Video Card Kills Cannon Canoscan Toolbox 5

I'm not sure who deserves recognition on this one, the wonky video card; its creator or manufacturer, or Cannon for its software or scanner.

I recently installed a second video card into my computer. It was acting weird and at times it was crashing. When it was working it felt like the machine was running slower. I lived with it and got it somewhat stable, but still things felt slow. I was willing to live with that for a while in order to have a dual monitor setup until I could do something else.

I have been scanning in a bunch of documents and the pile was almost gone. I loaded up the Canonscan Toolbar version 5 and chose PDF as I have been doing for hundreds of documents. The PDF scan box came up and I clicked scan. It gave me this error box that stated:

Unable to open TWAIN source
Please check connection
Then re-start Toolbox


I tried unplugging the power and plugging the scanner back in. I tried unplugging the USB cable from the scanner and plugging it back in. I tried rebooting. I tried uninstalling and reinstalling the Canoscan Toolbox. I tried hacking registry keys. I had even at one point tried to fix I am going to explain below and that didn't work either at that time. I tried apply all of the updates that seemed reasonable from Windows Update. I tried scanning with Windows Live Photo Galery and that scanned fine. I removed the offending video card. I loaded a virtual machine with VMWare Player and it scanned fine with the Canoscan Toolbox software installed in it. The only time it didn't work was when the host's Windows could not even install the driver, but I got around that somehow.


I ended up finding that some had found it helpful to change the windows path variable. I have been running Canoscan Toolbox with this Cannon 4400F scanner for years and never had to hack the path variable, but I tried it anyway. As I said I did it twice during the process and it failed to be of help the first time. After installing and unstalling it got removed from the path again.


The path that needed to be added to the Windows path variable was C:\Windows\twain_32\CNQ4803. I have heard that the last folder in this path is specific to each scanner. This one is for a Cannon 4400F.


After that it began working again.

MagicJack Free, But Not Unlimited

I have used MagicJack for years with occasional big problems here and there, but when it works it is great and generally works for months without issue.

Recently I had a friend ask me if I wanted their MagicJack, since their service had been cut off.  They said that they had gone over a cap that MagicJack has on number of phone numbers you can call in a day.  You are limited to fifty calls per day.

I noticed a thread online that stated that they were a low usage user.  Then one day they had a large call volume day, which went over the fifty call limit and they were immediately cut off.  They argued that since their usage was never even close to fifty phone numbers called on any other day, to be cut off for one large day was unfair.  They also argued that the wording of the Terms of Service indicated 50 calls per day everyday.

There has also been some discussion of long calls being disconnected.  MagicJack customer service seems to be blaming it on an over heated USB device or slow internet connection, in sprite of people claiming that it drops at exactly two hours.

Others have noted that MagicJack can cut off your service if you make an excessive number of calls.  The terms of service are unclear.  It says something about 20-30 times the average use.  They don't define average use, so it is hard to determine how this limit would impact you.

I personally think that 20-30 times average use is fine, but would like a quantification of what that is.  I think that the two hour call limit is stupid, but likely something most folks can live with.  If you happen to be on the phone with grandma for two hours and get cut off, call her back.

The number that bugs me is the 50 phone numbers called per day limit.  This seems like a bad restriction.  While I think that most users won't hit that limit I think that number should be a lot higher, if there has to be a number at all.

It was my understanding when I got the device years ago that MagicJack made its money by being a backbone provider and routing calls in a way that made them money.  It appears that on outbound calls they don't make money on them.  Perhaps this is similar to when I use Google Chat to send SMS messages I can only send 50 messages.  When I send a message it decrements my available messages to send.  When I receive a message my available messages to send goes up by 5, capping out at 50.  Perhaps Google also makes money on received messages, but has to potentially pay for sent messages.

Just be aware that MagicJack allows you to make free calls (after the yearly fee is paid), but not unlimited calls.

If you have a business with high call volume, you might want to get multiple MagicJacks to mitigate the limit.  You will probably still be much cheaper than a monthly phone bill from the phone company.  You could set up a Google Voice number that rings all of the MagicJack phone numbers and answer which ever one you want, but manage you usage on each one for outbound calls.

Dirty Trick Google Plus Upset Little Children

This weekend a friend of my ten year old son invited him to Google Plus.  I figured there was the usual age limitation of 13 years old, but the invite didn't say, so I figured I would let him give it a shot.  It asked for his name and birth date.  We entered the information trying to be honest.  Once we clicked the button to sign up the system gave him an error message stating that he was not old enough and it said that it had disabled all of his Google services, including his email that he has been using for years.

When I signed up for the account years ago there was nothing that said there was an age limit, so to disable his email because he tried to sign up for another service is garbage.  To make it worse, there was no way for him to get his emails and contacts out of it.

As has been stated by other people online who had the same thing happen to their children, he had conversations from friends and relatives.  He had also just sent a message to a friend who now will reply and not know what happened.

Technically it was my account that I gave to him to use.  I have heard that schools can approve accounts for kids with a signed paper from their parents.  Why as a parent can I not decide if I want my kid to have the service, even without a school acting as an intermediary?

There was an option for him to use a credit card to verify his age if he was old enough, but it was cost him 30 cents.  I'm going to give them the benefit of the doubt that it is the amount the the credit card company is charging for them to do a small transaction.  I assume they aren't using this as a profit mechanism.

I also realize that they are trying to come in compliance with some stupid government regulation to "protect" children, but what a rotten way to implement it.  This doesn't protect kids, it just makes them sad.

