And Again, with Verizon...

Just included in my monthly Verizon bill payment. Let's see if they respond.

"16-May-2010

Dear Verizon,

Let's just get this out there: I don't like you one bit. You probably have the slightest bit of interest in me, because you've managed to fleece me out of $17 per month for solely providing me a dial tone. I personally find that utterly ridiculous. The only reason I have your land line service in the first place is that I am unable to get DSL service at my apartment otherwise. You insist that I have a land-line, but also have the gall of charging my DSL provider $2.88 per month to use your network. If my $17 per month is not covering usage of your network, then it seems like you need to seriously re-evaluate how you are doing business.
You should consider yourself lucky that I find Comcast an even more distasteful corporation than you. Otherwise I would likely just get cable internet from them, and bypass the need for a landline. Alternately, if you hadn't so offended me by requiring that I spend $17 per month for a dial tone, I would likely have purchased FiOS from you by this point, which would have you receiving far more per month than the $17.14 & $2.88 you extract from me each month. Now, your uninformed and poorly qualified salespeople might have dissuaded me from making that purchase, but that's a whole separate string of complaints.
Now, FiOS leads me to my next series of complaints: the ludicrous amount of sales literature you send me for FiOS. I am not interested. Your sales people, though trying to be helpful, were wholly unable to answer some fairly basic questions I had about the service and thus, I am unwilling to switch internet service. Now, despite explaining that to salesmen, I continue to receive several brochures in the mail each month. This is why I occasionally miss a bill payment: your bills and your junk mail look the same, and it all goes into the trash.
In conclusion: I do not want to be your customer, but you have forced me into it. I would honestly appreciate if you cut off the torrent of FiOS literature. It just fills up my trash and surely throws a wrench into any claims you might make of being a “green company.”

Screw you guys,
Alex Belton

P.S. I pay my bill in my own envelope by check simply to spite you. It's worth the stamp every month to stick it to you. You're welcome."

Seriously, Verizon Sucks

I ended up calling them right after this bill arrived, trying to get some answers. I wanted to verify that I had the absolute barest-bones plans (I do) and that there's nothing I can do about the "Verizon Long Distance Shortfall" charge aka making my "free" $0.00/month Long distance plan, which can not be removed from my service, actually cost $5/month.



After that phone conversation (for what it's worth after about 20 minutes on hold the rep I spoke to was very friendly, knowledgeable and apologetic. Which only continues my experience of Verizon people being very nice and helpful, but the company as a whole is terrible) I called my DSL provider to see what they could do about setting up a "dry loop" DSL line. This is DSL service without the need for a dial tone on the line. 25 minutes of investigating later, it was clear a dry loop service was not possible , as far as I can tell because Verizon said-so. Neither was wholesale Fiber, which they do in some areas, but not mine. Even though my apartment is already wired for FiOS.

Amusing side-note:
A few weeks ago I got a telemarketing call from Verizon trying to get me to switch to FiOS to "save me money". I decided to humor the guy. I mean, if I could get 50MBps fiber service for the same number of dollars I'm currently spending, I'd be up for that.

First though, I wanted to tackle the whole "blocking port 80 etc" issue. I can't find reliable information anywhere about whether Ports 80, 25 etc are blocked on FiOS. I know they are unavoidably blocked on residential Verizon DSL lines (which is what differentiates their Resi/Commercial services, as far as I can tell). The telemarketer got flustered and said he'd have to check. After a minute or two on hold he got back to me saying he talked to someone in tech support and told me that when the installer shows up, I should just tell him what port I wanted to use in my apartment and he could set that up. I then proceeded to inform him it was not a physical device but rather a portion of the software used in networking protocol. He put me on hold for a few minutes again and then came back, apologizing that he couldn't find anyone that knew about these "ports" and that I should just ask the install tech.

Next we covered the "saving money" angle. I currently pay a total of around $70/month to Verizon and my ISP for what amounts to just my internet connection. $24 (phone bill) + $2.88 (Supplier Surcharge Recovery Fee tacked onto my DSL bill by Verizon) is paid to Verizon, who's services I do not use, and I don't appreciate being forced to pay them for services I neither receive nor want from them (yes, I get phone service, but only receive calls for other people on it).

