AT&T Business Internet [u-Verse] – Slow to replace lightning-damaged equipment

Business, Miscellaneous, Rants

Dead AT&T DSL ModemAt the office where I work unfortunately there are no fiber optic options.  Before we signed the lease we reached out to the local ISP that provides fiber connections for our area and confirmed that they serviced the location we were looking at leasing.  The ISP told us they did service our building and we didn’t find out until after we signed our lease and arranged to set up service that they do not actually service this location.  Sadly enough the only option we have here is AT&T vDSL [AT&T uVerse Business Internet DSL].

We experienced some pretty intense storms today / this evening and experienced several very close lightning strikes.  At least a couple of strikes were within several hundred feet of our office and one of them managed to take out our AT&T uVerse DSL Modem.  Being that AT&T has numerous corporate stores within a short driving distance I really didn’t imagine getting this damaged equipment replaced would be an issue.

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1-800-Flowers.com

If you want to show somebody you love them – avoid 1-800-Flowers.com

Rants, Reviews

Depending on how well you know me you may be aware of my aversion to talking on the phone.  It’s not so much that I hate talking on the phone as much as I hate how it totally destroys my ability to multi-task.  When I am working I will be handling a dozen or two different tasks at once on my computer without issue but the second I’m on the phone that all goes out the window.

Generally if I want to look into something or accomplish something I’ll find a way to do it via my computer which I can do without putting everything else I’m working on on complete hold.  Realistically I should have taken the time to find a local florist and called them up to arrange for the delivery of some flowers for my wife.  I instead went to “1-800-Flowers.com” to see if they could deliver today – and they could!

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SPAMMERS – I have a question for you…

Hosting, Miscellaneous, Rants

While I don’t really expect to get any answers – I am a little curious.

I know that the reason spammers send spam is to make money.  I don’t think anybody sends spam for fun although I am sure some people have ‘spammed’ others to annoy them/etc.

With that said we get a lot of spam to “support@”, “abuse@”, “sales@”, etc…  Do you actually see a return on sending spam to these addresses or are you so readily able to send the spam that it really doesn’t matter?

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National Hotel in Miami – Elevator fell 7+ floors, One guest injured.

Reviews

Elevator Injury at the National Hotel in MiamiMy wife and I are here in Miami for a good friend’s wedding and we are staying at their chosen hotel – the National Hotel in Miami.  Needless to say we’ve been having a wonderful time sharing this event with our friends and their family.  Overall the hotel is very nice and looks to be well maintained.  Our room is a tad small but ultimately we’re not spending much time in the room.

Last night the whole wedding party was meeting at Mango’s Tropical Cafe and identification was required.  My wife, the groom’s brother, and myself got in the elevator and went up to the 10th floor so my wife could grab her ID.  After grabbing her identification we left the room and proceeded to hail an elevator to our floor.

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If at first they refuse – harass, harass, harass, and threaten! [Updated 07/11/19]

Business, Miscellaneous, Rants

Brick WallIt has been roughly 10 weeks since “The Professor” sent a Cease and Desist letter to the company I work for concerning content on one of our client’s sites. We refused to bow to this individual’s demands and that was the beginning of the harassment.  At this point I count no less than 20 individual messages in my inbox.  The Professor has called the company I worked for numerous times and asked the same questions and received the same answers.

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Goodbye MediaLayer, Rest in peace Gupreet.

Business, Hosting

Gupreet VirdiWhile I was not close to the founder of MediaLayer, Gupreet Virdi, I was always very familiar with their name and their services.  For the past 7 years MediaLayer has been competition for my company’s premium offerings and they’ve always done an excellent job of maintaining their reputation.  The owner has always taken care of customers first and made speed and reliability priorities.  It is unfortunate that Gupreet passed away unexpectedly and the industry as a whole will miss him as well as his company.

We have helped dozens of MediaLayer customers transition over to our services and while this has been good for our company it does sadden me to know why these new customers are heading our way.  Growth is good for us obviously but I wish there was more continuity planning at MediaLayer so that their customers did not have to scramble to find new services.

I hope that everybody affected by the closure of MediaLayer is able to transition to a competent and reliable provider quickly and easily.  It is my understanding that the MediaLayer servers should remain online for a week or two.  This will give MediaLayer’s customers some time to transition out but I generally would still advise downloading a backup immediately regardless.

Rest in peace Gupreet.

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PayPal – Billing Agreements and Disputes

Business, Rants

PayPalLet me start by saying that my organization has been using PayPal since 2007 and in all of this time we’ve generally been very happy with the service provided.  I have, over the years, seen where others were unhappy with PayPal for various reasons from accounts being locked to withdrawals being prohibited or delayed.  I’ve seen some complaints about PayPal disputes but by and large the dispute process has been good to us the few times we have had to use it.  Most disputes we have faced were resolved directly with the client as my organization has a refund policy and a general stance that we won’t hold onto funds for a service you do not need or want.

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Don’t post it to Twitter if you don’t want it used… [Updated 05/12/15]

Business, Miscellaneous, Rants

FacepalmAt the company where I work an individual that claims to be a Professor has sent us a ‘Cease and Desist’ letter.  In the letter the individual claims that one of our customers is using their their Twitter messages without their permission.  They demand we delete the customer’s data immediately and provide them all of the customer’s contact information.  I’m not sure what the laws say over in the UK where this individual is based but we will obviously not violate our Privacy Policy and reveal client information to a third party just because they demand it.

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Final Fantasy XIV – A Realm Reborn: Worst Game Launch?

Rants

I’m disappointed in Square Enix.  I participated in Beta 4 to find out if it was a game that I wanted to try out and, to my surprise, I found it entertaining and fun.  There were issues with the Beta 4 and, with it being a beta, I didn’t think a whole lot about them.  I assumed that Square Enix would do what they had to in order to ensure a smooth launch day, or at least as smooth as possible for an MMORPG.  I pre-ordered a copy of the game when Beta 4 ended so that I could get online with ‘Early Access’ on Friday instead of waiting until Tuesday and that’s where the nightmare begins.

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The “right” to use a hosting service and vindictivity.

Miscellaneous

Anybody who has looked at having a web site has likely found that there are thousands if not tens of thousands of hosting providers they can choose from.  It’s common knowledge as well that a customer can end the service whenever they wish should they simply no longer need it, outgrow it, or simply find a better deal elsewhere.  Don’t get me wrong, there are some providers that make it difficult at best and impossible at worse to leave and one that comes to mind is 1&1 Hosting (look it up, you will see).

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.

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