As of this writing, we are into week two without cellular access on our iPhones (See “Cutting the cord and falling into the abyss” in last week’s Reader).
I think the biggest thing I miss is reading the Duluth News Tribune, Star Tribune, and the New York Times at breakfast and lunch. To check email, statements, and other important and unimportant information, we have to go to the library or coffee shops. I’m drinking a lot more coffee than I normally do.
The easiest is to walk to Chester Creek Café at the corner. But we don’t want to take up a table when there are many lunch or dinner customers.
Perk Place is a quiet place, but for some reason I could not log on to their server. Another Mac user had been successful. I wonder if he was using a newer operating system. A staff member did get me signed on using the coffee shop account.
Once upon a time I would walk to Bixby’s and other shops at Mt. Royal, but every year the hill up Woodland Avenue seems to get steeper, especially with a backpack with a computer. And so I wimp out and drive.
The Mount Royal Library may or may not be crowded. When I went on Thursday it wasn’t, but it did take a bit of effort to log in. I was successful with my iPhone and iPad, but I never managed to click all the right buttons for my laptop.
A diversion at the library was looking for a follow-on book after viewing “The Young Victoria”. The movie had a lot of follow-on summary information. I wanted to know more about her reign and her successors. I used my iPhone to sign on to the catalog and select some books. Having the call numbers of the desired titles on my iPhone sure beat copying those numbers onto paper from the library computers.
Caribou at Mount Royal Market is spacious and quiet. It’s biggest drawback is that there are no power outlets at the tables.
And at the cabin we are completely disconnected from the web. At least, we can still use our phones.
So, I have to carefully plan all my work before hand. I am writing this at home and will go to one of the coffee shops to email it to the Reader. I have to write most of my email beforehand. I have to plan ahead what web sites to visit.
One of those plan-ahead sites was the Apple Support Community. While at a coffee shop I downloaded thirteen threads about excessive data usage. It’s nice to know that I am not alone with this problem. Some useful advice, some blaming the user, but no really clear cut advice.
I do know first hand that solving computer problems can be a long, arduous project. Relevant information comes in dribbles from the customer and lots of digging by programmers. I was the lead investigator of frequent crashes of a Univac 1108 in Sweden. Many of the memory dumps showed a particular program was active. I badgered to customer into giving me a copy of the program. I took the copy to another site and the program crashed because it was putting data outside of its assigned space. To make the story short, the problem was they were using an outdated library and that their computer had a memory protection failure. I think it took three months from the first alarm to final resolution. And those computers were a lot simpler than what we carry in our pockets now!
Once upon a time it was said that Mac owners never used a manual. I did look up a few things now and then, mostly just what keys did I need to push to get å, ä, é, î, ö, and other western European characters. The Mac’s were described as WIMPs: Windows, Icons, Menus, and Pictures. Just about everything you needed to know was obvious from one of these.
Even then, many users came up with seemingly intractable problems. Apple’s answer was to encourage user groups. Unfortunately, often there was nobody at a meeting who had an answer. I remember somebody asking why they couldn’t make their “Whiz Bang” printer work on a Mac. The leader would ask if anybody had a solution and look around the room. Not a hand went up. This happened over and over again.
The human interface, the computing power, and the range of software has improved exponentially in the last 31 years (remember the 1984 Apple ad). We can do many tasks quickly and easily just by poking the screen or dragging a finger over it. But when things go wrong! Hoo boy!
I think I caused my problem with an inadvertent reset. My choices include going back to the last iCloud backup, but would that be done before the coffee shop closed? By reading the manual, I found that I can double-click the home button, swipe up on the screen, and then slide through all the open apps. I can close an app by sliding its image up. This doesn’t remove the app from my iPhone, it just stops it from doing any harm.
Once September rolls around, we’ll have the data part of our Consumer Cellular contract restored. I think the closing apps plan is my best alternative. I’ll start with only keeping the supposedly harmless apps open: Weather, Mail, Calendar, and a few other standards. Then I’ll have to wait until all the data is in for that six-hour period. If usage seems normal, I’ll keep a few more apps open. Either I’ll eventually find the run-away app or that the conditions are such that the app is now behaving.
Meanwhile, I’ll be drinking lots of coffee. I thought of having beer instead, but it will be just my luck to knock over the glass…
Also published in the Reader Weekly of Duluth at http://duluthreader.com/articles/2015/08/26/5837_clawing_out_of_the_abyss.
Showing posts with label CenturyLink. Show all posts
Showing posts with label CenturyLink. Show all posts
Friday, August 28, 2015
Thursday, August 20, 2015
Cutting the cord and falling into the abyss
We received so many unsolicited calls on our land line that we stopped picking up the phone until we knew who the caller was. Too often, no message was left.
I received almost only junk email on my cpinternet account through our CenturyLink account. Besides offers of garage door openers and of sex, I received messages in Japanese and Turkish. Very rarely did an old contact use this account.
Besides, our nominal 7Mbps speed was often under 4Mbps. We were eligible for an upgrade to 12Mbps, but we had to call an 800 number to find the details. Once upon a time, Qwest, the predecessor to CenturyLink would state on its website how much 256Kbps, 512Kbps, and 1Mbps would cost, exclusive of taxes and fees.
A digression on telecommunication taxes and fees: the telecommunication companies (telcos) can’t give these accurately because the vary widely from locale to locale and narrowly from month to month.
We also had an iPhone 4s through Virgin Mobile (VM) because we got a deal a few years ago from Best Buy.
Along the way, we started using cell phones through Consumer Cellular: you can’t miss their ads, especially if you are an AARP member. Consumer Cellular (CC) stated on its website the exact cost of each service and its level that you requested. You could change these at any time, either up or down. I eventually bought an iPhone 5s from CC. They piggy back on the AT&T network (at 3G rather than 4G). Not only could I use the iPhone in Brimson, but I could use the phone as a hotspot for my iPad or MacBook.
With all of these providers, our total monthly payments seemed to be getting out of hand. I did a small spreadsheet to compare using only CC instead of multiple providers. If we bought another CC iPhone, our costs would drop about a thousand dollars per year (not including monthly payments for new phone. Even then, we would still save hundreds of dollars a year.
One problem was our wireless printer. How would we access it without our DSL modem? I pulled the phone cord from the modem and found that the printer still worked. The DSL modem was our router, even if it was not connected to the phone system.
We ordered a new CC iPhone 5c, and when it arrived, we set it up for my wife’s use. We could also use it as a hotspot, and so she wouldn’t have to depend on my iPhone if I was elsewhere. Also, because it worked in Brimson, we could use our phones as walkie-talkies. We would have much better reception, and nobody else would be listening to our calls.
Except, we couldn’t get her phone to work because we couldn’t transfer the VM number without an account number. None of our VM bills had an account number, only the phone number. We had to call VM, and of course, the first person we talked to couldn’t do it. We were switched to someone who suggested we might get a better deal. Unmentioned was the cost. After I don’t know how many minutes, we were told our account number. Then we called CC with it and they activated my wife’s iPhone. We didn’t have this hassle when we dropped our land line at our cabin and put it on a Home Base wireless system.
Next step was to call CenturyLink to cancel our phone and DSL. Again, we were routed to someone who tried selling us faster service. We declined, and sometime in the next day or two the phone no longer worked, but the modem still accessed the network.
Ah yes, we had separate ISP, CPinternet, from the bad old days when we had only 56Kbps dial-up (56 Kilo bits per second for those too young to remember dial-up). When we started with QWest at 256Kbps we kept CPInternet as our provider. CPInternet really had great customer service, too. Then CPInternet was bought by Hickory Tech of Mankato. Then Hickory Tech bought Enventis and assumed its name. Still great customer service. Then Consolidated Communications of somewhere bought Enventis. I didn’t have much need to call customer service, until we wanted to cancel our ISP connection. My first attempt got the automatic wait message of something like “Enventis is now Consolidated Communications”. On the ninth reiteration of this, I hung up, and tried another time.
Then new problems started, some of them my own doing.
The printer works from my wife’s iMac, but not my MacBook, the one I tested printing from.
I attempted to reset my wife’s old iPhone to erase all our data before recycling it. It needed the password for her Apple ID. We thought we knew it, but all the variants we tried were rejected. I spent over a half-hour with Apple Support trying to resolve it. Terry cheerfully assured me that he had seen many problems like this. Unfortunately, he had to admit defeat and suggested we take it to a Genius Bar in an Apple Store.
