There are 7 ways to avoid paying this fee… Including mailing them a check via US Mail. So either we are to believe that the process of receiving mail, opening mail, finding check, depositing check, applying said check to correct account, etc is somehow less expensive or Verizon hates you.

Being a former customer, I choose to believe that latter.  Read more from ABC News.

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.

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.

“It’s costing them more just to maintain their base than anyone expected,” said Walter Piecyk, an analyst at BTIG LLC in New York who advises selling the shares. Sprint said it spent an extra $120 million last quarter on customer acquisition and retention costs to stay competitive.

» Read the article at Bloomberg 

On a personal note… I love Sprint. I’ve had Sprint, AT&T, Verizon, and more and Sprint hands down is the best wireless company I’ve ever worked with. No billing anomalies, friendly service, and reliable signal. That’s literally what I want from a company. I completely understand that this is just one opinion, but that’s my personal experience (whatever that’s worth)… which is apparently 16% less than it was worth yesterday.

TAM. UR Shrt hnd SMS wil mak it ezer 2 cmpt 4 jobz.

Lol.

-People Who Write in English.

P.S. It’s 2010, phones and computers both have full keyboards, and vowels are free. There is no excuse for writing like an idiot.

P.P.S. We are working to form the LOL Verification Network, where a random sample of LOL posts will be validated to ensure the poster is actually laughing out loud when posting. Those found to be claiming to have LOL’d while not actually laughing will be fined and could face punishment up to and including revocation of speaking privileges and other penalties by the cyber police.

"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 people engaged in asinine, pointless conversations simply to avoid feeling disconnected made me sad. In The Hitchhiker’s Guide* they talk of a planet where the inhabitants need to talk constantly in order to keep their brains from working— well friends… we are there. Today, planes offer cell and wi-fi service so you can stay connected on the go. As a DBA, server admin and technology leader in a small team handling high-transaction, high-availability systems, I understand that emergencies happen. I have solved many problems driving 70+ mph down I-75 on my Verizon aircard (Passenger seat). That said — in over ten years of “mission critical” system responsibility, I have never had a business need that I couldn’t defer or delegate for less than six hours to take a flight.

On the cruise, we left the technological world behind. When I wanted to meet up with my friends, we had to pre-arrange it or just *gasp* roam around and find one another. We couldn’t call or text or tweet or blog. For almost four entire days, we used nothing but direct, personal communication. It was glorious.

No conversations were interrupted by an “urgent” phone call. No one secluded themselves in a private world by clinging to someone on the other end of a mobile phone. People actually interacted with new people. People made new friends. People spent time with old friends. Relationships were formed. Some of them ended with departure from a foreign port, some when the boat docked, some will end next week, or next month, and a precious few will last a lifetime. This is the silent victim of the new media revolution.

Email, blogs, Facebook, geocities, etc. were a way for friends to network and keep up with one another across great distances. Even when I was young (and using BBS‘s), the virtual world was a gateway to making real-world relationships. Now it’s the replacement. We use instant messaging, text messaging, Facebooking, MySpacing and Youtubing to avoid real, meaningful human contact. We don’t make friends anymore, we make virtual acquaintances.

Technology becomes cheaper, faster, more accessible. The disease spreads. The art and beauty of human contact dies an unceremonious death. We won’t even notice till three weeks later, when the smell is finally enough to tip someone off. By then, it will be gone and there will be no bringing it back.

Is it too late? Am I overly dramatic?

I take comfort in the backlash…could this bring the next next step,  marketing of premium, anti-technology travel?

“For every market, a sub-market grows…” -Grave Robber

*Footnote: Apologies to Fred for shout-outs to two of his nemeses, Amazon and USAirways.

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.

Recently, my wife’s netbook gave an error on boot that had something to do with a missing windows file (system32\ntoskrnl.exe). Apparently, she’s not the only one with this issue… it seems to be quite common. Of course, as the techie/geek/nerd of the castle, it was my job to slay this dragon and I came across the only problem I have had with this magical mini machine. Not so much a problem… more like open questions to Acer.

