to take you through the weekend.$0.99 RENTALS
Stargate: Continuum
Journey to the Center of the Earth
Made of Honor
Deception
Son of Rambow
$1.99 RENTALS
Girl Next Door
Saw
Saw II
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Amazon Video on Demand $0.99 movie rentals
Some great deals on rentals at Amazon Video on Demand to take you through the weekend.
$0.99 RENTALS
Stargate: Continuum
Journey to the Center of the Earth
Made of Honor
Deception
Son of Rambow
$1.99 RENTALS
Girl Next Door
Saw
Saw II
to take you through the weekend.$0.99 RENTALS
Stargate: Continuum
Journey to the Center of the Earth
Made of Honor
Deception
Son of Rambow
$1.99 RENTALS
Girl Next Door
Saw
Saw II
Friday, November 7, 2008
Great deals on Amazon Video on Demand
There are quite a few excellent deals available for Amazon Video on Demand
rentals and purchases. These are just a few of the ones that I found while browsing the site. Not sure how long they will last, so grab them while you can!UPDATE 11/8/2008: It appears that the movies that were on sale for $1.99 are back to their regular prices. Apparently the prices were only good for Friday because those movies were not that price on Thursday. I will continue to monitor this and see if it is a regular event.
$0.99 RENTALS:
Serenity
Idiocracy
$1.99 PURCHASES
Thursday, October 9, 2008
Comcast CableCards in TiVo = poor customer experience
I am extremely frustrated with Comcast's customer service and their inability to get CableCards to work in my two TiVo boxes. I have had two technicians out and have had to call their technical support four times so far resulting in several hours of my time wasted as well as theirs.
I have had Comcast Internet for quite a while with my own personal cable modem. It took Comcast about two weeks to get that working, but it has worked well ever since.
For the past year I have been using an indoor antenna to get over the air HD signals into my TiVo Series 3. I wanted to see some shows on cable so I called up Comcast to see what kind of deals they have. This is my experience so far.
October 2, 2008 - Initial Call
When I called Comcast, the person that I spoke with seemed pretty confused about the fact that I wanted to get four CableCards total to go into two TiVo boxes. However, one of the very first things he said was that they don't get very many calls for CableCards in TiVo boxes.
I was on the phone for about 30 minutes with him and then we got disconnected. I'm not sure if it was on his end or mine. I figured that he'd call me back since we were in the middle of a transaction, but he didn't and I called back right away.
CALL-BACKS: Why is it that Comcast Technical Support does not call their customer's back if they get disconnected? It's very frustrating to have to start over from scratch. This happened with Sales and Technical Support.
As I mentioned, I called back and luckly there was no wait. The exact same person answered the call, so he knew what I was calling about. I was on the phone for another 60 minutes, most of which I was on hold or sitting there in silence. The problem was that he could not locate the codes to enter for the CableCards. However, he was polite and he presented me with a good deal, so I was happy. He scheduled the technician to come install the CableCards on Monday evening.
October 6, 2008 - Technician Visit #1
My scheduled window for cable installation was 6pm to 9pm. The technician called around lunch time and said that he was in the area and asked if I was available earlier. I couldn't get away from work, so I kept the same time, but I thought it was a nice gesture. I called him back at about 5pm and he was at my place at around 5:30pm.
The first thing he said to me was that he had never installed CableCards in a TiVo before.
TRAINING: There are only three TiVo models that accept CableCards: the TiVo Series 3, the TiVo HD, and the new TiVo HD XL. You would think that Comcast would train their installers and Technical Support how to install and troubleshoot CableCards in these three popular TiVo boxes. I mean, there's only three of them! Comcast should know which of their CableCards work best in each of these three TiVo models and be able to get them configured and working in minutes. There is no excuse for not being prepared.
Rather than working on them one at a time, the technician installed all of the cards at once. The TiVo documentation which I had printed out for the technician clearly explained that Slot 1 of each box should be configured before adding another card to Slot 2, but he all he did was set the instructions aside. I thought this was funny (at my own expense) since he had already told me he had never done this before.
One of the CableCards in my main TiVo was constantly giving an error. I suspected that card was bad, but let him do his job without interfering. He called the office several times to activate the cards but the cards would not activate.
The photo above is of the 'SA CableCARD CP Screen' on my TiVo (same for all cards).
He wanted to look outside to make sure that the cable was set up correctly coming into my home. I let him out back figuring that he knew his way around. He walked the wrong way and then I told him that it was in a fenced in area in back. He walked that direction and I went back inside. He was back in my place within seconds and I knew that he couldn't possibly have checked the line.
I told him that the line going into my living room was good because my cable modem has been working there fine, however that I didn't know if the cable connector in the bedroom worked or not because I had never had cable in there. He absorbed (or ignored) that information for now.
