Setting Up Cable in the New Apartment

[This involves Time Warner Cable in NYC.]

Transferring cable service when you're moving to a new apartment in the same city should not be so difficult. And it's not but it's more cumbersome than it should be.

It's not as simple as taking your current box and carting it over.

You've got to cancel your current service. Drop your box off at the Time Warner drop-off place on 23rd Street. Then set up a new service at your new apartment.

If, like me, you're moving into a roommate situation where the apartment already has cable, you have to add another cable box to the existing account. (Assuming you're bringing your own television that you want hooked up with cable.)

So, the drill is:

1) schedule a cancellation of your current service at your soon-to-be vacated apartment.
2) drop off your current cable box when you can.
3) have the account-holding roommate order the addition of another cable box, scheduling the installation.

And what if, like me, your soon-to-be roommate is actually going to be out of the country for the next few months?

I borrowed one of his cable bills and had to pretend I was him.

In addition to the address, you have to have the phone number associated with the account. (I screwed that up off the bat but managed to recover.) I was afraid I'd have to offer additional information to confirm I was him (i.e., his mother's maiden name), but it's just adding another box so they didn't go through that.

Any additional boxes on the account will have the same services (channel packages). Even though they're different types of boxes, you can't have differing premium channel packages on different boxes within the same apartment. Go figure. So I should actually be getting more channels in the new apartment. Perhaps the only "upgrade" I'll be enjoying in this move.

We'll see if this actually works. They'll probably call my roommate to confirm the install appointment when it nears. I may need to call again, pretending to be him, and give them my number. "I'm going to be away for the appointment but my roommate Malice will be there. Here's his number..."

Of course, the pressing concern these last few weeks is getting rid of the furniture I won't have room for in the new space...