Yelling SHARK!!! at a public beach is Constitutionally protected speech. Congress shall make no law infringing on that natural right. Well since you wanna go that route and completely ignore his point, lets put it in a different context.
Is yelling bomb on a plane illegal? I'm really unsure, but I can tell you I know of one Marine that did, and I didn't see him for 3 months afterwords.
Is yelling fire in a movie theater illegal? I'm really unsure, but I did see a group of teenagers get arrested for just that.
Free speech is like getting a lap dance from your best friends girl, it's only free if it doesn't offend.
And here is the flaw in your thought process:
so that you do not move the modem to another part of the cable network without NTL knowledge and permission). You can take any provisioned modem ANYWHERE, in state, out of state, it doesn't matter. As long as the acct that modem is tied to has the rates associated with your internet connection, that modem will be able to access the network. Sorta like a wireless network where the only security that's used the MAC address. As onlg as that MAC address is allowed on the network, it matters not where it gets it's connection from. The only time your modem cannot be moved is with Comcast's EMTA. And the reason behind that is because if you move it to far, now you are in a different rate center (read area code) and so your phone wont work right (but the modem side will still function properly.
The other flaw is that you assume that you have to either install the program or do something else...when in fact you dont. You can call up comcast and tell them you want there service, that you have a modem, and that you refuse to install ANY software, and they will STILL be able to get you connected to the internet. Now with that you have no adware and you can decide what OS/Browser you want. But if you want the automated way you have to suffer with IE5.0 or higher and a Windows OS
At no point to they say you MUST install thier software. It's only provided as an easy means for the less than technically inclined crowd to have an easy transition into cable internet. Is it full of adware? Yes. But on the same hand, what FREE software made by money hungry companies isn't?
No, but I like the way you read into something that wasn't there to come up with the idea that I assumed your lazy and stupid.
What I did say, and did think was obvious, was that no amount of your rants or raves is going to change anything about how anyone does anything, unless your paying them to. So why waste your time pointing out mistakes that were either genuine mistakes, or shortcuts taken, especially when your not getting paid to do it. In either of those intsances your rant would be worthless because the mistake that was made probably wouldn't be made again, and the shortcut taken will always be taken again. All your pointing out does, in either of those situations, is show the entire forum how much you think your superior to the person your correcting. Redifine failure as success?? lol...how far in your ass did you have to reach for that. Spinning words into the form you like best is an excellent skill, maybe you'd make a better polititian than I would.
So if you do not go through the approved procedure on the approved OS you can end up being in a state of limbo in the CMTS provisoning system. I agreed with you, and figured you knew what you were talking about, all up until you spewed this nonsense out. Im not sure what you went thru with NTL in UK because I've never worked for any facet of them (not that I know of). But I've worked Comcast's/Verizon's/RoadRunner/SBC/whatever else ISP and or VOIP provider you wanna mention for well over 10 years now. Your OS has nothing to do with CMTS provisioning. Now, on the other hand, your OS does have something to do with how the computer networks with your modem/router, which could very well cause you problems, but agian, not with provisioning. Provisioning has nothing to do with anything beyond the modem. Meaning the ISP's network (thier headend, nodes, cable cards, and your modem) is all that is required for you to get provisioned within the CMTS (you dont even NEED a computer for them to push internet to your modem) Such as that is, your OS alone has no effect on whether or not your modem gets the correct bootfile.
Lets put it this way. You are ATT. Your phones work with your service but Nokia (just hypothetical) phones do not allow for your service to run properly. They will work, just not as efficiently. Now say some Nokia Fanboy decides he's going to make his own and mass produce/sell them. Would you as Apple support his phones on your support lines? No you wouldn't. Why? Because if you screwed something up, your not only liable for the damages but you have to find a way to repair.
Now lets say your using Firefox. How is comcast going to insure that, if they fux your stuff up, that 1. Your issue is easily correctable and 2. It wouldn't cost them a dime. It's simple. You just advise that there is no support for that software. You would only support products that have a definitive demarcation. Meaning, if IE won't load your sites where does comcast send you? To Microsoft. A company/entity that supports that product. If firefox won't load it where would comcast send you? To the firefox community? Ha. Try telling your customer that they have to figure it out on they're own after telling them you support their broswer. It's much easier to say, while we don't support your software, it will work on our systems. You just won't recieve any help from us because we don't support it.