The telemarketer was only able to offer about that much per month for just internet and phone (and free installation of a first and second computer(!)). Combined with my general dislike for the company and absolutely no answer on the blocking port 80 question, I decided to decline the "generous" offer.

Again, what really gets me about this, is my total lack of options. If I want home internet, I can either keep doing what I am, which seems overly expensive, as I'm paying almost $30/month for services I don't need or use. I could switch to FiOS, essentially rewarding Verizon for having excessive control over the phone network, or go with Comcast digital cable/voice which just seems like trading one huge telco for another which sets arbitrary bandwidth caps and may or may not be filtering/throttling connections.

Sigh. All I want is reasonably priced internet, without paying for services I don't want. Is that too much to ask?

An Illusion of Choice is No Choice at All...

So, I'm basically fed up with Verizon.

When I moved into my apartment over a year ago, I knew I wasn't going to get bundled Phone/Internet/TV from Comcast, and FiOS was not yet available at my apartment complex so that was not a consideration.

I signed up for the barest-bones Verizon home phone line I could set up, which still somehow amounts to over $20/mo basically for a dial tone and the ability to place outgoing calls.

Having a dial tone allowed me my choice of DSL providers. I chose DSLeXtreme, who have provided me excellent service and support since my DSL was activated. They actually resell FiOS service, but that does not appear to be available in my neck of the woods, yet.

I got my bill today, after believing I had unsubscribed from my long distance service. As far as I can tell, both from the website and the bill I had, but there's still a $5.00 'VLD Shortfall Charge' which apparently they can tack on to the bill of anyone they feel isn't already paying them enough.

"A spokesperson for Verizon told KING 5 that even if a person doesn't make long-distance calls, they still have access to the phone network. The "shortfall charge" helps pay for maintenance of the network."

If so, then why do you charge me $8.27/mo just for a dial tone? What does that pay for?

I'm not complaining about the $9.94 per month in taxes in fees which, if they're not labeled deceptively, are all federal and state charges that have been passed through to me.

To add insult to injury, when I "canceled" my long distance, I was unable to also demote my local service from the 'unlimited' to the 'pay per minute' level since I'd already initiated one change to my plan that day.

I wonder if it's a coincidence that I can't currently login to my account page after telling them I was 'very dissatisfied' with the website in the customer-service survey.

So, anyway, do I even have any options for local phone service (that will allow me to keep my DSL service)? It looks like AT&T might be an option, but I can't fathom them being any more pleasant than Verizon.

Any suggestions?

The BBB Gets Stuff Done

They can't do math ($199.99+$17+$31 = $247.99, which is what they refunded), but they did respond more than adequately.

For what it's worth, while I wish I wasn't prompted to do things like contact the BBB or my state senator, I have been remarkably pleased with the promptness and effectiveness of the responses.

"MESSAGE FROM BUSINESS:

To Whom It May Concern,

We would like to apologize for the inconvenience surrounding this product. We want to assure Mr Belton that we never internally ship defective products and do our best to support our customers when there is an issue to be corrected.

Per Mr. Belton’s request, we are issuing an RMA number for the return and refund of the gaming system ($199.99) the original shipping charge ($17.00) and return shipping paid on original RMA (31.00). The total refund to be processed upon receipt of the second defective gaming system will be $230.99. The second RMA number Mr. Belton should use is: G220660.

Again we do apologize for the inconvenience that Mr. Belton encounter. Please let us know if we can be of further assistance

Regards,

Brian S
Customer Service Manager
(760) 726-7700 x1312
Office Hours: M-F 7am-5pm PST
http://www.geeks.com/"

Who doesn't want to file a BBB complaint on a Friday?

"On July 16 I ordered a refurbished Xbox 360 from Geeks.com for $200, roughly half the standard retail price. It arrived roughly a week later and immediately upon set up it was clear the console itself or the power supply was faulty as evidenced by the 'Red Ring of Death' (RROD, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_ring_of_death) a widely recognized failure mode of Xbox 360's.

