MeXscape

We recently decided to switch from our existing internet service to MegaCable. Our existing service had been getting worse and worse. We suffered hundreds of micro drops in service throughout the day which really played havoc with uploads and downloads, and in my business, I do a lot of uploading. Speed was gradually decreasing. We ended up with absolutely no service at all for several days, which means no working, no email, and no telephone. When service was finally restored, it would be up for two minutes, then down for five, with breaks for outages lasting several hours. We had enough.

So why MegaCable? We had their service previously and found it to be reliable. Plus, we can't get TelMex to resolve the small issue where they persist in billing us for a telephone line we have never had, so DSL isn't an option. There is a new provider in town, Axtel, but we would really rather wait for more people we know to try them out first. So that leaves MegaCable. We recently decided to sell our online store, so we figured that the whole proxy server thing wouldn't be an issue anymore. Oh, and MegaCable offers 4 meg service – the fastest in town for residential service.

We went to the MegaCable office on Lola Beltran just to find out what they had to offer. We had no intention of signing up. But there was a very nice lady who offered us a package with TV (who cares), 4 meg internet (yea!), and 200 local phone calls with MegaFon (we could finally have a land line), all for $899MXN a month. We thought it was a pretty good deal, so we signed on the dotted line.

Since we didn't go to MegaCable with the intention of signing up, we didn't have our FM-3s or passports. Surprisingy, they let us sign up with a copy of Chuck's Texas drivers license (we don't carry our originals with us). I don't know if their rules are that lax, or it's because they had us in their system already from previous service.

The nice lady offered us upgrades to our package like premium TV channels, extra local calls, and included long distance. We declined them all. We paid an equipment deposit of $2,000MXN, and they gave us our installation and first month of service for $400MXN. We were strongly warned that we must pay our bill by the tenth of each month, or the price would revert to the a-la-carte price for the services, about $1,100MXN.

As an aside, I also want to mention here that MegaCable offers some much better deals. If you read their advertisements, you can get some crazy levels of service for really low prices, but if you read the fine print (in Spanish), the really low price is only good for three months. Then you pay a much higher price. We read over our contract a couple of times and asked the nice lady repeatedly if the price we were quoted would be the price we pay every month.

The nice lady really surprised us by asking what time of day we wanted the installation. Delightedly, we answered after 2:00 PM is best. But our short borne hope was quickly crushed when she said that installation would occur after 2:00 PM some time in the next 13 days. Oh. Still, we were upbeat. Last time we had MegaCable, they said 10 days or less and our cable was installed the next day, on a Sunday. We left feeling pretty good.

We spent the next couple of days in giddy anticipation. We couldn't help it. The prospect of stable, reliable, fast internet was enough to make me giggle. As the days slipped by with no installer, however, I calmed down and resigned myself to working with our existing internet connection. Chuck however, became like a caged animal – restless and edgy. He paced a lot. And then he started to tackle a lot of little chores around the house that he had been deferring, like fixing the dripping kitchen faucet and unpacking and organizing some backup computer equipment we brought with us.

I quietly accepted the boon until Tropical Storm Lowell started to hand us buckets of rain. That did two things: made our existing internet service even worse and stopped the cable installers from working. I knew we were in for a wait.

Finally, we got a break in the rain, and I had a Mexican friend call MegaCable for me. He didn't get any real answers, so I later had another friend call. The lady on the phone was extemely unhelpful. My friend suggested that I do what everyone else does, just find an installer on the street and offer him a $100MXN tip to come do my installation.

I got home late that evening and told Chuck what my friend had said. The next morning, Chuck took one last stab at calling. He called himself. The woman on the phone refused to listen to his Spanish (which isn't bad, especially when asking simple questions) and refused to pass him over to someone who spoke English. The call went nowhere. Chuck suggested that perhaps the telephone was the problem, and we might have more success face-to-face. It made sense, because we do usually do better in person. So we went back to the MegaCable office.

We walked in and looked for the nice lady, but she wasn't around. So we took a number from the little machine and sat down to wait. When it was our turn, we went to a cubicle to speak to our designated representative of MegaCable. I'm pretty sure it was the same woman Chuck spoke to on the phone. If we were speaking face-to-face, there is a word I would use to describe her, but I am not willing to put it here in writing, indelibly, for all the world to see for all time. Plus, my mother reads this. So I will just call her...rude.

