One definite advantage cablecos have over Dish (and I presume Directv). If it was before 5-6pm, you could take the box to their office and swap it on the spot (downtime could be 1-2 hours at the most), otherwise you have to wait until the following day. Now with their "stores" (at least with Time Warner), they're open until 9pm. There will always be customers who can't unhook a few cables and re-attach them though, so they will probably be down for a day or two so that a tech can do the work.