My son had been doing just fine with his email account for a long time without the government's "protection".

Companies That Enclose Advertisements Important Official Looking Envelops

I receive an envelop in the mail recently which said "United States Mail Code RB7349- Official Records".  Others things on the envelop were a control code and the words "Open Immediately: Response Required".

This gave me the impression that this was something more than it was.  I know that was the point of the envelop, but it seems shady and dishonest to me.  When I opened the envelop I found a full page color advertisement like one would find in the stack of newspapers.  The advertisement was for a furniture store that was supposedly going out of business.  Had I figured out that the envelop was junk mail I would've thrown it away and not opened it.  Again, I know that was the point of the envelop, but because they tricked me to open it just made me mad and it ensured that I would not be going to the sale.

If indeed the place is going out of business it is likely they don't care what people think of their methods.  Isn't there some laws about dishonest advertising?  If so, does this not fall into that category?

I have included the images of the envelop and the advertisement I found inside.

Netflix

A few months ago, before all the gyrations of Netflix spinning off their ship to your home DVD business into Quickster, I was seriously considering signing up for Netflix.

Previously I had skipped it because my family doesn't rent more than one or two movie per month, so $2 per month at Redbox was way less than Netflix.

I started thinking about movies that are not new releases that we might watch if they were at Redbox. That started to sound a little closer, but still would only be another movie or two per month, which I could probably just get from Amazon or Walmart steaming as needed and still be money ahead of Netflix.

As time went on I started thinking about old TV shows that I have tried to share with my kids that they really liked.  We have had trouble finding some of the seasons.  If Netflix had TV shows I thought it might be worth it.

My boss had a Netflix subscription, so I had him do three searches for me.  I picked Happy Days season 3, the movie Twister, and I can not remember the third thing.

They had Happy Days season 3, but only on DVDs that I would have to wait on to be shipped to me.  Maybe that wouldn't be a big deal to wait for the disks, since I don't have to send them back until I am done with them, but I also can't get anything else until I do and then I have to wait for the next thing.  Then I have to keep track of the disks and make sure they do get sent back before my kids lose them.

They had Twister, but only on DVD.  When my wife and I feel we are in the mood for and have time for a movie we want it that night.  Waiting to have a disk shipped to us is unacceptable.

The third one they did not have at all.  I don't remember what it was, but I seem to recall that it wasn't any more obscure than Twister and Happy Days.

Netflix had a customer ready to buy that day.  Since they had none of the things I was looking for via streaming I walked away and fell back to my previous position of disinterest in Netflix for my family.

I have heard that their pricing for streaming is lower now that they have spun off the DVD business, but if they don't have the things I want, then it is pointless even if it was the same as I would pay each month at Redbox.

J C Penney (JCP) New Fair Practices

Let me get this out of the way before I get to the main topic of this post.  It appears that J C Penney is beginning to try to get themselves to be know as JCP.  After all acronyms are what all the cool kids are doing, right?  I would be interested to know how much traction The International House of Pancakes gain by changing everything to IHOP.  Ever since I was a little kid I knew The International House of Pancakes and loved them. Maybe they didn't want to be pigeon holed to pancakes.

Now for the core of my issues with J C Penney, this new string of ads about being "fair and square".

What does this say about the company previous to now if before their practices were unfair and ridiculous?  Can we actually trust them that they have turned over a new leaf or is this just the latest in their scams on consumers?

Will everything be priced at an even dollar or is it just another game like Walmart does where they price things not as something.99, which everyone recognizes as a scam, but something.87 or some other random number?  Thus giving the illusion that they squeezed this price down to the last possible penny that they could.  From J C Penney's web site it appears as though they are going with even dollar amount prices.  I think that is easier for signage and even advertising in other places.  It is also clearer to the customer about what they are paying, so if that is the practice they are moving to, I give them a point for that.

Green Home Air Duct Cleaning

I called Green Home Air Duct Cleaning this morning to schedule to have my air ducts cleaned.  I had Googled and found that they had a coupon on their web site for a $60 duct cleaning.  Their web site was not clear about what their service area was, but when I asked them, then confirmed that they did indeed service Ogden.

We set up for them to come out in two days some time between 7 and 9am.  Later they called me back and said that they had a cancellation for their 12-3pm window today.  I thought that was great that we could get it wrapped up today.  It was already 12:30 when they called to let me know, so I didn't expect they were making it by noon, but I did expect that by 12:30 they had a pretty good idea about what their schedule was like for the 12-3pm window.

The getting me in that day to let me take the spot of a cancellation scored huge points with me and likely would have contributed to me telling others about them if they had done a good job when they got here.  I knew the price was a really good deal and so far the service from their office had been very pleasing to me.  Everything that happened after that erased all of the tremendously good impression I had of them that they had earned in just a few minutes and left me with as much of an impression to the negative as they had made positive and then some.

Three o'clock rolled around and no one had called me to say they were on their way, as the person I talked to had told me they would.  I called to find out where they were at.  The lady I talked to put me on hold for a while, as she called to find out from the dispatcher.  She finally came back and said that the technician was in West Valley, which is almost an hour from Ogden.  Even if they left right at that moment, there was no way they were getting here, even by four, yet no one had called me stating that they were going to be late.

The lady said that they had another thirty minutes of work to finish up where they were at.  She said they would call when they were on their way from that job to come to us.

