I wandered up to the local cable TV company's place yesterday, old box and remote in hand. I got a replacement that's HD-capable. After much hooha and a phone call to the service tech, it seems to be working properly, although there are a couple of bugs. Is there a manual for the new box? Why, no. There's an eight-page manual telling you how to run the Setup Wizard. What happens if said Setup Wizard doesn't work? Well, that's why I called the service tech. After fifteen minutes on hold, I finally got a guy who knew what he was doing, but he couldn't understand why the Wiz wouldn't work; thus we have a "sometime between 0800-1630" visit scheduled ten days from now. Wiring/cabling diagrams? Ha! Go online to see the website (which advice I had to give myself, since even that wasn't forthcoming when I picked up the box).
This trend of not supplying printed manuals really annoys me.
Posted by Linkmeister at May 7, 2005 03:13 PMCompanies do not value the work that the writers of those manuals do. Tech writers (and trainers) are the first to be fired when the economy tanks. I have to teach my students how to "sell" the work they do as a valuable piece of the company's product.
Posted by: shelley at May 8, 2005 08:10 AMIt's shortsighted. I wonder if it's the personnel cost or the printing cost that drives it.
Posted by: Linkmeister at May 8, 2005 09:59 AMDo they have a forum? I've had excellent luck with both the dsl provider's and the hardware provider's forums (official and unofficial)...
Posted by: dan at May 8, 2005 09:23 PMI haven't looked for an Oceanic Cable forum. I found a Sony HDTV Yahoo Group, though. Most everything seems to be ok other than being unable to receive two radio channels through the cable. What's strange there is that we have two public radio stations, both emanating from the same transmitter. I can get one but not the other.
Posted by: Linkmeister at May 8, 2005 10:06 PM