Always Check Your Work (Order)

In news of "this is why you always read the estimate before authorizing the work"...

During the middle of May, we went to Vegas for a ten-day trip to take in a three-day EDM festival plus related shows before and after the festival. While we were gone, the DC area got stupid amounts of rain. In one 24-hour period we got 7" of rain and in a further 48 hours, the three-day rain total went up to 11". So, when I came home and my wife's car was poppping alerts, I wasn't super surprised. Even though the car was street-parked on a hill — such that there was no possibility of it actually getting flooded — it was still a lot of rain. That volume of rain often finds ways to get into vehicles that are parked for the duration.

What I was surprised by was when, on our way to replenish our vacation-bare refrigerator, the car completely quit. First the A/C fan cut out. Then alerts for the power steering, brake-assist, AWD, throttle, etc. all popped. As I limped the car to a safe pull-off — a semi-vacant strip-mall — the alerts went away ...because the electrics completely quit, taking the instrument panel with them.

I called the dealership where we got the car. When I'd bought the car, I'd paid the extra $3K for the extended warranty. They gave me the number for a towing-company they work with. I called the towing-company. When the dispatched driver called to say he was five minutes out, I called Uber. While the tow-man rigged our car up onto the flat-bed, we caught the Uber over to the dealership. This was two Saturdays ago, now.

Dealership gave us a loaner and, because it was a holiday weekend, told us it would probably be Tuesday before they'd have a chance to look at it. Tuesday came and went and no call from the dealership's service department. First thing Wednesday, I called to find out where the fuck the estimate for my car was. Around lunchtime, they mailed me the estimate. The total expected repairs were expected to come to a little over $4,000: alternator, serpentine belt, front-struts, alignment and battery ...nearly 75% of that total was the estimated labor cost.

I replied back to the email with commentary:

• "That's a brand new battery: it shoul accept a charge just fine. If it needs to be replaced already, I'll need to smack another garage around for this part of the repair costs."
• "I bought the warranty-extension to cover the mechanicals through 6yr/60,000. The car is less than six years old and has less than 45,000 miles on it. Losing an alternator at this point in time seems really premature - almost as premature as the warranty-covered loss of the clutch at 33,000 miles. Are you telling me that none of this is covered?"

So, the service representative said he'd check on the warranty-coverage. Meanwhile I'm thinking, "you presented me an estimate for $4,000 and you didn't even bother to see if the warranty I bought through you guys covered anything??"

Two days pass and I don't hear anything further from the dealership. I decide, "fuck this waiting," and call back to ask the status. "My" service-lead had apparently gone on vacation and hadn't passed the ticket down. They assigned me a new lead. We went over the estimate on the phone, and, again, I had to bring up the warranty. Again I was informed that they needed to contact the warranty guarantor.

Another couple days pass and it's now Friday with no word back. So, I call for another status check. I'm told they're still waiting on the guarantor. I note that I'll call again, Monday afternoon, if I don't hear back from them. I didn't hear back from them by lunchtime, so I called (at 13:30 - no point calling during lunch-hour). This time I'm told that the guarantor's adjuster is due to arrive any time, now, to check/ok the work. They'll get me an updated estimate depending on the adjuster's findings.

They actually did call me a little before 16:00. Even better, not only was the $1000 associated with the alternator parts-and-labor covered, so to was all the other stuff (with the exception of the warranty deductible and the cost of the wheel alignment). In short, my $4,000+ initial estimate drops to a little less than a $300 outlay. And, about that I'm happy.

The thing that gets me is, had I not pushed back, I'd have been on the hook for $4,000+ worth of repairs. Why the hell wouldn't they just automatically do right by me? Why the hell did I have to push to get what was due me from the warranty? I mean, had I not pushed for them to verify the coverage, I'd have essentially paid for the repairs twice: once for the unused warranty and once for the repairs themselves. 

Further aggravating is that it's been nearly ten days to get to this point. Granted, they'd given me a loaner, so I didn't have to rent a car during the period nor strand my wife while I worked had I not been able to afford to rent one. But it's still annoying to be stuck in a loaner for that long. Don't get me wrong, the loaner isn't shitty, but it's definitely the base-model ...and our car very much is not.

