The inverse of a customer leaving a provider is a provider discontinuing the service of a customer.  This can happen for a lot of reasons from terms of service violations (i.e. doing something your provider clearly states you cannot do) to the user’s account using too much resources (i.e. hosting a site that needs a dedicated server on a $5/month shared account) and everything in between.  There are situations where a provider may also feel that they are not the proper fit for the particular customer’s needs, and that is what causes me to write this tonight.

There have been a couple of occurrences over the last 5 years where my company has had a customer whose needs we simply were not able to fulfill adequately or at all.  In one case the user had no concept of what support we offer as a provider and what to expect.  The individual expected us to configure their mail clients on their computers for them, to make modifications to their site for them, and to do a great many tasks that we simply do not perform or provide.  We’re happy to advise as best we can, such as how the customer could configure their mail clients, how to modify their page, or who to get in contact with for support on those issues, but often that’s not enough.

The first instance, once we felt we were not the right provider for the customer’s needs, we informed them of this.  We refunded their money (in full) even though they had used the services and an extensive amount of support and provided them two weeks to find a new provider that they feel would better fit their needs.  We offered to assist them in moving their data to the new provider and to do anything we could to make it as painless as possible.  I think you may be surprised to find out what the response to this was… They were absolutely LIVID.

This customer became extremely aggressive immediately and made threats that they would ruin us all over the internet and write bad reviews, that we could not cancel their account.  Their reaction would be appropriate if we deleted their data, provided them no refund, and then ignored them but that was not the case.  Not only were we taking a complete loss on all time and effort invested into that customer, but we were refunding all funds paid to us and then still trying to help them further to get to a provider that would better fit their needs.  This did happen a couple of years ago, but a similar incident happened again today.

A particular customer, whom I will not name for privacy, on January 29th, 2013 for a regular shared hosting account.  On January 30th they opened a ticket reporting issues sending mail from our server and within 3 minutes of them opening their ticket, we advised them that they needed to turn on SMTP Authentication in their mail client to resolve the issue.  This customer continued to make update after update re-iterating the same issue while apparently ignoring our directions to turn on SMTP Authentication, complete with a link to documentation detailing how to do this in a majority of popular mail clients.  Once the customer finally followed our directions, their issue was resolved – which took 12 responses over two and a half hours.

On February 1st, 2013 the same customer opened a new ticket reporting that their sites were offline and that they could not access the control panel, email, or their web sites.  It turns out that the customer was blocked due to failed log-in attempts to our mail server.  Our servers are configured such that only so many failed log in attempts are permitted before an IP is blocked to prevent dictionary attacks against our users.  We informed the user that they would need to resolve the issue otherwise they would end up blocked again.

We tested our mail servers to ensure they were operating as expected even though our internal and external monitoring picked up nothing and we had no other reports of issues from other customers.  We found that the servers were working as they should, and advised the customer that they would need to straighten out their mail client configurations and that it wasn’t something we could help.  The customer did specifically say, “There are approx. 20 – 40 established email-addresses that are read and or downloaded by 2 iPhones , 1 iPad and 3 computers, by 8 or 9 diff. email clients.”

The customer continued to have failed log in attempts and became blocked again at which point I said to them, “Maybe it’s best if you simply find another provider. I’ll be happy to provide a full refund (less the domain, can’t refund domains) and a full backup of your account as well as time to relocate.”  In response they said, “that’s your answer … did you have a look of what might be wrong with my setup?” and I pasted a log of all of their log in failures and told them that was the issue.

Their next update was extremely aggressive and laden with sarcasm.  They did move to another provider where, apparently, they did not have issues and I was happy to hear this.  At this very moment I did provide them a full refund of their hosting fees.  I told them to have a wonderful evening and closed the ticket believing that now that they are on a new provider, have a refund, and everything is working for them there is nothing more for me to do.

The next update, I suppose, wasn’t extremely shocking.  I do my best not to ‘profile’ customers but after years in this industry working with individuals daily you tend to get an instinct as to how a particular customer will handle a particular situation.  My experience has taught me that the type of customer we are not a good fit for, such as this particular individual, will react aggressively to being asked to find an alternative provider and, unfortunately, I was correct.  Essentially this type of individual will spend their free time doing whatever they can to damage our company or the reputation of our company all because we gave them their money back and asked them to find another provider.

It’s unfortunate that the customers whose needs we cannot meet react so aggressively when we give them their money back and provide them time to find a new provider but, honestly, it’s the lesser of two evils.  This person, whose needs we obviously were not able to adequately meet, would have had a bad experience and, over a period of time, would have likely become very angry with us.  They wouldn’t have been happy, we know it – so why would we further that?  Why hold onto their money for a service that isn’t meeting their needs when they can use that money to buy service from a provider that will meet their needs?

Perhaps I’m wrong, but I thought a provider giving somebody their money back and allowing them time to find a new provider was about the nicest way a provider could let a customer go.

On Christmas Day my two and a half year old Corgi dog “Titan” got into the trash and we were not sure what exactly he had eaten.  He’s gotten into the trash before, however, it has been over a year and a half and he has done very well for a long time about being unsupervised.  He’s good to the point that we can set down a plate of food on the floor and leave the room and he knows not to touch it, so we’re unsure what was so alluring in the trash can that he had to get into it, but he did.

We didn’t think too much of it at the time, as we’ve had dogs get in the trash before and usually they may get a little bit of an upset stomach but that’s about it.  When we woke up this morning we found out that he had gotten sick, which wasn’t unexpected.  We let him outside to go to the bathroom and he walked around like he had to poop but he didn’t; he urinated and then came back inside.  He’s the type of Corgi that he will eat all of his dog food, however much you put in the bowl, so we have to only give him how much he should have at any given time, usually a cup in the morning and a cup in the evening.  This morning he didn’t touch his food at all, when normally he would gobble it down as quickly as he could and he also wasn’t drinking any water.