He worked on it for a while longer and made a couple more calls to the cable company to activate the CableCards. The cards were still not being activated.
Then, he told me that they had figured out what the problem was. He said that when they set up my cable installation that they set it up wrong. Something about improper codes were entered. He told me that everything was set up properly and all I had to do was call Comcast to get the account fixed and then everything would work.
He had been at my place for about two hours now, so I had a strong suspician that this was just a cop-out so he could leave. It seemed extremely odd that he couldn't have had the person he was speaking with on the phone fix that while he was on the phone.
At this point, he was hurridly gathering his things and put the work order sheet in front of me to sign so he could leave. I asked him to confirm that by signing the work order that I was not confirming that everything was working. He said that it was only confirming that he arrived on time and that he installed the cards, but that it was not confirming that the service was working. Hesitantly, I signed it.
Before he left, I asked him if he was sure that the cable line going into the bedroom was working. I had not seen him bring in a line tester to verify that it was receiving a cable signal. However, he assured me that it was working and then he drove away.
After he left, I hooked up my cable modem again because I had been using that cable to get through the cable installation. Now, my Internet didn't work either! I knew that the Internet line was good because my TiVo's were connecting to the TiVo service over the network. And I was able to ping external web addresses, such as the Google website. But when I tried to open websites on my computer I was just taken to a Comcast service activation page.
October 6, 2008 - Technical Support Call #1
Shortly after the technician left, I called up Technical Support to get my account straightened out. I think I went straight to an outsourced support center and I had extreme difficulty understanding the person that I was speaking with.
The support representitive that I spoke with had no idea what a TiVo box was. I had to repeatedly explain to him what was happening and that all I needed was to have them fix my account so the CableCards could be authorized.
Naturally, there were no notes on my account of what was previously discussed.
After about 45 minutes on the phone with this person, and being placed on hold for most of it, he informed me that they fixed the problem and that everything would be working in about 10 minutes. I was pleased to hear this and we ended the call.
10 minutes went by... 20 minutes... 30 minutes... still broke!
October 6, 2008 - Technical Support Call #2
After 30 minutes of waiting for my cable to start working, I called Technical Support again. Once again my call was answered by someone I had extreme difficulty understanding. I asked him to check my account for notes of my previous call so I wouldn't have to start over from scratch.
Once again, there was no record of my previous call.
I was on the phone with this person for at least 45 minutes. As with the first person I spoke with, this guy had no clue what TiVo was. He kept wanting to know the serial number off the back of my box, and I kept explaining to him that it was a TiVo box, not a Comcast box.
He asked me why I wanted to use the TiVo box and why I wasn't using a Comcast box. I'm not sure why that was relevant. It really upset me when he asked that because it seemed like this was a message being pushed by Comcast.
It feel like Comcast's internal corporate message is that they clearly do not want to support CableCards in TiVo boxes.
I told the technician that I was not interested in troubleshooting any further and that he didn't need the serial number of my TiVo box in order to troubleshoot this issue. I told him that they need to fix this.
He then started telling me that he found that there was an outage in my area and that this is why my cable and Internet were not working. This was clearly a BS response to get me off the phone. I told him that my issues were definately not due to an outage in my area.
He put me on hold for a few minutes to do some more research. This person was clearly not going to solve my issue with false excuses so I hung up.
Once again... no call-back from Comcast after being unexpectidly disconnected (as far as they were aware). Why would a support team invest so much time with a customer and not call them if the call was disconnected? To be honest, I'm glad that this one didn't call me back.
October 6, 2008 - Technical Support Call #3
I gave myself a short breather and then I called back one more time. This time I finally reached someone who sounded like they were in my own country! She was very polite and a pleasure to speak with after the previous two calls.
I was not surprised to find out that there were still no notes on my account of previous calls.
I had give her a brief explanation of my situation. This lady was familiar with what TiVo was and seemed to understand my situation. I explained that the installation technician told me that there was something wrong with my account. She checked my account and confirmed that nothing was wrong. She indicated that it may have just been an excuse for the technician to leave. We laughed that that was probably the case, although we both knew that that kind of tactic was clearly unacceptable.
She scheduled a senior tech to come out on Wednesday. I was tired of phone calls, and I just wanted someone else to come back out and fix it anyways.
I didn't get her name, but this lady really understood customer service! If anyone from Comcast reads this, please check my account to see who scheduled the senior tech to come out and hire more people like her!
October 8, 2008 - Technician Visit #2
I took some time off of work to wait for the senior technician (I assume) to arrive in the morning. When she arrived, she had someone with her that was not wearing a Comcast shirt. I don't know if he was even a Comcast employee or not, but it made me a little uncomfortable.
Before they arrived, I had already fumbled my way through my Internet issue and managed to activate it again. I'm not sure why it had to be activated again, but I got it working... on my own.
