That box to convert to digital so you can watch City Channel 12, soon to be 994, isn’t so free after all. But I can’t say I’m surprised. Below is a person’s first hand account of what it takes to get one of those boxes and your options:
1. You can go out to the local Charter Communications office at 2701 Daniels Street–if you do this, you will be given the needed box at no charge. If you don’t have a car, this address _is_ on only one bus line, Route 39 (a morning and afternoon rush-hour-only route). Daniels Street intersects Pflaum Road between Advance Road and Agriculture Drive, but 2701 Daniels is on Daniels quite a ways from the bus stop on Pflaum Road–in fact, that address is nearer to Dairy Drive, rather than Pflaum Road, so it might be better to get off the bus at the intersection of Dairy Drive and World Dairy Drive.
2. You can make an appointment for Charter Communications to come out and install the box on your television–this costs their standard service call fee of $29.99.
3. You can make an appointment for Charter Communications to come out and hand you the box, but you will install it yourself–this costs a reduced rate of $19.99.
There are no other choices, according to Charter’s 800 telephone number.
They said that they will not mail the box to anyone, although the box itself is only about 5″ by 7″.
They said that they will not make arrangements for a more centralized pick-up spot for the boxes. They didn’t seem concerned about the difficulty for people to arrange to be off of work during business hours, either for those with access to a car to drive out to pick up the box or those who have to get out to the Daniels location on a rush-hour-only bus to their location. They didn’t seem concerned about those who had to arrange to be away from work in order to be at home to have the box delivered or installed, or about the significant fee involved with delivery.
I called this afternoon and spoke with Mr. Brad Davis at the Madison City Channel and he said he would be talking again (soon) with the Charter Communications people to see if anything can be done about this situation. Mr. Davis indicated that Madison City Channel would be glad to take a supply of the boxes to have available at the Madison City Channel offices (located right in the city’s downtown area) to be picked up by the Charter subscribers who need the box to receive the Madison City Channel, but that Charter Communications had previously declined such an arrangement.
To clarify, Mr. Brad Davis is actually Brad Clark and this person followed up with the following information.
Say, I just found out that Route 39 does have “off-peak” service between the morning and afternoon rush-hour periods–it _does_ run once an hour between the morning and afternoon rush-hour periods.
Any which way you look at it, these options are less than optimal. And I thank the person who sent this to several listserves for the detailed information.
UPDATE: After I wrote this, I got an email from someone who said that when they called the person they talked to “had no record of” the fact that the box is supposed to be free for the first 6 months.