In all my attempts to reset her phone, I picked up my iPhone and clicked reset. Ah! My Apple ID. My password worked. Dummy! You just reset your own iPhone!
I’m running out of space, but I’ll give the short story on the next problem. We used up our quota of CC data and were automatically cut off. I finally figured out that my iPhone was still trying to load the one program that was no longer available from iTunes, over and over and …!
Iiee-
ee-
ee-…
This also was printed in the Reader Weekly of Duluth, 2015-08-20 at http://duluthreader.com/articles/2015/08/20/5807_cutting_the_cord_and_falling_into_the_abyss.
I received almost only junk email on my cpinternet account through our CenturyLink account. Besides offers of garage door openers and of sex, I received messages in Japanese and Turkish. Very rarely did an old contact use this account.
Besides, our nominal 7Mbps speed was often under 4Mbps. We were eligible for an upgrade to 12Mbps, but we had to call an 800 number to find the details. Once upon a time, Qwest, the predecessor to CenturyLink would state on its website how much 256Kbps, 512Kbps, and 1Mbps would cost, exclusive of taxes and fees.
A digression on telecommunication taxes and fees: the telecommunication companies (telcos) can’t give these accurately because the vary widely from locale to locale and narrowly from month to month.
We also had an iPhone 4s through Virgin Mobile (VM) because we got a deal a few years ago from Best Buy.
Along the way, we started using cell phones through Consumer Cellular: you can’t miss their ads, especially if you are an AARP member. Consumer Cellular (CC) stated on its website the exact cost of each service and its level that you requested. You could change these at any time, either up or down. I eventually bought an iPhone 5s from CC. They piggy back on the AT&T network (at 3G rather than 4G). Not only could I use the iPhone in Brimson, but I could use the phone as a hotspot for my iPad or MacBook.
With all of these providers, our total monthly payments seemed to be getting out of hand. I did a small spreadsheet to compare using only CC instead of multiple providers. If we bought another CC iPhone, our costs would drop about a thousand dollars per year (not including monthly payments for new phone. Even then, we would still save hundreds of dollars a year.
One problem was our wireless printer. How would we access it without our DSL modem? I pulled the phone cord from the modem and found that the printer still worked. The DSL modem was our router, even if it was not connected to the phone system.
We ordered a new CC iPhone 5c, and when it arrived, we set it up for my wife’s use. We could also use it as a hotspot, and so she wouldn’t have to depend on my iPhone if I was elsewhere. Also, because it worked in Brimson, we could use our phones as walkie-talkies. We would have much better reception, and nobody else would be listening to our calls.
Except, we couldn’t get her phone to work because we couldn’t transfer the VM number without an account number. None of our VM bills had an account number, only the phone number. We had to call VM, and of course, the first person we talked to couldn’t do it. We were switched to someone who suggested we might get a better deal. Unmentioned was the cost. After I don’t know how many minutes, we were told our account number. Then we called CC with it and they activated my wife’s iPhone. We didn’t have this hassle when we dropped our land line at our cabin and put it on a Home Base wireless system.
Next step was to call CenturyLink to cancel our phone and DSL. Again, we were routed to someone who tried selling us faster service. We declined, and sometime in the next day or two the phone no longer worked, but the modem still accessed the network.
Ah yes, we had separate ISP, CPinternet, from the bad old days when we had only 56Kbps dial-up (56 Kilo bits per second for those too young to remember dial-up). When we started with QWest at 256Kbps we kept CPInternet as our provider. CPInternet really had great customer service, too. Then CPInternet was bought by Hickory Tech of Mankato. Then Hickory Tech bought Enventis and assumed its name. Still great customer service. Then Consolidated Communications of somewhere bought Enventis. I didn’t have much need to call customer service, until we wanted to cancel our ISP connection. My first attempt got the automatic wait message of something like “Enventis is now Consolidated Communications”. On the ninth reiteration of this, I hung up, and tried another time.
Then new problems started, some of them my own doing.
The printer works from my wife’s iMac, but not my MacBook, the one I tested printing from.
I attempted to reset my wife’s old iPhone to erase all our data before recycling it. It needed the password for her Apple ID. We thought we knew it, but all the variants we tried were rejected. I spent over a half-hour with Apple Support trying to resolve it. Terry cheerfully assured me that he had seen many problems like this. Unfortunately, he had to admit defeat and suggested we take it to a Genius Bar in an Apple Store.
In all my attempts to reset her phone, I picked up my iPhone and clicked reset. Ah! My Apple ID. My password worked. Dummy! You just reset your own iPhone!
I’m running out of space, but I’ll give the short story on the next problem. We used up our quota of CC data and were automatically cut off. I finally figured out that my iPhone was still trying to load the one program that was no longer available from iTunes, over and over and …!
Iiee-
ee-
ee-…
This also was printed in the Reader Weekly of Duluth, 2015-08-20 at http://duluthreader.com/articles/2015/08/20/5807_cutting_the_cord_and_falling_into_the_abyss.
Tuesday, December 23, 2014
Free market? What free market?
Certainly not in telecommunications!
All but one telecommunication company* that I know of violates two of the four requirements of a free market.
1) Many buyers and sellers (there are only a few sellers)
2) Buyers and sellers are free to enter and leave the market (we can give up our phones, but…)
3) Buyers and sellers have all the information they need to make a decision (the sellers sure don’t want to give you complete pricing information)
4) All costs are in the sale, that is, no externalities (well, there are externalities like telephone wires, but few really care about their existence)
This little screed was triggered by my desire to have better internet speed than about 5Mbps (nominal 7). In Duluth, I can get 23Mbps on my cell phone, but if I use it as a hotspot for my laptop the speed drops down to less than 2Mbps. That means I can’t easily replace my DSL modem by using my cell phone. My cell phone is with Consumer Cellular* which in turn uses AT&T. My DSL modem and home phone are with CenturyLink.
AT&T does provide quite a menu to match what you think you need with what is available. Plans can get pricy if you use several devices, say two tablets and two computers.
The best deal I could figure out was a mobile hotspot with 4GB/month of data at $50. I can only guess on how much I use. The mobile hotspot (Unite Pro) costs $200 but is $50 with a 2 year contract (“excluding other account charges”). If could be sure that we would stay in that limit, it might be a good replacement for our DSL. Dropping the land line entirely, we could add a home base for our telephone and use our Consumer Cellular account. That would only be a $10/month charge. But, how much more voice time would we use?
As for staying in the 4GB/month, I can’t be sure. My wife spends a lot of time on Skype.
Also, I can’t be sure the AT&T hotspot would always get above 20Mbps.
Also, just how much are those “other account charges”?
On the other hand, CenturyLink is offering 100Mpbs in certain locations. Try to find those locations! I got a gibberish page.
To get more detailed information, I had to have an online account. I won’t go through the hassle I had for that, but I need not have done that. My wife already had an online account.
When I eventually got my account working, I found the best we can do is 12Mbps. I can’t find out the price until I request the upgrade!! So much for the free market. New subscribers can get it for $19.95/month. If we’re paying about $60/month for phone and internet (including “other account charges”). If the cost is split, we’re paying more than new subscribers for our nominal 7Mbps!
Do I go for an AT&T hotspot or do I replace our nine-year-old CenturyLink modem?
*Consumer Cellular is about the only telecommunications company that I know that tells you all of your costs (except “other account charges”). Not only that, they warn you if your usage might go over your selected usage limit. And you can change your limits up or down at any time. The only problem I have, other than the cell phone as hot spot is not as fast I thought it would be, is that the max data limit is 2.5GB/month.
Decisions, decisions! Computers may be more powerful than pens and paper, but buying pens and paper was a lot easier.
All but one telecommunication company* that I know of violates two of the four requirements of a free market.
1) Many buyers and sellers (there are only a few sellers)
2) Buyers and sellers are free to enter and leave the market (we can give up our phones, but…)
3) Buyers and sellers have all the information they need to make a decision (the sellers sure don’t want to give you complete pricing information)
4) All costs are in the sale, that is, no externalities (well, there are externalities like telephone wires, but few really care about their existence)
This little screed was triggered by my desire to have better internet speed than about 5Mbps (nominal 7). In Duluth, I can get 23Mbps on my cell phone, but if I use it as a hotspot for my laptop the speed drops down to less than 2Mbps. That means I can’t easily replace my DSL modem by using my cell phone. My cell phone is with Consumer Cellular* which in turn uses AT&T. My DSL modem and home phone are with CenturyLink.