This technican seemed to know what she was doing and I was much more comfortable with her knowledge and experience than the first technician. She even knew that it takes several minutes for these TiVo boxes to reboot, which told me that she had some experience with setting up CableCards in TiVo boxes.
She did ask me at some point why I would choose to use a TiVo box instead of a Comcast one. I am getting tired of Comcast employees asking me that. It makes me feel unwelcomed.
After trying to get the cards to work for about 30-45 minutes, she spoke with someone at Comcast and insisted that the issue be escalated. I could tell that she was getting some resistance from the person on the other end of the phone, but she kept telling them to escalate it.
I also let her know that I wasn't sure if the bedroom cable outlet was good and asked her to check it. She had her helper (?) get the tester out of the truck and she had him test it. He said that it wasn't getting a signal, but he also didn't seem very confident/experienced with the line tester so I am not 100% comfortable with that analysis. However, I told her about my experience with the previous technician and that he ensured me that it was working but that I hadn't seen him actually test it. She agreed that he was probabaly just trying to get out of there.
She informed me that the issue had been escalated and told me to call the office later that afternoon, at about 4:00pm to check on the status of the escalation. I asked her if there would be notes on my account so that I wouldn't have to explain everything. She assured me that there would be notes on my account about it.
October 8, 2008 - Technical Support Call #4
I called at about 5:30pm to check on the status of the escalation. I was pleased to once again speak to someone in my own country. I informed her that the technician escalated my issue and that it should all be in the notes on my account.
Yet again... no notes were on my account indicating what I would be calling about.
I gave her a brief explanation and let her know (in a polite and civil manner) that I was extremely frustrated over this whole experience. She asked me if I knew who the senior tech had spoken with to escalate the issue, but I did not know (how could I?). She put me on hold for a few minutes to investigate this further on her side.
When she came back, she let me know that her supervisor/manager had started an email thread and would find out from the technician who they escalated the issue to and would get it all sorted out. She informed me that it should be resolved by around lunch time the next day.
I specifically asked her if someone would be calling me. She said "yes". I asked for confirmation that I would hear from someone by around 1:00pm on Thursday, October 9. She said that someone would call by about that time. We ended the call with that understanding. As with the other lady, this person was very pleasant to speak with and seemed to care about me... the customer.
What's Next?
I don't know what I am going to do next.
I am considering just canceling the whole order and going back to using an antenna until FIOS is available. Verizon already buried the FIOS cables in my neighborhood a few months ago, so it shouldn't be much longer before service is available.
I will give Comcast two more chances to correct this.
1) A Comcast representitive reached out to me by leaving a comment to a post I made in my other blog. If I do not hear from someone by tomorrow morning, I am going to accept their offer and email them requesting assistance resolving this issue.
Since there are no notes on my account with any record of my phone calls, I am using this post as a personal record of my interactions so that they have something to review.
2) If I don't hear from the supervisor/manager that was supposed to call me today, I will give them a call tomorrow afternoon. However, I suspect that nobody will know anything about an escalation or a promised phone call.
This isn't a new issue for Comcast. There are many other stories out there from frustred TiVo owners due to Comcast's customer service issues and lack of experience installing CableCards into TiVo boxes.
I'll keep everyone updated on the progress. Hopefully Comcast will come through and we'll be past this so my next post will be a positive one. I also hope that Comcast hears my concerns and treats them not as an attack, but as an opportunity to fix the areas of concern. I have worked in customer service (tecnnical support and IT) for most of my adult life, and this has without hesitation been one of my worst customer service experiences ever. There's simply no excuse for so many missed opportunities, and I hope that they use this information to work on their own internal processes so that other customers have a better experience. I can tell you that as someone experienced in customer service, it is much more enjoyable to be able to help a customer resolve the issue than it is to have a broken support process which causes the customer frustration and disappointment.
I have had Comcast Internet for quite a while with my own personal cable modem. It took Comcast about two weeks to get that working, but it has worked well ever since.
For the past year I have been using an indoor antenna to get over the air HD signals into my TiVo Series 3. I wanted to see some shows on cable so I called up Comcast to see what kind of deals they have. This is my experience so far.
October 2, 2008 - Initial Call
When I called Comcast, the person that I spoke with seemed pretty confused about the fact that I wanted to get four CableCards total to go into two TiVo boxes. However, one of the very first things he said was that they don't get very many calls for CableCards in TiVo boxes.
I was on the phone for about 30 minutes with him and then we got disconnected. I'm not sure if it was on his end or mine. I figured that he'd call me back since we were in the middle of a transaction, but he didn't and I called back right away.
CALL-BACKS: Why is it that Comcast Technical Support does not call their customer's back if they get disconnected? It's very frustrating to have to start over from scratch. This happened with Sales and Technical Support.
