That Size Change

I just came back from the Shaw building. Lucky for me, the head office is just down the road a piece and not too far from one of the many coffee shops that I frequent. I call it the head office, but it looks more like a modern cathedral.

 

I guess that in a way the cable companies are the representatives of our modern beliefs. They entertain us, educate us, keep us informed about local, national and international happenings and pretty much show us how to make informed decisions about, well, pretty much everything. I need the cable company to post this blog every day, but don’t hold that against them. We have recently switched our telephone service from the phone company to Shaw’s cable telephone service. We are very happy with the change by the way and I would recommend anyone to change. The service is better and cheaper.

The reason that I went to the “cathedral” is that Shaw has changed things around and now we can only get all of the cable channels we pay for on our main TV. A few months ago, a friend of mine went to the cable company and they gave him a digital box so that he could use the TV in his bedroom. For free! I went there and asked if I too could get a digital box and was told that of course I could. That will be $78 please. Huh?

I waited a month and went back to ask once more, and was told the same thing. Well, that sucks! Today I had decided to bite the bullet and buy the digital box so that I could use the TV in the basement. I went in and instead of twenty people in line, I just walked up to the woman sitting there and asked what my options for the basement TV were. She told me that for $359 or $10/month rental (for ever) I could buy another PVR, for $179 or $7.50/month rental I could get a box that would link all of the TV’s in the house together. I could buy this slightly smaller version for the sale price of $79 or $3.50/month rental. I was thinking the $79 dollar one was sounding good when she gave me the last option. “You could get the DC138K0 digital box with a free rental for as long as you are customers of Shaw.”

Did she say free for life? Why did she waste my time with all of those other options? Why didn’t the two other people that I talked to in the past make the same offer? I am not often at a loss for words, but…but…but WTF?

YES! I will take the free box for life thank you. She went in back for a few minutes and came back with the digital box in a reusable bag that had SHAW printed on the side. A free digital box and a free bag, Christmas has come early! I thanked her, wished her a Merry Christmas and ran out of the cathedral before they could change their minds. I won’t go so far as saying it is a Christmas miracle, but my day was certainly made.

It even worked when I hooked it to the TV and I watched some fine programming down in the basement today. I guess the next thing I have to work on is those bastards at Tim’s that give me a small coffee when I order a medium and then insist it is indeed a medium. How do you argue with someone that is convinced they are right? I knew that size change was going to fuck me over.