AT&T does provide quite a menu to match what you think you need with what is available. Plans can get pricy if you use several devices, say two tablets and two computers.
The best deal I could figure out was a mobile hotspot with 4GB/month of data at $50. I can only guess on how much I use. The mobile hotspot (Unite Pro) costs $200 but is $50 with a 2 year contract (“excluding other account charges”). If could be sure that we would stay in that limit, it might be a good replacement for our DSL. Dropping the land line entirely, we could add a home base for our telephone and use our Consumer Cellular account. That would only be a $10/month charge. But, how much more voice time would we use?
As for staying in the 4GB/month, I can’t be sure. My wife spends a lot of time on Skype.
Also, I can’t be sure the AT&T hotspot would always get above 20Mbps.
Also, just how much are those “other account charges”?
On the other hand, CenturyLink is offering 100Mpbs in certain locations. Try to find those locations! I got a gibberish page.
To get more detailed information, I had to have an online account. I won’t go through the hassle I had for that, but I need not have done that. My wife already had an online account.
When I eventually got my account working, I found the best we can do is 12Mbps. I can’t find out the price until I request the upgrade!! So much for the free market. New subscribers can get it for $19.95/month. If we’re paying about $60/month for phone and internet (including “other account charges”). If the cost is split, we’re paying more than new subscribers for our nominal 7Mbps!
Do I go for an AT&T hotspot or do I replace our nine-year-old CenturyLink modem?
*Consumer Cellular is about the only telecommunications company that I know that tells you all of your costs (except “other account charges”). Not only that, they warn you if your usage might go over your selected usage limit. And you can change your limits up or down at any time. The only problem I have, other than the cell phone as hot spot is not as fast I thought it would be, is that the max data limit is 2.5GB/month.
Decisions, decisions! Computers may be more powerful than pens and paper, but buying pens and paper was a lot easier.
Friday, March 07, 2014
Free market in telecommunications?
A free market does not exist in telecommnications.
Consider that a free market
– Has many buyers and sellers
– Both buyers and sellers are free to enter and leave the market
– Both buyers and sellers have all the information they need to make a decision
– All costs are covered in the transaction, that is, there are no externalities
Let’s start with the last because it has some relevance to current politics. What are the externalities of telecommunications? There are the overhead lines, the underground cables, and the radio waves zipping through our bodies. Most of us don’t seem to be concerned with the last; we’ve had radio, TV, and radar signals going through us for decades. The overhead lines are not very aesthetic but we put up with them. Similarly, the underground cables don’t seem to be a problem until one has to be dug up.
The externality that is raising the most discussion is the use of copper wires. However, this need is being reduced by the use of fiber optics and wireless communications.
The telecommunications market certainly has more sellers than it used to, some in competition with one another for the buyers’ business. Still, given that the buyers’ choices in any given area are limited to less than a dozen, the market is more of an oligopoly than a free market.
A few of us could go off all the nets and save a bundle of money. But most of us depend on telecommunications for communicating with friends, family, and emergency assistance. Few businesses would succeed without telephones and Internet access. They need it for marketing, sales, and customer support.
All the information you need to make a buy decision? Hah! You really have to dig around to get a detailed quote on what a particular package of services will really cost you. Ads are all over about Internet service for $19.95 for five years guaranteed. But do you know how much you’ll pay for installation, service fees, and taxes? Do you know how fast the service will be? Do you know how much faster service will cost? Even if you sign up for service, the customer service department can’t tell you how much service fees and taxes will be. Gosh, if the billing computers have this information, why don’t the customer service computers have this information?
About the only company that is upfront about the costs of services is Consumer Cellular. Its web page has the cost of the basic service, the cost of each upgrade, and you can do it all online. Like all others, they don’t have a calculator for service fee and taxes.
As with much of my writing, this examination was started by my own recent experience. I’ve wanted to have faster Internet speeds for some time, I wanted caller ID on our home phone because probably three-quarters of our incoming calls are junk calls, and I wanted better Internet access at our cabin. I thought our best arrangement would be to drop CenturyLink for phone and Internet at home, get a Home Base phone from Consumer Cellular, and get a portable modem from AT&T.
Well, the AT&T modem didn’t deliver much speed at our house and so I returned it. I use my Consumer Cellular iPhone to periodically check the AT&T speed. That speed has improved but is not consistent; sometimes it is way better than the CenturyLink DSL speed, sometimes it is worse.
What if I upgrade my DSL speed? How much does it cost? Well, the “free market” CenturyLink won’t tell me on their website. I am supposed to call for that info. Once upon a time in the days when we had Qwest, the website offered three different speeds with prices. When we got tired of 256kbps, we made a few clicks and we had faster speed in a day or two.
Finding the prices elsewhere is a bit of a chore. Over half the hits are for CenturyLink web pages or for CenturyLink reseller pages. I think on the second search page I found a site that gave detailed pricing (without taxes and fees, of course). It would cost us “$5.00” more to go from a nominal 7Mbps to 12, “$15.00” to 20, and “$25.00” to 40. My wife balked at even the upgrade to 12Mpbs because she thought things were fine.
As for the cost of getting caller ID, it is the same story. One cannot get just caller ID, but has to get a package of many unneeded features. Could I find the cost? Of course not! It’s a “free market” and companies are free to do as they please.
As I was reviewing the many pages that I had opened in my quest, I found one with a long list of entries complaining about CenturyLink service. Of course, those who are satisfied don’t post on such sites, but the number of instances of overbilling, not sending any statement, having a collection agency demand payment, of undelivered service, of repeated calls for non-functioning or poorly function service, and on and on. Do I even want to make even a small change in my service?
My final set of changes for telecommunications was to have my Consumer Cellular iPhone become a hotspot (no charge, done in about 15 minutes) and upgrade to the max of 2GB of traffic. That should allow us to use our iPads at the cabin to read the newspapers. Or even write this column at our cabin and send it before the deadline. When it gets warm enough for my wife to want to go there again.
Consider that a free market
– Has many buyers and sellers
– Both buyers and sellers are free to enter and leave the market
– Both buyers and sellers have all the information they need to make a decision
– All costs are covered in the transaction, that is, there are no externalities
Let’s start with the last because it has some relevance to current politics. What are the externalities of telecommunications? There are the overhead lines, the underground cables, and the radio waves zipping through our bodies. Most of us don’t seem to be concerned with the last; we’ve had radio, TV, and radar signals going through us for decades. The overhead lines are not very aesthetic but we put up with them. Similarly, the underground cables don’t seem to be a problem until one has to be dug up.
The externality that is raising the most discussion is the use of copper wires. However, this need is being reduced by the use of fiber optics and wireless communications.
The telecommunications market certainly has more sellers than it used to, some in competition with one another for the buyers’ business. Still, given that the buyers’ choices in any given area are limited to less than a dozen, the market is more of an oligopoly than a free market.
A few of us could go off all the nets and save a bundle of money. But most of us depend on telecommunications for communicating with friends, family, and emergency assistance. Few businesses would succeed without telephones and Internet access. They need it for marketing, sales, and customer support.
All the information you need to make a buy decision? Hah! You really have to dig around to get a detailed quote on what a particular package of services will really cost you. Ads are all over about Internet service for $19.95 for five years guaranteed. But do you know how much you’ll pay for installation, service fees, and taxes? Do you know how fast the service will be? Do you know how much faster service will cost? Even if you sign up for service, the customer service department can’t tell you how much service fees and taxes will be. Gosh, if the billing computers have this information, why don’t the customer service computers have this information?
About the only company that is upfront about the costs of services is Consumer Cellular. Its web page has the cost of the basic service, the cost of each upgrade, and you can do it all online. Like all others, they don’t have a calculator for service fee and taxes.
As with much of my writing, this examination was started by my own recent experience. I’ve wanted to have faster Internet speeds for some time, I wanted caller ID on our home phone because probably three-quarters of our incoming calls are junk calls, and I wanted better Internet access at our cabin. I thought our best arrangement would be to drop CenturyLink for phone and Internet at home, get a Home Base phone from Consumer Cellular, and get a portable modem from AT&T.
Well, the AT&T modem didn’t deliver much speed at our house and so I returned it. I use my Consumer Cellular iPhone to periodically check the AT&T speed. That speed has improved but is not consistent; sometimes it is way better than the CenturyLink DSL speed, sometimes it is worse.