1. To access the hard drive, you have to remove 17 screws (maybe more, I think I lost some extras), you have to remove the keyboard, you have to remove the top, you have to remove this little card on top of the mother board, this side circuit board, the motherboard. Then you slide the hard drive out, reverse. Why not put a panel on the bottom to access the hard drive directly?
2. Why can I find nothing in your documentation about Alt-F10? This is a handy mode that lets you recover the operating system to factory defaults, but I don’t see it in my Acer manual.
3. In line with question 2, Why is the only recovery option to completely reset to factory? Since this is basically a stripped version of the OS, why not offer an explorer window so I can copy files to an SD or USB drive before formatting, or just backup the user files to another partition?
4. What degree in sadism lead to the design of the three little clips that hold the keyboard in place?

All told, from error to recovered could have been done in < 30 minutes, and I HIGHLY recommend Acer products to everyone I know. From their higher-end Ferrari laptop to the humble netbook (go with XP home, Windows 7 netbook edition is crippleware garbage), I have never had a problem with their hardware or software that made me lose respect for the brand, which is saying a lot.

For More Information:

• Acer: Acer Aspire One Website
• Skype: Free PC to PC Video Calls

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)

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:

1. Your phone rings and becomes a missed call within 2 rings
2. You call back the number, assuming it’s in the US
3. 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:

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has recently learned that an old long distance phone scam that leads consumers to incur high charges on their phone bills may now affect wireless consumers. In the past, consumers have been fooled into making expensive international calls by scam artists who leave messages on consumers’ answering machines or their e-mail accounts. The messages urge consumers to call a number with an “809,” “284,” “876,” or some other area code to collect a prize, find out about a sick relative, or engage in sex talk.

Wireless consumers are now receiving similar calls from phone numbers with three-digit area codes that appear to be domestic, but are actually associated with international pay-per-call phone numbers. While wireless companies are working to block suspicious numbers on their networks, some consumers may become victims of this scam.

The Scam Works Something Like This:

• Your wireless phone rings once or twice and then disconnects the call. When the number appears in your wireless phone log as a missed call, it appears to be a typical domestic telephone number starting with a “649” area code; or you get an e-mail or voicemail (on your residential wired telephone) telling you to call a phone number with an “809”, “284”, “876,” or some other three-digit international area code.
• When you return the call, you assume you are making a domestic long distance call – as “649,” “809,” “284,” “876,” and other area codes involved in this scam, appear to be typical three-digit U.S. area codes.
• When you dial the three-digit area code plus the number, however, you are connected to a phone number outside the United States, often in Canada or the Caribbean, and are charged expensive international call rates, and may be charged for pay-per-call services as well. (In this case, “649” goes to the Turks and Caicos, “809” goes to the Dominican Republic, “284” goes to the British Virgin Islands, and “876” goes to Jamaica.)
• You don’t find out about the higher international call rates until you receive your phone bill.

What You Can Do to Minimize the Risk of This Happening to You:

Check any unfamiliar area codes before returning calls.

Be aware that there are many 3-digit area codes (mostly in the Caribbean) that connect callers to international telephone numbers.

If you do not otherwise make international calls, ask your local or wireless phone company to block outgoing international calls on your line.

Filing a Complaint with the FCC

If you are billed for a call you made as a result of this scam, first try to resolve the matter with your telephone company. If you are unable to resolve it directly, you can file a complaint with the FCC. There is no charge for filing a complaint. You can file your complaint using an FCC on-line complaint form found at esupport.fcc.gov/complaints.htm. You can also file your complaint with the FCC’s Consumer Center by e-mailing fccinfo@fcc.gov; calling 1-888-CALL-FCC (1-888-225-5322) voice or 1-888-TELL-FCC (1-888-835-5322) TTY; faxing 1-866-418-0232; or writing to:

Federal Communications Commission
Consumer & Governmental Affairs Bureau
Consumer Inquiries and Complaints Division
445 12th Street, SW
Washington, DC 20554.