Ninety Minutes of Customer Service Hell

Tangents and rage to follow...

See this?

This is the excerpt from my Google Voice call log that shows the length of my phone call with Verizon FIOS's customer support.

In general, I've had very little in the way of problems with any of my various Verizon services. ...Which is a good thing, because dealing with telcos' customer service departments is never anything less than a frustrating trial. To be fair, unlike my recent run-in with Sprint (on my mother's behalf), I came away from things mostly satisfied (or, at least as satisfied as one can be having had to call customer support in the first place).

At any rate, the long, bloody story.

I'm a convenience fan. Thus, I use things like electronic billing. I've had my Verizon bill and other utilities on automatic payment plans for years, now. To most of my billers' respective credits, such arrangements have been mostly without incident. That came to a crashing end, today.

I'd gotten email notification from Verizon that my auto-pay was due to be processed within the next 48 hours. I limit my exposure to auto-pay problems by having a special eBill checking account linked from my main checking account. Each month, as my direct deposits come in, a budgeted amount is transferred from my incoming checking account and distributed to my bill-paying account, my investment account, my "rainy-day" account and my "playtime" account. That auto-pay warning email is handy, because it allows me to be 100% sure that my bill-paying account has sufficient funds to cover any pending direct-pay arrangements.

When I looked at today's notification, the number looked higher than I was expecting. So, I logged into my Verizon account to see what was up. Perusing my bill, "Oh: my promotional-discount for upgrading my Internet to the 50/50 plan has expired." ...but then I noticed a $0 line-item for a service that I'd thought I'd canceled previously.

Then I noticed that my prior month's bill was $90 more than I expected. Given the $0 line item, I got a sinking feeling in my stomach. So, I clicked on the "detailed bill" for the prior month. "MOTHERFUCKER!" There, on my bill was a $90 auto-renewal charge for the "canceled" service ...number 2 of 2 (really amusing that the three prior years' versions of the package were billed in four installments).

I'd managed to not notice the out-sized bills because there was always enough in my bill-pay accounts to cover things. Granted, the slack-balance was lower than expected, but not precipitously so. At any rate, it was a service that I'd previously tried three different ways to cancel:

• You see, last winter, I'd had some glitches with my NHL Center Ice option. The tech support guy I spoke to was able to resolve the technical problem. However, after a couple of years of NHL Center Ice, and recent acquisitions of suitable mobile devices, I was looking for alternatives. So, while I was on the call with the tech support guy, I'd asked, "can you ensure that my NHL Center Ice doesn't auto-renew after this season." He'd informed me that he'd be able to put the note on my account and that it should not renew come the 2014/2015 season. Thus, I assumed I would not see further NHL Center Ice line-items on my bill.
• Come May time-frame of this year, I was doing one of my periodic reviews of my accounts. "Huh... There's still an NHL Center Ice line-item on this account. It's a $0 thing - maybe it's a leftover from the just-past season". Still, I called in to verify that the auto-renewal was, indeed, set to be canceled. The person I spoke to verified that such was the case. Dunno why, but this made me think "ok, yeah: that will not renew itself this fall" and went on my merry way.
• Around the end of September/beginning of October, I opted to pull the trigger on getting an NHL GameCenter Live subscription. It was slightly cheaper than NHL Center Ice, and it let me watch hockey games via my XBone, my Rokus (awesome when visiting my mom since I could still see hockey using her Roku), my cell phones, my laptops and my notepads. With NHL Center Ice, I'd always been stuck only able to watch from home (yeah, I coulda done the SlingBox thing, but that was more effort than I wanted to deal with). With the new NHL online service, I noticed I was having some issues with streaming-quality/stability. I figured, "upgrade to a higher speed-tier - that'll fix it". So, I logged into my Verizon account to do the online upgrade. As Iwas reviewing the account prior to upgrading, I noticed another $0 charge for NHL Center Ice. "Ok... well, there's a button here for letting me alter my services: I'll just use that to delete this thing." I ran through that process, but, by this point (finally), I'm suspect of the damned package actually deleting. Before I committed to the cost of upgrading my Internet speed, I opted to use the web-chat tool to speak to a Verizon representative. I pointed out my continued problem with the persistent NHL Center Ice subscription. I asked if she could ensure that it got deleted. She verified that, yes, it was set to be deleted. I hit finish on the upgrade-transaction, thinking that I was now good to make the switch from NHL Center Ice to NHL GameCenter Live.