We let him go back outside again and he got sick and then he finally went poop and when we looked, it was red which had us extremely concerned so we tried contacting our normal veterinary office, which is closed due to the 14+ inches of snow we’ve received since 3 AM last night.  The only veterinary office that was open and within a driving distance was the Indianapolis Veterinary Emergency Center or IVEC.  We called and discussed it with them and they said we should bring him in to have him checked out, so we made the drive out to them.

When we got there, we filled out some paperwork and got checked in and placed into an exam room.  Being that there was 14+ inches of snow, we were the only ones there at the time besides the employees, however, we waited in the exam room for 20 to 25 minutes before anybody was in to see our Titan.  The veterinarian seemed nice enough and performed a normal exam including taking his temperature and feeling his abdomen.  She said that he didn’t react abnormally to pressures on his abdomen, however, she suggested that we have a blood panel and pancreas test performed just to make sure he hadn’t eaten anything that was causing him problems.  Our primary concern, when we arrived, was that he had swallowed something hard or sharp that was cutting or damaging his intestines and the veterinarian explained the only way to rule that out was an x-ray but that she didn’t think that was the case.

She asked if we wanted to do the blood tests and a fecal swab, and my wife said yes so the veterinarian took our dog around the corner and through a code-locked door.  Within about 2 minutes I could hear my dog screaming as loud and as hard as he could as though he was in immense pain or feeling extremely threatened.  I got up and walked around the corner and I could see through the window on the door and off of a mirror the veterinarian, but not my dog or the tech.  He quieted down for a few seconds and then started screaming again – it was the type of scream where you can tell the dog feels that he may need to defend himself and/or bite – it wasn’t a good sound.  At this time is when I heard the veterinary tech, Casey F., scream “STOP” at my dog in a very irritated and angry voice as though my extremely upset dog was going to understand this and calm down.

I knocked on the door and the veterinarian saw me through the window and then went back to what she was doing.  I knocked on the door again, and then I knocked on the door again, and again until the veterinarian came to the door.  When she came to the door she asked me what I needed and I told her, “Either I need to come back with my dog, or you need to bring my dog to me right now.”  She tried to explain to me that I was not permitted to pass through the door by company policy.  I told the veterinarian that he is scared and that screaming at him isn’t going to help and her response was, “All she did was tell him to stop.”  I made a quick analogy and said, “If you don’t understand Chinese and you’re very upset or scared and I yell ‘STOP’ at you in Chinese, are you going to listen to me?  He is a dog and he certainly isn’t going to respond to the word ‘STOP’ especially if he’s terrified and it’s being screamed at him.”  The way she screamed it, was the way a person tends to sound before they lash out or do something worse than scream.  I then re-iterated my statement that I was going back, or she was bringing my dog to me.  She tried again, and I repeated the same statements.  I did my best not to get upset, but I’m sure it was visibly obvious that I was upset although I did make sure to keep as calm as I could and not to yell.

She let me through the door and back and when I got into the room with him I could see that they had him standing on a metal grate, like a baking rack.  Titan has very sensitive feet/toes and he actually will whine/cry/scream if you’re not very gentle with his feet when trimming his nails – which we have done at PetSmart in Greenwood regularly.  I am sure that he was in pain, if not only from standing on this grate.  Once I was in the room they, surprisingly, decided to move him from the grate over to a solid table which I suspect isn’t a decision that would have happened had I not walked back with them.  I also suspect the issue would have escalated and gotten worse as my dog could have potentially felt that he needed to defend his life, and I don’t blame him.

After the quick blood draw on the solid table I carried my dog back to the examination room where we were supposed to wait on the results, however, when I got back to the room I found that the whole ordeal had upset my wife so much that she was in tears and we decided that we were going to leave.  I took my dog out to the front counter and explained to the receptionist that I wanted my bill, and that we were going to leave.  I also told the receptionist that I wanted the full first and last name of the veterinary technician as well as the veterinarian.

The receptionist went back to get the veterinarian so that the bill could get generated and the veterinarian then came out to the front to talk to me.  She tried to discuss the issue with me, and I told her that, at that point, there was no way that she was going to make me happy or calm me down and that I did not want to discuss the issue further.  I told the veterinarian that discussing the issue further is only going to result in me becoming more upset and possibly irate and that she simply needed to get my bill ready so that I could pay, and that they could call my wife and let us know the results of the tests when they were done.  She continued to try and discuss the issue with me, and I continued to tell her to simply generate my bill so that my family could be on our way.  After about four or five times of me telling her to stop trying to calm me down, and to simply get me my bill she got the point and went back to get the bill set up.

She then came around on the other side of the counter and asked if we wanted any medication for diarrhea for Titan and we informed her that we were simply going to observe him closely and, if need be, we will make a longer drive to another veterinary office and that we were absolutely not going to come back to that location under any circumstances.  We did end up back on the subject of the technician yelling at my dog again, and I re-iterated my points.  I made it very clear that it was 100% un-acceptable and that it should not happen.  I informed her that I was not in the room directly so I couldn’t hear if the veterinarian said anything to the tech at all, and she told us that she had said, “That was a bit too loud.”  If I were in the room I would have told the tech that she needed to get control of herself or that she needed to leave, as that is not how one should conduct themselves in a professional environment, or how one should treat an animal be it their own or somebody else’s.

