The Vent and Rant Thread

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by cromag

Getting information from anyone at Verizon is ... challenging. I say this as someone who worked for the old Bell System, the ancestor of Verizon, and really wants to like them. But Verizon has eliminated anyone who knows anything from any customer contact position -- I assume it's cheaper to go with unskilled labor and temps -- and it's very frustrating getting information from someone who knows less about their job than I do.

I was previously a telecom admin among other things, dealing with what became Verizon. My experience was consistent. If what I wanted was an additional POTS line in my facility, I could place the order, and confirm the main number I wanted charges applied to. Two folks would call before the installation to confirm the details, the installation would happen in the specified time frame, things would work, and two folks would contact me after to make sure all was working as desired.

Step beyond that and things went downhill fast. My shop was a call center, with multiple T1 lines taking our calls and sending them to our LD carrier. But the calls had to go through VZ's copper in our facility and get routed to a major central office that would perform the handoff to the LD carrier. When there was an outage, it was always on VZ's side, but that was the last thing they would admin. (The issue was normally a configuration error on the big ESS5 digital switch that did the routing.) At one point, they sent a T1 tech with a T-Bird line test device to troubleshoot a problem. I knew he was wasting has time because the problem was not in the physical line. He knew it too. And he couldn't have actually tested in any case because no one had been scheduled to work with him on the other end.

At one point I was having new T1s pulled in and an installer gave me the name and number of his boss and boss's boss. I had occasion to speak to the latter, and he was a rare person inside VZ who understood that keeping the customer required providing the service. He said "If you have a problem, give me a call. If it's in my area, I'll get it taken care of. If it isn't, I'll find out whose area it's in and give you his name and number!" I was delighted.

I had long since given up on our sales rep. We were big enough to have a dedicated Large Business Sales Team rep on our account. But any conversation I had with him resolved to "I'd love to help you, but it's not in my area and I don't know anything about it." Getting across "I don't expect you to know. I expect you to open your corporate directory, determine who does know, and give me his name and number. If you can't do that you are incompetent to hold your position." was a challenge I never did accomplish. He seemed to believe his job was to sit there with his feet up waiting for the customer to call and place an order, and anything else was someone else's job.

During that period I also got broadband in the form of a DSL line. Bell Atlantic (as it was called at the time) screwed up everything that could be screwed up in the installation, starting with miss entering the CC number I gave for billing. It took three moths from placement of order to working service. At one point, I sat on hold for an hour on a slow afternoon at the office to finally get through to Customer Care and begin the process of getting things fixed. My boss came into my office later and said "Dennis, I heard you on the phone with Bell Atlantic. I'm sorry you you had to go through that!" I replied "It's okay, Larry. They're idiots and have their heads up their asses. I go through that over service here, too, but you pay me for it! Doing it for free for my home service is a little wearing..."

My cable company had been pushing a triple play TV/Internet/VOIP deal for a while. I held off because it was a cost savings if you made LD calls, but I almost never did. VZ's local loop charges finally crept above the VOIP cot, and I dropped the landline. I have been delighted to be shut of VZ.
______
Dennis

[covingtoncat73]

I will never buy anything from overseas again. I bought a bicycle bag off of Etsy. I didn't see one I liked better. Anyway, it has been sitting in Customs in Miami for 7 days now, according to the tracking. The USPS is no help. I am despairing of getting this thing.

[badgoodDeb]

Originally Posted by covingtoncat73

I will never buy anything from overseas again. I bought a bicycle bag off of Etsy. I didn't see one I liked better. Anyway, it has been sitting in Customs in Miami for 7 days now, according to the tracking. The USPS is no help. I am despairing of getting this thing.

Huh! I've ordered at least twice from overseas Etsy places. Both came through with no problem. Not inexpensive either; about $100-$150, the second time at least.

[PeterT]

Isn't the issue that one needs the shipper to correctly fill out the paperwork?

[covingtoncat73]

Originally Posted by badgoodDeb

Huh! I've ordered at least twice from overseas Etsy places. Both came through with no problem. Not inexpensive either; about $100-$150, the second time at least.

Yeah. I ordered a pin that came from England. It came pretty quickly.

Originally Posted by PeterT

Isn't the issue that one needs the shipper to correctly fill out the paperwork?

I have no idea. I did just notify the seller it is still in Customs, though.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by covingtoncat73

I will never buy anything from overseas again. I bought a bicycle bag off of Etsy. I didn't see one I liked better. Anyway, it has been sitting in Customs in Miami for 7 days now, according to the tracking. The USPS is no help. I am despairing of getting this thing.

Hmmmm...what else was in that bike bag, CovCat? One can only imagine...



Hitch

[Hitch]

Now, I want to preface this by saying, yes, indeedy, this is a tempest in a teapot. Over $11.00 whole dollars.

I purchased a font set through one of the various Creatives marketplaces. You know, like, whats-its, Mighty Deal. They regularly have all sorts of goodies on sale. Backgrounds, fonts, filters, the usual for creative folk. I don't buy the typical, but I'll snatch up a font, if it's a good price and I can see a possible use (like...fleurons and dingbats and that usual type of thing).

