
Destined To Fail - stevenkovar
http://stevenkovar.com/post/27822590990/destined-to-fail
======
asmithmd1
I am wondering how Time Warner is getting away with categorizing this guy as
an independent contractor. He wears a company specified uniform, uses company
supplied tools, and does jobs in the order specified by the company. This
sounds like a clear-cut case of mis-catagorizing an employee as in independent
contractor in order to avoid paying overtime.

------
praptak
_"He explains how Time Warner issues a specific screw driver which acts as a
key to open cable boxes and how the previous owner stripped it trying to open
the wrong kind of box; it’s rendered useless. “You’re telling me they
knowingly sent you out with broken equipment?” All Bill can do is laugh to
himself and give back a defeated, “Yep.”"_

Separation of labor from ownership of (broken) means of production leads to
hilarity. I bet Marx would have a chuckle over this.

------
DanWaterworth
_PS: If you are in the Austin area and need a master carpenter, I know a guy
who needs you just as much._

This line made me happy.

~~~
martinrue
Came here to make the same comment :)

------
lukev
Wait. He first "hacks" the order form to make the "supply my own modem"
checkbox available, and then complains that "Time Warner should have known,
based on the options selected during my purchase, that I would supply my own
modem and asked me personally to supply the MAC address and relevant
information".

Can't have it both ways, man. Time Warner can be blamed for many things, but
expecting them to seamlessly support an option they had disabled intentionally
is a bit much. You're lucky they let you do it at all.

~~~
stevenkovar
The URL string suggested it was an A/B test, similar to what we use at
AppSumo. The option was available when you went back to the options page, but
disappeared after a script/some data loaded. For what it's worth, that
particular insight was from "Bill."

------
ebiester
It's not destined to fail when they have a monopoly.

I can say, though, that Cox does a good job with the benefits of their actual
workers. However, most of their workers are outsourced, and are treated the
same way as in the article. This also means the actual employees have to fix
up the subcontractors' mistakes, because of how badly their incentives are
aligned.

Source: a family member who is a Cox employee. I've also known a Comcast
employee who had decent benefits for a call center job, but whose authority
was sorely limited which made doing his job difficult.

------
tmccall1101
Great story. Large businesses like TWC create systems in which they can
uniformly control the process of their employees providing a bridge between
their product and their customers. Unfortunately, rarely are these systems as
fine-tuned as Apple has their "genius bar" set up, for example. They're
usually more similar to the DMV, where the paperwork and step-by-step process
provides an experience that attempts to create an equal experience for all
customers (that also allows for business-specific necessities, such as keeping
a huge group of constantly changing data organized to go along with the DMV
example), but the experience ends up being more of an obstacle or burden than
it providing things like efficiency and flexibility.

I guess what I'm saying is that TWC sees no advantage of providing a better
system. It costs money to uproot the current system, and it also costs money
to create and run a system as detail-oriented as companies like Apple. They
still get people to buy their product (even intelligent, insightful ones like
the author of the article), and the profit margin is probably so significant
that they consider it unnecessary to make Bill's day easier. Something that
probably sounds a lot like, "If Bill doesn't like his job, he can quit." Or,
"If Steven (the author) doesn't like our product, he can find another place to
give his business."

The real problem is that TWC understands full and well what they're doing. You
think they don't get hundreds of phone calls every week from angry customers
or disgruntled employees? The fact of the matter is that they have the upper
hand in terms of what the author was pointing out.

I just feel bad for Bill, and the thousands of people like him. This sort of
thing makes you feel lucky not to be forced to lead a life that includes a job
that is just one huge up-hill battle (in all the wrong senses of the phrase).

Good luck to Bill. My favorite part was his notice at the end to anyone who
needs a master carpenter. I hope somebody contacts him who read that.

Edit: after reading more posts, it's clear that a large part of "the problem"
has to do with the industry itself and the players involved. I think we'd all
love to see somebody uproot the whole industry and start from scratch.