Obviously, that last thought was in error. So, I girded myself to deal with phone support. I hit the "call me" button on my Verizon accounts page. A few seconds later, my phone rang.

I navigated the call tree, selecting the "billing questions" options. I got connected to a CSR, and laid out my problem to her. She informs me, Oh, this department only handles payments not billing issues or credits. I think to myself, "Okaaay... Of course the billing questions option wouldn't allow me to actually do anything about a billing problem". But, "whatevs", right? She tells me she'll need to transfer me to the department that handles such issues.

About a minute later, another woman in another department picks up. We do the dance of "what's your phone number" so she can do an account lookup. I inform her, "I don't have a phone number associated with my account: I don't have a Verizon landline and every time I've tried to get my cell number (actually my GV number since 2009) associated to my account, my account's phone association fails to update". This isn't super surprising, given that whenever I've tried to use the web-tool to update my profile, it tells me my GV number is not a valid phone number. Fuckers.

I'd always assumed, however, that the CSRs had a different access method to the account records and could force the number into the appropriate place. Given that the number always seems to fall off my account, I'm assuming that Verizon's accounts system has some kind of de-linter that looks at profiles and prunes out any "bad" data. Too bad that de-linter is as broken as their web UI's number-validator. Probably the same code segments.

 So, I tell her, "I can give you the account number to look-up, directly". She insists that she has to look up by phone number. So, I give her my GV number - along with the admonition that it probably won't work. As expected, she tells me that she can't find an account with that phone number. Shocking, I know. She prompts me for other information so she can find my account. Apparently, they have a half dozen or so options to find an account, but giving them the actual account-number is not a valid option.

Ultimately, she finds my account. She then asks me what my problem is. I tell her the long story of the ghosts of NHL Center Ice plaguing me. I ask her to remove the plan from my account and reverse the charges. She tells me that the plan has been removed from my account. To which I reply, "...and the charges reversed, correct?"

She replies that she can't refund me the charges.

I ask her if she's serious. I point out to her that, what she's telling me, is that Verizon has siphoned $180 out of my account for a service that I didn't want and haven't used, and, are now going to make it so that I can't watch the channels I've already paid for.

She tells me she can re-activate the plan and that I can get the auto-renewal canceled at the end of the season. I want to scream at her, "are you fucking crazy? Have you not heard one fucking word of my description of how failfuckingtastic canceling auto-renewal has proven to be?" Knowing that this is unlikely to prove fruitful, I only respond by reiterating the prior travails I'd gone through. She informs me she only has record of the first service call and that she can't help me any further other than the options given.

I fight back the urge to completely lose my shit (yes, it's possible to "even", even in the face of borderline Kafkaesque "customer service"). I ask her to connect me to her supervisor.

She responds by telling me that the wait for a supervisor will be at least thirty minutes. I respond "whatever", because, at this point, I'm committed to riding this hell-train to the end of the line.

Long-silence. Seriously - it was a good three minutes before I hear her ask "do you want to wait for the supervisor?" She had seriously been sitting there, waiting silently - not understanding my "whatever" to mean "yes, connect me, I'll wait".  So, I had to explicitly state, "yes, put me on hold for a supervisor"

(Commence crappy hold music...)

(...Continue with atrocious hold music)

Twenty minutes later, the original CSR breaks into the hold music. I'm thinking, "wait, did I seriously just wait another twenty while she waits to put me into the supervisors' hold queue???" Fortunately, she was breaking in to tell me that I was next up in the queue for a supervisor.

Huh... It was actually going to be a warm-handoff. That's a good sign, right?