What if I upgrade my DSL speed? How much does it cost? Well, the “free market” CenturyLink won’t tell me on their website. I am supposed to call for that info. Once upon a time in the days when we had Qwest, the website offered three different speeds with prices. When we got tired of 256kbps, we made a few clicks and we had faster speed in a day or two.
Finding the prices elsewhere is a bit of a chore. Over half the hits are for CenturyLink web pages or for CenturyLink reseller pages. I think on the second search page I found a site that gave detailed pricing (without taxes and fees, of course). It would cost us “$5.00” more to go from a nominal 7Mbps to 12, “$15.00” to 20, and “$25.00” to 40. My wife balked at even the upgrade to 12Mpbs because she thought things were fine.
As for the cost of getting caller ID, it is the same story. One cannot get just caller ID, but has to get a package of many unneeded features. Could I find the cost? Of course not! It’s a “free market” and companies are free to do as they please.
As I was reviewing the many pages that I had opened in my quest, I found one with a long list of entries complaining about CenturyLink service. Of course, those who are satisfied don’t post on such sites, but the number of instances of overbilling, not sending any statement, having a collection agency demand payment, of undelivered service, of repeated calls for non-functioning or poorly function service, and on and on. Do I even want to make even a small change in my service?
My final set of changes for telecommunications was to have my Consumer Cellular iPhone become a hotspot (no charge, done in about 15 minutes) and upgrade to the max of 2GB of traffic. That should allow us to use our iPads at the cabin to read the newspapers. Or even write this column at our cabin and send it before the deadline. When it gets warm enough for my wife to want to go there again.
Wednesday, October 23, 2013
In the cellphone WiFi desert
I was hoping "to cut the cord" and go completely cellular with telephone and internet.
With some false assumptions, I thought we could get equivalent service by getting another Consumer Cellular Home Phone Base to replace our Duluth telephone line and a wireless hot spot to replace the DSL service. My back of the envelope calculation showed the monthly cost would be about equivalent.
Another Home Phone Base would cost us about $10/month and all calls would be charged to my wife's cell phone account. Since we rarely use all our minutes, we wouldn't have any other extra costs.
A quick search of the web for wifi hot spots came up with the AT&T Unite which would cost about $50 per month. Since we pay about $60 per month for our phone and DSL service, this looked like a break-even deal. Since the hot spot was portable, we would have the bonus of using it at our cabin. The deal-maker was that one commenter said he often got 19Mbps with his Unite. Hot diggedy dog! Greased lightning. A lot better than zero Mbps at our cabin and around 6Mbps at our house.
So, on Tuesday off I went to the local AT&T store to buy one. A friendly representative met me at the door and answered all my questions. He showed my the Unite which is about the size of a cell phone. When I told him that I had read that it was capable of 19Mbps he replied that some people even got 25Mbps.
I went through all the rigamarole of filling out a contract, but then got ticker shock. With all the taxes and fees the monthly cost for 5 gigabytes would be $63!! Oh, well, maybe it will be worth it to have access at the cabin and having three times the speed I now have.
The contract did include a 14-day return policy.
I brought the hot spot home, unpacked it, read the instructions, assembled it (insert battery and put on back cover), and turned it on. I set my laptop to access it and was surprised that it seemed slow. I ran an Ookla speed test on my MacBook and found it was doing less than 4Mbps compared to over 4Mbps with the DSL modem. I ran similar tests with my iPhone and my wife's iMac. I moved the Unite close to windows and received even slower speeds. The only upside was that upload speeds with the Unite were faster than with DSL.
I also found that the megabytes were also adding up, even when I did nothing. After a half-afternoon of use, I had used over 220 megabytes. With both of us online we would easily exceed 5 gigabytes in a month; that could add $10-20/month to our bill.
I reluctantly repacked the unit and took it back to the AT&T store yesterday. Surprise, the same friendly representative met me at the door again.
He was sympathetic to my problem, but he wanted to double-check. When he used the hotspot with his iPhone, he was getting around 20Mbps! He checked the coverage map and found a tower within three blocks of our house. Oops! It won't become active until December. So, he took our unit back and waived the restocking fee.
We said we would periodically check with my wife's Consumer Cellular phone (AT&T network).
When we got home, I downloaded Ookla to my wife's cellphone. Test runs gave less than 3Mpbs! Even when I pointed the phone at the nearby tower! Oops! I was still using our DSL modem! I turned WiFi off on my wife's cell phone and tried again. The ping was slower than through DSL, but the download never even began! It stayed on 0.00 until I got a message about connection error. We are in the desert compared to up on the hill in the mall area.
We'll keep checking the local tower. If and when service improves to about 20Mps, we'll reconsider cutting the cord.
Note: This article was corrected 2013-10-24 to state that the first speed test with my wife's cellphone was using our DSL modem and that the test failed on the AT&T network.
With some false assumptions, I thought we could get equivalent service by getting another Consumer Cellular Home Phone Base to replace our Duluth telephone line and a wireless hot spot to replace the DSL service. My back of the envelope calculation showed the monthly cost would be about equivalent.
Another Home Phone Base would cost us about $10/month and all calls would be charged to my wife's cell phone account. Since we rarely use all our minutes, we wouldn't have any other extra costs.
A quick search of the web for wifi hot spots came up with the AT&T Unite which would cost about $50 per month. Since we pay about $60 per month for our phone and DSL service, this looked like a break-even deal. Since the hot spot was portable, we would have the bonus of using it at our cabin. The deal-maker was that one commenter said he often got 19Mbps with his Unite. Hot diggedy dog! Greased lightning. A lot better than zero Mbps at our cabin and around 6Mbps at our house.
So, on Tuesday off I went to the local AT&T store to buy one. A friendly representative met me at the door and answered all my questions. He showed my the Unite which is about the size of a cell phone. When I told him that I had read that it was capable of 19Mbps he replied that some people even got 25Mbps.
I went through all the rigamarole of filling out a contract, but then got ticker shock. With all the taxes and fees the monthly cost for 5 gigabytes would be $63!! Oh, well, maybe it will be worth it to have access at the cabin and having three times the speed I now have.
The contract did include a 14-day return policy.
I brought the hot spot home, unpacked it, read the instructions, assembled it (insert battery and put on back cover), and turned it on. I set my laptop to access it and was surprised that it seemed slow. I ran an Ookla speed test on my MacBook and found it was doing less than 4Mbps compared to over 4Mbps with the DSL modem. I ran similar tests with my iPhone and my wife's iMac. I moved the Unite close to windows and received even slower speeds. The only upside was that upload speeds with the Unite were faster than with DSL.
I also found that the megabytes were also adding up, even when I did nothing. After a half-afternoon of use, I had used over 220 megabytes. With both of us online we would easily exceed 5 gigabytes in a month; that could add $10-20/month to our bill.
I reluctantly repacked the unit and took it back to the AT&T store yesterday. Surprise, the same friendly representative met me at the door again.
He was sympathetic to my problem, but he wanted to double-check. When he used the hotspot with his iPhone, he was getting around 20Mbps! He checked the coverage map and found a tower within three blocks of our house. Oops! It won't become active until December. So, he took our unit back and waived the restocking fee.
We said we would periodically check with my wife's Consumer Cellular phone (AT&T network).
When we got home, I downloaded Ookla to my wife's cellphone. Test runs gave less than 3Mpbs! Even when I pointed the phone at the nearby tower! Oops! I was still using our DSL modem! I turned WiFi off on my wife's cell phone and tried again. The ping was slower than through DSL, but the download never even began! It stayed on 0.00 until I got a message about connection error. We are in the desert compared to up on the hill in the mall area.
We'll keep checking the local tower. If and when service improves to about 20Mps, we'll reconsider cutting the cord.
Note: This article was corrected 2013-10-24 to state that the first speed test with my wife's cellphone was using our DSL modem and that the test failed on the AT&T network.
Sunday, October 20, 2013
Efficiency is not dependent on organizational form
I emailed the following to the Reader Weekly 2013-10-10. They published it on 2013-10-17 as "People make mistakes! All the time. Everyday." It is also available at http://duluthreader.com/articles/2013/10/17/2270_party_of_one-1.
Some people are using the glitches in the Affordable Care Act exchanges as proof that government is inefficient. Duh, how often have you updated software on your devices with version x.0 and then within a week or two received a notice of the release of version x.0.1?
