AT&T DSL and Customer Service

Recently I decided to switch from Comcast broadband internet to AT&T DSL internet because Comcast kept raising my rates.  All I wanted was the basic internet and the cheapest they will give it for is like $43 per month.  AT&T was offering a promotional rate of $14.95 per month for a year, so I thought I would try it out.

I had a very hard time signing up for it.  First, they did not have my address in the system.  They even have the name of my town misspelled in the system, and it is not even a small town or anything.  So I manage to sign up after having to call them up and cancel the 1st order which went through under a different address.

I set it up with my own DSL modem.  Set up was ok, but not without problems.  It took about an hour to get it working. Signing up online is not easy at all.  I still can't even access my bill online.  In fact I just got an order summary saying that my price is the regular price without the promotion.  I call up AT&T, go through all the annoying automated messages and wait on hold listening to even more annoying background noise.  When I get through the guy says that they bill the regular price and then give you credit a few months later.  What?  Why not just bill how much it is?

Oh yeah, and I have to have them send out a confirmation mail through regular mail just to sign up online to view my bill.  So far I am very disappointing with their customer service. 

As for the speed of the DSL, it is actually pretty good.  The download speed is faster than I was getting with Comcast.  The upload and ping time is a little slower, but not by much.  Overall there is not much difference and I have been able to use the internet and even stream videos without any problem.  A couple times it stopped working, but a restart and reboot fixed it.

Also, about the bill, online they said there is no commitment at the promo price, but over the phone they guy says that you need to keep it for a year if you want that price.  The AT&T reps don't seem to know what is going on.  Which reminds me of how at first, they couldn't find my address in the system and ultimately told me they did not service my location.  The only way I got it is when I called them up to cancel the order and they managed to look it up when I told them the reason.

Anyway, the internet works and as long as we get this billing situation figured out I will be satisfied.

Bad People

I am so tired of the bad people in this world.  What do I mean by bad people?  People who are disrespectful.  People who think they don't have to follow the rules.  People who ruin life for all the good people that have to be exposed to them on a daily basis.

I encounter these kinds of people everyday.  It usually happens at work, and since it is a school, it is usually the students.  It is amazing how many bad kids there are and how often they do things that are wrong or inappropriate.  I happen to work at a good high school so this is troubling when there are so many bad kids in a school that is supposed to be one of the good ones.  If this is true, I can imagine the kind of trouble that goes on in the not so good schools.  This is really disturbing especially when you realize that this is the future of our society.

A couple things I say sometimes are "I cry for society" and "Society makes me sad".   This is because the world is not as good as it could be because of the people who bring it down. 

Now of course there are still good people and those will hopefully keep society civilized and tolerable.  It's a shame that the good people have to suffer as a result of all the bad people.  Where is the justice?

One of my mottoes is "Good things happen to good people", and "Bad things happen to bad people".  Basically the idea of Karma.  I really hope this is true.  Good people should be rewarded and bad people should be punished.  Sometimes it doesn't seem like that happens, but hopefully in the end it will somehow either in this life or beyond.  

If I could be anything at all, I would be a superhero with unlimited power and abilities.  I would use my powers to bring justice to the world and make it a better place.

Imagine a world of Utopia where everything is perfect, everyone is happy, there is no stress, or pain, or things that go wrong.  How nice would that be?  It will never happen, but it is a nice idea.  Still the world can be better. The good must persevere and hopefully have an influence on others to become good as well.

Good Customer Service: Jewel Osco/Albertsons

I recently bought some floss at my local Jewel but when I opened it, the roll of floss was missing.  They had contact information on the back in case you are not satisfied with the product, so I sent them an email explaining the situation.  They responded quickly and sent me a coupon to cover the cost.  They also sent me 2 replacement flosses for my troubles.  This is a perfect example of good customer service.  They went above and beyond to correct the problem.  I will continue to be a loyal customer to Jewel for my weekly groceries!

Fall TV Shows Update

I just wanted to add a few more shows to the list from the previous post.  First is No Ordinary Family.  I am a fan of superheroes so when I heard about this show, I made sure to put it on my list of shows to check out.  Starting out, I did not like this show right from the beginning.  I didn't like the characters and I felt it was rushed.  Also, it seems like this idea has been done so many times.  If you are going to do a show about people with superpowers, it better be original.  The power are pretty common.  I was disappointed for example, by how the powers were discovered.  The dad tries to have his friend shoot him to test if he can stop bullets?  He tries to jump off a roof to see if he can fly?  Maybe they are gearing this show towards kids and families, yet there were some themes and language that were not G rated, so I'm not sure where they are going with this.  The one thing that was interesting was when we discovered there is another guy with powers, who was not with the family when they got theirs.  This opens up possibilities for more people with powers and that could make the show more interesting to watch. I'll check it out next week, but I hope it gets better.

