(okay skip the first paragraph if you want )
Well for a while now we've had what I thought was pretty much standard cable, but we did have features (like tv guide menus and whatnot) that I thought were only available for stuff like digital cable and directTV and whatnot. Well a couple weeks ago we got a call saying they were going to upgrade out cable, giving us a new box and a sh*tload more channels. "Cool", I thought. Keep in mind I had not idea what cable company we were really using. Well a few days ago when I came home to our new cable, I realized they gave us full-blown AT&T Digital Cable. So I'm pretty hella excited about that.

But one question.....does everybody else who has AT&T digital cable experience the not-so-rare occurance of having a channel scramble, freeze, then go blank with a "this channel is temporarily unavailable" message? We NEVER got that before, but now pretty much every time I sit down to the TV and start flipping through the channels, I'll come across at least one channel that is messed up like that. And already it's happened to me that I'm in the middle of a program and it crapped out on me. WTF IS THAT ABOUT? What kind of "upgrade" is that? Is this something I should expect with digital cable, or would it make a difference if I start bitching and complaining to them?

Yes, and yes.

I have BellSouth Digital Cable, and it does the same damn thing. I've been complaining for over a year now, and they say there's nothing they can do. I lose signal every day at 8pm for about 30 seconds and periodically will lose a channel for random intervals. Still, you should bitch about it and demand refunds every time it happens. It's inexcusable. One thing to note, if I lose a channel, sometimes it will say "Channel Not Available" for hours, then I flip away and come back, and everything's fine. Lesson learned: when a channel goes "Not Available" flip away and come right back. 9 times out of 10, it'll come right back. If you just sit on the channel and wait, it might not register that everything's fine now. Don't ask me why Digital cable's great 99% of the time, and really pisses me off during that other 1%.

das

Thanks for the input d monkey. I guess I'll have to live with it, considering it's otherwise awesome as heck. I'll probably end up giving them a call....can you really get refunds for that?

I do believe you can get small refunds for intteruppted service.

You can keep mailing them emails and snail mail through this website.

http://www.planetfeedback.com

Great place to praise or make them pay.

I sympathize with you on the digital cable. I was force to upgrade.