Eventually, a new voice comes on the line, identifying herself as the supervisor. She asks me for my account info. We go through the "there's no phone number associated with the account" dance. I'd be apoplectic, at this point, but I've worked for the companies that became Verizon and otherwise had to deal with telcos, in a professional capacity, to know that only calls get transferred, not support session or account information data. So, I just shuffle morosely through the steps.

She opens my account. I walk her through the sequence of events, noting that the first CSR had indicated a lack of records on Verizon's side that supported my case. But, I was able to point to the fact that I'd upgraded my account to support my position that I had previously made requests to cancel the NHL Center Ice service. Still, she had no record of the chat session. Apparently, with Verizon's disjoint information systems, just because you're talking to someone using their web-chat tool doesn't mean your account will reflect it. Fortunately, because of the January customer support call, it had established that I'd previously communicated with them. And, even though the tech support guy hadn't actually noted the cancellation request (he probably had, but, given Verizon's crappy inter-department data-transfer, the note probably got dropped in the transfer from one Verizon IT pond to another), it, combined withe the timing of the upgrade, was enough for her to justify issuing me the credit for the service.

So, 81 minutes of phone-hell later, I appear to have finally gotten the service canceled and the charges reversed. Still, I should probably log in, next week, and verify both things.

The worst part of all this? While there is an alternative to FiOS, that "alternative" is to Cox. I could probably link-out to the various Cox customer service horror stories that actually made the evening news, but Cox's CS issues are well known enough to make that redundant. At any rate, assuming the service is actually canceled - and stays canceled - and the charges do end up reversed, I don't currently have to consider dancing with the Cox-monster.

Call-tree and On-Hold Lies

If my call is so important, why is it so hard to get through the call-tree and why am I on hold for so freaking long?

I'm Pretty Sure US Air's Theme Song Should Be "Let's Get Retarded"

Ok, so, the trip down to Puerto Rico wasn't horrible. One of the legs of the trip down we were upgraded to first class (granted, it was the 20 minute flight to Philly, but, at least there was free alcohol). The PHL-to-SJU leg was what you'd expect from coach-class.

A couple days before our return, we got email notifications that we'd been upgraded on both the longer SJU-to-CLT leg and the shorter CLT-to-DCA leg. Coolness: free alcohol and extra space (we'll ignore the free hospital-quality food). Twenty-four hours before flight-time, got the notification to do web check-in.

It was at this point that it all went sorta sideways. I hit the "Check-in" button and then the "select seats" option. Everything was cool on the SJU-to-CLT leg - other than that our seats weren't together (no biggie, we figured we'd just ask people to trade so we could be together). However, the CLT-to-DCA leg was fuxored. Though both of us had been upgraded and our coach seats de-assigned, there was only one seat selectable for us in First Class. It also wouldn't even let me re-select a coach seat for either of us. Fuck.

So, I clicked on the "contact us" link. I called the number, navigated the call-tree and then was placed on hold for a CSR. Eventually, the CSR came on the line and quickly informed me, "oh, that's an international itinerary: you'll need to talk to the international ticketing desk. I'll transfer you, but here's the number in case you get disconnected..."

I'd never really considered Puerto Rico to be "international" given their legal relationship to the US. However, in retrospect, Puerto Rico does have it's on TLD (pulling up Google redirects you to google.com.pr) and has Spanish as its primary language. So...

At any rate, the CSR transfers me ...to the "international" call-tree (i.e., not a "warm hand-off"). Grr... I navigate the new call-tree and eventually get a new CSR. She finds that the CLT-to-DCA situation requires supervisor override (apparently, there were seats available in first class, but reserved and the supervisor was the only one that could force-allocate me a seat). She puts me on hold while they sort things out. Eventually, she comes back on the line and tells me I've got both my seats but that they're not next to each other. I figure "cool/whatever: we'll sort it out later". She also tells me I'm checked in and all I need to do is go back to the web site and click on the "print boarding passes" button. We say our goodbyes and I go back to my laptop to print out my tix.