The next show I'm watching is Rules of Engagement.  This is a half hour comedy with some familiar faces.  It is back for it's 2nd season.  I watched the 1st season casually and thought it was pretty good.  I have not yet made it required watching, but I will probably be watching it this season unless something else important is going on.

The 3rd show I have been watching is a new one called Raising Hope.  It's kind of a quirky comedy about a young kid who has to raise a baby while being surrounded by all kinds of interesting characters. I have not made a final decision on this one, but I think it has potential so I will be keeping an eye on it.

Fall TV Shows - 2010

Usually fall has a nice line up for tv programs.  I have been trying to stay on top of the new shows premiering and have managed to catch at least portions of the ones that have caught my interest.  So far, I have not been too impressed with the new shows.  Here is a little recap of the new shows I may be watching and the returning shows I will be watching this fall.

New Shows:
So far only 2 new shows have caught my interest after watching the pilots.  One is Mike and Molly.  This is a half hour comedy that airs Mondays on CBS.  It is nothing ground breaking, but the characters and writing seem to be pretty good, so I may watch this one.

Another show that has caught my interest is Outsourced which is another comedy that follows The Office on NBC.  What I like about this is the topic of the show is original.  It is not just another sitcom.  It is about a guy who has to manage a group of telemarketers in India.  I think it has potential so I will be keeping an eye on this one.

Returning Shows:
Some of my top returning shows this fall include The Big Bang Theory which is one of the funniest comedies on tv right now.

Smallville, this one is in it's 10th and final season.  In my opinion, it has gone downhill since season 6, but I am sticking with it til the end.

Hells Kitchen, didn't last season just end like a month ago?  Anyway, HK is always good so I'll be watching Gordon Ramsey this season.

The Office, I'm not a hard core fan of the show, but I usually watch it. Michael Scott is one of the best characters on tv.  This season looks to be pretty good.

The Apprentice, They are back to the regular format of the show without celebrities.  I'm not a fan of Donald Trump, but this show is usually entertaining so I will be watching it.

Undercover Boss, this one has not premiered yet, but I enjoyed last season, so I will definitely be checking out this season.

Bring Back the Delorean

I saw a Delorean car on the road the other day.  You know, the one from the Back to the Future movies.  It is a very rare car that hasn't been made since the 80's.  It got me thinking, what if they revived it and started manufacturing it again?  It would be updated of course to include modern technology, but the basic look and signature features such as the flip up door would be the same.  They could even make special options like the Flux Capacitor that was in the movies!  Anyone who liked the Back to the Future movies would at least be interested in the car.  If they could make it affordable, I think it would be a big hit!  What do you say major car companies?  Someone get on this project!

Blackberry Bold 9700 Review

One of my relatives upgraded their phone and gave me their Blackberry Bold 9700.  I have been using it for a few weeks and I thought I would post a review of the phone.  I will go over the hardware, features and usability of this phone in this review.

The phone itself is very nice looking.  It is black with chrome lining and has a leather texture on the back.  It is a nice size and it is fairy easy to hold.  The full keyboard is pretty easy to use and the screen is crisp and easy to read.  Call quality is as good if not better than most cell phones I have used in the past.  It has a camera with a flash that takes decent looking pictures.

The Blackberry Bold however has many annoyances I have found. One is navigation.  It seems like there is always an extra step involved that should be unnecessary.  For example, the home screen gives you a bottom row of icons to choose from.  You have to press the Blackberry button to get to your full screen of options.  The home screen should already have all these options or at least give you the option to customize it with as many icons as you want.

When I started with the phone, I wanted to clear all the contacts.  There is no easy way to do this.  You have to clear basically everything on the phone if you want to delete the contacts.  Adding new contacts is overly complicated.  The thing with Blackberry is they give you too many options you don't need and they overlook some of the basic things you do need.  When you add a contact, you want the name and number right?  On a Blackberry, they give you a list of about 30 things to fill in when you want to add a new contact.  Adding the actual number is far down on the list and even when you find it, you have to put it under "Work 1" as the primary number.  Maybe some people want a place to up address, birthday, and anniversary, but for me, I just want the name and number.

When I put my sim card into the phone, it automatically added a $25 data plan to my bill.  I was not pleased about this especially since there is a $15 data plan available.  I have since tried to downgrade to the $15 plan and it will not let me.  I rarely use the data options so paying $25 just to use the phone is not worth it.  I will probably end up switching to another phone without a data plan and then sell the Blackberry.  

Overall I think this phone is good for texting and keeping track of detailed information about contacts.  It is ok for web browsing, but not as good as touch screen phones in this area. 

Update 4-8-15: Wow hard to believe it has been almost 5 years and I still have the phone.  Most people seem to update phones every year or 2, but this one has been great and I still use it.  It is showing it's age in that it is not a touch screen and does not have all the iOS and Android apps, but I don't mind.  Nice to see Blackberry is still making phone even with all the competition.