I contacted customer support to obtain an RMA number. It was promptly provided but I was forced to pay the return shipping, $31 for ground shipping from Pennsylvania to California. The RMA was received and processed and a replacement unit shipped out and was delivered yesterday, 6-Aug-09.

Today, while playing Halo 3, a game not known for it's crashes, the console froze up, twice within half an hour, requiring a hard reset to become responsive. I will be contacting Geeks.com on Monday to take up this issue with them, but from what I can tell, they have deliberately been shipping defective product, scamming customers.

At this point I want a paid shipping label to return the clearly defective system as well as a full refund of my purchase amount, $199"

And the research backs it up!

A Meditation On Value
and
Monster Cable: As good as a coat-hanger!

That is all.

Because my nose is running I'm getting reamed from behind...

An e-mail I just sent to CMU Housing and Dining:

"I don’t know who I should complain to about this, but housing and dining seemed the most logical.

I just paid $2.60 for a single dose of 24hr Claritin, to treat my allergies. This is patently absurd. Entropy stocks Benadryl and it’s Tylenol equivalent in 24 dose packs for reasonable prices. However, both these drugs have “marked drowsiness” as a well-known side effect, something that no CMU student needs during the last two weeks of the year, especially on top of any and all allergy symptoms that the Claritin is addressing.

A cursory internet search via Google reveals numerous sources of Claritin (in 20-30 ct packages) with the price per pill less than half of what Entropy sells.

And you know what? I wouldn’t care at all what the price was for a single-dose of Claritin if Entropy were to stock boxes of it. If someone needs allergy medicine one day, most likely they need it for several more days. At this point in the year I do not have the time, nor the motivation (due partly to my allergy symptoms) to go off-campus looking for allergy medication. I believe the operators of Entropy know this and I truly do not appreciate being fleeced like this."

This is was what I said they should do month ago...

...but I think I'm going to have to file it under "too little, too late". Though if they changed the second 'm' in 'multi-million' to a 'b', they would be in the correct ballpark.

I mean, seriously. It costs $14.6 billion dollars, leaks, and drops a dozen tons of illogically placed concrete on a busy tunnel.

High-def media?

High-def media to dominate home video market by 2012

I'm certainly in no rush to go out and spend several hundread for the priveledge of perhaps watching movies I've already seen with more pixels. But I have no garuntee that I will actually be able to watch them. Does my less than year-old HDTV at home have HDCP? Certainly my older one upstairs doesnt. 540p, that's basically DVD resolution, certainly it's not worth buying a ~$500-$1000 DVD player for a format that may or may not exist in several years to watch overpriced movies I already own, and can already watch on my 50" TV.

It's also not clear to me if I can watch a HD-DVD or Blu-Ray disc at full 1080p on my laptop, wer e I to get a drive for one of them. My understanding (and it might very well be wrong by this point) is that the high-def drives just allow the writing to and reading data (not movies) from high-def discs.

Add to all that the fact that most people still don't have any form of HDTV, and many don't care about image quality, just size, if anything, and I don't expect to see people shelling out ~$50 per movie after investing in a high-def player (or PS3).

I hope that at some point the MPAA etc (and the hardware/software developers they've bullied) realize they're just cheating Joe Consumer. Ways will always be found around copy protection, and it will be the people who don't care enough/don't spend hours per day reading /. etc that won't be able to figure out why they're 1080p movie in their Blu-Ray/HD-DVD player isn't sending a 1080p signal to their expensive 1080p HDTV. Perhaps they'll call up the manufacturer of one of the devices and ask about this. They will likely not be happy that the down-sampling is, in fact, an intended feature of their hardware.

So, we meet again, Senator Stevens...

Mr 'Series of Tubes' tries a 'secret hold' on legislation.

PS Let me point out that this guy is President Pro Tempore and thus is 3rd in the line of presidential succession.

He also supported a $230 million bridge connecting a town of 8,000 residents to a island of 50 resident. And then complained when the Senate wanted that money to help rebuild after Katrina.

