As cable or satellite television customers, we don’t ask for much from our providers. All we want is the signal to be there when we turn on the television. When it’s there, we’re happy, but when the signal isn’t there or is lost, we can get angry.
Now imagine you’re watching the Super Bowl and all of a sudden, the cable goes out and you miss a good portion of the second quarter when the Big Game is still a contest. By the time the signal returns, the Seattle Seahawks have pretty much salted the game away.
That’s exactly what happened to the subscribers of Time Warner Cable in the Los Angeles area. A good portion of the audience lost their signals and did not get it back until the game was decided. By that time, you’re looking to see what’s on HBO or seeing if there’s a new Downton Abbey episode.
After hearing from angry customers, Time Warner decided to make up for the error by sending them $5 gift cards. But they weren’t just any gift cards, you see, Time Warner sent those who were affected by the outage, cards from Target. Yes, the same store that had got into trouble when hackers broke into their computer servers and stole personal credit and debit card information. And for just $5? Judging for the time lost, you would think it was worth more than just $5!
With Time Warner merging with Comcast, it would have been a grand gesture to send gift cards for $10 or even $20 to perhaps Bass Pro Shops or even Amazon, but Target? For $5? How magnanimous of them.
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