&T people out there are reading this, you have to do it on both remotes.  And furthermore, it is actually more important that you do it on the secondary remote if that is the one using an RF transmitter!

It appears that what was happening was this:  one of my neighbors has the same satellite receiver and their remote was controlling my box.  See, there is only one box in the house.  The upstairs remote works through IR like a regular remote, i.e. you have to point it at the box.  But the one downstairs has to travel through walls and floors, so it works using radio waves.  So, if someone else is using an RF remote and they are close enough to you and they have theirs set on the same frequency as yours, they will control your box right along with their box (and vice versa).  I am fairly certain this was what was happening because 1) it makes a lot of sense and could explain why all of these mysterious charges were showing up, some of which happened while we were out of town, and 2) when I started messing with the remote to fix this problem, someone (else) started furiously changing the channel.

Now if you go back to my original post, you will astutely notice that was my first suggestion to the supervisor as a possibility, and it was quickly dismissed.  It must be a pretty common problem if even I had heard about it!  So when the current technician suggested it, I couldn’t help but laugh out loud.  I said, “I suggested that as a possibility, but I was told that was impossible.”  He shrugged.  “It is common enough that they tell us about it in the training course,” he said.

GRRRRR I am so mad at them.  It makes sense to me that this could have been the root of my problems, so hopefully this is no longer an issue.  But HOW DARE the supervisor insist that this couldn’t possibly have happened when it looks like it is EXACTLY what happened.  I have half a mind to call them back and see if they can look in my file and find the name of the original supervisor I spoke to, and then file a complaint against that person.  “Sure, if you don’t mind wasting your time.” said Sara.  And that is why I’m really so mad, because I’m so powerless against them.  My complaint wouldn’t amount to a hill of beans, especially since that supervisor was clearly doing what she was trained to do.  And it is not really worth canceling their otherwise superior product over this one (albeit long running) issue.

So I’m sunk.  But AT&T better never meet me in a dark alley…