Tag Archives: Verizon

Wow, it’s been a while…

speedtest.net resultsLot of things going on.
Minor:
We are now using Verizon FIOS (see speedtest results). After having one issue or another with TWC every week, it just got too tiring. When VZ called me up and  I priced out FIOS for TV, Phone and Internet, It’s just cheaper for me and my wife. On top of that, we get faster Internet, all HD channels we want, and the DVR works better. So, for now, we’re happy with Verizon FIOS. Since it is a NEW Fiber optic line coming into the house, I hope this eliminates all the issues I had with the original Copper line.

I have NOT been able to do many Photo Walk abouts in the last 6 months but I have joined a Camera Club at work. It’s fun and I have a chance to meet and network with new people. The Club covers events for work and is a lot of fun.

Major:
My Wife and I are expecting a Baby. Needless to say, we are happy to add to our Family!
😉

When Will FIOS Be Here?!?!

verizon-fios-internetWe keep getting mail offering good deals to convert to FIOS Internet.

I’d LOVE to convert. Verizon came to our neighborhood and the Technicians assured us they were dragging Fiber Optics to the neighborhood but still not available. Currently, I have DSL as I used to run servers here on site and needed  static  IP’s.

Now, my server is run on a VPS solution and I don’t need Static IP’s anymore.

After some of the dificulty with Time Warner Cable, I’d be willing to try FIOS HD too. I’m hoping that it’s available soon.

Music I’m listening to now:
Nothing at the moment.

What a busy week

What a busy week this has been. As Inigo Montoya once said “Let me explain, no, there is no time, let me sum up“:

  • Finished the Oil to Gas conversion. Our OLD oil burner was installed in 1952 and designed in the 1920’s. Needless to say, it was expensive to run, especially in winter. I’ll write up a post on that exclusively later on. We used John Sideris Plumbing to do the work and we’re very happy with the work and the results.
  • Attempted 3 times to have Time Warner Cable come and fix our Cable issues. After blowing off TWO appointments and arriving nearly an hour LATE to the THIRD appointment, they “diagnosed” the issue and left within 10 minutes. My wife called me after they left and I called TWC and got them to go back. The Technician insists there is no problem and that the screen going blank is “normal” and happens “occasionally”. The problem is, the issue is intermittent and unpredictable. Explaining that to the technician was an complete waste of time and he frankly did not care or want to hear it. As soon as humanly possible, we are switching our Cable TV service to Verizon. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve had issues with Verizon too, but after all the issues I’ve had the last few months with TWC, I’m willing to give it a chance.
  • Work is fun. We had an outage on Friday night that took quite a while to resolve. I was not able to leave work till 9:00pm. That in itself was bad, but I had to be in Princeton New Jersey by 7:30am the next day. Since I was late last time I had to go to Princeton, I left my house at 5:00am and got to work at 6:30am (Better early than late). That actually worked well, as I was able to get a good breakfast, relax and just jump right into the work that needed to be done. Thanks to my co-workers, everything went great (I mostly had a support role), but I was not able to leave till 7:00pm for a 2 hour drive to get home. Now on Sunday, I’m very tired. I’m glad days like this are few and far between.
  • We recorded the Olympic Opening ceremony on our DVR (Only one Blip in the Recording! “Normal” right???) for viewing later. After seeing it, my wife and I could not help but think: The Next City to host the Olympics can’t possibly top that. You can see some fantastic photos here at Boston.com and here at the Official web sight, en.beijing2008.cn.

Other than that, life is pretty good. Mostly, we are taking it easy, watching the Olympics. I was able to record “Shoot ’em up” on the DVR this week. I’m looking forward to seeing it as both Clive Owen and Paul Giamatti are great.

Music I’m listening to now:
Nothing at the moment. I’m watching “Shoot ’em Up“, With Clive Owen, Paul Giamatti and Monica Bellucci. It’s a great Action film and Lots of fun.

It’s all about the timing…

The last few days, I’ve been working at home while my heating system is being converted from an old Oil Burner (from 1952!) to a Natural Gas solution.

Since I’m stuck at home and I’ve also been having spotty performance on our Cable TV for at least 2 weeks, I scheduled an appointment with Time Warner Cable of NYC. They were supposed to come around between 12:00pm and 4:00pm and if they need to call me, call my home or my work number.

