Your husband agreed to having something installed and did not ask what it does?
I'd call the cable company and ask. My guess is that it is a data mining device.

That doesn't sound right to me Judy, did you call the cable company and see if these guys are legit? I don't know anything about your cable company but sending people out without telling you they were coming doesn't seem right.

I would call the cable company anyway and get the real scoop on it just to be safe.

Hugs!
Zipper

I doubt that the cable company sends anyone door-to-door. That's not a common business practice anymore. I think they are suspect. Did you see real IDs?

Call the cable company before you let them in the door. In fact, I'd cancel their service and request it directly from your cable company, if it's real.

Something smells about this.

This unequivocally sounds like a scam to me. Did you give them any of your account information? As was previously mentioned, why would the cable company be canvasing the neighborhood? Did they have any other id besides a badge they made at home? I would call the cable company and have them be there when your "installers" show back up tomorrow.

In the mean time, there were a couple neighbor ladies visiting across the street, so I went over to find out what they thought about it.

My neighbor said that she found out that the company has a new president and he wants to improve things. We will have 140 new channels, so DH will be able to spend the rest of his life in front of the TV and not miss any ball games of any kind. I had forgot that, but now I realize why it was that DH was quick to sign.

Like I said I think with logic and it doesn't seem possible, but apparently it is legit!

If I seem to be non-existant after noon on Wed. Maybe you were all right and, we the fools! lol

Or you let them in to case your house and then they'll come back to rip you off..... or steal stuff when you aren't looking.

How did your neighbor figure this out? Is this what the door to door people told them? Not to be so blunt, but this will end badly. This is not business practice to send someone out door to door. It's a waste of resources, not to mention how would anyone know if these people were legitimate or not. Call the cops/cable company/local news agency and have them show up tomorrow for when these guys come back. You have nothing to lose by verifying with the cable company to see if offer is legit.

You can make one phone call to the cable company to confirm your appointment. Use the main phone number that you would use to contact the company in the past since you have been a customer for some time, not a number they left with you today (unless of course they are the same number). If they do work for your cable company, the main office or main call center would be able to confirm your appointment.

Something doesn't smell right about this. I assume you didn't give any credit card or bank info out. I'm not sure what it's going to do either.

Telemarketing is far cheaper for them than door knocking so while it's certainly possible, it's just a red flag to me. I'd definitely call the cable company and ask about it. Did they leave a copy of the paperwork? If it's legit, they can tell you quickly at the cable company and I'd find out the purpose of the box. Seems like cable doesn't require the boxes these days so that's another flag. And to not charge a deposit or something and say toss it in a closet? Seems strange. If it's not legit, it's easy to make a badge and paperwork on the computer. County records will give homeowner names and they could make a list of them from the records to look more credible. Also, if it's legit, don't throw the box away, turn it in and get your account credited for it. Had I not gotten a receipt when I turned my cable box in years ago they'd have charged me something like $500 for it.

Were they driving a car marked with the company name/logo?

I asked if it goes up later and he said if it does just give him a call and he will fix it.
This one waved a flag for me. Sales people seldom can do this. They might be given parameters they can give at the sales pitch but I've never seen them have the power to change company pricing down the road. There's no price guarantees on cable like this that I know of!

Adding channels isn't a big issue. It's possible that the converter box would be needed for noncable-ready TVs but yours I'm sure is cable-ready. They usually don't spend money on equipment that's not needed. They usually don't like to give a longer cord than needed to barely reach the set in my experience.

I'd definitely advise caution. Again, it could be legit and a lack of info making it look suspicious. But then again it could also be a very big scam.

Just a few things that they could be looing for:
-Alarm systems
-Dogs
-Age/physical condition of occupants
-Level of apparent income
-Valuables out?
-Security cameras
etc.

Judy, please, run, don't walk to the phone. Check this one out.

Since we have an excellent Cable Company I would have called the cable company before they touch anything. In fact they ask us to call them first, unless we have called them. They always notify us first if there are any changes made. So yes, you should call them NOW>

OK, update!

I rec. a phone call this afternoon to let me know that it is scheduled for Wed (we had 2 possibilities) and that call was from the Cable Company, even the same menu system that bugs me so much.

After reading these last 2 replies I decided to call to check on it.

Yes they have us scheduled for a technition at the time we had agreed on.

I am confident that it is legit, and I will let you know after they are done. We intend to know about it before it is actually installed.

Thank you for all the input. All the cautions you have mentioned have also entered my mind.
Thank you my friends!

Not to worry one of the cable companies in the Boston area do send out salesman occassionaly to try and get new customers. Would I ever let them in my home...NEVER!!