The retardation that is US Airway's online reservations system isn't done with me, yet, however. While the website shows that I've now got two seats on each leg of the trip, it only lets me print the tickets for the seats that were allocated prior to my chat with the international reservations CSR. This is problematic, as I really didn't feel like having to ass-around in Charlotte due to not having a printed pass. So, I call US Airways, again. This time, I call their web tech support number, as this seems to be more a web-portal issue than a true ticketing issue. I navigate the call-tree and then wait on hold for a CSR. Eventually the CSR comes on the line. I identify myself and explain my issue. She asks me to hold while she tries to resolve it. Unfortunately, she has about as much success as I had and tells me to just have one of the gate agents print me all four passes when I check my bags. Great. This doesn't exactly give me the warm-fuzzies, but, "what can you do". On the marginal plus side, at least the CSR had the same problems I did. So, it wasn't a PEBKAC error on my part.

The next day, we get to the airport. We get a porter to lug our bags (they don't do the rental carts and Donna always packs heavy). We go through the APHIS/FDA screening, then go to the agent desk. Fortunately, being on a First Class itinerary, there were no lines to wait in. Donna discovers our desk agent is a kindred spirit: her ID-lanyard is printed with skulls and crossbones all over. The agent starts checking in our bags - tagging them and getting our bag-receipts all stapled up. However, she also appears to have issues getting all the tix to print. A supervisor is called over and eventually everything is all sorted out. As a bonus, our SJU-to-CLT leg is re-ticketed so that our seats are next to each other.

Finally Got My FiOS Fixed

Well, it only took three trips for them to do it, but, finally, my FiOS appears to be fully fixed. I just did a test download of RedHat 5.5 DVD ISO and got 2.2 MB/s (not Mb/s) for the entire download. Previously, I'd start at about 1.5MB/s for the first few tens of MB, but then the transfer would slow and slow and slow and finally stall.

Dunno why it took three trips to fix, though. Numerous breakdowns in the customer service process...

When I originally reported problems in late August/early September, it was because I had no connectivity at all (and, trying to use my cell phone's browser to find the FiOS tech support number was a rather painful experience). Internal networking was fine and I still had video service. Unfortunately, the FiOS WiFi router wasn't able to pull an IP from its upstream router at the PoP. Once I finally got a VZ tech on the phone, he had me run through the usual script. Wasn't until he discovered that he couldn't remotely reach my ONT that it became evident they'd need to send someone out to address it. Unfortunately, as part of the troubleshooting, they'd had me fully de-power the ONT since they couldn't remote-reboot it. This action not only hadn't fixed the problem, but resulted in me losing video. The ONT eventually reset itself five hours later, but, as of bedtime, that night, it was still offline. Worse, VZ couldn't get a tech to my house for two days.

Donna was NOT happy at the prospect of no video or internet for two days.

As I noted, previously, it finally (sort of) fixed itself sometime in the five hours between going to bed and getting up for the day. We had TV back and basic internet. So, Donna wasn't quite so freaked about the two days to get someone out to look at it. I was relieved to not have to listen to bitching for two days.

Later that afternoon, VZ called to indicate they had a FiOS tech free that day and would I want him to come out. "Happily," I replied. Dude showed up and looked at things, but didn't have any parts to replace the faulty ONT, but did replace the coax-splitter. He indicated that he'd note the problem in the case and someone would be dispatched the next day with parts.

It was rolling up on 1600, the next day, and no techs had either called or arrived. So, I contacted VZ. Apparently, the ticket had been closed by the prior tech. WTF? I was still experiencing slowdowns on long downloads, so, I asked that they open a new case and send someone out to do the parts replacement work.

As with the first phone call,  no techs were going to be available for the next day, so, I'd have to wait another day for a tech to come out. Whatever: video was working and internet was mostly working (I could send/receive email, just not download large files).

The tech came out two days later. I was expecting that he was going to replace the ONT that the first tech was supposed to have replaced. Instead, he noted there were problems on the coax line. So, he replaced the splitter (two in two visits). The connectivity was still weird, even though the line was showing "normal" on his diags. So, he replaced the router. He then rolled out.