I got the phone number of the manager/supervisor of the office as he wasn’t available and the receptionist told me that he would likely be unavailable this week, and I understand.  I am going to call and leave a voice-mail for Joseph H., the executive director and I will make sure to discuss this in detail with him when he is off of his holiday vacation.  I know that I will never return to this veterinary clinic under any circumstances.  As I care very much for my animals and all animals in general, I cannot with a clear conscience ever recommend or suggest this clinic to anybody I ever interact with in the future either.  If anything, I’ll explain to anybody and everybody my experience so that they have an idea of what they can expect should they ever decide to go to this location.  At the end of the day I’m not out to hurt this clinic, but I am out to keep animals from being needlessly abused be it physically or verbally.

My honest advice – is to avoid IVEC / Indianapolis Veterinary Emergency Center unless you have absolutely no other option and if you do go there, supervise your animal and make sure that he or she is well handled and taken care of.  I would not, personally, allow my animal to leave my sight in this establishment if it was the only option available.

Here is a picture of my dog, Titan:

Titan, click to view full-size.

In many situations, with steady light, the iPhone camera works beautifully but in situations where the phone flashes the LED once to get exposure, then once again to actually take the picture I’ve found pictures are often washed and way over-exposed or very under-exposed.  Only about 1 in 20 images I’ve ever taken with the default application in low-light that required the LED flash came out decent.

Camera+ has a feature called ‘Flashlight Mode’ in that the LED light stays on continuously allowing you to use it as a working light to compose and take your shot.  The big keys to this are you can see, for the most part, what the image will look like on the screen with the flash before actually taking the picture and that you can better control exposure and composition due to this.  Being that the default camera application is effectively more convenient I tend to use Camera+ when I need a feature that it provides over the basic application.  That being said, for normal day-to-day pictures such as of my 4 month old son or anything else I come across during the day the default application works fine and is just a quick swipe up from the lock screen.

The issue, for me, with Camera+ for along time has been that if you close the application entirely (i.e. double tap home, press and hold on the icon, press the X to close) with the flashlight mode on, the next time you launch the application it receives no input from the camera.  The LED light would come on, but the camera wouldn’t actually work – you would have to close the application out to the task bar (not fully closing it) and then re-open the application at which point the LED light would flash off once, come back on, and then the camera would work as expected.

I reported this issue via email directly to the developers of Camera+ several months ago and was essentially told that it was a hardware issue with my phone and not an issue with their software.  I volunteered to video record the process that reproduces the issue every time as well as sent detailed step-by-step instructions to the developers directly on reproducing the issue.  After a month or so of going back and forth they continued to blame the issue on a hardware issue on my end, with my phone.

Over the course of a month or so, I asked anybody I came across with an iPhone 5 to try and see if they could replicate the issue.  Thankfully everybody I ran across already had Camera+ and funny enough, every single one of them was able to produce the issue on their phones.  This meant that either all iPhone 5s have ‘hardware issues’ with their camera and flash or Camera+ has a bug in their programming logic.  After trying repeatedly to get the Tap Tap Tap team to listen to me about this bug, I finally posted a review on the program itself in the App Store.  I figure if going directly to the developers wasn’t doing the job, maybe those who handle PR for the company would be more interested in resolving the issue.

This is the review that I wrote:

Subject: Flashlight mode can cause issues

If you close the app with the “flashlight” on, and then open the task bar and close it out entirely and then re-open the app the light will come on but the app receives nothing from the camera and remains black.

I reported this to the developers, gave exact steps to reproduce, and offered to video the issue for them and they were adamant that the issue didn’t exist and that it was a hardware issue with my iPhone 5. I reproduced this issue on no less than 5 distinct iPhone 5s. If it is a hardware issue (it’s not) then it must be a wide spread issue.

I held off giving a negative review, but adamantly refusing to even investigate a bug report and blaming a software logic error on hardware when the issue can be replicated on numerous devices is ridiculous.

When they fix this, I’ll update this review to 5 stars because otherwise the application is excellent. Feel free to test on your device and see if it happens on yours. I assume it will – if it does contact them and let them know so they can fix this.

It hasn’t always been this way, I know this because I’ve used this app for a long time. I mostly use it for low light photography when the on/off/on/off flash of the built in application does a terrible job and, as such, the flashlight behavior is important to me and used a lot.

Yesterday when I checked for application updates I chuckled a bit when I read this particular part of the update notes:

THE HELLA-BUG IS DEAD!!

If you’re one of the unfortunate Camera+ users who’ve been plagued by the bug where you launch Camera+ and you get a black camera preview, then we’ve got some incredible news for you… that bug is now ancient history!

This annoying bug has been in Camera+ for waaay too long, but we weren’t able to reproduce it ourselves so it remained as elusive as the Loch Ness Monster, Bigfoot, and John McAfee.  But thanks to the most magical 1-star review, Camera+ user MikeDVB finally detailed the exact steps to reproduce it.  As soon as our Bug Extermination Department got the word, POOF… it was gone like Keyser Söse…”

I am happy that I was able to help them out as Camera+, in my opinion, is an excellent piece of software and I use it regularly.  The only disappointment I have is that the official support channels that are supposed to be used to report bugs and issues with the software failed to result in this fix.  The review that I left on the software in the public is the reason that this was resolved, even though I had provided step-by-step directions in an email directly to Tap Tap Tap.   The responses to my emails looked like this: “Please reboot your device.”, “You should back up your Lightbox photos, then delete and reinstall Camera+. This sounds like a system corruption. There’s no need to video the behavior.”, “Is your flash working in other apps? We don’t have any problems with flashlight, so it doesn’t make sense that the problem would persist after a system restore unless there’s a hardware problem.”, and “I’ve forwarded this to our development team so they can try to recreate it. I haven’t been able to. We’ve only had two other customers report the issue, which is odd.”