As I mentioned, I called back and luckly there was no wait. The exact same person answered the call, so he knew what I was calling about. I was on the phone for another 60 minutes, most of which I was on hold or sitting there in silence. The problem was that he could not locate the codes to enter for the CableCards. However, he was polite and he presented me with a good deal, so I was happy. He scheduled the technician to come install the CableCards on Monday evening.
October 6, 2008 - Technician Visit #1
My scheduled window for cable installation was 6pm to 9pm. The technician called around lunch time and said that he was in the area and asked if I was available earlier. I couldn't get away from work, so I kept the same time, but I thought it was a nice gesture. I called him back at about 5pm and he was at my place at around 5:30pm.
The first thing he said to me was that he had never installed CableCards in a TiVo before.
TRAINING: There are only three TiVo models that accept CableCards: the TiVo Series 3, the TiVo HD, and the new TiVo HD XL. You would think that Comcast would train their installers and Technical Support how to install and troubleshoot CableCards in these three popular TiVo boxes. I mean, there's only three of them! Comcast should know which of their CableCards work best in each of these three TiVo models and be able to get them configured and working in minutes. There is no excuse for not being prepared.
Rather than working on them one at a time, the technician installed all of the cards at once. The TiVo documentation which I had printed out for the technician clearly explained that Slot 1 of each box should be configured before adding another card to Slot 2, but he all he did was set the instructions aside. I thought this was funny (at my own expense) since he had already told me he had never done this before.
One of the CableCards in my main TiVo was constantly giving an error. I suspected that card was bad, but let him do his job without interfering. He called the office several times to activate the cards but the cards would not activate.
The photo above is of the 'SA CableCARD CP Screen' on my TiVo (same for all cards).
Scientific Atlanta CableCARD
CP Information
----------
Auth Status: Waiting for CP Auth
Prog number: 0
CCI byte: 0x00
ECM count: 0
EMM count: 0
Decryption status: OK
PowerKey status: Not Ready - Waiting for Time
EID: 0x0
MKS period: 60 seconds
KSE count: 0He wanted to look outside to make sure that the cable was set up correctly coming into my home. I let him out back figuring that he knew his way around. He walked the wrong way and then I told him that it was in a fenced in area in back. He walked that direction and I went back inside. He was back in my place within seconds and I knew that he couldn't possibly have checked the line.
I told him that the line going into my living room was good because my cable modem has been working there fine, however that I didn't know if the cable connector in the bedroom worked or not because I had never had cable in there. He absorbed (or ignored) that information for now.
He worked on it for a while longer and made a couple more calls to the cable company to activate the CableCards. The cards were still not being activated.
Then, he told me that they had figured out what the problem was. He said that when they set up my cable installation that they set it up wrong. Something about improper codes were entered. He told me that everything was set up properly and all I had to do was call Comcast to get the account fixed and then everything would work.
He had been at my place for about two hours now, so I had a strong suspician that this was just a cop-out so he could leave. It seemed extremely odd that he couldn't have had the person he was speaking with on the phone fix that while he was on the phone.
At this point, he was hurridly gathering his things and put the work order sheet in front of me to sign so he could leave. I asked him to confirm that by signing the work order that I was not confirming that everything was working. He said that it was only confirming that he arrived on time and that he installed the cards, but that it was not confirming that the service was working. Hesitantly, I signed it.
Before he left, I asked him if he was sure that the cable line going into the bedroom was working. I had not seen him bring in a line tester to verify that it was receiving a cable signal. However, he assured me that it was working and then he drove away.
After he left, I hooked up my cable modem again because I had been using that cable to get through the cable installation. Now, my Internet didn't work either! I knew that the Internet line was good because my TiVo's were connecting to the TiVo service over the network. And I was able to ping external web addresses, such as the Google website. But when I tried to open websites on my computer I was just taken to a Comcast service activation page.
October 6, 2008 - Technical Support Call #1
Shortly after the technician left, I called up Technical Support to get my account straightened out. I think I went straight to an outsourced support center and I had extreme difficulty understanding the person that I was speaking with.
The support representitive that I spoke with had no idea what a TiVo box was. I had to repeatedly explain to him what was happening and that all I needed was to have them fix my account so the CableCards could be authorized.
Naturally, there were no notes on my account of what was previously discussed.
After about 45 minutes on the phone with this person, and being placed on hold for most of it, he informed me that they fixed the problem and that everything would be working in about 10 minutes. I was pleased to hear this and we ended the call.
10 minutes went by... 20 minutes... 30 minutes... still broke!
October 6, 2008 - Technical Support Call #2
After 30 minutes of waiting for my cable to start working, I called Technical Support again. Once again my call was answered by someone I had extreme difficulty understanding. I asked him to check my account for notes of my previous call so I wouldn't have to start over from scratch.
Once again, there was no record of my previous call.