At this point, we're two splitters and a router (and two tech-visits) into the fix process. Still, I'm having issues with long transfers and, since Halo: Reach came out, I noticed that I'm also having stability issues with XBox Live. Given that I was trying to make achievements in online multi-play, this kinda sucked.

So, this week, I called to see if, maybe, finally, we could get the ONT replaced as was originally expected with the first visit. As with prior calls, tech-dispatch was gonna take two days. Whatevs. So, I agreed to an appointment for Friday, October 8th, 2010 between 08:00 and 12:00. They indicated the tech would call when he was on his way.

It was rolling past 11:30 and I had yet to hear from the tech. So, I went online, found the FiOS tech support number, navigated the call tree and got in the hold-queue. Ten minutes into this process, I got a call from the tech. He was letting me know he'd be here in 15 minutes. So, I hung up on the lovely FiOS hold-music and waited for the tech to show up.

The tech was prompt. He said he'd be here in 10-15 minutes. He got here in 11 minutes. Given the vagaries of traffic in NoVA, I was just happy to see him within 30.

I described the problem and the ongoing issues with getting the device replaced. He asked to see the unit, so, I took him to the basement. He popped the case and noted, "wow, this is an old one". I was kinda like "*BOGGLE*" as it had just been installed in February or March. But, whatever: not really relevant. He asked if it was ok to pull the unit so he could replace it. I noted that I wasn't immediately using the connection and could get/send email from my phone if it was critical. He popped the unit, took it out to his truck, brought back a replacement and popped it in. He tried to do some remote-office work on his VZ laptop, but, the cellular-wireless card in his laptop wasn't getting good signal in our basement. So, he excused himself to his truck so he could take care of the administrative details to get the unit to come online.

He said it'd be about 10-15 minutes, so, I walked him to the door and sat in front of my blank TV and useless laptop and waited. About 9 minutes later, video signal came back on the TV. I then noticed that my laptop had just noted the arrival of new mail. So, I figured, cool, shit's back online. So, I hit up RHN to establish a test download. 2.2MB/s.

Tech came back in about five minutes later. I let him know that things were looking good. I had video and was running a download that was holding speed and had done so at a higher rate and for a longer time than any recent ones had since prior the ONT replacement. He gave me his contact info and headed off.

So, at this point we look good. Took a while, but, we got there.

The FiOS experience has been interesting. Within the first month, I'd had to replace the HD-DVR set-top box. Then, this whole fiasco with an (apparently old yet newly installed) ONT failing that resulted in the replacement of two co-ax splitters and a WiFi router before finally replacing the faulting ONT. I've had FiOS for a little over half a year. That's a LOT of hardware death. Oh well. We're good, for now.

SouthWest Airlines Can Eat a Dick

No: make that a whole bag of dicks. 

Why is it that companies buy other companies, only to change the things that made their acquisition targets a customer preference in the first damned place. From the SWA AirTran-acquisition FAQ:

Q: What about assigned seats?

A: As you know, Southwest does not assign seats. AirTran does offer seat assignments including Business class and Coach. Upon full integration, it is our intent to have a consistent product offering. It is our intent that seat assignments would not be part of that product.

Q: What about dual class service?

A: As you know, Southwest offers one class of service. AirTran offers Business class and Coach. Upon full integration, it is our intent to have a consistent product offering. It is our intent that dual class service would not be part of that product.

So, the two things that I like most about AirTran - and pretty much the only reason I flew them - SouthWest intends to get rid of. Fuck you, SouthWest: I didn't like you and didn't fly you before this. Taking a good, unique brand and destroying some of its best features does rather little to make me ever change my mind about using your services. All you've done is reduced my choices. All you've done is set in motion the destruction of a good flying experience. I hope your entire executive staff, especially your mergers and acquisitions team, dies - slowly and painfully - in a fire. Even better would be for you all to go down in an airwreck in a remote region and have to cannibalize each other to survive the experience. Fuck you all.

What Does Support Mean (WTF, Verizon)?