I went and ran some errands with my family that we had been putting off as we waited for Green Home Air Duct Cleaning to show up.  When we got back, I called them around 4:30 to find out what was going on since no one had called to say they were on their way and it had been almost an hour and a half since I spoke to them and they said it would be a half hour.  I got a different receptionist this time, who also put me on hold for a while while she called the dispatcher.  She came back and said that he was finishing something up in Salt Lake City and was on his way.   Finishing up something in Salt Lake City?  I thought he was coming straight here after he finished in West Valley.  Was he finishing up or on his way?

At almost five the technician called and said he was in Bountiful and wanted to know if we still had time for him to come out today.  We had an appointment at seven, so I asked how long the cleaning would take.  He said it could be as much as two hours, but he couldn't tell until he got here.  We did not have time to wait for him to get from Bountiful and then do a two hour job, so I told him we didn't have time tonight.  He said the office would be calling me to reschedule.  I now have to decide if I want to use this company.  If they can't schedule competently, then will they be able to competently work on my air ducts?  It will likely cost me more to go with someone else, but it might be worth it to make sure everything is done right.

With this big of a botching of the schedule, I would have expected someone to call me tonight to try to make it right and get me scheduled right away, but they did not.

Alpine Property Management, LLC Indianapolis, Indiana

I had been managing my property in Indiana long distance with the help of friends.  I decided to let a professional property management company do it to handle the headaches for me, to more easily find a tenant for me, and to be my eyes and ears at the property.

I reviewed several property management companies in Indianapolis and it appeared that Alpine had the best flexibility.  There wasn't a bunch of paperwork they wanted me to sign.  Other places seemed to be treating it like I was an employee of them and the contracts were structured that way.  Alpine's representative talked of being a handshake sort of business.

It turned out that  my experience with them was a nightmare.  Below I will detail the issues I have had with them and why I would recommend tenants and property owners look for a property management other than Alpine Property Management, LLC of Indianapolis, Indiana to do business with.  Their negligence has cost me hours of time and thousands of dollars (damages to the house and lost income from not presenting me potential tenants for several months).

Inaccurate Information and Poor CommunicationIt has been very difficult to get in communication with the staff at Alpine.  They are often very slow to respond to emails (as much as a week or more) and phones are generally not answered or calls returned.


As I recall, the first issue I had with them was with giving me accurate information about what they could do for me and how much it would cost, and communicating with me.

I had a tenant that I had been evicted before hiring Alpine Property Management, LLC.  They left a bunch of their personal items in my property.  The former tenant contacted me and wanted to get their items.  I contacted Alpine and asked if they could have someone there to let them in the house and observe them as they got their items.  Alpine's representative told me they could definitely do that for me and it would cost me $25.  I think she said $25 per hour.

I called the former tenant and told them they needed to be there at a certain time and they had one hour to get it done.  I did not want to spend a bunch of money when they had been given notice to get everything out by a time that had since passed and they still owed me thousands of dollars in rent and damages.

After I had already spoken to the tenant an Alpine representative called me and said they couldn't get any of their contractors to do it alone, so it would be $50 per hour, since there would be two of them there.  I had already told the former tenant we could do it and then I find out it will cost me more than what I was told when I agreed with the tenant to allow it.  In order to not have an issue with the previous tenant and just to get it done with I told Alpine to go ahead, after making them push their contractors harder to get one of them to go alone.

After I hung up with them I realized I forgot to tell Alpine to limit the former tenant to one hour.  I tried to get the Alpine representative I was working with on the phone.  She was a different person than I had been communicating with previously, since one was in charge of writing checks and the other was in charge of scheduling repairs or something like that.  I could not get her on the phone and the time was quickly approaching for the tenant to be there.  I finally called the first Alpine representative I had been working with and she said there was nothing she could do.  She said the other lady handled that sort of thing.  She had no way to contact the contractors or the lady that could.

It turned out the Alpine representative I was supposed to be working with was at home and it was her day off and she had just set things in motion on her day off.  In working with Alpine, it felt like all of them were people that worked part time from home.

I finally got her on the phone when it was all over.  It ended up costing me $57.50.  At first I thought it was because it took longer than an hour, but it is strange for a contractor to get that granular on the billing.  I would've expected 15 minutes increments.  I found out later that Alpine add 15% to invoices and keeps that for themselves.  This was never disclosed to me when I went over costs of their services with Alpine before hiring them.  I don't know if 15% is standard in the property management business, but it seems like a little excessive to me.

Inaccurate Information on Marketing the Property
Twice Alpine typoed the advertisement for the house.  I hadn't noticed it, because I had hired them to take the work off of me.  I finally went and looked and saw it was the wrong zip code, which meant that anyone searching for a house in my house’s zip code would not find it.


The second error I found later was that they listed that the house had three bathrooms instead of two.  How mad would someone be, who had three baths as an absolute criteria, if they were shown a home with only two.  If they didn’t mind the wrong number of bathrooms, it would still give a bad impression of the person who owns the property and their property management company.  It could potentially leave them not trusting us.


When I hire a property management company to find me a tenant, I don't expect to have to proofread the advertisements they are distributing.



Unauthorized Work Being Done to My Property and Inattentiveness to Resolution
I had an invoice sent to me from Alpine that stated they had replaced the back door on the property. I had never authorized this, nor was I told there was an issue with the back door. When they fixed the door they also mowed the lawn. Alpine had already contracted another company to mow the lawn. That company charges $10 if they go by and the grass doesn't need mowed. So I was being charged for this contractor I hadn't authorized to mow the grass and again by the one I had, since it didn't need cut, but they went out to check anyway. If Alpine contracted someone else to mow the grass that one time, I expected that they would contact the other contractor that it didn't need it that time.