She was not pleasant to begin with, but when she looked up our contract number in her computer, she became a banshee. I guess three telephone calls were too many. She started to crisply tell us while making a lot of stabbing gestures at us with her finger that 13 days means 13 business days. They don't work on Saturday or Sunday. Plus, throw in a few days for the Independence Day holiday, and we were looking at the 25th. And that was the exact day we were getting installation, not a day before. By the end she was actually yelling, and people from all around the office were looking at us.

I know this will shock my mom and dad, but I quietly folded my contract and we left. In the US, I would have been right back at her, demanding a supervisor and probably getting her fired. But in the past year and a half, I have gotten used to the Mexican way of doing things. Everyone here is calm and helpful and nice and I like it.

When we got back home, we decided to implement plan B – going out and finding an installer ourselves. Chuck went out in the truck to search the neighborhood. Many of the surrounding streets were flooded and it started to rain again while he was out, so he didn't have much luck. He did manage to find two guys in MegaCable cars, but they refused to come in the rain. I don't really blame them, since the installation involves climbing a power pole. Chuck came home wet and dejected and was in the middle of telling me about his adventures when a MegaCable car came down our street. Isn't irony grand?

We've been here long enough that I forget to be amused by the MegaCable cars, but they really are funny. All of the installers drive these tiny, two-door, hatchback eggs. With ladder racks. And not little ladders. We are talking full-size extension ladders.

The installer climbed the power poll and did what he needed to do there, then Chuck brought him up to our roof. The guy stopped short. Several months ago, we were having work done on our roof and the cable was in the way. Since we were no longer using the cable, we told the workers to just clip it. The installer didn't have any cable with him to complete the installation. That's right. The cable installer doesn't carry cable. The guy said sorry and left.

The next morning, (this past Friday) we decided to go out in search of an installer again. This time I went too. As a woman, I can get away with tactics Chuck can't - like begging. Although some of the streets were still flooded, the sky was clearing, which I took as a good omen. We went cruising the city looking for a MegaCable car. We saw four TelMex installers, but no MegaCable. I had to be home for a conference call with a client, so we headed back unsuccessful.

As I was driving up the hill, we were passed by a MegaCable car heading the other direction. I waved my arm out the window like a mad woman, and the guy actually stopped – about 100 feet past me. The road up our hill is quite narrow with a looming rock wall on one side and the ocean on the other, but I was unwilling to risk loosing the guy by going up the hill and turning around. I have a fear of driving backwards, but I threw the truck in reverse and quickly backed down the hill to where the installer was waiting. I looked in his back seat and saw boxes of cable. I beseeched him to help me and offered him a $200MXN tip to come to my house immediately. He agreed.

He checked the connection at the power pole, then went up on the roof. He looked at the cut end and shook his head. He did not have enough cable to complete the installation. He terminated the end on the cable on our roof and checked that we had signal. We did. He said he would go get the cable necessary to complete the installation, but that we needed to go to the cable office and pick up our box and modem. It was agreed that we would pay him after he returned and completed the installation.

Chuck drove to the office to get the stuff we needed. When he walked in, he was immediately spotted by the nice lady, who came over to help him. He explained that the installer had been by and we needed the cable box and modem. She went to get another employee to help, who turned out to be the rude woman. She flat out refused to give Chuck the equipment. The nice lady was very confused, and whispered to Chuck to come back between 4:30 and 7:00 and she would hook him up.

I had the truck that afternoon, so I was the one to go back to the office. The nice lady saw me and came over to help. I handed her my contract and waited. She conferenced with several employees, one after another, and everyone looked confused. I waited patiently. Finally, she came over and asked if I had paid a man to do the installation. I started to play dumb, but she was so nice and was trying so hard to help, I said, "¡Sí!" Of course. Her face cleared and she called a supervisor over for one last conference.

They weren't going to give me the equipment. Instead, they were sending a tech out Sunday morning to check the installation and bring the equipment. Sunday. They do work on weekends. I thanked her and left. I wondered briefly what we would do about the tech who was supposed to be coming back, but that was moot since he never returned.

