Why (insert your cable provider here) Sucks

Back to the Web. The guy who came to install my cable service was great. I called him Friday morning, and I had working cable television and internet service by 5 PM. This is almost unheard of. No problems at all really. He showed up on time, set it up and left. Nice guy too.

The problem is with the cable company itself. Here's my minor beef:
The back of the digital cable box has a 'digital audio out' jack. I tried hooking the cable box up to my stereo via this option, but no sound. I thought maybe I had a faulty cord, so I went to Target and laid down $20 for a new one. Take two: still no luck. I was sure it was a problem with my stereo receiver, and spent a bit of time flipping though menu's, changing settings, and the like to see if I could get sound.

Nope.

Then I figured out that the truly digital channels on the "digital cable" had sound with the digital audio connection, but the analog channels (everything you would ever watch) did not. Now it's not my system's fault, so I call Time Warner customer service. Five minutes later the rep tells me the digital audio output on the back of the box is not active. "Yeah, it's on there, but it doesn't work. They had originally planned to offer it, but then changed their minds for some reason" Strike Three.

Okay fine. No big deal. I'm not such an audiophile that I can't watch my television with a standard composite stereo connection. I can take the cable I bought back to Target, and get my money back. The problem I have is that Time Warner claims to offer this capability on their website.

Free markets work wonderfully when they are actually free. But there are some commodities that simply don't fit nicely into the global village, or even the local village for that matter. The answer to my problem with the cable company would naturally be to switch my service to a more customer friendly competitor. But because of the massive infrastructure costs of multiple cable networks in a city, there is no competition.

Okay fine, this is an understandable restriction for this specific product/service, but if you eliminate competition in a marketplace, you must make some attempt at regulation of the resulting monopoly. (Actually, there is competition in the industry, but it is at a level higher than the end user. Municipal governments decide which service provider to grant access to the infrastructure, but the key to winning a government contract is not end-user customer service. Ask yourself, 'What can I do for the Government?' Not 'What can I do for the consumer' if you will) While there may be some minimal regulation in the form of price protection; in terms of the integrity of the company's stated products/services there is no refuge for the consumer. We get screwed.

This is the same problem that plagued the British railway system when it was initially privatized in the 1980-1990s. If Virgin is the only company with rights to use track or station platforms in your city and you are not pleased with their level of service,then you as a consumer are left out of the market equation. You have no alternative. Thus, loosely regulated companies begin skimping on maintenance, on-time results, and customer service in general. Imagine what happened to train service in Britain.

Admittedly, satellite providers are starting to provide competition for the cable companies. But even with the increasing competition from Satellite providers, local cable companies have not been quick to change to a more customer focused business model. Why? I'm not sure. My guess is that cable companies still have a majority of the market share, and as such feel no need to change their policies.

So what can consumers do? I dunno, I just analyze the problems. I don't fix 'em.