I purchased a big old expensive font for a whopping $11. That was for the desktop and the web fonts license. I did this because it's a pretty script font, and I could easily see using it in a design or two, for a book or a cover. What I REALLY wanted, though, were the 964 glyphs that came with. Sure, many--say, 70%--would be unusable unless they were used with THIS font, but the rest could be deployed as all kind of things.

But, lo........surprisingly, there's NO glyph-map with this font. UHR? Sure, I can pop it up in Windows in the Char Map, or in my Glyph view in Font Suitcase...but, sheesh. NINE HUNDRED AND SIXTY FOUR glyphs, and the designer didn't make a glyph map? Or a user's guide? (Lots of fonts that are glyph-heavy are now coming with user's guides showing the location of the glyphs, some even have design ideas.)

NOT happy. I can just see me dreaming of a time in my life when I'll have the type of time available to sit around and scroll through nearly a thousand glyphs!!

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by Hitch

Now, I want to preface this by saying, yes, indeedy, this is a tempest in a teapot. Over $11.00 whole dollars.

I purchased a font set through one of the various Creatives marketplaces. You know, like, whats-its, Mighty Deal. They regularly have all sorts of goodies on sale. Backgrounds, fonts, filters, the usual for creative folk. I don't buy the typical, but I'll snatch up a font, if it's a good price and I can see a possible use (like...fleurons and dingbats and that usual type of thing).

I purchased a big old expensive font for a whopping $11. That was for the desktop and the web fonts license. I did this because it's a pretty script font, and I could easily see using it in a design or two, for a book or a cover. What I REALLY wanted, though, were the 964 glyphs that came with. Sure, many--say, 70%--would be unusable unless they were used with THIS font, but the rest could be deployed as all kind of things.

But, lo........surprisingly, there's NO glyph-map with this font. UHR? Sure, I can pop it up in Windows in the Char Map, or in my Glyph view in Font Suitcase...but, sheesh. NINE HUNDRED AND SIXTY FOUR glyphs, and the designer didn't make a glyph map? Or a user's guide? (Lots of fonts that are glyph-heavy are now coming with user's guides showing the location of the glyphs, some even have design ideas.)

NOT happy. I can just see me dreaming of a time in my life when I'll have the type of time available to sit around and scroll through nearly a thousand glyphs!!

I shall get right on making that time extender machine.
I wouldn't be happy either. $11 seems like a lot for a pretty much useless product.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by Cinisajoy

I shall get right on making that time extender machine.

Pleaese do. May I place my first order in? Obviously, I'd like mine in a blue police call box, eh?

I wouldn't be happy either. $11 seems like a lot for a pretty much useless product.

It's not totally useless. To be fair, I could probably put a glyph-viewer on the system, that would only be used for that purpose. But I need more software like I need a hole in my head. Seriously.

Mostly, this should be called the "whining" post. It's not truly rant-worthy. Just seems so damn dumb.

Hitch

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by Hitch

Pleaese do. May I place my first order in? Obviously, I'd like mine in a blue police call box, eh?



It's not totally useless. To be fair, I could probably put a glyph-viewer on the system, that would only be used for that purpose. But I need more software like I need a hole in my head. Seriously.

Mostly, this should be called the "whining" post. It's not truly rant-worthy. Just seems so damn dumb.

Hitch

Sure you can place the 1st order. I only need $19.99 + shipping and handling up front.
Sounds like us and cords. A hole in the head would make more sense.

Spoiler:

shipping and handling is only $2 billion dollars with no guaranteed delivery date.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by Cinisajoy

Sure you can place the 1st order. I only need $19.99 + shipping and handling up front.
Sounds like us and cords. A hole in the head would make more sense.

Oh, amen to that. I'm sitting here, at HOME, watching us pick our ways around the damn cords. (And devices, too, mind you).

Spoiler:

shipping and handling is only $2 billion dollars with no guaranteed delivery date.

MWAHAHAHAHAH. Perfect.

Hitch

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by Hitch

Oh, amen to that. I'm sitting here, at HOME, watching us pick our ways around the damn cords. (And devices, too, mind you).



MWAHAHAHAHAH. Perfect.

Hitch

Here a cord, there a cord, everywhere a cord cord.
Devices too and batteries.
You wanted to connect a wattzit to a whoseit to a thatsit. Yep got the cords for that.

[cromag]

How can you NOT guarantee a delivery date on a time extender machine?

It should arrive tomorrow. No matter when the client asks for a firm date. Always "tomorrow."

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by cromag

How can you NOT guarantee a delivery date on a time extender machine?

It should arrive tomorrow. No matter when the client asks for a firm date. Always "tomorrow."

EXCELLENT point. Of course, it's arguable that my machine would be broken, right? And thus it arrived at the wrong...time?

Hitch

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by cromag

How can you NOT guarantee a delivery date on a time extender machine?

It should arrive tomorrow. No matter when the client asks for a firm date. Always "tomorrow."

You are so right since "Tomorrow never comes".