I provided no additional detail in my review than was sent to ‘Mike’ at Tap Tap Tap, so I find it odd that the development team wasn’t able to reproduce the issue months ago when I provided directions via email and official support channels but they could when it was posted in a public review.

You can read the blog post on Tap Tap Tap’s website about this release at http://taptaptap.com/blog/the-hella-bug-is-dead/

We opened this container, filled it to the line with cool water, and placed it in the microwave for 3 minutes and 30 seconds just as we always have.  I watched the countdown of the microwave for about the first 20 seconds so I know for sure beyond any shadow of doubt that the microwave was set appropriately.  With about 60 seconds left to go on the microwave I walked back into the room to get ready to pull it out and mix in the cheese when I noticed that I could not see the EasyMac container within the microwave.  I opened the microwave door and was essentially ‘hit in the face’ by smoke and was shocked to see this melted container.

I do plan on contacting Kraft to make them aware of this, but I suspect they are simply going to say that we didn’t follow the directions.  I suspect they’ll say we didn’t fill it with enough water, filled it with hot water, or simply cooked it in the microwave for too long.  Being that I could easily see any of that, especially the longer cook time, causing this I don’t expect Kraft to simply take my word on it.  This certainly isn’t common or we’d all be aware of it and/or changes would have been made and/or the product would no longer exist.  The other three containers from the same pack did not experience this issue, so I am really unsure as to what went wrong.

The moral of the story is that if you are going to cook Kraft EasyMac in your microwave, don’t simply walk away and assume that you will come back to pasta that is ready to be mixed with the cheese powder.  You should stand where you can safely watch the macaroni cook and ensure that your container doesn’t melt down and essentially burst into flames.  At this point my wife and I are going to assume that all EasyMac containers will melt and, as such, will no longer walk away from the microwave should we decide to cook one of these.

More pictures (click for larger), please note that the microwave was *white* inside before this happened, you can see where it’s still white in the image where the glass plate is removed.  This stain is nearly impossible to get out and even with extensive scrubbing, the finish inside is still yellowish.

I use Apple hardware for almost everything these days for a few reasons including but not limited to: build quality, operating system and features, ease of use, fit and finish, and support.  When you buy a $2,200 laptop from Apple, a $800 iPad, or anything else – you generally expect it to be the utmost of quality and to ‘just work.’  This has been my experience with every Apple product I’ve owned so far until now.

I purchased a base-model Apple Retina MacBook Pro 15″ from the Keystone Apple Store on the north side of Indianapolis on October 6th, 2012.  I was very happy with the machine, that is, until I was sitting in my quiet hotel room during the cPanel Conference in Houston, Texas on October 8th, 2012.  I found that the space bar was making such an unbearably loud ‘screech’ when pressed that there was no way I could possibly continue using the machine.  I called AppleCare and they directed me to take the machine to the Apple Store in the Houston Galleria Mall, which I did.

I walked up to the Genius Bar for my appointment and explained the issue to the technician.  He said that he could not hear it in the store, as Apple stores are almost always loud, and wanted to take it into the back to see if he could hear it, which I said was fine.  After a minute or two in the back the tech re-appeared and agreed that the noise was unbearably loud and he said that he could understand why I was unhappy.  He actually removed the key to see what was wrong, and found that when removed the key was nearly translucent.  He explained that the key was simply a manufacturing defect.  In trying to put the key back on, it even chipped.

I told the tech that I was fine with simply swapping a new key on, to which he informed me they do not keep spare keys on-hand.  The keys, apparently, are not something that are supposed to be replaced.  The only solution that was provided to me was to swap my brand new Retina MacBook Pro for another, new in box, Retina MacBook Pro.  I would have been much happier to get a new key, as the rest of my machine was flawless but presented with no other option and days of sitting in a silent room working on the machine – I agreed to the exchange.  I opened the new machine and made sure the space key didn’t make the same noise, and then was on my way out the door. I used the new machine on perfectly flat surfaces (a desk at the hotel in Houston, a desk at a hotel in Denver, and my desk at home) and experienced no issues whatsoever that I noticed over the next week and a half.

Fast forward to October 19th, 2012 and now I was using the machine on my lap in the car on my way to Tennessee to visit my mother-in-law and sister-in-law with the wife.  I was in the passenger seat using the laptop in tandem with my iPad’s personal hotspot when I noticed the laptop was making a lot of popping and creaking sounds as I was using it.  When I rest my palms on the palm rests to type, the machine tends to make a pop or creak sound almost as though the bottom case is loose or misaligned.  If I pick the machine up by a corner or edge the machine many times makes a loud pop sound.

Unfortunately I didn’t have an opportunity, due to being busy with family events, to make it to an Apple Store.  I had hoped to go on the 21st before leaving to drive to Florida, however, there were no Genius Bar appointments available on Sunday when I checked and I was leaving early on Monday morning, well before the Apple store opened up at 10 AM.

I arrived in Panama City Beach, Florida at around 7 PM on October 22nd, and on the drive down to Florida I had decided that I was simply being too picky and that since the machine, other than the popping and creaking, was functionally perfect that I would ignore it.  I guess, in the back of my mind, I hoped that the creaking/popping would ‘settle’ or quiet down over time just the same as any new item with tight tolerances would ‘wear in.’