The same goes with Linux. You won't catch any knowledgeable tech support rep from Comcast telling you that the service wont work on Linux. They just wont help you figure out your issues because if they screw something up where do they send you? The community? Ha. Try telling your customer that they have to look for their own answers because there is no magic fix all phone number they can call. And you guys jump all over the linux thing like black people jump to racism. The truth of the matter is that Comcast wont support any Microsoft OS older than windows XP anymore either. Why? Because Microsoft doesn't support them. And where would they send you for help if they screwed up your network settings to the point they couldn't fix them? Microsoft? No because you have Windows 2000 and Microsoft doesn't even support it.
Once again a bunch of people Mob together and complain about things they can't change, things that wont change, and above all else things they have no idea about. Before you start complaining you should do a little research and make sure your complaints are warrented. Otherwise you just end up seeming like a bunch of monkey's hopping around screaming at a flower because you have no idea what it is and it wont move.
Arguements begin now. Just keep in mind that when you argue: it wont matter, Comcast will NEVER support a product that isn't thier's, when the money for that support comes out of pocket. If they're is no ONE END ALL PROBLEMS PHONE NUMBER that they can give you, the support will NEVER be there.
Another thing to also point out is that Microsoft pays Comcast well enough to offer the support with no problems. Do you think Firefox ever stopped to think, hey maybe if we offer them money to promote our product, they'd support it for our users? Or even linux for that matter. It all comes back to that out of pocket expense. Why do you think Comcast user's get McAfee for free? Becuase its a great product?? Hell no, it sucks. But McAfee PAYS comcast so that thier product gets pushed out to more people then they would have ever hoped to reach. And when those customers like the product they get for free they buy the addon's (like the spam guard they offer for a discounted price). And hopefully when those customers leave comcast they decided to keep mcafee.
You want to be free and open source?? Great. Do it, I love it to. But that free aproach usually means your not going to get any type of sponership (which is what Microsoft is sorta getting from comcast) because you have no money to pay for that sponsership.
Oh. I also have yet to see a kid or a cat/dog that wasn't freaked right out by the sight of a tarantula, but I haven't gotten to experiment as much with that, especially with babies, for some reason. Ever since we got it my son has LOVED his pet tarantula. But that might be because when he was just under 6 months old I had one that (while I was in the house) was with me 24/7, so maybe he learned that there was nothing to worry about with them.
Want to know what innate fear is? Next time you have an infant or toddler, go grab yourself a big, mean, snarling dog and set your child near it. That is an innate fear reaction. I have to disagree with you on that. My son was raised around dogs for the 32 1/2 years he's been alive. I have 2 American bulldogs, his grand mother has 3 german shepards and his grand father has about 6 small dogs. I took my son over to my cousins house who has the meanest (sp?) pitbull terrier I have EVER met in my life. The only person this dog will not bite is my cousin and grandmother. This dog would think nothing about taking a piece of your hand off if you even thought to pet him (should the snarling and snapping not deter you), and it would because as soon as you enter his field of view that's all he does. My son wants nothing but to play with this dog, and I've had to, on numerous visits, warn my son that this dog was not a nice dog like Tank, Kaine, or any of his grand parents dogs. Over 10 visits later and having watched this dog bite another child, my son would still like nothing more than to climb under the fence and play with this beast.
Similarly, one has to be taught to fear certain aspects of combat: if you've never been exposed to it, how would you have any reaction to it at all, other than as a concept? I do agree with you...to a certain degree. During my first tour I remember walking out to the pissers some 30 feet away from the camp I was stationed at (I'm a Marine so the base is a camp, the army hides in forts and.... well I dont know about the rest) and seeing my first RPG splash down some 15 ft farther away. Up until I saw that, all I knew was to listen for the sound and run away as every salty dog had told me. The fear those stories put into me was nothing, when compared to what I saw that RPG do to the 7-ton it landed next to. From that moment on, screw the noise, my eyes were trained to the sky at all times. You're TAUGHT to fear for SURVIVAL, and conversly (sp?) you LEARN to fear thru experience. The stories I was told TAUGHT me to fear the SOUND. The sight INSTILLED in me a fear of the grenade itself.