I don't know if I am surprised or not, but at 9:30 Sunday morning, a tech arrived at our house and completed the installation. It took about 40 minutes and only two new holes through our walls to run the cable through. So we are officially up and running and our new local phone is working.

Our speed is still only 2.6 meg and they are supposed to send someone out to figure out the problem. I am not holding my breath. But the internet connection is a lot faster than our previous one, and it is stable. I'm calling it a victory for now.

In case anyone is interested in what TV channels you get with the basic TV package, here is a list. There is a surprising amount of English language programming.

100 Preview Digital (Channel Guide)
102 FOX
104 FX
106 Universal Television
110 Sony TV
112 Warner (WB)
116 E!
118 UniCable
124 Casa Club
125 FOX Life
127 Fashion TV
130 Retro

Music Stations

136 Videorola
137 Canal de Conciertos
138 MTV
139 MTV Jams
140 MTV Hits
141 VH1
142 CMT Pure
143 VH1 Soul
144 Movie Traxx
145 Telehit

Children

150 Cartoon Network
154 JETIX
156 Nickelodeon
157 THE-N
158 Discovery Kids
160 Disney Channel

Life/Scence/Educational/Documentary

170 Discovery
171 Discovery Science
172 Discovery Home & Health
173 Discovery Civilization
175 Discovery Turbo
176 People & Arts
177 Xclusive
178 History Channel
180 National Geographic
182 Animal Planet
184 A&E México
186 Infinito
192 EWTN

Air Channels - Local and International

200 Preview Digital (Channel Guide)
202 XEW TV Channel 2
203 TVC
204 XHTV 4TV
205 XHGC Channel 5
207 Azteca 7
209 Galavision
211 Once TV
212 XHMZ TV 7
213 Azteca 13
214 Azteca 13 Delay
215 Cadena Tres
216 TeleMax
220 XEW TV (-2 hrs)
222 Channel 22
226 Congress
227 TeleFormula
228 CNN in Spanish
229 Proyecto 40
230 CNN
235 TV 5
238 TV Columbia
239 American Network

250 MegaTips Rock
270 MegaTips Jazz
272 MegaTips Clásico

Sports

300 Preview Digital
302 ESPN
303 CAB Sports
304 FOX Sports
306 ESPN
307 TVC Sports
318 Special Events

Movies

400 Preview Digital
402 Cinema Platino
404 Platino PLus
406 MGM
408 Hallmark
410 TNT
412 Golden Choice
414 Golden Choice 2
416 Platino 2
418 De Pelicula
420 TV CMX (CMC)
421 The Film Zone (West)
422 EuroChannel
423 The Film Zone (East)
424 TCM

Pay-Per-View

500-526

Adult Pay-Per-View

594, 596, 598

Music

601 Mariachi
602 Grupera M´e;xicana
603 Éxitos en Español
604 Pop Juvenil
605 Rock en Español
606 Romancer Latino
607 Bailables en Español
608 Hot Jamz
609 Fiesta Tropical
610 Música de las Americas
611 Retro Disco
612 Éxitos de los 70s
613 Éxitos de los 80s
614 Éxitos de los 90s
615 Power Hits
616 Ritmos de Caribe
617 Ritmos del Mundo
618 Chill Out
619 Jazz Latino
620 Jazz Clásico
621 Brasil Pop 40
622 Romántica en Inglés
623 Éxitos en Inglés
624 Rock Pesado (Heavy Metal)
625 Bailables en Inglé
626 Rock Clásico
627 Big Band and Swing
628 Rock & Roll de Ayer
629 Flashback New Wave
630 Infantil en Inglés
631 Hot Hollywood Hits
632 Nueva Era (New Age)
633 Tango
634 Música Popular Brasilera
635 Verde Amarelo
636 Ritmo y Blues
637 Groove Lounge
638 Blues
639 Grandes Cantantes
640 Éxitos Europeos
641 Éxitos Italianos
642 Éxitos de Siempre
643 Contemporánea
644 Reggae
645 Piano
646 Clásicos Instrumentales
647 Clásica Suave
648 Ópera
649 Sinfónica
650 Brasil Pop y Rock