The best way to provide all the information the FCC needs to process your complaint is to complete fully the on-line complaint form. When you open the on-line complaint form, you will be asked a series of questions that will take you to the particular section of the form you need to complete. If you do not use the on-line complaint form, your complaint, at a minimum, should indicate:

• your name, address, e-mail address, and phone number where you can be reached;
• the telephone and account numbers that are the subject of your complaint;
• the name and phone numbers of any companies involved with your complaint;
• the amount of any disputed charges, whether you paid them, whether you received a refund or adjustment to your bill, the amount of any adjustment or refund you have received, an explanation if the disputed charges are related to services in addition to residential or business telephone services; and
• the details of your complaint and any additional relevant information.

Filing a Complaint with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC)

If you feel that you are a victim of an international phone scam, you can file a complaint with the FTC online at https://www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov. You can also submit a complaint by calling the FTC toll-free at 1-877-382-4357 (voice) or 1-866-653-4261 (TTY), or writing to:

Federal Trade Commission
CRC – 240
600 Pennsylvania Ave., NW
Washington, DC 20580.

For More Information

For information about other telecommunications issues, visit the FCC’s Consumer & Governmental Affairs Bureau Web site at www.fcc.gov/cgb, or contact the FCC’s Consumer Center using the information provided for filing a complaint.

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?

*** Begin Digression ***

In VTC tradition, I digress here to share my most recent customer service experience with Verizon Wireless. In September, I was planning a trip to Florida which would necessitate me an aircard device for work. No air card, no trip. On the Wednesday before my trip, I started trying to setup the MiFi device and just hit the wall. I got nothing but vague errors and “failure to initiate.” After exhausting the interwebs (Yes, I did google, re-google, and uber-google), I bit the bullet and called Verizon. I called them at around 9:30am.

The first technical support rep couldn’t help. This sadly, was expected. After some time, I was handed off to a “tier two” rep who walked me through a series of attempts before admitting she had limited hands on experience with the device. This was where my experience took a drastic turn from the ordinary. She offered to try some options and call me back in “a couple of hours.” At 5pm, well after the “couple,” I called back. I asked for the rep I had spoken with, luckily getting the same center where the original call landed. The call taker took my information and told me the original rep would contact me shortly.

To my surprise, the story didn’t end there. My phone rang after a few minutes, and the original tier 2 rep apologized and explained that she had spent her entire day working with anyone who knew anything about the device. Based upon the number of things we tried over the next 45 minutes, I am convinced she did in fact spend her day doing nothing other than researching how to get my MiFi working without a warranty replacement. Not to avoid the replacement, but because she knew I needed it fixed the next day.

By 6pm we had given up hope, and I opted to do a warranty exchange, mentioning I would check with the store near my house. If they didn’t have it, I would call back to get one shipped. I hung up the phone and tried calling the local store, got no answer, and got distracted. Ever get distracted? Happens to me. In fact, I just got distracted right now.

Ten minutes later, my favorite rep from Verizon called me. She offered to contact the local store and find out if they had a replacement, and if they didn’t she could go ahead and get one shipped. I was floored. Even thinking about it now… I’m still floored. Re-floored.

She put me on hold for about ten minutes and contacted the four stores in my area; all of which did not have a warranty replacement. She then began the shipping process and told me it would ship out the next day, arriving on Friday (and effectively damaging my travel plans). At 10 am the next morning, I went outside (shockingly) and found a FedEx notice that at 9:30am they had attempted to deliver my package. Just thirteen hours after I spoke with the rep, the replacement device was at my house, and all because someone at Verizon took total ownership of my situation. It made me feel like I was the only customer they had ever serviced. Every previous experience in the past two years with Verizon they ended with some mocking line about “have I done everything possible to make you happy today,” to which I reply, “No, not at all.” In this experience, they didn’t need to ask, because we both knew I felt like an extremely important customer. V-I-Patrick.

*** End Digression ***

In the five years I have had Verizon service, there have been around ten times that I have truly wanted to cancel. With the amount I spend on my service, it kills me to be slighted, or treated like a dog from their customer service, sales, or technical support teams.

My problem is a catch 22. With six lines of service, all with different anniversaries, I would have to slowly cancel each line at the end of it’s contract. Or I could choose option B and pay approximately seven million dollars. Either option makes me feel like a hostage. Yes, I’m still in their service. But it’s not my free-will making the choice — I’m in a commitment.