------
andyjohnson0
I'm concerned that this article contains enough information for TimeWarner to
identify Bill. I hope that he doesn't face any retribution.

~~~
generalk
Really? Reading your comment I realized that I just naturally I assumed Bill
wasn't his real name.

~~~
roel_v
Doesn't have to be his real name; how many employees were scheduled sometime
during the last 2 months to have appointments at 9 at a building called
'Milago'?

~~~
andyjohnson0
It also mentions some of Bill's career history: former woodworker with army
comms training.

~~~
rythie
I'm betting they don't have that on file and very few people at the company
know those details.

------
haakon
This is completely off-topic, but what is the deal with grey font colours on
light backgrounds these days? It pointlessly makes it harder to read. I
shouldn't have to open Firebug to change it to black before I start reading.

~~~
dredmorbius
<http://contrastrebellion.com/>

I've got the same problem and gripe.

Apparently one cause is design mock-ups in which text is ipsum-loremed and
muted to reduce distraction from the overall design.

Other useful tools include console-mode browsers, or plugins such as
Readability Redux. Though I find my self increasingly editing out elements (in
addition to fonts, especially static headers/footers) which get in my way.

~~~
DanBC
I strongly agree with contrast rebellion. Having said that, a bright white
background and black text is harder for me to read than a light grey
background and blacktext.

But the back ground shouldn't be darker than #cccccc

I think, but I do not know, that some people with Aspergers prefer a lower
contrast. (See, for example, early websites using silver background with black
text.)

~~~
dredmorbius
Yes on the contrast. RR does a dark-on-beige scheme on its rendered pages by
default. I use MoonReader+ as a eBook reader on Android, it does similarly.

There was some research in the 1970s or 1980s about maximum readability for
paper texts which arrived at similar conclusions. A dark brown text on matte
cream paper tested best. I've read several books printed in this format, and
found it quite readable. Though paper still beats screen for readability (but
not grepping).

------
patja
Isn't anyone else simply flabbergasted that the OP has never seen Blade
Runner??

I'm not sure how being "too young" can be a valid excuse unless you are under
15 years old.

~~~
DanBC
It's a 30 year old movie.

Alien is nearly 35 years old.

There have been a bunch of movies made since then that OP may have thought he
needed to watch - thus not having time to watch the actually good movies.

I'm about to watch both of these in the next month, so it'll be interesting to
see the clunky bits. Visions of the future from the past are fascinating. (See
also the Gibson story "The Gernsback Continuum".)

~~~
probablycorey
There are very few clunky bits in Alien or Blade Runner. It is amazing how
well they hold up.

~~~
josephcooney
I dunno. I love Alien as much as the next guy, but there are a few times when
you see the alien and think "that's just a thin person in an elaborate suit".

~~~
DanBC
Interesting that's what you notice, and not the CRTs or the incandescent bulbs
in switches.

------
RexM
I had an appointment scheduled with Time Warner in Austin, for Friday between
the hours of 8AM and 9PM to fix my internet which has been randomly losing
signal. I figured I could take a day off of work and try to get things done
while the internet was up, which turned out to only be about 3 hours.

I got a call from the tech. at 7PM saying he was on his way. An hour later,
after hearing nothing, I try to call him and get voice mail. I call Time
Warner to see what happened and they said that I didn't answer the phone when
he called... even though I spoke with him and told him I was home (and
answered his questions about whether the internet was still out, three times.)
I had to schedule for this Wednesday, where I'll have to take more time off of
work to attempt to get this fixed.

I understand that the majority of the blame lies with Time Warner for allowing
their field technicians to get overbooked and blamed for being late or missing
jobs, but it's hard to not be upset at this particular field tech for saying
he was on his way, and then not showing up and reporting it as a missed call.

------
njharman
But he and time Warner didn't fail. He sucessfully installed your whatever and
TW is getting your money.