So, for the past few weeks, I've been having odd networking issues. Periodically, Donna's laptop will show that she's connected but that she has no internet. My XBox Live connection has been unstable. I've been getting pauses and stutters in my NetFlix and Zune streaming. I've had some sound-quality issues on my VOIP (Vonage) connections. Most recently/obviously, I've been unable to download large software packages (e.g., VMware WorkStation, Linux  ISOs, etc.): the DL will get a few tens to a few hundreds of megabytes in and then just stall.

Tuesday night, Donna comes up the stairs, complaining that her internet connection's not working again. I track things back from her PC, to the home WiFi, to the LAN and finally back to the FiOS router. I'm able to get into the FiOS router and notice that it's having issues on its WAN connection link. It's stuck in "getting DHCP address" mode. I try rebooting, full power-cycle and disable/enable the WAN interface. All result in no change. So, I contact FiOS support (by the way: trying to find their number on a cellphone-based browser and then navigate their asstacular call-tree system SUCKS).

Eventually, I get through to a human being and we start working on the problem. He finds that he's not able to talk to the ONT to get diagnostics from it. So, he has me pull the terminal on its batter backup unit and unplug it from the wall. Afterwards, I restore the power and it starts coming back online. Ten minutes later, still no Internet connection and, now, no TV! The tech informs me he's going to dispatch a tech to look at/replace the optical network terminal (ONT). Unfortunately, the first available service slot in two days later (Thursday/today, 16 September 2010). 

Two days of no TV and no Internet... Donna was n-o-t pleased. I pointed out that the LAN still worked, so she had access to music on the NAS. I pointed out that we still have a large collection of DVDs, BluRays and CDs. We even have a couple of XBoxes and other game systems. I also pointed out that she had several sewing projects that this outage could be a bit of a blessing in getting her back on track with them. She was still most displeased.

/me shrugs

The next morning (Wednesday), I discover that the ONT has apparently come back online somewhere in the wee hours of the morning. I have both TV service and Internet. So, it's fairly apparent that, while not yet dead, something is in the process of dying. So, I leave Donna a note letting her know that she may have TV and/or Internet service, but that it may also die, given the prior behavior.

While at work, Verizon calls to let me know that a service slot had opened up for later that day: would I mind the tech stopping by? I'm like "sure" as I really wanted to get this shit knocked out. Three techs (and three service trucks) roll up a little after 16:30. I show them to the equipment. They tear open the ONT and note that its status lights aren't quite right. They try several stabs at getting it into the normal/expected state, but those steps all fail. However, they don't have an ONT with them with which to replace it, so, they replace the router, instead. The service lead tells me, "I'll call you tomorrow to see if things have improved or whether I need to come back out with a new ONT".

Today, things are still flakey. In fact, the new router seems to have introduced some new problems. It starts rolling up on the previously scheduled appointment time and I've not heard from the tech. So, I call Verizon FiOS's support line. Apparently, the ticket had been closed and no one is coming out. I'm like "WTF: he wasn't supposed to close that ticket - he was supposed to call to find out if he still needed to come by." Unfortunately, there's no available techs to come out and do the originally scheduled appointment. So, now I have to wait till tomorrow to hopefully: A) get someone out to do the tech work; B) hope they have the requisite repair parts; C) that it solves the problems and doesn't introduce any further ones.

Oh well, I at least have basic network connectivity. I just can't program my DVR and I still can't download my VMware Workstation or (RedHat - other distros use BitTorrent and, because of the small individual transfers, I was able to get Fedora, Ubuntu and CentOS) Linux ISOs.

The phone support people have all been very pleasant. The techs that came out were pleasant. Unfortunately, the availability of techs and parts has made this a drawn-out failure of a support incident.

Expressing Dissatisfaction

Nine times out of ten - maybe even more frequently than that - when you bother to write to a business to declare your dissatisfaction with your interaction with them, it's a wasted effort. However, I still, frequently, bother to muster up the effort. Dunno whether it's actually because I'm expecting a satisfactory response or if I'm just not a "keep it to myself" kind of guy.
/me shrugs
Whatever. Sent one such letter to German Gourmet (a little shop in Falls Church, VA that I'd always previously enjoyed going to), a little while ago. Interesting to see what, if any, response I get.