I told Alpine about the invoice and their representative asked me, "So you are not going to pay?" This was by email and I was stunned. No offer to make the situation right, just questioning if I was going to pay them or not. I called her and explained that I didn't feel I should have to pay for something I did not authorize. She said she didn't either, but didn't offer to do anything. Eventually she came around to that I didn't have to pay. I asked about the contractor and how this was going to effect my reputation with them, since I will need other work done on the house that I would authorize. She said they wouldn't know it was me, since Alpine schedules everything. They don't know my name, but they know the address and if I ask them to go to that same address. She said that they do enough business with the contractor that they will not hassle if Alpine stiffs them on the bill.


With that resolved I was still frustrated by the poor communication and service I was getting from Alpine. I expressed my concern to the Alpine representative and she told me that there are a lot of property management companies out there and if I didn't like the job they were doing, I was not bound to stay with them. Seriously? This is the answer that a representative of their company gives to clients? Especially when that representative is the VP of Operations.  She seemed uninterested in resolving the error that had happened by someone in Alpine's employ until I pressed the issue and then tells me I can take my business elsewhere if I don't like it.


It turns out I should've done just that. I was hesitant, since I had researched other property management companies and I wasn't sure it was going to be better somewhere else. It just seemed like it was going to be more hassle and paperwork and perhaps turning more control of my properties to them.


One of the reason's I needed a property management company was the market the property, so shifting back to doing it myself I thought was going to be a problem. Nonetheless, I started marketing the property in addition to what Alpine was doing. I listed on Craig's List and within a couple of weeks I got a hit. I turned the potential tenant's contact information over to Alpine. I had to chase Alpine every step of the way to get feedback on what the status of that potential tenant was.



Slowly and Inaccurately Reporting Problems with the Property
After a while of showing the house Alpine reported to me that there was a musty smell in the house. I had told them previously that there was a sump pump in the yard and we have had trouble with it getting unplugged or the GFI plug in the kitchen popping and shutting off the pump, since the sump pump is on the same circuit. I asked them to check the status of the pump. When the musty smell was reported Alpine asked if I would be willing to put in a dehumidifier in the basement. I told them no, since I had had no issues in the years that I had lived there and asked again for them to check the status of the pump.


I finally asked Alpine to send me the new key to the house since I had had them change the locks. They did and also gave me the code to the lock box. I gave the code to a friend of mine and had him go check out the smell. He said their was definitely a smell in the house. He said that someone had used the toilet and since the water service was shut off it just sat there.


First of all, the agent showing the house can't tell the difference between the smell of old urine and the smell of a musty basement? Certainly this would put off potential tenants looking at the house. I assume this inaction on Alpine part probably made it take longer to rent the house. As I said, the primary reasons I needed them was to be my eyes and ears to make sure their was nothing wrong with the house and to accurately tell me what the issue was if there was something wrong and additionally to market and show the property to get a new tenant in as soon as possible.



Damage Caused By Alpine's Poor Communication
My friend also found that the sump pump was indeed unplugged. Someone had removed the plug entirely. Because of this water was getting into the basement and causing mold problems. When Alpine found a tenant, they wanted the mold problems taken care of, which Alpine subsequently billed me for. When I told them that the damage was their fault the representative informed me that she and her boss had agreed that I needed to find another property management company. They then deducted the amount of the mold bill from the security deposit that they had been delaying sending to me.


Alpine had just signed a lease in Alpine's name with the new tenant a month previous. I would have dumped Alpine sooner had I known that I could have the tenant sign another lease in my name.


Making Tenants Uneasy and Making Me Look Bad

After over a week of trying to get Alpine to respond to me on what to do since the lease was in their name, I contacted the tenant and let them know that I was parting ways with Alpine.

The tenant expressed relief in hearing from me. He expressed that communicating with Alpine had been very difficult for him.

The tenant said that he had reported issues about the house and Alpine seemed to be ignoring them.

My tenant was wondering what they had gotten themselves into in renting from me because of the behavior of Alpine in not communicating with them.

Month After Month No Tenant Was Presented to Me For Approval

I went months without any tenants being brought to me by Alpine and no communication as to how the search was going.

As I stated earlier I finally took marketing the property into my own hands. I listed on Craig's List and a week or so later I got an inquiry via email. After having given Alpine the name of a potential renter from Craig's List and having to chase them for status updates on what was happening, I removed Alpine's phone number from the ad and had a friend of mine field the calls and do showings. After that I discovered a listing service on Facebook. I listed there and with a day I had a couple of inquiries on the property.

Conclusion

I could've scheduled work to be done on the house myself and would've had I known about Alpine's 15%. All I needed them to do was keep an eye on the place, let me know of issues, and find a tenant.

Even though they ended up signing a tenant right before I did, my search was a few weeks and theirs was months.

Alpine was completely incompetent at watching the place and communicating to me.

My recommendation if you are managing a property long distance is to skip the property management company and:

• Utilize the internet and social networking to list the property.
• Get a local friend to do the showings or offer a real estate agent a finder's fee. A real estate agent may be able to list the rental in the MLS.
• Have the friend or real estate agent give you feedback on each showing.
• Schedule maintenance work yourself and have a friend or real estate agent let the workers in the house and verify the work done.