Government is run by people. Corporations are run by people. People make mistakes! All the time. Everyday. In every way. Government screws up. Corporations screw up.
For examples of corporate screw-ups and non-response to customer complaints, take a look at the customer “support” message boards. All the support comes from other customers who spent hours trying to figure out how a product really worked. If they are lucky, other users mark their responses as helpful and they get “points”, whatever those are worth.
I’ve seen some issues go on for two or more years.
Let me give you a short summary of some customer service issues I’ve had this year.
I think it was late spring when we had several days of windy, rainy weather. Our DSL service was erratic. It would be slow then normal then nothing at all. The DSL light on our modem would go out. I called CenturyLink and spoke with a tech in Idaho. She said that our service had been throttled back from the nominal 7Mbps to 3Mbps. She did some resetting and things were better.
The bad weather continued and our DSL service became erratic again. I made a call and sent some emails, but this time I was told that it was my modem and that I should buy a new modem. I checked online for the current CenturyLink modem, and guess what! One customer had left a message that he bought that new modem and was having the exact same problems as we were! Two months before my search!
I didn’t buy a modem and a few weeks later our modem was doing just fine. Our service now runs about 6Mbps. Could it be that CenturyLink had some line problems that customer support was not told about?
I bought a solar light for the outhouse at our cabin. It worked fine and then it would not turn on until it had been off for about an hour. I sent email to the customer support and received back a request for my address, phone number, date of purchase, and a scanned copy of the receipt. I said “Phooey” and figured out that I had drained the batteries by leaving the light on. Replacing the batteries improved the performance. It looks like the first line of customer support is only screeners who have no access to problems and solutions. Now this dumb customer left the light on again and it wouldn’t turn on again.
We replaced our cabin landline with a wireless home phone base. The answering machine now gave a time an hour later than the time of call. Consumer Cellular replied it was my answering machine. With a bit of web searching, I found out that the wireless home phone base is passing the wrong information and that a firmware upgrade fixes the problem. The upgrade is available only from the original manufacturer and only can be installed with Windows software. When I relayed this information back to Consumer Cellular, they replied they could not help me and implied it wasn’t even their responsibility! This from a company that is rated highly in customer service.
The keyboard and keypad on my laptop would not respond. I tried the various reset tricks from Apple support boards but none worked for long. I took my laptop back to Best Buy where I bought it, but everything worked fine for the Geek Squad. It worked fine for a while at home and then… “Dead” again. I figured out that it was Microsoft Outlook that I always have on that was the problem. The techs had closed all my apps before their tests. I reorganized Outlook's database and the keyboard has been working fine since. If only I could make the fingers hitting the keys work as well!
But we should also look on the bright side. Corporations have done a great job of making our cars more reliable and comfortable. If we take some reasonable precautions they start every time and get us where we want to go safely. We have all kinds of extras that weren’t on my first car, a 1940 Chevy. Turn signals, windshield washers, side view mirrors, power steering, power brakes, anti-skid, ABS, air-conditioning, and accurate speedometers.
Ah! Accurate speedometers! I had a 1969 Fiat that said I was going 70mph when I was actually going 63. I had a Ford Escort that said I was going 55mph when I was actually going 47 mph! The Ford dealer blamed it on the tires and wouldn’t do anything about it. I found it was a wide-spread problem; when I compensated for the error I passed many Ford Escorts driving well under the speed limit.
If the dealer was right about the problem, the tires would have to be about 15 percent smaller than “standard” to have that speed disparity. For a tire that was about two feet in diameter, that would work out to over an inch of tread wear. The grooves on a auto tire are not even that deep! What was it that Adam Smith said? “Those who live by profit deceive and oppress the public.”
In the favor of those who live by profit, our latest cars do much better on speedometer accuracy – 30 mph on the speedometer at 30 mph and 71 mph at 70 mph! Oh, and we have one domestic car and one foreign car.
Some people are using the glitches in the Affordable Care Act exchanges as proof that government is inefficient. Duh, how often have you updated software on your devices with version x.0 and then within a week or two received a notice of the release of version x.0.1?
Government is run by people. Corporations are run by people. People make mistakes! All the time. Everyday. In every way. Government screws up. Corporations screw up.
For examples of corporate screw-ups and non-response to customer complaints, take a look at the customer “support” message boards. All the support comes from other customers who spent hours trying to figure out how a product really worked. If they are lucky, other users mark their responses as helpful and they get “points”, whatever those are worth.
I’ve seen some issues go on for two or more years.
Let me give you a short summary of some customer service issues I’ve had this year.
I think it was late spring when we had several days of windy, rainy weather. Our DSL service was erratic. It would be slow then normal then nothing at all. The DSL light on our modem would go out. I called CenturyLink and spoke with a tech in Idaho. She said that our service had been throttled back from the nominal 7Mbps to 3Mbps. She did some resetting and things were better.
The bad weather continued and our DSL service became erratic again. I made a call and sent some emails, but this time I was told that it was my modem and that I should buy a new modem. I checked online for the current CenturyLink modem, and guess what! One customer had left a message that he bought that new modem and was having the exact same problems as we were! Two months before my search!
I didn’t buy a modem and a few weeks later our modem was doing just fine. Our service now runs about 6Mbps. Could it be that CenturyLink had some line problems that customer support was not told about?
I bought a solar light for the outhouse at our cabin. It worked fine and then it would not turn on until it had been off for about an hour. I sent email to the customer support and received back a request for my address, phone number, date of purchase, and a scanned copy of the receipt. I said “Phooey” and figured out that I had drained the batteries by leaving the light on. Replacing the batteries improved the performance. It looks like the first line of customer support is only screeners who have no access to problems and solutions. Now this dumb customer left the light on again and it wouldn’t turn on again.
We replaced our cabin landline with a wireless home phone base. The answering machine now gave a time an hour later than the time of call. Consumer Cellular replied it was my answering machine. With a bit of web searching, I found out that the wireless home phone base is passing the wrong information and that a firmware upgrade fixes the problem. The upgrade is available only from the original manufacturer and only can be installed with Windows software. When I relayed this information back to Consumer Cellular, they replied they could not help me and implied it wasn’t even their responsibility! This from a company that is rated highly in customer service.
The keyboard and keypad on my laptop would not respond. I tried the various reset tricks from Apple support boards but none worked for long. I took my laptop back to Best Buy where I bought it, but everything worked fine for the Geek Squad. It worked fine for a while at home and then… “Dead” again. I figured out that it was Microsoft Outlook that I always have on that was the problem. The techs had closed all my apps before their tests. I reorganized Outlook's database and the keyboard has been working fine since. If only I could make the fingers hitting the keys work as well!
But we should also look on the bright side. Corporations have done a great job of making our cars more reliable and comfortable. If we take some reasonable precautions they start every time and get us where we want to go safely. We have all kinds of extras that weren’t on my first car, a 1940 Chevy. Turn signals, windshield washers, side view mirrors, power steering, power brakes, anti-skid, ABS, air-conditioning, and accurate speedometers.
Ah! Accurate speedometers! I had a 1969 Fiat that said I was going 70mph when I was actually going 63. I had a Ford Escort that said I was going 55mph when I was actually going 47 mph! The Ford dealer blamed it on the tires and wouldn’t do anything about it. I found it was a wide-spread problem; when I compensated for the error I passed many Ford Escorts driving well under the speed limit.
If the dealer was right about the problem, the tires would have to be about 15 percent smaller than “standard” to have that speed disparity. For a tire that was about two feet in diameter, that would work out to over an inch of tread wear. The grooves on a auto tire are not even that deep! What was it that Adam Smith said? “Those who live by profit deceive and oppress the public.”
In the favor of those who live by profit, our latest cars do much better on speedometer accuracy – 30 mph on the speedometer at 30 mph and 71 mph at 70 mph! Oh, and we have one domestic car and one foreign car.
Saturday, September 28, 2013
Helpless help desks revisited
Well, for the fourth time this year I've asked for help from a major corporation and for the fourth time I've given them a solution.
The first time was when our DSL from CenturyLink was squirrelly. It would go on and off. The first person I spoke with diddled with some settings from her computer and our speed was up again. The problem returned. On the next few calls, the help desk insisted that I should get a new modem. I did not because I was sure the problem was storm related and in CenturyLink's lines. We still have the old modem and we are getting around 6Mbps on our nominal 7Mbps service. See "Efficiency (or inefficiency) - generalizations do not apply". CenturyLink apparently repaired the lines that I insisted were the problem. Or we haven't had many really windy storms since then.
