It started last March, so a tick over two months ago.
I thought I’d watch some television and that almost always means something on PBS Passport. So I reached for the remote and suddenly, instead of my personal list of programs, I encountered the following message:
the message that wouldn’t leave
PBS
Huh. But maybe the problem was something time would fix. (As if ever.) I waited until the next day, when I tried all the options I in my very limited skill set—turning things on and off, uninstalling and reinstalling the PBS app. Nothing worked and by then it was the weekend. No one answers phones on the weekend.
all I need
I called WGBH on the Monday and after a desultory effort to fix things—essentially doing what I had already done—my case was “escalated” to the PBS Passport app tech department. Enter Louis. Louis spent the next ninety-plus minutes trying to solve the problem and ultimately referred me to Samsung. Samsung, apparently, had done some kind of software update in the wee hours of March 25 and it appeared that they had upset the app. So it was Samsung’s fault. Weird though, Louis thought. No one else had called in with the same issue.
Samsung
So I called Samsung. Over the next six weeks, I spoke with at least six different representatives in India who seemed to occupy a large room in India. Each was told the same story. All of them had me try the same techniques PBS had. They said whatever my problem was, it wasn’t their fault. It was a failure of the PBS app. At any rate, they would try to “escalate” my issue and find me help.
PBS Redux
Back to PBS. Talked to at least three more Passport technicians. They listened carefully, said it wasn’t their fault, and determined that Comcast Xfinity, my internet service provider, was the villain. So I called Comcast, who sent me back to India. Each of those Comcast representatives required that I repeat the story. Each of them said it wasn’t their fault. When I requested a supervisor I got someone I am pretty sure was just another representative reading from a script. But she said she would “escalate” the issue.
At this point I was going back and forth between PBS and Comcast. It is something of a blur.
Someone suggested I get Roku and try streaming Passport through that. It didn’t work either. Nor would the app open on my phone or my computer.
Comcast
Comcast, however, started sending service representatives. The first one was Fabio, and he was supposed to replace my router. He said—after I explained the situation and he spent time diddling with my television and internet connection—that replacing the router made no sense. A few weeks and another agitated phone call later, Herbie came to my home. He was supposed to replace the box—but didn’t because that didn’t make any sense to him.
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
Herbie did, however, spend an hour to so on the phone in order to “escalate” the situation. When he left on that Saturday of Memorial Day weekend, he gave me the telephone number for Kris the supervisor, who would not be back in the office until Wednesday.
I called Kris a little after nine on Wednesday. Then I called him again about three hours later. He was a little testy, I thought, reminding me that he had meetings and whatnot that he needed to focus on. He couldn’t talk. He did, however, schedule another technician for the next day.
Comcast Redux
Terry from Comcast arrived promptly and asked, “what’s the problem?” I went back into the tenth or twelfth or umpteenth explanation of what had been the case since March 25. Moreover, both Netflix and Amazon Prime had stopped working a couple days earlier. I was watching live television, like I did in the pre-cable age.
Terry quickly determined that the Wi-Fi had jumped—of its own accord—from my account to Xfinity. He connected to my house account and Netflix and Prime reappeared.
Then he blamed the PBS app. I wasn’t having that and edged toward hysteria. Terry listened as I reviewed every stinkin’ detail of what had happened and what I had been told by the horde of helpless tech persons. He got thoughtful.
The problem could be, Terry allowed, in the Comcast system. He replaced the router. He sat at my desk and juggled the computer, my phone, and his phone. Presently, I could get Passport on my phone. Then, I could get Passport on my desktop.
We shifted back to the living room and the television, where he uninstalled and reinstalled the PBS Passport app. Suddenly, quite miraculously, Passport was working on the television set.
Success
Terry was with me for one hour and twenty minutes. Was he smarter than Fabio or Herbie? I doubt it. He admitted that he vaguely remembered doing something with a different app that had stopped working. He tried the tricks that had seemed to work then. Damned if they didn’t work for me.
Theoretically this could all have been done two months ago.
I suspect that Samsung update had upset the PBS app or Comcast or both. Maybe the router did need to be replaced. But it took an experienced technician willing, as they say, to think outside the box, to make the damned app work again.
Conclusions
Conclusions? None. Except, maybe, that Terry is grossly underpaid and his skills are wildly underestimated.