MagicJack Chat Only Support

I will start out by saying that at a certain level I think chat support is a great idea.  I can be doing other things while I chat with them and they can field more than one customer at a time.

MagicJack's chat only tech support has several major flaw that make it unusable for anything more than the simplest fix.

• Accountability
• There is no way to get to a manger to nudge things along if their system isn't serving me.  They say they are transferring you to someone that the customers have rate in the top ten percent.  I have never been given a survey to rate the person I have been dealing with, so not sure how they get that they are the top ten percent.  When I ask one of those top ten percent to put me on with a supervisor, they tell me they are a supervisor and they are the last level I can get to.  Generally, I find them to be about the same level of knowledgeable as the non ten percent.
• Inability to Reconnect
• I can't get back to who I was working with if I get cut off or have to reboot, in spite of that they say you can give them a number and get right back to them when you reconnect.  It took three hours of trying to get back to the person who was remoting into my system when what she did disconnected our chat session.  Not only could I not get back to her, but I could not get back to anyone on their Live Look team, who handles remoting into people's machines.  For three hours they told me none of the Live Look team had freed up.  When they first tried to transfer me, they were able to throw me to three different Live Look agents in a short amount of time.  When I tried to get back to resume, they had no one they could give me.
• Ease of Dumping The Customer
• The ease of just forwarding you to someone else when they don't want to deal with you anymore, before you getting a chance to say no.
  Several times the chat screen said I was being forwarded and it never sent me to anyone.  Additional, between the time you are forwarded and the time the system connects you to someone else you have no one to communicate to that there is a problem.  Much like a really bad voice forwarding system.

I have spent three days totaling 12 hours to try to get them to get my MagicJack to work.  It worked fine for a long time and then stopped.  The first day they escalated me to one of their top ten percent and after two hours I had to go to work and could not spend any more time on it.

The second day I hunkered down and intended to go through it until we got it fixed.  I started around 8am.  They started me over, even though they said they had read my previous chat session.  Several hours into it they started suggesting that I let one of them remote into my machine.  They have given me no confidence in them up until that point, so why would I want them to poke around in my machine?  They eventually bounced me to the remote person anyway.  He immediately asks if he can logged into my system.  I reply "NO", since I had told the previous person no and they transferred me anyway.  He immediately bounced me to someone else.

I reiterated that I want to be walked through how to fix the problem by the remote people without them touching my system.  I am an IT professional and I don't want some stranger messing about in my system.  They said they would ask the Live Look team if they would verbally walk me through.  They forwarded me to them and with in a few minutes of no one answering, I was bounced back.  The guy I had been working with said that he guessed the Live Look team did not want to do it verbally.

I went through several support people all having me do the same things.  Plug it in.  Unplug it.  Uninstall the drivers.  Uninstall the MagicJack software.  Download the set up program.

I finally conceded to let someone log into my system.  What did she do?  Have me unplug the MagicJack.  Uninstall the drivers.  Uninstall the MagicJack software.

Additionally she started closing windows without asking me.  I had been in the process of writing a complaint to the Better Business Bureau and she closed it, losing all that I had written.

She downloaded Microsft's Fix It program and had me run it.  When it ran it came back that it failed and in the process killed my chat session.  I saw that the remote software was still running, so I opened another chat session and asked them to reconnect me with her.  I also loaded notepad and typed to her, since she was still in my system.

The new support person said the person I had been working with was helping a customer, so I couldn't be forwarded to her.  How is it that a support person gets disconnected from the person they are working with and doesn't leave a message with someone that they let them know if that person comes back?  Three hours I try to get someone to reconnect me with her while they have me plug and unplug the MagicJack and uninstall, reinstall, and update the drivers.  I never did get connected to her or anyone else in Live Look.

One other thing that they all made me do was drop my firewall and antivirus.  Every time they instruct me to do that, even though they said they read the previous chats where everyone else telling me to do that.

Around 3pm I am working with one of their "supervisors" and they tell me to mess with a bunch of settings in my system that need me to reboot.  I knew how this was going to end.  I would reboot and the chat would be gone and I would get to start over.  She said that the problem was fixed and the reboot would be the end of it.

I rebooted and sure enough it was still broken.

The next morning I started the process over again.  I was able to even get someone to remote in.  She messed around in my router and did all the same uninstalling and reinstalling on the machine as the others.

The remote control lady hadn't fixed anything, but said to reboot.  I told her I had already done that several times and it didn't help.  She closed the chat and the remote control session.

So after 12 hours of tech "support" over three days, here I sit with a device that doesn't work.  This is our home phone and now my family is left without phone service and no one at MagicJack seems to care.  They run through their script and that's all they can do and then they hang up on you.

They give you no way to reach a manager or director of operations or anything.  I couldn't even get them to give me a phone number my lawyer could call.

Oliver Garden American Flag Controversy

I happened upon this story today: http://www.myfoxal.com/story/15681535/olive-garden-apologizes-to-kiwanis-club

It appears as though an Olive Garden employee refused to let a person bring an American flag into the restaurant.  They were having a meeting with the Kiwanis Club.

Olive Garden has since issued an apology.  The comments I am reading on that story seem to not care about the apology and say they won't go to Olive Garden ever again.

When things happen, even if they are indeed a mistake, it is very hard to undo the damage that has been done.

Comcast/Xfinity

Every couple of months someone peddling Comcast/Xfinity comes to my door.  Every few days I get junk mail from Comcast/Xfinity in the mail.  I can't stand door to door sales and junk mail.  It is more irritating when it come from the same company on a regular basis.