Why I don't see the Boston Herald as a bastion of good journalism:

BostonHerald.com
Here's a screenshot of their homepage, today at 2:20 PM:

One should note that the only mention on the page at all of anything untoward happening in the Middle East is contained within their feed of Associated Press videos on the right side of the page.
If you were to page open an analog Herald to page 8 (and not before) you'd find a page with three articles on things happening in Israel/Lebanon. Belichick's involvement in a divorce stole the entire front page and garnered it's own nearly-full-page story. Two of the three opinion pieces (the third was on the Big Dig fiasco) were regarding the latest Middle Eastern crisis. And that was it! 40+ pages and barely one and a half on what could be considered a full-on war in the middle east. Huh? On WZLX this morning they suggested that come Armageddon the Herald would have a cover story about Bradjelina (forgive me if I butchered the spelling). I only read the Herald because there's always a copy sitting the break room, but more and more I feel like it's not worth it.

A $14.6 Billon "D-"

Big Dig problem known in 1999 - U.S. Life - MSNBC.com

My Stress Analysis prof told us at the beginning of last semester that he's not afraid to fail us because he drives over bridges too. Well, people also drive through tunnels and perhaps someone should have failed them.

My major question is why the hell they need 3 ton concrete slabs for the "dropped" (pardon the expression) ceiling? I understand the ceiling is present to allow for airflow, but why concrete? Couldn't they have used like, extruded plastic panels? Fine, perhaps they need to be able to walk on it for inspection or whatever. They could put stamped metal sheet over the plastic to carry the load of personnel! I wouldn't be surprised at all if further infidelities with the Big Dig's concrete supplier are uncovered in the upcoming investigations.

I heard someone suggest on the radio that whoever gets jail time for the big dig be put into a leaking jail cell. I can't find a link to the story, but I read somewhere that engineers had predicted ~500,000 gallons/day to be pumped out of the Big Dig, just because it's basically on the ocean and well below the water table, and it's such a big project. But in reality they were pumping 3 (or thirty, perhaps) million gallons out every day. Whoops!


The only good things I've seen come out of the Big Dig is the new bridge and a sign, which unforunately I'm unable to find a picture of, which said "Rome wasn't built in a day. If it was, we would have hired their contractors"

Well, at least he didn't say that he invented it...

We (Americans) elected this guy? It's not just that he's incompetent, he's barely coherent!

UPDATE: After hearing the audio clip of his speech, I think he's a complete idiot. He can't speak understandably and clearly has no clue about what he's talking about:
"I just the other day got, an internet was sent by my staff at 10 o'clock in the morning on Friday and I just got it yesterday. Why?

Because it got tangled up with all these things going on the internet commercially."

Moving to Europe gets more appealing every time I see/hear something like this.

Things That Make Me Angry

1.This, especially when it will be prominantly displayed and visible to all who see CMU from Forbes Ave. Why can't we just say "NO" to bad art? I really feel like there was insufficient student input regarding this; they accepted it and then only when there was great public outcry did they hold a forum and then, basically, moved it to an almost-worse, in my opinion, location because people said they didn't like it where it used to be. Perhaps they've missed the point that most people would be just as happy if it were cast into one of Pittsburh's three fabled rivers.

2. People calling for 'Travis'

This morning, I got yet another in a series of calls for somone named Travis. They all originate from the same area code in Texas. This time I bitched the caller out about making sure he had the right number. He read back my number and I told him that yes, that was the number he reached. Then he asked again if this was Travis, and I again assured him that I am not, in fact, Travis. I'm trying to think of something mildly malicious I can do , armed with a name and a set of phone numbers. I'm thinking either next time I get a call, not deny that I'm not Travis, but pose as him and insult the caller's parentage or something and then hang up. That, or possibly finding websites and just pasting in numbers everywhere, but I won't have a good idea if that succeeds. The first thought that came to mind, me still groggy, was to find some FBI terrorism tipline and suggest they check out a guy named Travis and his associates with the following phone numbers, likely from Houston (area code 281, if anyone was curious). But upon further reflection, that seemd a little harsh, but not entirely out of the question.

Anyone have some good ideas?