GameThread: Orioles @ Twins, 1:05

so they should win this game

….Kevin Lomax is the name of Keanu Reeves’ character (SPOILER ALERT: Son of the Devil) in the movie The Devil’s Advocate.

I know I shouldn’t be, but he’s hitless in 10 AB now, and he’s only put one ball in the air.

Comcast will always be Public Enemy #1.

but I’d really like to learn more about the Shell Museum.

wtf?

a lot of singles and nobody has scored

3.2 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 SO.
4 GO vs. 5 AO.
59 pitches, 38 strikes.

WHIP is a little high and strikes are a little low, but looks good, all things considered. Especially the ground balls.

From Roch:

Orioles took a 1-0 lead in the top of the fifth when Jeff Salazar reached on an error with two outs, and Robert Andino and Justin Turner followed with singles.

that’s a surefire way to get the comcast guy here, STAT

I keep waiting for him to break out with some lines from Major League.

A 1-2-3 inning, but no strikeouts.

he made like 3 nice plays out there today

This is a long rant that I don’t really expect anyone to read but I’m so pissed off right now that I gotta go with it.

When I moved into this house and signed up for Comcast they were running this deal where you get all three of their services for $99 (phone, internet, cable) a month, plus the commercial said that included the DVR for one year and HBO for six months. I didn’t have a phone on my old house, just used my cell, but I figured that’s cheaper than I was paying before for just tv and internet plus my mom is always complaining that she wishes I had a phone in my house, so I’m like whatever.

So I call the Comcast people and set it up and it took me forever just go get cable because the person who lived where I live before me didn’t pay his bills and they were somehow convinced that I was just using my name to get service in this house for him after they shut it off. Because some dude didn’t pay his bill I had to make multiple trips to their sketch town office which is off Wabash Ave in the middle of the ghetto and ended up flipping out on some lady before they’d finally concede that maybe I WASN’T in cahoots with the deadbeat who lived in my house before me. Anyway, this bundle deal came with a 1 year contract but that didn’t bother me because I’m always going to have cable even if I do hate those jerks.

So when I got my first bill for them it was for way more than $99. I know it would be more because all the BS fees they charge plus taxes, but it was too much. So when I look closely it says they’re charging me for the DVR and HBO. I call them up and say, “This was supposed to be part of the package” and they say “no it’s not.” and I don’t actually have any proof in front of me but I remember the commercial because that’s what made it such a good deal. I tell them that and they say “those are national commercials. we have no control over what bundles we have. our bundle never included that.” Well I don’t know what I’m supposed to say to that, but I can’t not have my DVR or HBO so whatever. I deal with it.

Fast forward a bit down the road and I’m home watching TV and see that 90210 is on the SOAPnet. I flip to it and am told that I’m not authorized for the channel. I do some investigating and I’m not authorized for a whole bunch of channels that I’m used to having. So I call Comcast to say what’s up and they say that my bundle was for the digital starter package, NOT the digital classic package which has all those channels. That one is on me, totally, I should have done some more research. So I ask them how much it would cost to give me the digital classic package. They say $15. That’s kinda high for me, so I say, “Can I cancel my phone and add the cable upgrade to offset that cost?” No, I CAN’T do that because the phone was part of the bundle that I signed a one year contract for and canceling the phone would be like canceling the contract and they’d have to charge me like $300 or some garbage. So whatever, I don’t need those channels. I’ll live without 90210 and whatever else.

One of the channels that I don’t get is the MLB Network. When that O’s/Pirates game was on MLBN not too long ago I totally forgot that I didn’t have MLBN until a few days before the game. When I remembered I was a little bummed but whatever, it’s just a spring training game. But I went onto the Comcast webpage just to look around and on the information page about their sports entertainment package it says, “MLB Network is included with the Comcast Digital Preferred or Digital Premier packages, or get it with Digital Starter when you add the Sports Entertainment Package.” The Sports Entertainment Package costs $5 a week so I decided I’d like to sign up for it.

When you sign up for something online with Comcast they put you in a chat room with the sales person while you check out, so I asked the guy to please verify that MLBN comes with the sports package before I buy it because that’s the reason I’m getting it. He tells me, “The MLBN only comes with the digital classic package, not digital starter.” So I pointed him to the page that says otherwise and it took him like 30 minutes but finally he verifies it and completes the order.

But guess what? I don’t have MLBN. So I call back later that evening and get told, “The MLBN only comes with the digital classic package, not digital starter.” I point the dude to the place that says otherwise, he totally gets confused, I get passed around to three other Comcast “analysts” (don’t even get me started on the fact that these people call themselves analysts) who all say to me, “The MLBN only comes with the digital classic package, not digital starter.” Finally the last dude who I think was someone’s boss tells me that I’m right and he’ll set me up with it. He does his magic and then tells me that I’ll have it in 45 minutes. I think you know the answer to the question, “Did you have it in 45 minutes?”

I couldn’t call back that day, it was too much, so I called back again on Tuesday and got the same rigmarole, and on Wednesday called back one final time. After being told, “The MLBN only comes with the digital classic package, not digital starter.” and again telling them that’s not what the website says or what any of the other 10 analysts I’ve talked to has discovered when they check into it, the guy determines my box can’t receive the correct signal and sets up a tech to come to my house today between 2 and 6.

At this point I don’t even give a crap about the stupid MLBN anymore, it’s been WAY more hassle than it’s worth, but whatever. I leave work today, drive home, and wait. Just about 15 minutes ago I get a call from Comcast. They tell me they’re not sending a technician out because, “The MLBN only comes with the digital classic package, not digital starter.” But that they’d be happy to upgrade my service for $15 a month and give me digital classic. I tell this woman the same thing I’ve told the others, and she tells me that Baltimore Comcast is not responsible for the information on the national Comcast website and she’s straight up telling me I cannot have it unless I add the digital classic. I ask her why someone couldn’t have told me that before I wasted who knows how many hours and left work 4.5 hours early to sit around and wait. She asks me, “When you called Comcast with your problem, did you call a 410 number or the national 800 number?” I told her I called the 800 number. When you look on your bill or on the website, the number is ALWAYS 1-800-COMCAST. She tells me that was my mistake because those people don’t know what they’re talking about. ARGH.

So then she gives me the 410 number for the local office and says that if I want I can call them to verify that I cannot get MLBN. I tell her no thanks, can she please just cancel the sports package because I don’t actually need the horseracing network and Tennis TV. She tells me I’ll have to call another department for that because she doesn’t handle those things. I say, “Can you transfer me to make sure I end up in the right place?” She says no and hangs up on me.

And that’s my saga. I wish I’d never even heard of Comcast. And now even if I wanted to switch (and my only option is directTV with DSL, I can’t have DSL) I have my dumb contract that they’ll charge me $300 for breaking if I cancel or try to get rid of the phone.