Before they just into their sales pitch I tell them I will not switch to Comcast/Xfinity because bandwidth caps are a deal breaker for me.  I keep hearing on Podcasts I listen to people reporting on practices internet providers, who's primary business is TV.  They always list Comcast/Xfinity as one of the primary offenders in the realm of restricting what their customers do with their internet connect in order to protect their TV business.  One of these practices is bandwidth caps or restrictions on data consumption or whatever they call their acceptable use policy with regard to how many bits you are allowed to download from the internet each month.

Last night I had another one of the Comcast/Xfinity salesmen come knocking on my door.  I cut him off and told him, as I have told every one of his predecessors, that bandwidth caps are unacceptable.  He told me that they don't have bandwidth caps.  This morning I looked it up.

I came across this on their web site.  http://www.comcast.com/Corporate/Customers/Policies/HighSpeedInternetAUP.html  This is their acceptable use policy for high speed internet as of today 9-3-2011.  Here is the paragraph on "excessive use".  I have bolded some part that highlight what I am writing about.

"Are there restrictions on data consumption that apply to the Service?

The Service is for personal and non-commercial residential use only. Therefore, Comcast reserves the right to suspend or terminate Service accounts where data consumption is not characteristic of a typical residential user of the Service as determined by the company in its sole discretion. Comcast has established a monthly data consumption threshold per Comcast High-Speed Internet account of 250 Gigabytes (“GB”). Use of the Service in excess of 250GB per month is excessive use and is a violation of the Policy. See the Network Management page at http://www.comcast.net/terms/network/ for more information and to learn how Comcast applies this Policy to excessive use. Common activities that may cause excessive data consumption in violation of this Policy include, but are not limited to, numerous or continuous bulk transfers of files and other high capacity traffic using (i) file transfer protocol (“FTP”), (ii) peer-to-peer applications, and (iii) newsgroups. You must also ensure that your use of the Service does not restrict, inhibit, interfere with, or degrade any other person's use of the Service, nor represent (as determined by Comcast in its sole discretion) an overly large burden on the network. In addition, you must ensure that your use of the Service does not limit or interfere with Comcast's ability to deliver and monitor the Service or any part of its network. If you use the Service in violation of the restrictions referenced above, that is a violation of this Policy. In these cases, Comcast may, in its sole discretion, suspend or terminate your Service account or request that you subscribe to a version of the Service (such as a commercial grade Internet service, if appropriate) if you wish to continue to use the Service at higher data consumption levels. Comcast may also provide versions of the Service with different speed and data consumption limitations, among other characteristics, subject to applicable Service plans. Comcast's determination of the data consumption for Service accounts is final."

Chase Freedom Card

I have a Chase Freedom card.  Last month I had a balance of six dollars.  I have had the card since 2005 or before.

This month the payment got to them one day late.  When I got the next statement I noticed that it had gotten there late and that they had charged me a late fee of six dollars.  As I continued to look over the bill I found that they also charged me $61.21 in interest.  That seemed high since the amount unpaid from last statement was six dollars and since I have a 30 day grace period.

The first person I talked to told me that their computer system continued to charge me interest on outstanding balance that was not late until it was paid in full.  She said she would transfer me to her supervisor to see if they could roll back the additional interest that was charged after the roll back and until I made my next payment, which was on time.  I waited on hold for twenty minutes after the person I was speaking with said she was transferring me to her supervisor.


The supervisor informed me that I was being charged for the entire balance that was there at the time the account went late.  They said that the grace period is not in play when a late payment happens, until the account goes to zero.  As I try to comprehend what he said, I now wonder if what he was meaning was that anytime there is a balance that it gets interest charged on the entire balance, even if you just charged a new amount and it has not come on a statement yet.  As if the 29.99% interest they change is not robbery enough, to tell you there is a grace period and then switch to charging you from the day you spend it, if you happen to have a previous balance is incredibly harsh.

I had paid the entire six dollars and they continued to charge me interest up until I paid the amount of the entire amount that was on the account at the time of the late payment due date.  Thus I got another $67 charge the next month.  I made sure my payment was on time the second month, even including the extra interest they rolled back, to be safe that they would not ding me as not paying in full.

In spite of the fact that I appreciate them rolling back the interest, I will be canceling this card as soon as I get one set up at my credit union.  I believe my credit union charges a lot less in interest and I don't believe I have had any other institution I have been with, charge interest on funds that were purchased in the last thirty days, even if you had a pre-existing balance.

Update:
I signed up for a credit card with my credit union.  They will only charge me 9.75% interest after the grace period.  The new card arrived last week.  I called yesterday to cancel the Chase Freedom card.

The guy on the phone wanted to know how they could keep me as a customer.  He asked why I wanted to cancel.  I related the story of the excessive interest.  He offered to remove the interest and also the $6 later fee.  The late fee I had been told previously that the late fee could not be waved.  That made me more mad, since they could only remove it once I was ready to cancel.  I told him the interest had already been reversed and that their policy that has them charge interest on charges that are not late is unacceptable.

The card has now been canceled.  Once I pay the remaining balance I am done with Chase.

Web Sites That Lie

I keep going to various web sites to do research on various things like home refinancing.  When I get to the site after jumping through hoops I am presented with a button that says "Click Here to See Our Prices" or "Our Rates" or whatever.  Once you click that button you do not get the information they promised you.  What you get is added to a phone list which salesmen then use to solicit you.  When you confront the salesmen about it they say things aren't as simple as they use to be and it is necessary for them to get to know you better before they can give you accurate information.  They say that the information they give is different depending on your circumstances.