I was on the phone with this person for at least 45 minutes. As with the first person I spoke with, this guy had no clue what TiVo was. He kept wanting to know the serial number off the back of my box, and I kept explaining to him that it was a TiVo box, not a Comcast box.
He asked me why I wanted to use the TiVo box and why I wasn't using a Comcast box. I'm not sure why that was relevant. It really upset me when he asked that because it seemed like this was a message being pushed by Comcast.
It feel like Comcast's internal corporate message is that they clearly do not want to support CableCards in TiVo boxes.
I told the technician that I was not interested in troubleshooting any further and that he didn't need the serial number of my TiVo box in order to troubleshoot this issue. I told him that they need to fix this.
He then started telling me that he found that there was an outage in my area and that this is why my cable and Internet were not working. This was clearly a BS response to get me off the phone. I told him that my issues were definately not due to an outage in my area.
He put me on hold for a few minutes to do some more research. This person was clearly not going to solve my issue with false excuses so I hung up.
Once again... no call-back from Comcast after being unexpectidly disconnected (as far as they were aware). Why would a support team invest so much time with a customer and not call them if the call was disconnected? To be honest, I'm glad that this one didn't call me back.
October 6, 2008 - Technical Support Call #3
I gave myself a short breather and then I called back one more time. This time I finally reached someone who sounded like they were in my own country! She was very polite and a pleasure to speak with after the previous two calls.
I was not surprised to find out that there were still no notes on my account of previous calls.
I had give her a brief explanation of my situation. This lady was familiar with what TiVo was and seemed to understand my situation. I explained that the installation technician told me that there was something wrong with my account. She checked my account and confirmed that nothing was wrong. She indicated that it may have just been an excuse for the technician to leave. We laughed that that was probably the case, although we both knew that that kind of tactic was clearly unacceptable.
She scheduled a senior tech to come out on Wednesday. I was tired of phone calls, and I just wanted someone else to come back out and fix it anyways.
I didn't get her name, but this lady really understood customer service! If anyone from Comcast reads this, please check my account to see who scheduled the senior tech to come out and hire more people like her!
October 8, 2008 - Technician Visit #2
I took some time off of work to wait for the senior technician (I assume) to arrive in the morning. When she arrived, she had someone with her that was not wearing a Comcast shirt. I don't know if he was even a Comcast employee or not, but it made me a little uncomfortable.
Before they arrived, I had already fumbled my way through my Internet issue and managed to activate it again. I'm not sure why it had to be activated again, but I got it working... on my own.
This technican seemed to know what she was doing and I was much more comfortable with her knowledge and experience than the first technician. She even knew that it takes several minutes for these TiVo boxes to reboot, which told me that she had some experience with setting up CableCards in TiVo boxes.
She did ask me at some point why I would choose to use a TiVo box instead of a Comcast one. I am getting tired of Comcast employees asking me that. It makes me feel unwelcomed.
After trying to get the cards to work for about 30-45 minutes, she spoke with someone at Comcast and insisted that the issue be escalated. I could tell that she was getting some resistance from the person on the other end of the phone, but she kept telling them to escalate it.
I also let her know that I wasn't sure if the bedroom cable outlet was good and asked her to check it. She had her helper (?) get the tester out of the truck and she had him test it. He said that it wasn't getting a signal, but he also didn't seem very confident/experienced with the line tester so I am not 100% comfortable with that analysis. However, I told her about my experience with the previous technician and that he ensured me that it was working but that I hadn't seen him actually test it. She agreed that he was probabaly just trying to get out of there.
She informed me that the issue had been escalated and told me to call the office later that afternoon, at about 4:00pm to check on the status of the escalation. I asked her if there would be notes on my account so that I wouldn't have to explain everything. She assured me that there would be notes on my account about it.
October 8, 2008 - Technical Support Call #4
I called at about 5:30pm to check on the status of the escalation. I was pleased to once again speak to someone in my own country. I informed her that the technician escalated my issue and that it should all be in the notes on my account.
Yet again... no notes were on my account indicating what I would be calling about.
I gave her a brief explanation and let her know (in a polite and civil manner) that I was extremely frustrated over this whole experience. She asked me if I knew who the senior tech had spoken with to escalate the issue, but I did not know (how could I?). She put me on hold for a few minutes to investigate this further on her side.
When she came back, she let me know that her supervisor/manager had started an email thread and would find out from the technician who they escalated the issue to and would get it all sorted out. She informed me that it should be resolved by around lunch time the next day.
I specifically asked her if someone would be calling me. She said "yes". I asked for confirmation that I would hear from someone by around 1:00pm on Thursday, October 9. She said that someone would call by about that time. We ended the call with that understanding. As with the other lady, this person was very pleasant to speak with and seemed to care about me... the customer.
It is now 9:50pm on Thursday, October 9, and I have not received the phone call that was promised to me.
