In This Issue

THIS PARTICULAR STORY has nothing to do with anything in the paper this week, but in a not very distant sense, it has everything to do with media consolidation and the local cable monopoly, and I bet a lot of other people out there have had the same experience.

Comcast, which has the exclusive franchise on cable TV in San Francisco (and thus also a lucrative market to sell phone service and high-speed Internet access over its cables), has decided to upgrade parts of its system and wants to replace analog cable boxes with digital boxes. So there's a deal on, which has been hyped mercilessly through telemarketers: sign up for digital cable now, and you get a cheap installation and low monthly rates.

So OK, we agreed to upgrade our old-fashioned box on our 20-year-old TV, and I agreed to sit at home on a beautiful Saturday afternoon, the first day of summer, and wait for the cable person.

And wait I did.

The appointment said the technician would arrive between noon and four. At 4:30, with no sign of him or her, I started calling Comcast. After 15 minutes of voice-mail and hold-music hell, I reached someone who wouldn't tell me anything.

I finally got a supervisor who was kind enough to let me know that S.F. appointments were running "about 45 minutes behind." Why did nobody call me to tell me that? She didn't know.

At 4:44, I called back, and she promised the guy was on the way. At 5:20, he showed up – and I figured out what was really going on.

Nice man, the installer. A bit harried. When I pressed him, he told me he had 24 work orders that day – the most ever. Mine took 20 minutes and was simple and routine; figure a minimum of 10 minutes to drive between houses, and (without any lunch or breaks) this guy is working at least 12 hours, if nothing ever goes wrong. He's not 45 minutes behind – he's probably scrambling to get it all done before midnight.

In other words, Comcast is too cheap to hire enough people to do all of the work required in this great upgrade "deal." But of course, the company won't tell you that, won't call to explain why you're wasting your afternoon, won't give you a single honest answer.

Why bother? It's a monopoly. They don't have to.