This is dishonest and it wastes people's time.  Websites should save people time and not sell them down the river.  I went to the website for information.  If I wanted to speak to someone to get information I would've looked up their phone number on their website and called them.  However I did not do that, thus I do not expect to have to have someone ringing my phone over and over until I answer and tell them to go away.

DJs

I was listening to103.5 The Arrow on the radio on the way in.  The song Eye of the Tiger by Survivor came on.  The DJs, John Carter and the Coach, talked over the beginning of the song as they are want to do, but the intro on Eye of the Tiger is arguably the best part of the song.

I usually expect them to talk about stuff they are promoting and for a couple of second to multi-task, but this felt like they were just intentionally drowning out the song.  They were saying nothing and it was like they were running out of things to say and kept extending it.  Eye of the Tiger has a pretty long intro and they talked over every second of it.

I talked to a coworker about it and they said this is an old DJ trick.  I realize that, but I wasn't sure in this case what they were accomplishing with the trick.

VistaPrint.com

I got a promotional email from VistaPrint.com offering FREE business cards.  My first mistake was responding to a junk mail message.  My second mistake was not following my gut and passing on the principle that marketing something as free and then charging their credit card for fees like shipping is misleading.  I had been down this road before and knew to expect the gouge on shipping at the end, but I thought I would do it anyway, thinking I could get some business cards and a card holder for cheap.

I clicked through to their site and found where I could enter my information and see a preview of the card and several different customizations.  I went through the process and found at the end that I was being charged for the cards.  After a moment I figured out that they had put all the customizations out there as bait, but until the end it was not obvious that I had left the free cards behind.

I started the order over and got the free cards and the free card holder into the order.  I enter credit card information and clicked to order.  After that I received a page stating that I could receive free shipping if I added some more cards to the order.  The cards were less than the shipping, so I thought that was great.  I clicked to add them to the order.  They were added to the order, but I was giving no confirmation to review the order before processing.  It added it to the order I had already approved with no way to back it out.  It turned out it gave me free shipping on the non free cards, but left the shipping charge on the rest.  The order was already being "processed" they said and I had no way to remove those items I just added.

I looked around the site for a way to contact someone to remove the item.  I found a link to cancel the order, so I did that.  Afterward the site tells me that it has issues me not a refund, but store credit.  That is not what I wanted, especially since at this point I was likely not doing business with this company that appears to be based on marketing bait  and tricks.  After taking up more of my time searching for a way to either get a refund through the site or interact with a person I found a chat link.

The customer service person resolved the issue quickly by giving me a refund, but why was it necessary to get a person involved?  They had to pay that person to fix my problem and in the end got no money from me, not even the money for shipping that I was going to pay in the first place, since I was so offended by the process and games.  Unless there are some unforeseen circumstances, I will not consider doing business with them again.  If I see there is a promotion of some kind and I see it is VistaPrint.com, I will likely assume it is a trick and walk away.

I will reiterate that even though getting a customer service person involved should've been unnecessary, they were efficient and resolved the issue.

Olive Garden Mandatory Optional Gratuity

I at one time enjoyed going to the Olive Garden Unlimited for their Soup, Salad, and Bread Sticks.  The price was about a buck above being a great value, but I enjoyed it and would go about weekly for lunch.  One night my wife and I went out about a year and a half ago or so to Olive Garden.  When we got the bill it was a couple of dollars more than I anticipated.  I asked the waitress and she indicated that the price did indeed go up a dollar.  It was border line worth it at the price it was.  At a dollar more it was not worth it.

That was the last time I had been to Olive Garden until today.  Remember that I previously went to Olive Garden almost once a week before that price increase.

Today was a coworkers last day and we went out to eat to celebrate.  Someone chose Olive Garden and I figured to pay respects to my friend I would cave and pay the extra dollar.  I was browsing the menu just out of curiosity since I knew I was getting my usual Soup, Salad, and Bread Sticks.  I noticed at the bottom of the menu it said that for large groups there was an optional 18% gratuity.  18% is ridiculous, but I was pleased to see that it was optional and not mandatory as I have seen at other places.  When I got the bill I noticed that there was a line for gratuity and there had included a value there as a part of my total.

What was I to do if I didn't want to pay that much gratuity, tell the waitress and tell her I did not want to give her that much and make her change it?

What I didn't think of at the time was that since there was a line for additional gratuity and a line for total I could've entered a negative number for the amount of the tip and a new total.  I also could've scratched out the gratuity and wrote a new total.

I will not be back to Olive Garden if I have a choice in the matter.

Update 4 Oct 2012
Since there has been good discussion on this post about gratuities, I thought I would put something that came to my mind today.  I am diverging from Olive Garden, but I the spirit of the post was to discuss how a culture of mandatory gratuities is keeping me from spending any of my money at places that have wait staff that expect a gratuity as part of their normal pay.

I was thinking about maybe going out to eat for lunch today.  Some of the guys have talked every now and again about Red Robin and their unlimited steak fries.  It was a bit more than I want to pay for lunch and I don't like steak fries as much as other fires, but I kind of a craving for a lot of fries.  So I was figuring up the cost in my head and trying to convince myself to spend the extra.  I was all set to do it and then I remembered that Red Robin has waitresses and that will cost a buck or two more.