What's Next?
I don't know what I am going to do next.
- I am frustrated with calling Comcast and them having absolutely no record of my previous calls and interactions.
- I am frustrated with their Technical Support team for not having the courtesy to call the customer back if the call is disconnected, forcing the customer to start over from scratch.
- I am frustrated with Comcast's lack of training on installing and configuring CableCards in TiVo boxes.
- I am frustrated that I was told a supervisor/manager would call me by a specific time/date and they did not.
I am considering just canceling the whole order and going back to using an antenna until FIOS is available. Verizon already buried the FIOS cables in my neighborhood a few months ago, so it shouldn't be much longer before service is available.
I will give Comcast two more chances to correct this.
1) A Comcast representitive reached out to me by leaving a comment to a post I made in my other blog. If I do not hear from someone by tomorrow morning, I am going to accept their offer and email them requesting assistance resolving this issue.
Since there are no notes on my account with any record of my phone calls, I am using this post as a personal record of my interactions so that they have something to review.
2) If I don't hear from the supervisor/manager that was supposed to call me today, I will give them a call tomorrow afternoon. However, I suspect that nobody will know anything about an escalation or a promised phone call.
This isn't a new issue for Comcast. There are many other stories out there from frustred TiVo owners due to Comcast's customer service issues and lack of experience installing CableCards into TiVo boxes.
I'll keep everyone updated on the progress. Hopefully Comcast will come through and we'll be past this so my next post will be a positive one. I also hope that Comcast hears my concerns and treats them not as an attack, but as an opportunity to fix the areas of concern. I have worked in customer service (tecnnical support and IT) for most of my adult life, and this has without hesitation been one of my worst customer service experiences ever. There's simply no excuse for so many missed opportunities, and I hope that they use this information to work on their own internal processes so that other customers have a better experience. I can tell you that as someone experienced in customer service, it is much more enjoyable to be able to help a customer resolve the issue than it is to have a broken support process which causes the customer frustration and disappointment.
Monday, September 29, 2008
Microsoft MCDST certification
I have been devoting a lot of my time over the past couple months to getting my MCDST certification. Today I passed the first of two exams needed for that certification. The MCDST certification is for a new IT job which I will be starting soon.
Updates will probably continue to be slow as I hit the books for the second exam. If I focus, I should be ready for the test in about a month. I could probably use a fast track method to be ready sooner, but I'm going to be expected to know this stuff and I would look pretty stupid if I didn't. A lot of people are book smart, but book smart doesn't always cut it... you have to have experience so you know how to handle the situation when it comes up in the real world.
On the photography front... I have been dabbling in HDR. Real HDR... not the fake HDR using single image in Lightroom that I posted about earlier. I don't have any images to share just yet, but I'll post something soon.
Updates will probably continue to be slow as I hit the books for the second exam. If I focus, I should be ready for the test in about a month. I could probably use a fast track method to be ready sooner, but I'm going to be expected to know this stuff and I would look pretty stupid if I didn't. A lot of people are book smart, but book smart doesn't always cut it... you have to have experience so you know how to handle the situation when it comes up in the real world.
On the photography front... I have been dabbling in HDR. Real HDR... not the fake HDR using single image in Lightroom that I posted about earlier. I don't have any images to share just yet, but I'll post something soon.
Friday, September 26, 2008
Studying and getting my Wii Fit on
It's been a couple weeks since my last post. I've been really busy with some other things and haven't had much time to just sit back and relax.
I am starting a new IT job soon, which I am very excited about. I have been hitting the books hard studying up for the Microsoft MCDST certification exams. The MCDST certification consists of two tests. I am taking the first test on Monday and then I'll start studying for the second. I am pretty confident that I will pass. I was already comfortable with most aspects of troubleshooting Windows XP, but I have learned a lot, so it has been time well spent.
I have also been focusing on exercising to get in better shape and lose weight. I decided to make an experiment of it by using Wii Fit on my Nintendo Wii. I have committed to using Wii Fit for 90 consecutive days to see how well it works. I have created a blog so that anyone can track my progress, and hopefully it will enspire others to exercise. Please come check it out: Wii Fit 90 Day Experience
I am starting a new IT job soon, which I am very excited about. I have been hitting the books hard studying up for the Microsoft MCDST certification exams. The MCDST certification consists of two tests. I am taking the first test on Monday and then I'll start studying for the second. I am pretty confident that I will pass. I was already comfortable with most aspects of troubleshooting Windows XP, but I have learned a lot, so it has been time well spent.