It's like those hardcore oldies movies where some punk pulls a gun on the hero and the hero looks at it and says, "Boy I have more fear of the bullets in that gun then I do for you!"
Yeah, but then you grow up and realize that the world is better than your english teacher let on...and how worthless it is to proof read thru someone's paragraph without getting paid for it.
Due u wanna change it? May-b you due! Due u have the power too? No. Will u change it? Probly not, so quit cryin.
Remember, the kids of today (who spell like crap on the internet and cells) are the adults of Web 3.0. If you think your mad now...wait till the information is streamed right into your brain instead of on a monitor. Then I'll accept you complaining over something that's only about 6 pixels high. Now, though, all you'll get is me rubbing my fingers together by my ear and saying, "Oh how I love that crickets music!"
I like when people use links. Especially when they prove my point. Straight from your article that you think proves if Bob brings something over that, while not illegal in Cuba, IS in fact illegal in the US it is likely that he's going to be facing criminal prosecution for the actions
Cuban cigars and rum are routinely confiscated at U.S. ports of entry I knew you were wrong because you can substitute me for Bob. It just took me awhile to find it. US law is not enforceable in ANY country. To or from it. But the minute you step ONTO US soil (be it america or an american military base or consolate, it is a different story, and AT THE MOST the only thing the US could get you for would be the trafficing of illegal CONSUMABLES. Note I didn't say illegal drugs. If you tried bringing that accross, then you face not only US law, but also the law of the country you departed from. Again, US law, no matter which law, is unenforceable in any other country besides the US.
I'd go as far as saying cutting the copper is deliberate sabotage of critical national infrastructure and a violation of the implied trust the telcos got when AT&T was broken up and they were allowed to take over parts of the publicly paid for copper infrastructure. Yes, that's right, the public paid for every penny of it, and the telcos got free eminent domain seizures for running it over private property, something rather valuable in today's world. And who do you think is paying to remove that copper? The consumer. And who do you think is paying for the FIOS replacement to that network? The consumer. And who do you think will pay to remove the FIOS/Cable lines in 20-30 years (possibly sooner) when EVERYTHING from your computer to your refrigerator to your TV will run off a wireless network? The consumer. And who do you think wll pay for the set up of that global wireless network? The consumer.
The consumer will ALWAYS, and has ALWAYS, been the provider for ANY change in ANY thing. There's no use crying/complaining/wiching things will change, they won't. That's how this world was built, on the money of those living in it.
I've said it before. Your service related issues (for this instance precisely) are due to the consumers lack of knowledge. Is Verizon required to tell you this information. Yes. Do they? Yes. You sign the paper that proves they told you, and I know you did because Verizon keeps those records to protect thier asses. Yet you expect the service provider to do you a favor and tell you verbally. The industry is only required to provide a contract that you sign at time of service delivery, that says all of this. It's the service work agreement order. They don't have to tell you over the phone, they do as a courtesy to you. They don't have to veerbally tell you at installation, they do it as a courtesy to you. You as a consumer are required to read the contract, fine print, between the lines and everything else. If you don't that's your fault. Countless people complain that the reason they haven't paid their bill is because they didn't recieve one. The MINUTE you sign the contract or installation paperwork, you are agreeing to pay a reoccuring bill. The bill that's mailed to you, is mailed as a courtesy and is not required. Stop complianing and do the work you need to do, and stop expecting everyone in the world to spoon feed it to you. It's all there in the fine print. You just have to open your eyes.
EXACTYL!!!!!!! Glad someone read it. I have now idea where the thought that yelling at your "support" and calling them names gets you things. Maybe its the fact that they give you what you want to get you off the phone....hmm that reminds me of the time that I wrote in that one post,"reps fake info to get your internet, only to get you off the phone." Now you yelling at that person that's only been on the phone for 1 month has just trashed your acct, and 2 days later you'll be calling up to do the same thing because your internets not working due to some billing error that is the companies fault, but in reality was actually yours. For the most part, and yeah there are exceptions as with any rule, be polite to your support and you'll find that you get better support with less problems in the long run.