The second time was when the keyboard locked up on my MacBook Pro. It was still on warranty from Best Buy and so I took it to the Geek Squad. They kept if for a day or two and could find nothing wrong. It wasn't until I had it at home for a day or two that I discovered that it was Microsoft Outlook, which Geek Squad had closed, causing the problem. My database probably had gotten too big and Outlook had an error that was writing outside its area. I compacted the database and the problem went away. See "Computer withdrawal symptoms".
The third time was when the Westinghouse solar shed light would not turn on again after I turned it off. See "Simple questions don't get simple answers from corporate bureaucracies". The light is working fine after I put in newer batteries.
The fourth time was when I found out that our improper time on our cabin answering machine was because I needed a firmware update. None of the friendly folks at Consumer Cellular seemed to understand that the AT&T network was resetting the time. I found this out when I read the answering machine instructions and learned that telephone networks send the time with caller-ID information. When we used a land-line we didn't have caller-ID. Caller-ID is standard with cell phone service. I found that I needed a firmware update from a search of AT&Ts support forums. One user responded to another last month with the solution. I sent email back to Consumer Cellular about this. I wrote that I was tempted to send them an invoice for two hours of Level 2 support work.
I don't expect to have a response from Consumer Cellular until Monday. Meanwhile, I searched the AT&T website for instructions on getting the firmware update. Nada! First, it gave me over 3,000 hits where the first two pages didn't have anything relevant. I searched on the web for the model number and found that the original manufacturer has instructions for upgrading the firmware to the latest level, for those with a Windows computer! I did another peek at the AT&T site and found a page for the "Wireless Home Phone". It had no information at all on updating the firmware!
There are some economists (and many non-economists) who say that the only objective of a corporation should be to provide shareholder value. But to provide shareholder value doesn't a corporation need to provide customer value? At some point a captive customer base may burst their shackles and go elsewhere.
The first time was when our DSL from CenturyLink was squirrelly. It would go on and off. The first person I spoke with diddled with some settings from her computer and our speed was up again. The problem returned. On the next few calls, the help desk insisted that I should get a new modem. I did not because I was sure the problem was storm related and in CenturyLink's lines. We still have the old modem and we are getting around 6Mbps on our nominal 7Mbps service. See "Efficiency (or inefficiency) - generalizations do not apply". CenturyLink apparently repaired the lines that I insisted were the problem. Or we haven't had many really windy storms since then.
The second time was when the keyboard locked up on my MacBook Pro. It was still on warranty from Best Buy and so I took it to the Geek Squad. They kept if for a day or two and could find nothing wrong. It wasn't until I had it at home for a day or two that I discovered that it was Microsoft Outlook, which Geek Squad had closed, causing the problem. My database probably had gotten too big and Outlook had an error that was writing outside its area. I compacted the database and the problem went away. See "Computer withdrawal symptoms".
The third time was when the Westinghouse solar shed light would not turn on again after I turned it off. See "Simple questions don't get simple answers from corporate bureaucracies". The light is working fine after I put in newer batteries.
The fourth time was when I found out that our improper time on our cabin answering machine was because I needed a firmware update. None of the friendly folks at Consumer Cellular seemed to understand that the AT&T network was resetting the time. I found this out when I read the answering machine instructions and learned that telephone networks send the time with caller-ID information. When we used a land-line we didn't have caller-ID. Caller-ID is standard with cell phone service. I found that I needed a firmware update from a search of AT&Ts support forums. One user responded to another last month with the solution. I sent email back to Consumer Cellular about this. I wrote that I was tempted to send them an invoice for two hours of Level 2 support work.
I don't expect to have a response from Consumer Cellular until Monday. Meanwhile, I searched the AT&T website for instructions on getting the firmware update. Nada! First, it gave me over 3,000 hits where the first two pages didn't have anything relevant. I searched on the web for the model number and found that the original manufacturer has instructions for upgrading the firmware to the latest level, for those with a Windows computer! I did another peek at the AT&T site and found a page for the "Wireless Home Phone". It had no information at all on updating the firmware!
There are some economists (and many non-economists) who say that the only objective of a corporation should be to provide shareholder value. But to provide shareholder value doesn't a corporation need to provide customer value? At some point a captive customer base may burst their shackles and go elsewhere.
Monday, August 12, 2013
Unlimited has its limits
I was considering switching from CenturyLink for phone and internet to Enventis, but the cost would be about the same or maybe even slightly higher; Enventis might not even be available in Duluth.
I couldn't help but smile at
At least I didn't see "The possibilities are limitless!" See "The endless use of 'infinite'" and "Great speech but erroneous mathematics".
I couldn't help but smile at
Unlimited Long DistanceThe asterix points to a paragraph that states "Usage over 5,000 minutes [per month] will be billed at 5¢ per minute" or that Enventis can cancel the service.
• $15.00/mo*
At least I didn't see "The possibilities are limitless!" See "The endless use of 'infinite'" and "Great speech but erroneous mathematics".
Monday, July 22, 2013
Efficiency (or inefficiency) - generalizations do not apply
This morning I called Consumer Cellular about replacing the landline at our cabin with a Wireless Home Phone Base. Ezekiel answered before the automated message was done. He took time to listen and he provided full information to all my questions.
Last week I called the local Sears store to check if they had the Phone Base in stock. First, I got an automatic response about the purpose of my call. Eventually I was asked what department I wanted. I finally got a person; but that person was not in the store, he was who knows how far away. He didn't think it was available, but before he checked, he wanted my first and last name! What does my name have to do with my request for information? I said this is taking too long and hung up. Once upon a time, one got a store operator who pleasantly asked (generally) some variant of "How may I direct your call?" She transferred you to that department, and if a clerk was not serving other customers, answered the phone and gave a simple yes, no, or "I'll check" answer.
This morning I also called Gopher State One Call http://www.gopherstateonecall.org, a non-profit that dispatches utilities to locate underground pipes and cables before an excavation. We want to plant a tree close to a buried gas line. I had to wait for several minutes to talk to Gabe, but he was thorough and friendly about getting all the information that he needed to dispatch someone. He said it should be done within 48 hours.
This afternoon I looked out the front door and noticed a yellow line and a small yellow flag in our front yard. Comfort Systems, our water and gas utility, had already marked the location of the buried pipe. Comfort Systems is part of the City of Duluth's Public Works and Utilities Department.
On the other hand, after many weeks and many calls, our internet connection with CenturyLink is now stable and staying above 75% of the "up to 7Mbps" speed. One of the round and round discussions I had was about getting a new modem. We still are using our eight-year-old or so modem. It seems something was done in our area that none of the customer service people were made privy to. The customer service was all over the map as far as ability goes. See "Round robin service robbin' my time".
I'm still waiting for a local store to respond to a question I emailed them a couple weeks ago.
Again, it is not the financial form of an organization, for-profit corporation, non-profit corporation, or government agency, that determines the level of customer service; it is the people and leadership of an organization that determines these. If customer service is an organization's priority, revenue will follow. If the bottom-line is an organization's priority, customer service will suffer. Unfortunately, in the latter case, there are often not enough choices for customers to easily switch to another organization.
Last week I called the local Sears store to check if they had the Phone Base in stock. First, I got an automatic response about the purpose of my call. Eventually I was asked what department I wanted. I finally got a person; but that person was not in the store, he was who knows how far away. He didn't think it was available, but before he checked, he wanted my first and last name! What does my name have to do with my request for information? I said this is taking too long and hung up. Once upon a time, one got a store operator who pleasantly asked (generally) some variant of "How may I direct your call?" She transferred you to that department, and if a clerk was not serving other customers, answered the phone and gave a simple yes, no, or "I'll check" answer.
This morning I also called Gopher State One Call http://www.gopherstateonecall.org, a non-profit that dispatches utilities to locate underground pipes and cables before an excavation. We want to plant a tree close to a buried gas line. I had to wait for several minutes to talk to Gabe, but he was thorough and friendly about getting all the information that he needed to dispatch someone. He said it should be done within 48 hours.
This afternoon I looked out the front door and noticed a yellow line and a small yellow flag in our front yard. Comfort Systems, our water and gas utility, had already marked the location of the buried pipe. Comfort Systems is part of the City of Duluth's Public Works and Utilities Department.
