'cable guy' appointment scheduling

file under: poor customer service and planning

i'm sure you've all had the infamous 'cable guy' scheduling thrown at you by your actual cable company or another vendor...you know the "between 8am and 12pm" type stuff?  yeah, basically the "we'll get there at some point" mentality.

my dishwasher broke.  we called for a service appointment (still under warranty).  this particular service company only services my area on thursdays...no problem, i can schedule around that.  the appointment time they give me?  between 8:00 AM and 5:00 PM.  ouch, that hurts.  that is double-worse.  "we'll get to you at some point, but block out your whole day for us and in the off chance we can't make it, we'll be sure to let you know at about 4:45 PM."

seriously, that bites.  what is even worse is that wednesday evening (night before 'appointment') we get an automated reminder.  yeah, the ones that repeat the appointment details.  seriously hearing the computer repeat 'between 8 am and 5 pm' (with the pauses in between indicating it is pulling the voice bits based on the appointment data being retrieved) seemed like a complete waste of my time and data across the telephony wires...

nothing more, just a rant and a plea to fix the appointment scheduling problem for these companies.  on a side note the guy showed up at 8:30am and was done in < 1 hour so it worked out for me.