Hows it a lame excuse? Ask your ISP why they don't support your router. If they're honest they'll tell you, "Because if we tell you what to do with your router, and it breaks, we're liable to pay for it." Now in case by case, that's not to big of a payment to make, but think 100's of 1000's of customers routers frying because the customer did something wrong while we were "supporting" their router. Now it may still be a lame excuse for you, but denying support for your router saves your ISP tons of money EVERY day.
But the point to my post wasn't the fact there is a problem that someone is refusing to work. It's the fact that the customer, in this exact situation, would certainly call up Microsoft because they believed it to be Microsoft's problem, and then when Microsoft needed to know what theme your desktop was in, the customer would refuse to tell them because Microsoft should know. Thanks for proving you didn't read the post at all...and if you did, I'm sorry you didn't understand it. Call slashdot, maybe its thier fault.
Cryptic??? You act like it's some arcane computer language long since forgotten. Its a series of 12 digit letters/numbers seperated in groups of 2 digits. It doesn't take a master's in rocket science to tell me that:
00:15:a2:35:48:96 looks like 00:15:a2:35:48:96
Everyone keeps spouting off about hexidecimal numbers when in fact....its not. That's probably your CS background talking. Its actually just a number...that started way back when as some base number (example : 00:00:00:00:01) and then slowly grew larger. Then when they realized, wait we're making tons of these...lets incorporate letters as well, and now you have 0-9 and soon as it hits 9 it goes to a-f. I can see how you'd get that mixed up with a hexidecimal number. But to bad it isn't. And even if it was, how hard is it to read off letters and numbers? The only thing that anyone that's argued my points has proven is that the customer is to lazy or to dumb to read off a series of digits/letters. And you can't argue that you haven't termed the customer in those to catagories. Some arcane hexidecimal number? lol guess what even in language other that English the number 9 looks just like the english number 9.
No, I'm not making excuses at all, you just fail to see the reasoning that there is almost no chance at all that your ISP has your MAC address when it aquired your records from a company that didn't keep records properly. That's like taking over a big software developement project that has tons of bugs in it, only to notice that the code is unreadable. Who do you think you'd get info from in that situation?? The customer should be your answer. But when the customer rants and cries about not wanting to read a MAC off, then what do you do? I'm no making excuses for anyone...but your defending the laziness it requires to not read off a MAC simply because you pay for internet. The 2 go hand in hand. You don't get one without the other. You can argue it all you want, and in 2 weeks when you need internet service guess what you'll be doing. Either reading off a mac or paying for a tech to come do it for you.
But I think it was called Robo Cop. Soon enough things like IRobot will start to happen, and then the robots will invent time travel and then things like T1 and T1000 will be roaming the streets looking for John Connor.
I never said anything about not doing my job, even if the customer was a blatant moron or not. That's one thing I always prided myself on, and the one thing that let me get this position in my life.
Yeah, in all reality I guess most of my strife with people that can't do things on their own does come from my military mindset. But in all honesty that doesn't change the idea of what I was saying. If put into another context people would be saying different things. Had I used a car company and said if your car rolled down the hill becuase you left it in nuetral who's fault would that be? No one hear would have blamed the car company. But the same thing goes with a modem, if you can't get onto the internet because your modem is in standby...who's fault is that. Everyone here yells THE CABLE COMPANY. The sentiment is the same in any industry. It just so happens this is my industry that I know, so I'd rather talk about things I know. Nothing gets my goat more than people talking/complaining about things they dont' know and can't change.
Omg another that didn't read anything that was written before.
1. Most of your cable/phone companies account information came from the company they aquired. Spelled out: If you were with NEXTEL guess what, sprint probably doesn't know your phones serial number unless NEXTEL had it right. If they don't have it guess who needs to provide it?
2. No one, I don't care who you are, tells your cable/internet provider they're MAC address EVERY time they call in.
3. I don't have to quit. Becuase I don't deal with people like you. You call your internet/phone provider, they call a third party, and that third party calls me. Your qualms with your cable company no longer matter to me. They once did, but years of dealing with troublesome customers that should have learned to operate thier own devices changed that a LONG time ago.
3. Fuck you and your ideas about my mandatory certification. If you don't know how to change your screen saver, in ALL reality, that's not Microsofts problem....that's yours. The world is your internet. Use it or stfu.
