My buddy Charlie who lives in Pioneer, California sent me an email message last evening, telling me about his tale of woe concerning the cable company he has called Volcano. Pioneer is a small town located in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains and their is only one cable/internet provider serving the area. Not even ATT or other larger companies can provide service to the area.

So Charlie tells me that Volcano has decided to upgrade their analog system to digital cable and requires that each TV have a digital converter box. For the modest fee of only $2.99 a month you get to rent the boxes from the cable company. So what’s the problem? Charlie and his wife Donna have 8 TV sets in their home. The cable man came and installed eight boxes plus indicated that he must return to also upgrade the cable which is a 250′ run to their home.

I had to laugh since a recent article I wrote covering some of my own problems living in a rural area doesn’t even compare to this. Our cable company has already laid fiber optic  and we should be upgrading to HD by next month.

So taking a line from an old Star Kist commercial “Sorry Cahrlie!” LOL

Has anyone else experienced this type of problem with their local mom and pop cable company? If so, please provide your experience as well.

Comments welcome.

[tags]cable, tv, volcano, pioneer, california, [/tags]