What does all of this have to do with VoIP? Annual plans, early termination, and “no contract” signups. In the VoIP world, these are mostly unregulated marketing terms. Annual plans usually save anywhere from 10% to 20% off from regular, monthly service. But to get the discount, you have to pay up-front, at the commencement of the service. Usually, it’s between $200 and $250 (paying each month would instead cost around $250 – $300 for monthly service) to avoid – a commitment.

The catch: refundability. (Yes, it’s a word. No I don’t care if it’s in the dictionary.)

Always read the fine print to make sure you have an out. If the service does not live up to expectations, if for some reason you are unable to maintain your internet, or if you find a better offer elsewhere — you’re going to have to break your contract. Typically, the termination fees and prorated amounts will leave you paying well in excess of the $50 – $100 saved by paying up front.

These contracts commit me to the product or service I have purchased for the duration of the contract. They do not commit me to the company itself or create any sense of loyalty. In fact, their first obstacle in creating loyalty is that we have started with their assumption I would not be staying with their company without being bribed with a discount. If VoIP or Mobile companies want to keep me as a happy satisfied customer, they’ll treat me like a VIP. If they do, I’ll be a walking billboard. If not, if they make me stick with them out of commitment — well, we’ll sooner or later end up in Divorce. After all, there’s a big difference between loyalty and commitment.

In an announement released on October 10th, T-Mobile advised users:

Sidekick customers, during this service disruption, please DO NOT remove your battery, reset your Sidekick, or allow it to lose power.

Updated: 10/10/2009 12:35 PM PDT

T-MOBILE AND MICROSOFT/DANGER STATUS UPDATE ON SIDEKICK DATA DISRUPTION

Dear valued T-Mobile Sidekick customers:

T-Mobile and the Sidekick data services provider, Danger, a subsidiary of Microsoft, are reaching out to express our apologies regarding the recent Sidekick data service disruption.

We appreciate your patience as Microsoft/Danger continues to work on maintaining platform stability, and restoring all services for our Sidekick customers.

Regrettably, based on Microsoft/Danger’s latest recovery assessment of their systems, we must now inform you that personal information stored on your device – such as contacts, calendar entries, to-do lists or photos – that is no longer on your Sidekick almost certainly has been lost as a result of a server failure at Microsoft/Danger. That said, our teams continue to work around-the-clock in hopes of discovering some way to recover this information. However, the likelihood of a successful outcome is extremely low. As such, we wanted to share this news with you and offer some tips and suggestions to help you rebuild your personal content. You can find these tips in our Sidekick Contacts FAQ. We encourage you to visit the Forums on a regular basis to access the latest updates as well as FAQs regarding this service disruption.

In addition, we plan to communicate with you on Monday (Oct. 12) the status of the remaining issues caused by the service disruption, including the data recovery efforts and the Download Catalog restoration which we are continuing to resolve. We also will communicate any additional tips or suggestions that may help in restoring your content.

We recognize the magnitude of this inconvenience. Our primary efforts have been focused on restoring our customers’ personal content. We also are considering additional measures for those of you who have lost your content to help reinforce how valuable you are as a T-Mobile customer.

We continue to advise customers to NOT reset their device by removing the battery or letting their battery drain completely, as any personal content that currently resides on your device will be lost.

Once again, T-Mobile and Microsoft/Danger regret any and all inconvenience this matter has caused.

Cloud computing remains “the buzz phrase that won’t go away” and still captures the hearts of IT professionals everywhere. With that in mind, many (including yours truly) still remain unconvinced that that cloud provides a better alternative to effectively managing your own assets.

For T-Mobile Sidekick users who only kept their information in the cloud, it looks like their balloon of personal information won’t be returning home.

Suggested readings and related articles:

• Dave Michels / Pin Drop Soup: Cloud Series 5: Hosted Voice – Just say no
  (for that matter, read his whole cloud series. Scratch that, just read what Dave Michels writes. )
• VoIP Tech Chat: Cloud Security Not Air Tight
• CNET: Major outage hits T-Mobile Sidekick users
• CNET: Missing Sidekick data may be gone for good