You've only read what you've wanted to, and then you chose to get offended by it. I'm guessing your one of the problem customers I'm talking about. Lets break apart your post and show you I've already talked and given reason to AND for your argument.
If you can't provide internet service to somebody without having the customer read you an arcane 32 bit number in hexadecimal, perhaps there something you as a company could be doing better. If your system is so easy to break that a customer can screw you up by leaving off their fricking apartment number, then perhaps your company should've taken a look at itself instead of blaming customers for being stupid.
Did you read the part that more than half of any communication giants records come from other company's that went belly up due to poor record keeping? I'm guessing not....or you may have thought more about that. Because I actually argued both sides (certainly one more than the other) but both were argued. Otherwise I would have said nothing about the reps faking numbers just to get customers their service. And if you as a customer doesn't have the brains to figure out that you have an apartment number that would need to be divulged, then thats your fault. Sorry, if you don't tell the company about your living arrangements, there's no way for them to find out. The real simple and sweet of it, though is I don't need your apt #, your phone number, your serial or mac, or your ip to restart/deprovision/reprovision for any service. I don't even need to work for any of those companies that provides that service. All I need is my laptop and a node. But phone reps that you talk to on a daily basis don't have that. All they have is your record...that may have come from another company...that had who knows how many people changing numbers around to get YOU your service thru the years.
I'm guessing the miserable company you worked for never missed billing a customer for a dime, did they?
If you knew anything about the your phone company or cable company revenue allotment you'd know that more than $2m a year is reserved just for crediting for the company AND the consumers mistakes.
In the old days you would've sent somebody out there fix his problem instead of relying on him to do your field work for you.
And that's what happens. When its something that is the fault of the company a tech is sent out. If its something that can be fixed on the phone why would you waste the $150 it would cost to get out there and reset a modem?
Lets be real, your only complaint is that your company wants you to do their "field work" (your use of field work for this issue is completely wrong) is about not wanting to read a serial number. That's not only laughable, its lazy. If you have problems with doing that, then go ahead and request a technician. It will cost you anywhere from $29-$75 depending on the company your with because reading the MAC address off of your PERSONALLY owned modem is in fact NOT your ISPs job. Is that worth not being polite and picking up the machine that is by your foot and reading off the serial when asked? No, you'd rather spit profanities at someone, who for all intents and purposes could have just been released from prison no more than 3 months ago, and is now looking at your name, your address, your phone number, and your social if you provided it. You have no idea what type of person is on the other line, you just assume that because he's the "voice" of your company he's not going to do anything at all when you call him things you wouldn't call your worst enemy. Thank god, at least for the companies I've worked for, he's not. But you never know.
I was only pointing out what was my experience. You seem to have gotten offended by it. Statistics don't lie, emotions do. Call all you want. Your right. I don't care. And why should I? I came back from the Corps, after putting my life up for trade for your freedoms to spend the early part of my career being tr
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Is yelling bomb on a plane illegal? I'm really unsure, but I can tell you I know of one Marine that did, and I didn't see him for 3 months afterwords.
Is yelling fire in a movie theater illegal? I'm really unsure, but I did see a group of teenagers get arrested for just that.
Free speech is like getting a lap dance from your best friends girl, it's only free if it doesn't offend.The other flaw is that you assume that you have to either install the program or do something else...when in fact you dont. You can call up comcast and tell them you want there service, that you have a modem, and that you refuse to install ANY software, and they will STILL be able to get you connected to the internet. Now with that you have no adware and you can decide what OS/Browser you want. But if you want the automated way you have to suffer with IE5.0 or higher and a Windows OS
At no point to they say you MUST install thier software. It's only provided as an easy means for the less than technically inclined crowd to have an easy transition into cable internet. Is it full of adware? Yes. But on the same hand, what FREE software made by money hungry companies isn't?What I did say, and did think was obvious, was that no amount of your rants or raves is going to change anything about how anyone does anything, unless your paying them to. So why waste your time pointing out mistakes that were either genuine mistakes, or shortcuts taken, especially when your not getting paid to do it. In either of those intsances your rant would be worthless because the mistake that was made probably wouldn't be made again, and the shortcut taken will always be taken again. All your pointing out does, in either of those situations, is show the entire forum how much you think your superior to the person your correcting. Redifine failure as success?? lol...how far in your ass did you have to reach for that. Spinning words into the form you like best is an excellent skill, maybe you'd make a better polititian than I would.
