Rob has it here. You can't have the Cable Co do the job, because when it doesn't work the first this they say is "the Tivo is broke, get another one". The cable guy's got boxes to swap out all day long. But, now you've got a real problem, because that'll sound reasonable to the customer...

The only way through a problematic cable card activation is to stick through it to the bitter end. Until you get the right customer service rep to take the same exact information you've provided a hundred times and enter it in the system correctly. Its a real treat.

Its even more fun with cable card tuners for Windows (and Linux) systems BTW. Nobody involved will have seen one before, and the group of experienced users with 1st hand knowledge of trouble and support is non-existent.