~~~
Tashtego
... for the first sale. But if TW doesn't have a monopoly, I doubt they'd get
the second sale after that experience.

~~~
Spooky23
...but TW does. So they don't really give a rat's ass.

------
simplyinfinity
I simply hate it when companies do that ! They don't take care of their
employees and it all goes straight to hell ! * written while sitting in a
uncomfortable chair , old keyboard and 5 year old pc ( i make websites ) //
end of rant _

~~~
Produce
Word of advice - if you know anything about the code that nobody else does,
use it as leverage. Come in one day, call your boss into an office and tell
him you're quitting. When he asks why - voice your problems with the tools you
work with. Offhandedly suggest that you actually wouldn't mind staying if work
wasn't such a pain in the ass thanks to these issues. Outline how much it will
cost them to train a new employee up and how much cheaper the hardware is in
comparison.

Alternatively, just complain incessantly without threatening to quit if you
can't get another job easily.

Reason I say this is that me and my team have been working on shoddy hardware
for the last six months, then we put our collective feet down and demanded
something better. Now we each have a pretty damn sweet system to work on.

~~~
cturner
I don't think you want to be living a life where you have to issue ultimatums
to get what you need. The world is a bigger place. Find better work and go and
do it. You can remind them of the things you've been unhappy about by leaving.
If everyone did that (instead of sticking in dead-end jobs) it would be much
harder to create crappy jobs.

~~~
Produce
Yet companies act in exactly that way towards their employees. Late too many
times? Ultimatum is issued where you get fired if it happens again. Too many
sick days? Same result. Underperforming? Yup, you guessed it. Your employers
are not your friends - do what you have to to make your life easier. IMO,
ofcourse.

~~~
lmm
A good employer will talk to you and try and work things out before giving you
an ultimatum. You lose little, and can make things a lot easier, by doing the
same.

------
allbombs
Funny enough, I sit in the same boat.. tethering on my 6 gig data plan,
waiting for my internet technician, only 2 more sleeps to go

Bit off topic, but why aren't people crowdsourcing their internet connection
in high rise buildings? I'm sure time warner and every other isp's would just
love that

Hope Bill can find work through your post. Kudos.

------
johnchristopher
> The only way I could remove the monthly modem rental fee in my order online
> was to view the code on Time Warner’s site and edit a hidden part of the
> HTML for the appropriate checkbox to be visible. I’ve never had to ‘hack’ an
> order form before.

I guess the "appropriate checkbox" was greyed out (no way I believe people are
looking at the html in case there would be an hidden checkbox), then the
author used firebug or something to make it visible and then submitted the
form hoping the server on the other side is going to do something with the
$post variable. Not that tricky but there is no way to confirm it's going to
work as intended. IANAL but I raise doubts about the legal validity of such
tamperings with web forms.

~~~
johnchristopher
What are the reasons for my comment being downvoted ?

------
Produce
Welcome to the wonderful world of corporations - where nothing makes sense,
everything is late and the dumber you are, the higher you climb!

------
rickdale
Time Warner seems like a company that suffers from being run by cooperate
execs who dressage for fun. Besides totally ignoring the inconvenience that
they place on each of their customers, they also clearly undervalue their
employees. The biggest thing outside of this article that shows they are out
of touch is their lack of ability to get a deal done with NFL for the NFL
network and RedZone.

The NFL's RedZone network has changed the way Americans watch football (the
biggest sport in America), yet 3 years into the network and Time Warner still
has no deal. It's tiresome and another inconvenience for the customer.

------
pasbesoin
I hope this doesn't backfire on Bill.

It puts me in mind of a story I heard this past weekend (for the second or
third time -- hint, hint as to the experience's effect on the customer, to any
cable co. "image" people happening to read this).

The person I spoke with ("the customer") told me how, transitioning from an
outside antenna to cable TV, he had been very careful to tell the Comcast
order taker that his installation should be classified as a "new" installation
and not as a simple hook-up (the latter implying a pre-existing cable line to
the property). The order taker seemed to have enough technical understanding
to understand this and indicate they were recording the order for service
installation as such.