I have also been focusing on exercising to get in better shape and lose weight. I decided to make an experiment of it by using Wii Fit on my Nintendo Wii. I have committed to using Wii Fit for 90 consecutive days to see how well it works. I have created a blog so that anyone can track my progress, and hopefully it will enspire others to exercise. Please come check it out: Wii Fit 90 Day Experience
Friday, September 12, 2008
How to fix an iPhone which fails restore
Apple released the iPhone 2.1 Software Update today. When I got home, I immediately put my iPhone in its dock, launched iTunes, and clicked Check for Updates. There it was... the iPhone 2.1 Software Update waiting to be downloaded. I told it to continue and then I popped in a movie because these updates tend to take a while.
A while later, I went back to my computer to find a message stating that the update had failed and the iPhone would have to be restored. That sucked, but I didn't give it a second thought (since there were no other options presented to me) and chose the Restore option.
As the progress bar reached the end, I was presented with this fun message:
The iPhone "iPhone" could not be restored. An unknown error occurred (6).
When I clicked OK, it told me that iTunes found my iPhone in a safe mode state and I repeated the process of clicking Restore which led me right back to this same error. I went through this a third time (third time's a charm... right?) but had the same results. My phone was officially bricked!
I clicked the Help button and that took me to the "Update and restore error messages on the iPhone and iPod touch" article on Apple's support site.
I have worked in technical support for most of my adult life, and I could tell immediately that this is your very typical 'all-in-one' BS article that does not resolve the issue. I didn't even have to try the steps mentioned. Someone at Apple needs to take a good look at their knowledge base and review answers such as these. It is rediculous that you would have your customers jump through a lengthy string of hoops only to not resolve the issue or be told to call support (we all know how long those phone calls can be).
The REAL problem was that the file that iTunes downloaded was corrupt. The problem, however, is that once your iPhone is bricked there is no way to tell iTunes to re-download it.
(Note: These steps worked for me. I don't claim that this will work for everyone. I am not responsible if these steps make your situation worse, but let's face it... at this point your iPhone is already bricked so how much worse could it get?)
STEPS TO RESOLVE:
Mac OSX: ~/Library/iTunes/iPhone Software Updates
That's it! Now why couldn't Apple provide a simple soution such as that instead of making their customers get frustrated spending hours going through troubleshooting steps that are not going to resolve their issue or having to call support? Their support team surely doesn't need the extra workload! The customer is already frustrated and upset. They just want a quick and easy solution.
A while later, I went back to my computer to find a message stating that the update had failed and the iPhone would have to be restored. That sucked, but I didn't give it a second thought (since there were no other options presented to me) and chose the Restore option.
As the progress bar reached the end, I was presented with this fun message:
The iPhone "iPhone" could not be restored. An unknown error occurred (6).
I clicked the Help button and that took me to the "Update and restore error messages on the iPhone and iPod touch" article on Apple's support site.
I have worked in technical support for most of my adult life, and I could tell immediately that this is your very typical 'all-in-one' BS article that does not resolve the issue. I didn't even have to try the steps mentioned. Someone at Apple needs to take a good look at their knowledge base and review answers such as these. It is rediculous that you would have your customers jump through a lengthy string of hoops only to not resolve the issue or be told to call support (we all know how long those phone calls can be).
The REAL problem was that the file that iTunes downloaded was corrupt. The problem, however, is that once your iPhone is bricked there is no way to tell iTunes to re-download it.
(Note: These steps worked for me. I don't claim that this will work for everyone. I am not responsible if these steps make your situation worse, but let's face it... at this point your iPhone is already bricked so how much worse could it get?)
STEPS TO RESOLVE:
- Manually download the appropriate iPhone 2.1 firmware from Apple (iPhone 2G / iPhone 3G).
- On the iPhone screen in iTunes, hold down the 'Option' key ('Shift' on PC) and click the Restore button. In the file selection window, point it to the file you downloaded in step 1 and click OK.
- After the firmware is installed, it will ask you whether you want to (1) set your phone up as a new iPhone, or if you want to (2) restore from a backup of
. Choosing the latter will restore your phone to it's previous condition.
Mac OSX: ~/Library/iTunes/iPhone Software Updates
That's it! Now why couldn't Apple provide a simple soution such as that instead of making their customers get frustrated spending hours going through troubleshooting steps that are not going to resolve their issue or having to call support? Their support team surely doesn't need the extra workload! The customer is already frustrated and upset. They just want a quick and easy solution.
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Google updates Picasa and Picasa Web Albums
Google had a busy day today! The Google Chrome web browser release was the shot heard around the world. But in the shadow of Chrome's news, Google also released updates to it's Picasa line of photo editing and sharing products... Picasa 3 and Picasa Web Albums.
Picasa 3
Picasa 3 is Google's latest release of their photo organizer and editor software for Windows. I use Adobe Lightroom for my needs, but I am warming up to Picasa and tend to recommend it to friends and family who have a Windows computer but don't need the features of Lightroom. I didn't care for the first version of Picasa because it just seemed awkward and difficult for a novice to use.
