Corner Brook -
At first, Andy Thorne just passed off the breaking up of his television set's audio and video feed as a temporary reception problem.
When it persisted and was happening on multiple channels, he wondered if there might be something amiss with his television set.
After weeks of becoming increasingly annoyed by the problem and learning he wasn't alone in experiencing pixelated screens and broken or out-of-synch audio, the Corner Brook resident looked into what was going on a bit deeper.
He had a chat with a local Rogers Cable employee who told him the company had recently changed the way it is providing its customers with their television signal feed.
"He told me Rogers has not come up with the hardware or the software to get this to work," said Thorne. "I don't know if I've watched a show in the last two months without some form of interruption. It's like the CBC back in 1958 when we'd watch the test pattern for four hours."
Thorne took his concerns directly to Rogers last week, but wasn't satisfied with the reception he got there either. The company sent a technician to his house last Friday to check out his television set and the connection to his home, but no problem was detected.
"They're playing this bullshit game with the consumer," said Thorne. "When I called their billing office, I was sent to customer service, who then sent me to their technical people."
"As far I'm concerned, this is theft. They are billing us every month but they are not providing us with the service we are paying for."
Thorne thinks he and every other customer experiencing this same problem should get some sort of credit back from the cable company.
"I think most people have been too complacent about this and we should make some noise because the only way to get it fixed, if you ask me, is to make it cost the company," said Thorne.
Christiane Vaillancourt is responsible for public affairs for Rogers in Atlantic Canada.
She said the company is aware of the existing problem and is working towards having it completely rectified.
"We are aware we have had that problem for a while," said Vaillancourt. "We tried to address it about two weeks ago when we changed out some equipment, which resolved most of it.
"There are still some intermittent issues going on which we are aware of. We have ordered some more equipment, so it's just a question of having that installed to prevent the dissolving of the image. It is supposed to be rectified in the next two weeks, but Christmas is throwing a wrench into that, so I can't give a specific date."
When she spoke with The Western Star on Monday, Vaillancourt said she would have to further look into Thorne's insistence on customers receiving a credit for having to endure the prolonged signal disruptions. Later that week, she still had not provided any further comment on that issue.