Lets put it this way. You are ATT. Your phones work with your service but Nokia (just hypothetical) phones do not allow for your service to run properly. They will work, just not as efficiently. Now say some Nokia Fanboy decides he's going to make his own and mass produce/sell them. Would you as Apple support his phones on your support lines? No you wouldn't. Why? Because if you screwed something up, your not only liable for the damages but you have to find a way to repair.
Now lets say your using Firefox. How is comcast going to insure that, if they fux your stuff up, that 1. Your issue is easily correctable and 2. It wouldn't cost them a dime. It's simple. You just advise that there is no support for that software. You would only support products that have a definitive demarcation. Meaning, if IE won't load your sites where does comcast send you? To Microsoft. A company/entity that supports that product. If firefox won't load it where would comcast send you? To the firefox community? Ha. Try telling your customer that they have to figure it out on they're own after telling them you support their broswer. It's much easier to say, while we don't support your software, it will work on our systems. You just won't recieve any help from us because we don't support it.
The same goes with Linux. You won't catch any knowledgeable tech support rep from Comcast telling you that the service wont work on Linux. They just wont help you figure out your issues because if they screw something up where do they send you? The community? Ha. Try telling your customer that they have to look for their own answers because there is no magic fix all phone number they can call. And you guys jump all over the linux thing like black people jump to racism. The truth of the matter is that Comcast wont support any Microsoft OS older than windows XP anymore either. Why? Because Microsoft doesn't support them. And where would they send you for help if they screwed up your network settings to the point they couldn't fix them? Microsoft? No because you have Windows 2000 and Microsoft doesn't even support it.
Once again a bunch of people Mob together and complain about things they can't change, things that wont change, and above all else things they have no idea about. Before you start complaining you should do a little research and make sure your complaints are warrented. Otherwise you just end up seeming like a bunch of monkey's hopping around screaming at a flower because you have no idea what it is and it wont move.
Arguements begin now. Just keep in mind that when you argue: it wont matter, Comcast will NEVER support a product that isn't thier's, when the money for that support comes out of pocket. If they're is no ONE END ALL PROBLEMS PHONE NUMBER that they can give you, the support will NEVER be there.Another thing to also point out is that Microsoft pays Comcast well enough to offer the support with no problems. Do you think Firefox ever stopped to think, hey maybe if we offer them money to promote our product, they'd support it for our users? Or even linux for that matter. It all comes back to that out of pocket expense. Why do you think Comcast user's get McAfee for free? Becuase its a great product?? Hell no, it sucks. But McAfee PAYS comcast so that thier product gets pushed out to more people then they would have ever hoped to reach. And when those customers like the product they get for free they buy the addon's (like the spam guard they offer for a discounted price). And hopefully when those customers leave comcast they decided to keep mcafee.
You want to be free and open source?? Great. Do it, I love it to. But that free aproach usually means your not going to get any type of sponership (which is what Microsoft is sorta getting from comcast) because you have no money to pay for that sponsership.
Scratch that, it seems proof reading is not enough for me. My son is only 2 1/2 not 32.
It's like those hardcore oldies movies where some punk pulls a gun on the hero and the hero looks at it and says, "Boy I have more fear of the bullets in that gun then I do for you!"
Yeah, but then you grow up and realize that the world is better than your english teacher let on...and how worthless it is to proof read thru someone's paragraph without getting paid for it.
Due u wanna change it? May-b you due! Due u have the power too? No. Will u change it? Probly not, so quit cryin.
Remember, the kids of today (who spell like crap on the internet and cells) are the adults of Web 3.0. If you think your mad now...wait till the information is streamed right into your brain instead of on a monitor. Then I'll accept you complaining over something that's only about 6 pixels high. Now, though, all you'll get is me rubbing my fingers together by my ear and saying, "Oh how I love that crickets music!"
The world is bigger than a tipo.The consumer will ALWAYS, and has ALWAYS, been the provider for ANY change in ANY thing. There's no use crying/complaining/wiching things will change, they won't. That's how this world was built, on the money of those living in it.