On the other hand, after many weeks and many calls, our internet connection with CenturyLink is now stable and staying above 75% of the "up to 7Mbps" speed. One of the round and round discussions I had was about getting a new modem. We still are using our eight-year-old or so modem. It seems something was done in our area that none of the customer service people were made privy to. The customer service was all over the map as far as ability goes. See "Round robin service robbin' my time".
I'm still waiting for a local store to respond to a question I emailed them a couple weeks ago.
Again, it is not the financial form of an organization, for-profit corporation, non-profit corporation, or government agency, that determines the level of customer service; it is the people and leadership of an organization that determines these. If customer service is an organization's priority, revenue will follow. If the bottom-line is an organization's priority, customer service will suffer. Unfortunately, in the latter case, there are often not enough choices for customers to easily switch to another organization.
Monday, June 17, 2013
Round robin service robbin' my time
I started this entry near the end of May as "Good Service from a Large Corporation" but never finished it or posted it. The original follows up to the ellipsis (…).
Last week our internet service kept going out. The "internet" light on our DSL modem would go out, and we couldn't send or receive any data. We would unplug the modem, wait about five minutes, and replug the modem. Within a couple of minutes, all the modem lights would be lit normally. This kept happening more and more frequently.
We attributed it to the wind and the rain that went on for about three days. But when the weather cleared the problem persisted, maybe with less frequency.
I sent email to our phone company, CenturyLink, with the suggestion that the storm may have been causing the problems. I received a sympathetic reply from Martina that there was no known problem in our area. My guess is that few people call up when they have problems that they think will go away. Martina also suggested that I call a service number or set-up an online chat.
I was reluctant to do so because, with so many companies, one just goes around in circles. Also we were heading to our cabin that has no DSL.
When we came back on Saturday evening, we still had the problem now and then. When I woke up in the night, I checked if the internet light was on. I reset the modem from my iPhone, it came on. Before I had gone back to bed, the light was off again. I reset the modem again and went back to bed. When I got up in the morning, the light was off again; I reset the modem. Repeat three times within an hour.
I'm not sure when the light finally stayed on, but I called my ISP, Hickory Tech, to hear if they had heard any problems. The support person who I talked to said there had not been any major problems reported. He thought, as I did, that the modem may be becoming faulty.
I fussed and fumed about going to the CenturyLink store in the local mall or to Best Buy. I would do that on Monday.
Meanwhile…
Well, on that following Monday I did nothing about buying a new modem. Over two weeks later the problem still persists but as I write this sentence the internet light is on.
I think the Monday was Memorial Day, and I knew Best Buy would be open.
On Tuesday after Memorial Day I did have an online chat with Melanie of Boise of CenturyLink. She did some tests and found that our service had been throttled back. She wrote "…all I did was go in and correct the provisioned [sic] speeds from 3M to 7M". I thanked her and told her she deserved a raise.
However, speed has dropped again. We also had a major power outage last night; see "Taking life for granted".
So, I'm back dithering about buying a new modem. The ActionTec website recommends the "C1000A for CenturyLink" or the "Q2000 for Century Link". I went to BestBuy page for the C1000A and looked at customer comments. Many said that it was simple to install but a few others described exactly the problems I have been having with my DSL modem bought in October 2005 (the date is on one of the line filters). These comments were made for purchases this year: 2013! I should shell out a hundred bucks just to have the same problems again?
If some people have no problems at all and some people have problems no matter when they bought their DSL modems, I would say one of two things is happening. Either the quality of the modems is inconsistent or the quality of the internet service provided by CenturyLink is inconsistent. Or maybe both.
I didn't feel any better about my quandary when I found out that CenturyLink was rated 14 of the worst 15 companies for customer service by Business Insider. And replacing telephone service with cable service isn't a good alternative. Charter is rated 3 in the worst customer service list!!!
See all my other rants about this problem in
Internet service – What free market?
Internet service but not customer service
Who is worth more, the CEO with rigid rules or the employee giving excellent service?
Free market and the Internet
I guess my only recourse is to have a chat with Melanie in Boise every so often to get my provisional speed bumped up again. She gave the best customer service on this issue of anyone else.
To end on a good note about customer service, see
Why do people pick on the Post Office?
Last week our internet service kept going out. The "internet" light on our DSL modem would go out, and we couldn't send or receive any data. We would unplug the modem, wait about five minutes, and replug the modem. Within a couple of minutes, all the modem lights would be lit normally. This kept happening more and more frequently.
We attributed it to the wind and the rain that went on for about three days. But when the weather cleared the problem persisted, maybe with less frequency.
I sent email to our phone company, CenturyLink, with the suggestion that the storm may have been causing the problems. I received a sympathetic reply from Martina that there was no known problem in our area. My guess is that few people call up when they have problems that they think will go away. Martina also suggested that I call a service number or set-up an online chat.
I was reluctant to do so because, with so many companies, one just goes around in circles. Also we were heading to our cabin that has no DSL.
When we came back on Saturday evening, we still had the problem now and then. When I woke up in the night, I checked if the internet light was on. I reset the modem from my iPhone, it came on. Before I had gone back to bed, the light was off again. I reset the modem again and went back to bed. When I got up in the morning, the light was off again; I reset the modem. Repeat three times within an hour.
I'm not sure when the light finally stayed on, but I called my ISP, Hickory Tech, to hear if they had heard any problems. The support person who I talked to said there had not been any major problems reported. He thought, as I did, that the modem may be becoming faulty.
I fussed and fumed about going to the CenturyLink store in the local mall or to Best Buy. I would do that on Monday.
Meanwhile…
Well, on that following Monday I did nothing about buying a new modem. Over two weeks later the problem still persists but as I write this sentence the internet light is on.
I think the Monday was Memorial Day, and I knew Best Buy would be open.
On Tuesday after Memorial Day I did have an online chat with Melanie of Boise of CenturyLink. She did some tests and found that our service had been throttled back. She wrote "…all I did was go in and correct the provisioned [sic] speeds from 3M to 7M". I thanked her and told her she deserved a raise.
However, speed has dropped again. We also had a major power outage last night; see "Taking life for granted".
So, I'm back dithering about buying a new modem. The ActionTec website recommends the "C1000A for CenturyLink" or the "Q2000 for Century Link". I went to BestBuy page for the C1000A and looked at customer comments. Many said that it was simple to install but a few others described exactly the problems I have been having with my DSL modem bought in October 2005 (the date is on one of the line filters). These comments were made for purchases this year: 2013! I should shell out a hundred bucks just to have the same problems again?
If some people have no problems at all and some people have problems no matter when they bought their DSL modems, I would say one of two things is happening. Either the quality of the modems is inconsistent or the quality of the internet service provided by CenturyLink is inconsistent. Or maybe both.
I didn't feel any better about my quandary when I found out that CenturyLink was rated 14 of the worst 15 companies for customer service by Business Insider. And replacing telephone service with cable service isn't a good alternative. Charter is rated 3 in the worst customer service list!!!
See all my other rants about this problem in
Internet service – What free market?
Internet service but not customer service
Who is worth more, the CEO with rigid rules or the employee giving excellent service?
Free market and the Internet
I guess my only recourse is to have a chat with Melanie in Boise every so often to get my provisional speed bumped up again. She gave the best customer service on this issue of anyone else.
To end on a good note about customer service, see
Why do people pick on the Post Office?
Sunday, January 20, 2013
Moving days - web site articles to this blog
I'll be slowly moving my Reader Weekly articles from my web site at http://www.cpinternet.com/~mdmagree to this blog. I've heard rumbles that CenturyLink wants to be the ISP for all of its DSL customers. Rather than do any moving in a rush, I'll just start slowly, and hope for the best.
Sunday, July 01, 2012
Who is worth more, the CEO with rigid rules or the employee giving excellent service?
For background, see "What Customers Want, Companies That Bend the Rules", Elaine Pofeldt, Forbes, 2012-06-30
How often have you gone around and around with a "help" person following a script? How often have you gotten above and beyond help that solved your problem in minutes? I bet in both cases the CEOs got huge salaries that make us wish we had their pay for one year in a bank. I bet in the first case the person got a meager salary to keep "expenses" down. I bet in the second case the person was give some free rein in making sure the customer was satisfied.