Picasa 2 addressed many of my concerns and I installed it on my parents computer when they got a digital camera a few months ago. Picasa was simple enough that they learned how to use it to import and organize/display photos. They can also upload photos to Picasa Web to share with family and friends.
The release of Picasa 3 brings several new features. Here are some of my favorites:
There are several other features. Visit the What's New and What's Changed pages to see what has changed. Google also released the following video to explain what's new in Picasa 3.
Picasa Web Albums
Google also updated their Picasa Web Albums photo sharing service today with a couple of new features. I have been a longtime Flickr user, and I feel that it is the superior service for it's community aspects, but Yahoo! sorely needs to invest in updating the Flickr technology or they are going to lose ground to Picasa Web Albums and other services. With these latest changes that Google has made, I may be recommending friends and family that aren't involved in the community aspect to use Picasa Web Albums instead of Flickr.
Name tags: Name tags use clustering technology to identify photos with similar faces so that you can tag those photos quickly and easily. You can then display groups of photos with a specific person or set of people.
Explore page: The new Explore page displays recent photo contributions from people around the globe. There is a slideshow of new photos from members around the world, and you can also display photos by popular tags. There is also a fun game called 'Where in the World?' where you are presented with a string of photos and have to place a pin on a map of where you think that each photo was taken. You are given points based on how close you are to the actual location. I don't know the object of this game (besides to earn points), but I quit after a few rounds.
I think that Google is headed in the right direction with Picasa Web Albums. In some ways they have surpassed Flickr, but overall they are still quite far behind. In addition to the lack of community (which they appear to be working on), Google really needs to re-evaluate the amount of storage they provide.
You get 1 GB for free with Picasa Web Albums. Adding 10 GB of shared storage (used by all Google products) will cost you $20/year. Other annual plans include: 40 GB for $75; 150 GB for $250; 400 GB for $500. With online storage services such as ADrive providing 50 GB storage free, Google's pricing needs to change if they want to stay competitive.
Picasa 3
Picasa 3 is Google's latest release of their photo organizer and editor software for Windows. I use Adobe Lightroom for my needs, but I am warming up to Picasa and tend to recommend it to friends and family who have a Windows computer but don't need the features of Lightroom. I didn't care for the first version of Picasa because it just seemed awkward and difficult for a novice to use.
Picasa 2 addressed many of my concerns and I installed it on my parents computer when they got a digital camera a few months ago. Picasa was simple enough that they learned how to use it to import and organize/display photos. They can also upload photos to Picasa Web to share with family and friends.
The release of Picasa 3 brings several new features. Here are some of my favorites:
- Add multiple word tags: Enter 'New York' as a tag instead of entering 'New' and 'York' as separate words.
- Capture screen: You can now press the Print Screen button and have the screenshot automatically put into Picasa.
- Retouch images: Ability to remove blemishes from an image. Similar to the clone tool in Lightroom and Photoshop.
- Add text or watermark: Easily add text or a watermark to a photo. You can set the text attributes and easily choose the location and angle of the text.
- Create movies: Picasa 3 includes a movie editor so you can create movies from your video clips. I don't have any videos to try this out, but it appears to be very simple to use.
There are several other features. Visit the What's New and What's Changed pages to see what has changed. Google also released the following video to explain what's new in Picasa 3.
Picasa Web Albums
Google also updated their Picasa Web Albums photo sharing service today with a couple of new features. I have been a longtime Flickr user, and I feel that it is the superior service for it's community aspects, but Yahoo! sorely needs to invest in updating the Flickr technology or they are going to lose ground to Picasa Web Albums and other services. With these latest changes that Google has made, I may be recommending friends and family that aren't involved in the community aspect to use Picasa Web Albums instead of Flickr.
Name tags: Name tags use clustering technology to identify photos with similar faces so that you can tag those photos quickly and easily. You can then display groups of photos with a specific person or set of people.
Explore page: The new Explore page displays recent photo contributions from people around the globe. There is a slideshow of new photos from members around the world, and you can also display photos by popular tags. There is also a fun game called 'Where in the World?' where you are presented with a string of photos and have to place a pin on a map of where you think that each photo was taken. You are given points based on how close you are to the actual location. I don't know the object of this game (besides to earn points), but I quit after a few rounds.
I think that Google is headed in the right direction with Picasa Web Albums. In some ways they have surpassed Flickr, but overall they are still quite far behind. In addition to the lack of community (which they appear to be working on), Google really needs to re-evaluate the amount of storage they provide.
You get 1 GB for free with Picasa Web Albums. Adding 10 GB of shared storage (used by all Google products) will cost you $20/year. Other annual plans include: 40 GB for $75; 150 GB for $250; 400 GB for $500. With online storage services such as ADrive providing 50 GB storage free, Google's pricing needs to change if they want to stay competitive.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