I was, unfortunately, incorrect as the machine is getting louder. Over the only the last two days, the machine’s popping and creaking when used on anything but a perfectly flat surface is getting louder and more annoying.  I’ve also found that even when used on a flat surface, even light touches on the trackpad which are perfectly silent on my non-Retina MacBook Pro makes a small pop sound.  I’m ultimately concerned that due to the 14 day return policy, that I may not even be able to get this ‘issue’ fixed.  I’m unsure if my 14 day policy officially ended 14 days after my initial purchase, or 14 days after the swap to the new Retina MacBook Pro – but it’s pretty moot at this point as 14 days from the 8th was yesterday, the 22nd.  Either way, at this point, I’m outside of the return period and if Apple feels that my issue is a ‘non-issue’ there is little that I can likely have done.

I do have a pentalobe screw driver that fits the screws on the bottom casing, and believing that perhaps they were too loose I checked and they are all snugged up just as they should be.  I did some research on the internet and I see that there are a few others reporting popping and creaking and some that report flawless machines.  To be honest, I am unsure if my original laptop had this issue as I cannot remember if I actually tried using it on anything but a perfectly flat and hard surface.  If you’re interested, I’ve included some links to forum threads at the end of this post where others discuss the same issue that I am experiencing.

I’ll be completely honest, if there is a ‘fix’ for this that doesn’t involve swapping the machine out – I’m all for that.  I’m not out to get a ‘new’ machine as the one I have is functionally perfect.  There is, I suppose, always the chance that I will get another laptop with another bad key, dead pixels in the display, or even worse popping and creaking. What I really want, is to not have received a machine that made these noises to begin with.  For a $2,200 laptop from Apple, I would not expect this build quality and these annoying noises.  If this were a $400 Wal-Mart ‘Special’ laptop, then I am sure it would make all kinds of other noises that one would expect from a cheap laptop.

In the event that anybody from Apple does read this post and wants to contact me, which is unlikely, the name on my Apple ID is “Michael Denney” and the last two digits of my phone number are 84.  That should, in my opinion, be enough information to locate my Apple ID.  It’s unlikely that another “Michael Denney” would also have an Apple ID and a phone number ending in 84 all while living in Indianapolis, Indiana.

Links to forum threads where others discuss the popping and creaking of the Retina MacBook Pro 15″:

• macbook pro retina creaking: Apple Support Communities
• rMBP Case Popping – MacRumors Forums
• Macbook Pro – Retina – Case Squeaky??? – MacBook Pro – Apple – Whirlpool Forums

All trademarks and registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Update 1 – October 25, 2012 at 11:40 PM CST

The laptop is making popping sounds more often.  I use “tap to click” so very rarely do I ever actually click down the track pad and the laptop makes a pop sound almost every time at this point.  I’ve gone through apple.com/support and scheduled a call for 11 AM CST.  Hopefully this is something that can be taken care of as it’s driving me absolutely batty using this laptop in a quiet room.

Update 2 – October 26, 2012 at 11:00 AM CST

An Apple representative called, as per my last update, and listened to what I had to say.  I did ask him if he had access to the internet so that I could simply link him here, however, he told me that he only has access to internal Apple pages.  I explained the issue from start to finish and he told me that he was updating my case number with the information that I had provided.  He said that it does sound like a hardware issue and that I would need to visit an Apple store.  I expressed my concerns about the possibility of being told that the noises were ‘normal’ and he told me that he hadn’t heard any other reports similar to mine, and that he suspected it wasn’t normal.  He told me that if I wasn’t happy with the way that the issue was handled in the Apple Store, to contact Apple’s Customer Relations department.  Hopefully I don’t have to do that, and this issue gets resolved in a mutually amicable manner.  I know I’m definitely not going to accept a refurbished machine as replacement for this darn-near brand new machine – so here’s hoping that’s not the only solution that is proposed.

Update 3 – October 30, 2012 at 9:32 PM CST

I’m sitting in the passenger seat on my way up Interstate 65 from Murfreesboro, TN (just south of Nashville) to Indianapolis and over the road noise which is admittedly loud due to the high winds (20 miles per hour sustained, gusts to 40) and the radio going, I can still hear this laptop popping and creaking.  It’s loud enough that my wife turned and said, “That is dreadfully annoying, are you going to be using that laptop for very long?”

Tomorrow, when I visit the Apple Store cannot come early enough.  I sincerely hope that this is a defect with my specific laptop and not something that all Retina MacBook Pros suffer from.  I will be sure to post an update detailing what happened at the Keystone Apple Store, likely directly from the in-store Apple WiFi.

Update 4 – October 31, 2012 at 4:11 PM CST

I am sitting at the Genius Bar at the Keystone Apple Store now. The tech took the laptop to the back to check it out.

Update 4 – October 31, 2012 at 6:18 PM CST – RESOLVED

The representative at the Keystone Apple Store by the name of Matt has fully resolved this issue.  He took the Retina MacBook Pro into the back and was able to easily reproduce the issue.  At first he believed it to be the grounding pins that contact the bottom case but after removing the bottom case, the Retina MacBook Pro continued to make the same sounds.  Upon further investigation he identified the issue as the adhesive that holds the battery to the upper case.  Matt came back out and informed me of this, and told me that he already got approval to replace the MacBook rather than doing a repair.

Being that I’d had the MacBook for less than a month and this was an actual manufacturing defect and not damage due to use or misuse, he didn’t feel it was appropriate for me to have to go without the machine for the 5 to 7 days while the entire laptop was disassembled simply to re-apply the adhesive better.  They brought out the new Retina MacBook pro and I walked out of the store where it was quiet to make sure that it did not have the same issue, which I didn’t expect but wanted to be sure of.  The new Retina MacBook pro feels solid just as my initial one that had the bad space bar.