When the technician arrived, he seemed quite competent, quickly assessed and
understood the situation, and began executing a new installation including a
new line from the pole.

However, he quickly started receiving calls from his supervisor, who was nasty
and who started shouting at him so loudly -- including foul language -- that
the customer could hear the supervisor's side of the conversation bleeding out
of the technician's cell phone.

Apparently, despite this customer's care in placing the order and the order
taker's reassurance that they understood what was needed, the order ended up
in the order tracking system as a simple "hook-up".

There was nothing the technician could do about this, and he remained
courteous with the customer and efficient in his work. But he was totally,
abusively berated and dumped on by his supervisor.

The customer felt bad enough about this that he actually apologized, saying he
was sorry the technician had to go through that.

In retrospect, he told me he wished he'd followed up with Comcast support
until he hopefully might get through to a manager with sufficient authority to
reprimand -- fire, preferably -- that supervisor. Someone who should not be
managing anyone.

And yes, the technician _was a contractor_. Personally, I see so much of this,
I think Congress should be made to pass a law forbidding these (Federally
regulated, quasi-monopolies, after all) companies from using any contract
workers. These companies have obviously abused their positions, including in
their labor relations. Make all their employees full time, with benefits, and
put the companies directly on the hook for such abuses.

When they need to make up the differences in expense, take it out of those
companies' managements' hide. If you want an argument for that, what premium
do -- or rather, don't -- they have to offer and pay to get management capable
of managing a _fucking monopoly_ (or the next thing to same)?

------
baddox
Did I interpret this correctly? The technician saw the name Nebuchadnezzar and
assumed it was a reference to a ship (perhaps from The Matrix) and not the
infamous Chaldean emperor from the Tanakh?

~~~
PotatoEngineer
Pop culture has more traction than ancient history does.

------
recycleme
This hits close to home. I tried getting internet service from TWC twice but
they failed each time. The first time they couldn't find the cable output.
Turned out it didn't exist. So I scheduled an appointment for a "wall drop"
(creation of needed cable output), but the guy just showed up confused that I
didn't have one asked me to schedule a wall drop.

~~~
adavies42
a few years ago i moved into an apartment in NYC that somehow didn't have a
phone line. at all. like there wasn't a wall jack in the entire apartment. (it
was a hundred-year-old building, i have no idea how this was possible.)

i discovered this when i finally gave up on cable internet (insanely
unreliable there) and needed about five calls and three visits to get verizon
to understand that someone would have to drill a hole in my floor and run wire
into the basement before my DSL could be hooked up, because yes, i _really
didn't have a phone line_.

------
RockyMcNuts
Destined to be fired... now that the post about how horrible he thinks his
employer is has gone viral.

Hope that carpentry thing works out.

~~~
smhanov
Don't be silly. Nobody in the real world reads Hacker News.

------
rdl
I've never met a technician (outside the government) who didn't have his own
tools. This is probably why.

~~~
orangecurtain
Security tools aren't readily obtainable by independent contractors.

------
PaulHoule
Yeah.

I think of that stupid question, "Debit or Credit?"

The more I think about it, the more I see it as a hypnotic induction that
prepares everybody for bad service. It's the perfect thing to get people used
to the idea that they shouldn't experience customer delight, never.

~~~
theorique
How is "debit or credit?" a hypnotic induction that prepares everybody for bad
service? Isn't it just a request for a basic bit of information that a cashier
needs to process a transaction?

~~~
TheSOB88
I'm pretty sure it's a useless question. You can use debit cards as credit
cards and vice versa.

~~~
grumpycanuck
Nice American-centric view there. Up here in Canada we can use 'debit' to pay
using our bank account with a separate card from our credit cards.

~~~
gwillen
No, it's exactly the same down here in the US. Parent poster is just clueless.

