For those of you who don’t know, I recently moved to Hellertown, Pennsylvania from Matawan, New Jersey. Though the move was only 80 miles, it was a major transition in terms of the lifestyle that I was living. I went from having no land and a view from my bedroom that consisted of the blue siding from my neighbor’s two-story garage to a two-acre plot of land, and a view which now consists of trees, hills, and a barn off in the distance.

In the process of moving, I was worried that many modern amenities such as cable internet access and cell phone service would not be available in this area. But, much to my surprise, they're all readily available just as they would be in any other area.

Upon finding out that cable internet access was available in the area, we signed up, and a service man was scheduled to come out to our new residence to make the necessary changes in the lines.

We had them install 4 runs into various rooms of the house, plus one for the cable modem. When all was said in done, I expected to have cable internet access. Well, I was wrong.

There were several things wrong with the installation that I noticed right off the bat. The first of which was the fact that the cable modem was behind three splitters.

What? Three splitters? Don't these people know that each time you split the signal, the signal strength itself is lessened?

Second, when the holes were made for the cable runs, the holes were made JUST large enough for the cable to fit through it. There was no extra room to allow for the crimped end to fit through. I thought this was a nice gesture, considering some of the runs weren't where I wanted them in the first place. So that meant drilling a hole next to the existing hole in order to make it larger.

And last but not least, the modem itself that my service provider gave me was defective. The guy didn't even bother testing the connection before leaving. He saw that all the lights had lit up and decided his job was done.

This fiasco made me wonder exactly what kind of training do cable installation technicians actually go through before they hit the road? Perhaps he did receive proper training, but decided he was in a rush that day, and I got the shaft.

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