I did allow Matt to read this post and he was shocked that they didn’t swap the space bar and shocked even more by the fact that they swapped the solid state drives.  He explained that the drives are serialized to the machine, which I presume means that swapping them between two machines really shouldn’t be done.  He grabbed a ThunderBolt cable and assisted me in transferring the data from the old rMBP to the new rMBP which took about 6 minutes.  This saved me two to three hours of my time that I would have spent conducting a restoration from my 2 TB backup drive at home.

Bear in mind that this issue was bad enough for me that the sound could easily be reproduced even on a flat surface by simply resting my hands on the palm rests.  If you have to pick the laptop up and flex it to create the noise, then it’s likely normal flex in the case as even my non-Retina MacBook pro does make some popping when held with one hand on an edge.  If you are experiencing popping from your Retina MacBook Pro and you are in doubt as to whether it’s normal sounds – by all means do get in touch with Apple as they will do their very best to take care of you.

As it stands on the “V4″ template, which I prefer, any ticket viewed with a sticky note will push all contents of the ticket down below the end of the left side-bar.  If you use the “V4″ administration template and have tried sticky notes, you’ve surely seen this yourself.  The second issue with the templates affects the “V4″, “Blend”, and “Original” administration templates.  When viewing a ticket with a “Sticky Note” the edit button does not link to the proper location as it does not contain the client ID.

The fix for the CSS issue on the “V4″ template is simple, and requires removing “clear:both;” from this block of code in the /admin/templates/v4/viewticket.tpl file.  I have bolded the text that needs removed:

{if $clientnotes}
<div style=”clear:both;overflow:auto;margin:15px 0;padding:5px; max-height:150px;border:2px dashed #e0e0e0;border-right:0;background-color:#fff;-moz-border-radius: 6px;-webkit-border-radius: 6px;-o-border-radius: 6px;border-radius: 6px;”>
{foreach from=$clientnotes item=note}

After the modification:

{if $clientnotes}
<div style=”overflow:auto;margin:15px 0;padding:5px; max-height:150px;border:2px dashed #e0e0e0;border-right:0;background-color:#fff;-moz-border-radius: 6px;-webkit-border-radius: 6px;-o-border-radius: 6px;border-radius: 6px;”>
{foreach from=$clientnotes item=note}

The second fix is simple as well, and involves making a change in the very same file, although it applies to the “V4″, “Blend”, and the “Original” templates.  The change is another simple removal which I have bolded:

<a href=”clientsnotes.php?userid={$clientsdetails.userid}&action=edit&id={$note.id}”>

After the modification:

<a href=”clientsnotes.php?userid={$userid}&action=edit&id={$note.id}”>

Once these modifications have been made, you will be able to use the sticky notes without experiencing any display issues.  You will also be able to directly edit/modify the sticky note using the “edit icon” on the tickets page rather than having to navigate to the client page, then their notes, then editing the note.

1. 512(c)(3)(i)A physical or electronic signature of a person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.
2. (ii)Identification of the copyrighted work claimed to have been infringed, or, if multiple copyrighted works at a single online site are covered by a single notification, a representative list of such works at that site.
3. (iii)Identification of the material that is claimed to be infringing or to be the subject of infringing activity and that is to be removed or access to which is to be disabled, and information reasonably sufficient to permit the service provider to locate the material.
4. (iv)Information reasonably sufficient to permit the service provider to contact the complaining party, such as an address, telephone number, and, if available, an electronic mail address at which the complaining party may be contacted.
5. (v)A statement that the complaining party has a good faith belief that use of the material in the manner complained of is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law.
6. (vi)A statement that the information in the notification is accurate, and under penalty of perjury, that the complaining party is authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.

In simple terms, the notification must contain a statement that the notification is made in good faith, by an authorized agent, that it clearly lists the infringing content and that the information in the notification is accurate, that the individual or company submitting the notification is the copyright owner of the copyright or an authorized agent, the location of the original works that are being infringed upon, and a physical or electronic signature.

A DMCA notification, to be valid, there has to be infringement of a copyright.  When there is not infringement, a DMCA Notification in and of itself is not valid.

We have received two DMCA notifications [so far] from Guardlex.com where the DMCA Notice is centered on a simple hyperlink on the site of a customer of ours.  The link in and of itself is not infringing, the page in which the link is contained is not infringing, and the destination of the link is not infringing.  Guardlex.com apparently feels that they can supersede the First Amendment Right to Free Speech by submitting invalid DMCA Notifications.

This is unfortunately likely to be a growing trend due to Google penalizing sites for overzealous Search Engine Optimization, or “SEO”.  Companies who wish to have their sites listed high in Search Engine Result Pages, or SERPS, hire “SEO Agencies” to improve their search ranking.  There are positive and organic “SEO” methods that can be conducted such as optimizing the layout of a site and usability, creating quality content that others will want to link to, etc and there are negative and inorganic “SEO” methods that should not be condoned.  Negative and inorganic “SEO” generally consists of obtaining backlinks from as many sites as possible, often web directories and blogs, and keyword stuffing among other methods.

The end result is that there are millions of companies out there that have hired “SEO Professionals” to optimize their SERPS without a clue as to what is actually being done, and now that the Google Panda update is live, we are going to see these companies fighting to have all of these negative SEO practices reversed.  Some companies are doing this the legal way by summating cease and desist letters or simply contacting the site administrators and requesting the links to be removed, but the downside is that the site operator has no obligation to comply with a cease and desist or a simple request.  When these companies are being told, “No,” they are then turning to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act to have the links removed.