As I thought about that I thought more about how I was paying too much for Red Robin any how and I could get a boat load of fries that I like better for the extra $3 for the burger and fries and the extra $2 for delivery.  For the total cost, I could get two burgers and two orders of fries at a fast food place.  I also wouldn't have to sit around and wait for it to be delivered to my table.

Update 1 Feb 2013
I've heard the last couple of days about a pastor that wrote comments on the Applebee's receipt for his party of 19.  I think that his comments were out of line.

Nonetheless, I entirely agree with his protest of having an 18% gratuity added to the bill automatically.  I heard someone on the radio taking the position that the tip is not optional, but part of the waiter staff's wage. I entirely disagree.  A gratuity is given for service above their wage.

Yes the "pastor" was a jerk about it, but perpetuating the idea that someone deserves 18% just for showing up to my table is wrong.

Mom Facts

I received an unsolicited email from a web site called Mom Facts. The email stated that they found my site or blog on Google and they thought that it might be of interest to their subscribers and asked that I put a link to them on my site. I replied back and asked which of my sites and blogs they found to be of interest to their subscribers and what was it that they found interesting. My email immediately bounced back as a non existing email address.

I then went to their web site to find a contact link. The site looks like a real site, but their Contact Us link took me to an empty page.

I'm not thrilled at them spamming me. I am interested in getting into relationships with sites of value to me and where we fit each other's subject matter, but I would've preferred they actually contact me directly and have a dialog about my site. Also very unprofessional to not have contact information on a business site.

The World Is Your Ash Tray

The main issues that impelled me to write this post has to do with dropping ash and cigarette butts anywhere one happens to be when driving. There are a few other behaviors that I think many people are oblivious to because it deals with smoking that otherwise would be considered inconsiderate and with some behaviors illegal if it was not related to smoking. I will mention a few of these as well.

• Flicking cigarette butts out the car window.
• I don't know why this always stuns me when I see it, but I just can't believe that people think this is acceptable.
• At the stop light, piles of cigarette butts in the median. Littering is still illegal, right?
• Driving down the road. Fire and gas tanks don't go well together. Always feels great to see a lit cigarette bounce out the window of the person in front of me and then see it bounce under my car.
  
• Flicking ash out the window and onto the cars beside and behind.
• Blowing smoke out the window that the person in the car behind gets to enjoy.
• People having to walk through a gauntlet of smokers in order to get in and out of a building.
• Everyone gets to breath, smell, and wear the smoke as they walk out the door.
• Smoke gets trapped inside the entry way of buildings.

In this post I will not discuss that sitting somewhere smoking is really no different that sitting somewhere shooting heroine. I also will not discuss the "right" to smoke and that other's rights end where mine begin. The point I am trying to make in this post is the following.

I am not an ash tray. My vehicle is not an ash tray. The world in general is not an ash tray.

Prepay Gas Stations with No Pay at the Pump

I have hated these gas stations for a while and this morning I just had to blog about it. At first I tolerated them because they were generally a couple of cents cheaper than gas stations around them. But after a while that wasn't worth it, but I got suckered in because for the last week or so this one has been ten cents or more cheaper than those around it.

Before I could just go in and leave them my credit card and tell them I was going to fill up and then come back in. That right out of the gate was a bad idea. Leaving your credit card unattended bad idea. I consoled myself into doing it, because people do it all the time in restaurants and after all this is cheap gas we are talking about. This time I tried and the lady that appeared to be the trainer or supervisor told the lady at the counter they can't do that anymore. Then the lady tried to tell me to give her my ID. I actually felt better about that than the credit card, but the other lady said no. She then said leave me your car keys, which felt worse than leaving the credit card, since I have keys to both my vehicles, keys to the house, and a device to open the door at work on that key ring. Nonetheless I left them there.

So that was time consuming and a bad security situation. In addition, I had to wait behind people getting their smokes and lottery tickets, which made the process even slower. And I had to wait in line twice, because I had to come back in to pay and to get my car keys. At ten cents cheaper I know this will probably cost me a buck or two more, but if I am alone I am going to drive on by these little mom and pop stations with no pay at the pump. By the way, pay at the pump has got to be one of the best inventions.

I don't care if I have to drive a little further and pay a little more. I am not doing that again.

Carmel, Indiana License Branch

I have not had a good experience at a license in all the years that I have had my license. Today was the first.

It started with the web site. Each branch had listed its average time to get people in and out of the branch. It also had listed the average time for the entire state to get people in and out of all branches. Then you can compare the average time of the branch you are interested in as compared to the rest of the state and compared to others in your area.

The site also eluded to that I could go to any branch in the state to do what I needed to do. What I needed for renewing plates, which in the past was the one thing I think I had to do at a branch in my county. I called to try to get confirmation. The lady I talked to said that she was pretty sure that I could go anywhere. I have been burned by calling places and then the story not being the same when I got there in person. This time when I got there everything was fine.

License branches have always felt like K-Mart when I have gone into them. This one felt a lot more comfortable. Just like with the other things I am going to comment on here I'm not sure at this point if it was just this branch.

When I walked in they had the usual check in line to route you correctly. The line was five people deep, but the people that were doing the servicing were coming available. They immediately called people over before they checked in. That was good that the thing designed to make things more efficient did not become a bottle neck.

I was in and out in just a few minutes. If this is common across the entire state then I'm feeling a bit better about our state government. Although, this still does not make up for that Daylight Saving Time thing, but that is probably driven by a different department.