After they missed the appointment, I called TWC and asked what was going on. Basically, the Cable Repair technician called and apparently No one picked up at my home number, my work number or My cell.

All of these phone work fine, with voice mail on all of them and yet I didn’t get a call on a single one. No voice mail either. How Odd…

When I call a company for a problem, I try to be polite and professional. Getting mad does not help and the guy on the other end of the phone did NOT miss that appointment. He rescheduled for today (Hope they don’t miss that one too!) between the hours of 12:00pm and 4:00pmand with any luck, my cable will be fine.

Which leads me to the “Timing” part. My Door bell rings and it’s NOT TWC, but rather Verizon. They want to go to the backyard and wire FIOS to the telephone cable. Apparently, my neighborhood is the next one to get Fiber Optic FIOS.

In other words: If Time Warner Cable screws this up, I now have more options.

UPDATE 1: It’s 4:20pm do you know where your Time Warner Technician is?
Called Time Warner, they said the appointment is still open and to wait another half hour.

UPDATE 2: Now 5:10pm and no call. I called TWC again, got a fast Busy and redialed until I got thru. After listening to classical piano (Chopin?) music for a few minutes, my call was picked up by Yolanda and she offered to call the Technician and see what the delay was. Put on hold for over 5 minute with very good piano music.

UPDATE 3: Yolanda called the dispatcher who will be calling me back. Not thrilled at the occasional video issues, but everyone I’ve spoken to at TWC has been very friendly and professional. I await the dispatcher’s call.

Update 4: 6:30pm, No Call from the TWC dispatcher. Calling the number got a busy signal, but after 6 redials I got in and heard the nice piano music again. End Result: Dispatcher will call back.

Update 5: 7:00pm (sigh) Dispatcher called back: Today is canceled. TWC gets to try again on Wednesday.

Verizon is looking GREAT and I have NO idea what they offer.

Music I’m listening to now:
Pocketful Of Sunshine“, by Natasha Bedingfield from the Pocketful of Sunshine album. You can see the video here.

Ok, Verizon just Sucks.

PhoneIt rained Friday night which means my phone service went down yet again. This has only been going on since September 14th.

Ok,  I tried to be patient, but I go thru the usual song and dance and apparently complete waste of time by calling Verizon Phone Repair, ask to speak to a manager and get promptly hung up on. I Have a complaint in to Verizon about that AND a complaint is being opened up to their Business office Monday. My Last bill has a “Credit” of less than $3. I can’t wait to call the City and file a complaint in writing.

Maybe it’s me. maybe I just get lucky enough to deal with people with absolutely no idea how to fix a phone line. After all, It’s TWO WIRES connected to my house, down a telephone pole, to a Central office back to a Verizon Hub (Or what ever it’s called). Obviously, This is New Cutting Edge Technology (The Phone was JUST invented, Right?) and it takes a certain amount of patience to actually trackdown and inspect the few hundred feet of TWO WIRES to actually find the problem.

The Best Part? Everyone who comes out to look at it traces it a few blocks, Observes that it goes into the ground and then has to open a trouble ticket to yet another group just to look at it. That other group takes a peek several days later and says “Looks OK to me!” and apparently does nothing. By the time they look at it at least four days have passed, the rain water that caused the problem has evaporated and the phone line starts to work albiet with lots of Static.

This situation is just beyond words. I’m betting I’ll be back here writing about how much Verizon Sucks in January.

Music I’m listening to right Now:
Camisado” by Panic! at the Disco from “A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out“.

Verizon Phone Line problems Continue

It rained last night so My Phone Line went Down again.

I’m really trying to be patient about this as it is obviously a difficult problem to Diagnose, but this is getting seriously ridiculous. I work from home at least one day a week and need my phone to work properly else it costs me money.

The people who come to work on the problem (On Sunday no less!) are friendly and Polite and they do know what they are doing but  I think I lucked out with a really unusual  and intermittent problem. I’m betting they replace the entire phone line cable…

10/20/2006 UPDATE: They replaced the line from my Telephone pole to the Central Office. Last night, it rained and I still have phone service. Life is good…

Music I’m listening to right Now:
Nothing at the moment.