Now the issue comes down to a simple question, “Is a link that does not point to infringing content, infringing?”  I believe the answer to this question to be a plain and simple, “No.”  Unfortunately these DMCA notifications demanding that the allegedly infringing links be removed are not valid as the links themselves are not infringement.  There is no way to demonstrate what work is being infringed upon as no intellectual property is being stolen or infringed upon.  This can be equated to me giving directions and a means of travel to the nearest Wal-Mart as infringing upon Wal-Mart.  Just because I give you the location, and an easy way to get there – does not mean that infringement has happened.

Here is an example, with personal and identifiable information redacted, of an invalid DMCA Notification:

Hello,

My name is Redacted Redacted, I work in the Anti Piracy Department of Redacted (http://www.Redacted.com), we provide anti-piracy and Intellectual Property protection services for Redacted company (http://redacted-site-hosted-elsewhere).

As such I am personally authorized to act on behalf of the owner of the aforementioned company.

It has come to our attention that your website (or website hosted by your company) contains links to the Redacted company website (http://redacted-site-hosted-elsewhere) which results in material financial loses to the company we represent.

This material financial loss is due to search engine penalties resulting from the links originating under your control.

I request you please remove from the following website http://redacted-site-hosted-with-us all links to http://redacted-site-hosted-elsewhere website as soon as possible. Please see the list of website pages in question:

http://redacted-site-hosted-with-us

In order to find those links, please do following:

1) If this is an online website directory. Use directory’s search system to look for http://redacted-site-hosted-elsewhere links.

2) If there are any hidden links in the source code of website. Open the website’s home page and view its source code. Search for http://redacted-site-hosted-elsewhere in the source code. This will reveal any hidden links.

It is our understanding; the links in question have not been authorized for use by our client, its agents, or the law.

Therefore, this letter is an official notification to effect removal of the detected infringement listed above.

I further declare under penalty of perjury that I am authorized to act on behalf of the trademark holder and that the information in this letter is accurate.

Please, remove all links to http://redacted-site-hosted-elsewhere website within the next 48 hours.

Please do not hesitate to contact us if you are at all unsure how to remove the links. We will be happy to assist you in any way to resolve this issue as soon as possible.

I ask, what is it going to take for this abuse of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act to end?  I also ask, what law is there that states that one site operator must obtain prior authorization from another site operator in order to hyperlink?  Do we really want to live in a world where creating a hyperlink to a good site or useful resource requires an attorney?

Disclaimer: I’m not an attorney, this is not legal advice, this post contains the facts to the best of my knowledge at the time of publication.  Should any information represented as fact be demonstrated to be inaccurate or non-factual I will be happy to make adjustments.  Any information not explicitly presented as a statement of fact is my opinion.

I’ll have to give a bit of a preface and I’ll start by saying that my wife has had health insurance through BlueCross BlueShield of Arkansas for a couple of years.  We had no issues with them when it came to doctors visits, prescriptions such as Nexium for my wife’s chronic heartburn, Advair for her asthma, or anything else that she needed medically.  My wife does have terrible acid reflux to the point of her aspirating acid into her lungs resulting in damage and regular asthma flareups.  She has been on Nexium for about two years and over those two years her asthma has gone from putting her in the hospital almost every few months to almost non-existent.  That is, until we changed to BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee…

My wife went to refill her Nexium prescription at CVS and was told that BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee was requiring prior authorization for the prescription.  They claim that without a “level 3 esophagus erosion” that Nexium is not necessary and that over the counter Prilosec, which is effectively half the effectiveness and twice the out of pocket price, is all that she needs.  Keep in mind that she already had chronic acid reflux resulting in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, COPD for short, and now she is pregnant which is known to cause acid reflux in those who have never had heartburn in their lives.

Taking this all a step further with my wife being pregnant, having chronic acid reflux, and asthma she now also has gestational diabetes.  Gestational diabetes is essentially, as the doctor explained it to us, where her body cannot quite keep up with the insulin demand of her and the baby and, as such, she is effectively diabetic for the duration of the pregnancy.  The doctor wrote my wife a prescription for a meter, test strips, etc…  When we went to CVS Pharmacy to fill these prescriptions as they are required to monitor her blood sugar to avoid serious complications such as diabetic coma, damage to her and the baby, and a long list of other side effects of diabetes CVS informed us that BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee is rejecting the prescriptions and that BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee requires “prior authorization.”

For whatever reason BlueCross BlueShield in what appears to be every attempt they can make to keep every penny they are paid, seems to require prior authorization for every prescription my wife has been written.  I am beginning to wonder what the point of having insurance is, if they are going to reject all claims while continuing to accept payments for the insurance coverage.  We never faced this issue with BlueCross BlueShield of Arkansas, so it’s obvious the administrators in Tennessee are, at the least, greedier.  If a doctor writes a patient a prescription for a blood sugar meter and test strips, what does the insurance company think?   Do they think that we are making this up so that we can get one over on them when it comes to a $110 prescription of blood glucose test strips?

Why is BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee requiring prior authorization from the doctor for a brand new treatment on a brand new medical issue, especially gestational diabetes?  None of this makes any sense at all to me.  I thought it was in the best interest of the insurance provider to make sure issues such as these are taken care of to avoid other, bigger issues down the road that result from lack of treatment.

At the end of the day, if you are looking for a health insurance company and BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee is on your list, you may want to look at alternative options.

Disclaimer: All information contained within is factual to the best of my knowledge.  Any information that is not purely factual is my opinion.  In the event that information is presented as factual when in reality it is not, there is no malice intent and I will be happy to make an update or correction when it is brought to my attention.