A friend often wasn't getting my emails. Sometimes he did, sometimes he didn't. I went to his house to see what his setting were. I could find nothing unusual.
I had taken my laptop and tried sending him email. His provider, CenturyLink, wouldn't let me. I tried the usual tricks of changing the settings in my mail program, Microsoft Outlook. Nothing worked.
I called my ISP, Hickory Tech (also CPInternet), and spoke with a knowledgeable person in Minnesota. He said that CenturyLink blocked access through other ISPs (or something like that). Almost every time I've called my ISP, I have received helpful service.
I called CenturyLink. The support person, probably half-way around the world, never understood the problem. She put me on hold several times to consult with "higher support". We just went around and around with me repeating the same thing over and over again. I finally told her that we were getting nowhere and I hung up.
Ironically, my friend is getting all my emails now. Did "higher support" diddle with something? We'll never know.
From something I read recently, CenturyLink's call center might be in the Phillipines, now competing on price with India. I'm rather certain that Hickory Tech's support is in Mankato, Minnesota. The latter are probably making more in a day than the former in a week or even a month.
Interestingly, if I want to use DSL, my only choice is CenturyLink. Back from the dialup days, I've been using a local ISP that was bought out by a Minnesota telecommunications company. I had a choice in selecting the ISP. I've heard that CenturyLink wants take that choice away.
The size of a company is not always a measure of customer service. Small companies might ignore customers and big companies might give excellent advice.
When my previous laptop went belly-up, three weeks after the AppleCare contract expired, I went to Best Buy to get a new one. The Geek Squad took out my old hard drive and sold me a USB case to put it in for use as an external hard drive.
Things went fine until I upgraded to a new OS level. Suddenly my computer wouldn't recognize the external hard drive, my wife's with an older OS would. I sent email to the manufacturer of the hard drive case and never received a reply. I went to Best Buy for another reason and asked about the hard drive. The Geek Squad employee, the same woman that did the diagnosis on my older computer, told me to check the preferences. I didn't find it in System Preferences, but I did find it in Finder Preferences – showing external drives in the sidebar was not checked.
Say what you will about Best Buy, but it made a smart move buying The Geek Squad and giving them some latitude in helping customers.
How often have you gone around and around with a "help" person following a script? How often have you gotten above and beyond help that solved your problem in minutes? I bet in both cases the CEOs got huge salaries that make us wish we had their pay for one year in a bank. I bet in the first case the person got a meager salary to keep "expenses" down. I bet in the second case the person was give some free rein in making sure the customer was satisfied.
A friend often wasn't getting my emails. Sometimes he did, sometimes he didn't. I went to his house to see what his setting were. I could find nothing unusual.
I had taken my laptop and tried sending him email. His provider, CenturyLink, wouldn't let me. I tried the usual tricks of changing the settings in my mail program, Microsoft Outlook. Nothing worked.
I called my ISP, Hickory Tech (also CPInternet), and spoke with a knowledgeable person in Minnesota. He said that CenturyLink blocked access through other ISPs (or something like that). Almost every time I've called my ISP, I have received helpful service.
I called CenturyLink. The support person, probably half-way around the world, never understood the problem. She put me on hold several times to consult with "higher support". We just went around and around with me repeating the same thing over and over again. I finally told her that we were getting nowhere and I hung up.
Ironically, my friend is getting all my emails now. Did "higher support" diddle with something? We'll never know.
From something I read recently, CenturyLink's call center might be in the Phillipines, now competing on price with India. I'm rather certain that Hickory Tech's support is in Mankato, Minnesota. The latter are probably making more in a day than the former in a week or even a month.
Interestingly, if I want to use DSL, my only choice is CenturyLink. Back from the dialup days, I've been using a local ISP that was bought out by a Minnesota telecommunications company. I had a choice in selecting the ISP. I've heard that CenturyLink wants take that choice away.
The size of a company is not always a measure of customer service. Small companies might ignore customers and big companies might give excellent advice.
When my previous laptop went belly-up, three weeks after the AppleCare contract expired, I went to Best Buy to get a new one. The Geek Squad took out my old hard drive and sold me a USB case to put it in for use as an external hard drive.
Things went fine until I upgraded to a new OS level. Suddenly my computer wouldn't recognize the external hard drive, my wife's with an older OS would. I sent email to the manufacturer of the hard drive case and never received a reply. I went to Best Buy for another reason and asked about the hard drive. The Geek Squad employee, the same woman that did the diagnosis on my older computer, told me to check the preferences. I didn't find it in System Preferences, but I did find it in Finder Preferences – showing external drives in the sidebar was not checked.
Say what you will about Best Buy, but it made a smart move buying The Geek Squad and giving them some latitude in helping customers.
Friday, December 23, 2011
Internet service but not customer service
After I wrote "Internet service – What free market?" I tried signing in again. I selected "I forgot my password" and was shown a page that gave me the choice of having the password emailed to me or giving my security code. But there was no button to click for the first! As for security code, the only thing that I could determine was a security code was a three-digit, one-letter suffix to our phone number. The site was not happy with that.
I get far better customer service from that "inefficient" government entity that so many love to criticize as wasteful - the United States Postal Service. And the USPS website is very easy to navigate and provides full information on fees and services.
I get far better customer service from that "inefficient" government entity that so many love to criticize as wasteful - the United States Postal Service. And the USPS website is very easy to navigate and provides full information on fees and services.
Internet service – What free market?
One of the tenets of a free market is all necessary information for buyers. Try getting full information about internet service! The ads in the newspapers show these "fantastic" prices, but the fine print is almost impossible to read without a strong magnifying glass. Even if you manage to wade through it, you probably still have lots of questions.
Once upon a time Qwest's website had the available choices with speeds and prices. Long before they were bought out by Century Tel, now called CenturyLink, they stopped providing such easily accessible information. Even our phone bill didn't give our nominal rate. I thought we had bought 7mbps, but I can't remember a measured speed much over 4mbps, and often less.
CenturyLink just mailed us a flyer "Speeds up to 40 Mbps (where available)". No price list.
I went to http://www.centurylink.com to see what I could see. I had to enter my telephone number to do so. That's OK, but then I get a window from Lisa that I can chat online with her for more details. In other words, CenturyLink, like so many other vendors doesn't want to give you full written information, but wants you to chat by phone or online with someone who will his or her best to sell the companies service.
I also tried signing in with my Qwest ID and password as I remembered it. Instead of accepting or rejecting the signing, CenturyLink's website gave me some gobbledegook - "Infinite recursion detected: [/freeRange/shop/ecbundle!execute, /freeRange/shop/handleGenericException, /freeRange/shop/handleGenericException, /freeRange/shop/handleGenericException, /freeRange/shop/handleGenericException]". I kid you not!
I wrote this message so that I had a link to include in my response to "How are we doing?" I did give a "Highly unlikely" rating of recommending CenturyLink.
Oh, well! I think we're already spending too much on telecommunications with a home phone with DSL, ISP provider, one cell phone, and a cabin phone.
P.S. See also "Internet service but not customer service".
Once upon a time Qwest's website had the available choices with speeds and prices. Long before they were bought out by Century Tel, now called CenturyLink, they stopped providing such easily accessible information. Even our phone bill didn't give our nominal rate. I thought we had bought 7mbps, but I can't remember a measured speed much over 4mbps, and often less.
CenturyLink just mailed us a flyer "Speeds up to 40 Mbps (where available)". No price list.
I went to http://www.centurylink.com to see what I could see. I had to enter my telephone number to do so. That's OK, but then I get a window from Lisa that I can chat online with her for more details. In other words, CenturyLink, like so many other vendors doesn't want to give you full written information, but wants you to chat by phone or online with someone who will his or her best to sell the companies service.
I also tried signing in with my Qwest ID and password as I remembered it. Instead of accepting or rejecting the signing, CenturyLink's website gave me some gobbledegook - "Infinite recursion detected: [/freeRange/shop/ecbundle!execute, /freeRange/shop/handleGenericException, /freeRange/shop/handleGenericException, /freeRange/shop/handleGenericException, /freeRange/shop/handleGenericException]". I kid you not!
I wrote this message so that I had a link to include in my response to "How are we doing?" I did give a "Highly unlikely" rating of recommending CenturyLink.
Oh, well! I think we're already spending too much on telecommunications with a home phone with DSL, ISP provider, one cell phone, and a cabin phone.
P.S. See also "Internet service but not customer service".
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