Don't read this post Comcast and missing markets waiting for the Cable Guy

Last week Justin Wolfers tweeted a complaint about Comcast giving him a 13 hour window to wait for someone to install his cable. Very few people want to wait all day for the Cable guy, and I'm sure Justin a man who wrote a check to hire movers for a friend who asked for helping moving (bravo!)  isn't one to want to wait around the house all day.

So my guess is that Justin could hire someone. Perhaps find a local responsible college student who for say $100 will wait for the Karl Hungus and let him fix the cable. My first thought is does the market provide a solution.

It looks like task rabbit has people offering to wait for the cable guy. My guess is there is a limited market for this since there is imperfect information how does Justin who is new to town find someone responsible he would trust in his house.

More importantly, why is Comcast letting the person who waits get all the rents. If Justin is willing to pay someone $100 to wait all day, why wouldn't he pay $100 Comcast to get a guanteed appointment. Comcast  then would get all the benefit.

But please don't tell Comcast about my idea (unless of course they are willing to give me a 5% cut)....

Of course my guess is that Comcast has thought about this but rejected it for other reasons (they can't always do it or they worry about how it would look)