------
lnanek2
So they are overrun with customers, staff working their asses off already -
and the author suggests putting work into supporting rare edge cases like
customers bringing their own modem? Shouldn't they just remove that option
entirely to streamline their flow, and ditch the ultra-rare customer who
demands that? Sure, every customer wants a perfect experience super customized
to their exact situation, but that's not how you run a business. Some of the
biggest successes like Apple and McDonalds just pick some reasonable defaults,
options, and cost per user levels and then that is that, no super advanced
configuration, and the savings are huge. Just the lack of many different
hardware configurations does wonders for Apple's software not running into
problems and wonders for the hardware ordering cost savings (for the
business).

~~~
whichdan
Comcast charges $7/mo for a shitty modem. A brand new top end Motorola modem
costs <$90 from Amazon. Why shouldn't we buy our own modems?

------
nanijoe
What does AppSumo do? It appears you first have to sign up to find out..

------
niels_olson
Average return to work after inguinal hernia surgery:

worker's comp case: 6 weeks self-employed: 2 days

------
lcargill99
it didn't really fail. You were up after it was all over with. Fast, cheap or
good - pick two.

~~~
Danieru
Except cable setup is neither fast, nor very good. At best they picked one.

------
nirvana
Of all the government created monopolies, the cable monopolies are some of the
worst.

If cable companies had to compete to keep business, they'd offer better
service and treat their employees better. Southwest airlines is a good example
of a company that has to keep costs low, but does this in part by treating
their employees very well.

Notice that they charge ever higher and higher fees, in part because the
municipalities are on the take here and get a cut of the fees, but also
because the demand is inelastic. If you live in Austin and you want cable,
they have your business.

So, there's no reason to spend the money to have enough technicians to ensure
they are able to do a good job and a timely one.

A big part of the reason this never improves is that everyone blames Time
Warner. TWC is just maximally allocating resources, which is what they should
do. Namely, out of areas where they have a monopoly protected by the violence
the city of austin will do to any other cable company that tries to
compete.... and into areas where they have to compete for customers.

But you don't hear this issue at election time. Why do people not hold their
city council peeps accountable for imposing this overpriced monopoly on them?

My guess is that most don't realize it is a government created monopoly, and
the ones who do, many think that there would be no cable if the city hadn't
given those rights away as an incentive to install all the cable. (not the
case... places where this doesn't happen, still get cable because it isn't
that expensive to put in the cable.)

~~~
guelo
You can always count on nirvana to come up with the maximal libertarian
argument. What proof is there that this is a government created monopoly? What
exactly is the "violence" that Austin would do to competitors? Do libertarians
not believe in the concept of natural monopolies?

~~~
kbolino
The monopoly is not entirely created by the government. It would be more
accurate to say, "the major cable companies have divided the country amongst
themselves and agreed not to step on each other's turf." The FCC and the local
governments have various levels of complicity in this arrangement.

A municipality would not likely visit any violence upon a competitor, but
that's largely because the only way to become a competitor (you can't just
start digging holes and dropping cable in them) is through the approval of the
municipality. This is where the "government-sponsored monopoly" idea comes
into play, because there is often a revolving door between the government
agency nominally charged with regulating cable service and the cable company
that administers it.

Also, no, libertarians in general do not "believe in the concept of natural
monopolies". Many libertarians hold that monopolies are short-lived and are
prolonged only through the complicity of governments--or other actors which
may play the same role in context, like the mafia, or even the corporation
itself, should it become a _de facto_ government. Of course, with that last
point, you start begging the question...

~~~
pasbesoin
And where municipalities have not received sufficient -- or any (i.e. high
speed) -- service from existing providers and have therefore, finally,
attempted to deploy their own local service (an action with much established
precendent, e.g. rural electrification cooperatives, water service, etc. --
even telephone exchanges), in many of those cases the incumbent
telecommunications providers have lobbied and coerced state governments to
outlaw such actions.

They don't want to offer service. But they're damned sure not going to let
anyone else do so -- not even let the community do so for themselves.

I'd hardly call that healthy competition.

------
piffey
Two hours to hook up your cable connection? Oh the torture -- better blog
about it.

~~~
nkohari
You have missed the point. Read the article again.