Update 1 – 06/13/2012 2:30 PM

The blood glucose meter that my wife was provided by her OBGYN was a OneTouch Ultra Mini, however, the insurance company is absolutely refusing to pay for the test strips for this meter.  They have informed us that our only option is to choose a testing strip that they will pay for (read: cheap) and then to go buy a matching meter out of pocket although we already have a perfectly functional blood glucose tester.

We’ve worked all of the issues we faced out with Admod/EzeeLogin.  I’m going to leave this post live as a reminder for Admod/EzeeLogin and other companies who read this post to be as open and transparent about their actions that affect customers as possible.  Had Admod/EzeeLogin gotten in touch with us, and their other customers, and explained the change-over and how it does or does not affect them – this entire post could have been avoided.  On another note, had Admod /EzeeLogin responded to our ticket quickly – this post would have been avoided.  If you have any questions, comments, or concerns – feel free to make them known in the comments.

Continue reading if you desire, but our issues that resulted in this post have been fully rectified.

If you’re currently using EzeeLogin and you signed up before the new “EzeeLogin.com” – be aware that when your current license expires there will be no option to renew it at Admod.com leaving you with no gateway.  This is apparently due them moving all of the EzeeLogin functionality / billing / licensing over to their new EzeeLogin.com domain.  While this is not a major issue in and of itself, it does require action by customers using their service prior to the new domain – and they sent no notices out making their existing customers aware of action required on their part.

When you try to log in at EzeeLogin.com using your email address from Admod.com, your address will not be found (i.e. they did not migrate over your license *or* your billing account).  This means when your license does expire – your EzeeLogin Gateway will effectively be rendered useless with no way to renew.  Had Admod/EzeeLogin contacted their existing client base to let them know they needed to sign up for a new billing account at EzeeLogin.com – then this post wouldn’t exist.

Upon searching Admod.com for any public notices of action required by their clients, the only information I could come across was less than detailed and did not indicate that any action was required:

 2011-08-08 07:07:54
New website for Ezeelogin
New website lauched @ www.ezeelogin.com

Taking this all a step further pricing has also increased without notice.  Prior you could get a license to connect to up to 50 servers for $42/quarter where as now $40 will only get you 10 servers on a monthly lease.  Increasing pricing is not a problem – when you let your existing customers aware of the price change.  When you increase prices without prior notice for existing customers it has the side-effect of pissing them off.

In my personal opinion, EzeeLogin/Admod are taking these steps because they’re too comfortable.  Their actions (and lack of notifications) alone have resulted in at least three larger providers I’m aware of saying “Hell, we’ll just develop and market our own product for less then EzeeLogin.”  While Admod/EzeeLogin likely had a monopoly on this niche need due to their product working well, their apparent failure at customer notification and public relations may very well have cost them their top spot in this market.  The providers that I know of that are going to develop their own gateways have the funds and capabilities to push a product out very quickly that not only is superior, but will be priced lower.

We reached out to Adod/EzeeLogin over 2.5 hours ago and have yet to receive a response from representatives of either site.

Admod/Ezee – you’ve made a seriously glaring error by not notifying your (previously) quite loyal customer base of these changes.  We ourselves have been customers since July 1st, 2010.

…. /facepalm

Update 02/15/12 at 10:00 PM EST

We finally did hear back from them, the representative that responded seems to believe that the “login” feature being removed from the old site is an oversight. They stated that we could maintain our old license through the old site although we would not be able to upgrade through the old site. Any changes to the plan would require moving to the new site/pricing (at roughly a 1500% increase).

I’m waiting to hear from a higher member of management to confirm this and to get some additional details as well as waiting to see if the “login” button does come back to the old site.

While talking with the technician I was informed that at 6 P.M. they were going to be releasing any pre-ordered iPhone 4 S’ that had not been picked up and that the line was starting by the door.  At this point it was only 5:15 PM so I walked to the outer door to find that I was only second in line.  I chatted with the person in front of me whom was a very nice woman and over the next 30 minutes the line behind me grew quite quickly up to about 45 individuals.

One of the Apple Store representatives came out and started at the beginning of the line asking us what flavor of the iPhone 4 S we wanted (AT&T, Sprint, Verizon, 16GB, 32GB, 64GB), and I was disappointed to hear that I likely would not get my hands on a 64 GB Black AT&T iPhone 4 S.  My, now previous, 32 GB iPhone 4 was getting full with only around 1 GB of free space so I was looking forward to upgrading.

At around 6:30 PM the Apple store representatives actually started pulling us in one at a time to sell us our devices and to my surprise they had one 64 GB Black AT&T iPhone 4 S which I quickly snapped up.  Overall I will be honest that I did not expect much of an improved experience but overall so far I am absolutely loving Siri and the iPhone 4 S.  The phone itself feels a bit snappier, although the iPhone 4 itself was already quite fast but the selling point for me is Siri.

On my 45 minute drive home I found myself using Siri to communicate with friends via text without ever having to actually look at what they said or type a single letter myself.  I’ve also found it’s extremely accurate at understanding my voice and I’ve found myself using it to enter more and more data as I’ve been using the phone.  I have to say, Siri alone, is a valid reason to move from an iPhone 4 to an iPhone 4 S.

At the end of the day, I wish it was an iPhone 5 with a larger screen as well as a laundry list of other upgrade and feature requests, but I can honestly say I am happy with my iPhone 4 S.

Now there are two feature requests, that I would really love to see integrated into iOS for iPhone/iPad:

1. The ability to have a custom tone for emails based upon email ID. (i.e. from=”thewife@comcast.net” sound=”something custom”).
2. The ability to set a custom tone or contact to over-ride silence.