Ok… They didn’t say “we hate you” but they diit add a new crazy, stupid “convenience fee” to online payments. So even though they did say it… Actions speak louder than words.
Verizon Wireless: “We Hate You.”
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Tag Archives: cellphone
Shooting: It’s Not Just for Zombies, It’s for Other Trouble Too…
A few months back my car’s flaky ignition switch gave out and literally fell out of the
steering column. The replacement works great, but it has a quirk that you have to turn to exactly the right spot to take the key out without leaving the radio on. A few days ago, while traveling for work, I did this part of the procedure wrong and left the radio playing all night. When I came out the next morning to go to the office, my keychain buttons didn’t respond and I could hear the radio playing from ten feet away. My immediate assumption is that the battery would be too dead to start the big engine. I sat down, put the key in, turned, and the car just wheezed without turning at all. Clearly my initial assumption was correct, so I dialed up roadside assistance and waited.
How many times have you picked up your VoIP phone and not had a dialtone and said, “damnit, service is out again.” I can’t count the number of tech calls I have been a part of or heard about where a piece of equipment suddenly stopped working and the user declared, with passion generally reserved for Samuel L. Jackson and Al Paccino at the climax of a movie, that they were positive it was plugged in and it just stopped working. After a long line of troubleshooting, unplugging and replugging it in miraculously cures the ailment, clearly a function of some latent factory problem.
Since purchasing my 1994 car some three years ago, I have on three different occasions forgotten that it has a kill switch on the ignition. If it sits for some small period of time, the kill switch engages and the engine won’t turn over. Lights work, radio works, but trying to start it results in a non-response. If the ignition is not fully disengaged, for instance if it is slightly on and leaves the radio playing, pushing the unlock will not disengage the kill switch. After forty-five minutes of non-response from Verizon’s roadside assistance, I walked out to the car, pressed the unlock button, heard the familiar “BEEP BEEP”, started the car and drove to the office. Even the pros sometimes forget to follow the basic troubleshooting steps and end up falling into the assumption ravine.
Two minutes of stepping back, forgetting that I know everything, and following a basic checklist would have saved me a lot of time and embarrassment.
Sprint on losing streak
In wireless news… Sprint really needs this AT&T/T-Mobile deal to fail. After losing more than analysts had predicted, Sprint’s share price dropped 16%.
Bloomberg reports:
Sprint lost 101,000 customers on monthly contracts after dropping 114,000 in the previous three-month period, starting a new losing streak after reporting a gain in the lucrative users in the fourth quarter of 2010 for the first time in more than four years. The carrier is promoting handsets such as HTC Corp.’s Evo to compete with AT&T Inc. (T) and Verizon Wireless, which both now carry Apple Inc. (AAPL)’s iPhone.
Cn I by a vwl?
Dear Children of America, Continue reading
I’ll have clear skies, personal conversation, and hold the technology, please.
"Put down the phone. Slowly walk away. Say hi to the person next to you. Yes, that's a human. Yes, they are real."
Too much technology consumes our daily lives.
Ironic topic for a blog post? Probably. Blasphemous for a guy whose entire livelihood depends on the fact that internet connections barely even dreamable ten years ago are available at his house? Sure. True? Absolutely.
Last week I took four plane rides (thanks Usairways* for $27 first class upgrades) and spent four days on a cruise. In the airport, my disappointment towards Continue reading
Acer Aspire One – Innocent Netbook
Or cleverly disguised secret agent for the video phone revolution?
I R Eatz U R Dataz!
I love my netbook. I love my netbook so much, I have two of them (okay, one is the wife’s). Surprisingly, I managed to survive months on nothing but my netbook doing fairly intensive SQL / VoIP / Web work. The hard drive is a little slow, but the overall performance is outstanding.
When I travel, I can use Skype to video chat with the built in webcam and get great quality (both ways) for both picture and sound. It’s like a giant smart phone. It reminds me of the $1000+ “video phones” that were supposed to be the future of talking on the phone… then people realized they really didn’t want to “get pretty” to use the phone. Now, for around $250 a unit, you can have that and so much more.
Microsoft Thinks Pink?
Great cast, ok movie.
That phone call I got, it came from outside high walls and fancy gates; it comes from a place you know about maybe from the movies. But I come from out there, and everybody out there knows, everybody lies: cops lie, newspapers lie, parent’s lyin’. The one thing you can count on – word on the street… yeah, that’s solid. — Suicide Kings
Word on the street tells us that Microsoft plans to “unveil” their new phones (code-name PINK) on April 12th. The phones, rumored to be manufactured by the Danger team, will be aimed at a “younger” crowd and we expect features such as Facebook integration, social media connectivity, and music to be heavily marketed. Of course, we still haven’t forgotten the T-Mobile Sidekick/Danger fiasco…
The April 12th date follows the highly expected iPhone OS 4.0 release from Apple. Looks like April’s showers may make for a big May.
Suggested Readings:
- Microsoft to unveil ‘Pink’ phones on April 12 (The Money Times)
- Microsoft “Pink” Phone to Launch April 12? (TG)
- Microsoft ‘Pink’ Phones Due Monday? (Information Week)
New Scam, Back Again
Be careful out there
A older scam gains popularity — or at least that’s what recent reports indicate. Targeting American cellphones, the goal of the scam is to have you make an international call and rack up your phone bill. Here’s how it works:
- Your phone rings and becomes a missed call within 2 rings
- You call back the number, assuming it’s in the US
- Your phone bill imitates Cheech and Chong (aka becomes very high)
The recommendation is that you only call back numbers you either recognize or can identify by area code.
Here’s the FCC release: Continue reading
What we lack in commitment, we makeup for in loyalty.
Good things come to those who wait…to cancel. On the heels of the “announcement” that Verizon Wireless will be doubling their early termination fees, I found myself considering how commerce and service has changed. As I have mentioned in our previous chats, I pay some $400+ a month for my extended family and I to have Verizon Wireless. Every month I give Verizon about $400, and on top of that, have spent over $2,000 on phones and another $500 on applications, ring tones, and content (that’s phone specific — if I buy a new phone, I get to buy new applications, ring tones, and content).
Businesses routinely (and almost exclusively) employ “short-timers” for their front line contacts — people that work at most six to twelve months answering phones, then move to another company. Customer service itself seems to follow the same pattern of always looking six to twelve months ahead, and making all judgements on a short-term basis. Have you been a great customer for 10 years? Who cares. What have you paid us lately? Continue reading
T-Mobile Sidekick Data Lost, Perhaps Forever
T-Mobile, providers of the T-Mobile Sidekick smartphone, recently announced an outage blocking user access to address books, calendars, photos, etc. After more than a week of “working around-the-clock,” T-Mobile announced today that the user data will most likely never return.
In an announement released on October 10th, T-Mobile advised users: Continue reading