I've said it before. Your service related issues (for this instance precisely) are due to the consumers lack of knowledge. Is Verizon required to tell you this information. Yes. Do they? Yes. You sign the paper that proves they told you, and I know you did because Verizon keeps those records to protect thier asses. Yet you expect the service provider to do you a favor and tell you verbally. The industry is only required to provide a contract that you sign at time of service delivery, that says all of this. It's the service work agreement order. They don't have to tell you over the phone, they do as a courtesy to you. They don't have to veerbally tell you at installation, they do it as a courtesy to you. You as a consumer are required to read the contract, fine print, between the lines and everything else. If you don't that's your fault. Countless people complain that the reason they haven't paid their bill is because they didn't recieve one. The MINUTE you sign the contract or installation paperwork, you are agreeing to pay a reoccuring bill. The bill that's mailed to you, is mailed as a courtesy and is not required. Stop complianing and do the work you need to do, and stop expecting everyone in the world to spoon feed it to you. It's all there in the fine print. You just have to open your eyes.
EXACTYL!!!!!!! Glad someone read it. I have now idea where the thought that yelling at your "support" and calling them names gets you things. Maybe its the fact that they give you what you want to get you off the phone....hmm that reminds me of the time that I wrote in that one post,"reps fake info to get your internet, only to get you off the phone." Now you yelling at that person that's only been on the phone for 1 month has just trashed your acct, and 2 days later you'll be calling up to do the same thing because your internets not working due to some billing error that is the companies fault, but in reality was actually yours. For the most part, and yeah there are exceptions as with any rule, be polite to your support and you'll find that you get better support with less problems in the long run.
Hows it a lame excuse? Ask your ISP why they don't support your router. If they're honest they'll tell you, "Because if we tell you what to do with your router, and it breaks, we're liable to pay for it." Now in case by case, that's not to big of a payment to make, but think 100's of 1000's of customers routers frying because the customer did something wrong while we were "supporting" their router. Now it may still be a lame excuse for you, but denying support for your router saves your ISP tons of money EVERY day.
But the point to my post wasn't the fact there is a problem that someone is refusing to work. It's the fact that the customer, in this exact situation, would certainly call up Microsoft because they believed it to be Microsoft's problem, and then when Microsoft needed to know what theme your desktop was in, the customer would refuse to tell them because Microsoft should know. Thanks for proving you didn't read the post at all...and if you did, I'm sorry you didn't understand it. Call slashdot, maybe its thier fault.
Cryptic??? You act like it's some arcane computer language long since forgotten. Its a series of 12 digit letters/numbers seperated in groups of 2 digits. It doesn't take a master's in rocket science to tell me that: 00:15:a2:35:48:96 looks like 00:15:a2:35:48:96 Everyone keeps spouting off about hexidecimal numbers when in fact....its not. That's probably your CS background talking. Its actually just a number...that started way back when as some base number (example : 00:00:00:00:01) and then slowly grew larger. Then when they realized, wait we're making tons of these...lets incorporate letters as well, and now you have 0-9 and soon as it hits 9 it goes to a-f. I can see how you'd get that mixed up with a hexidecimal number. But to bad it isn't. And even if it was, how hard is it to read off letters and numbers? The only thing that anyone that's argued my points has proven is that the customer is to lazy or to dumb to read off a series of digits/letters. And you can't argue that you haven't termed the customer in those to catagories. Some arcane hexidecimal number? lol guess what even in language other that English the number 9 looks just like the english number 9.
No, I'm not making excuses at all, you just fail to see the reasoning that there is almost no chance at all that your ISP has your MAC address when it aquired your records from a company that didn't keep records properly. That's like taking over a big software developement project that has tons of bugs in it, only to notice that the code is unreadable. Who do you think you'd get info from in that situation?? The customer should be your answer. But when the customer rants and cries about not wanting to read a MAC off, then what do you do? I'm no making excuses for anyone...but your defending the laziness it requires to not read off a MAC simply because you pay for internet. The 2 go hand in hand. You don't get one without the other. You can argue it all you want, and in 2 weeks when you need internet service guess what you'll be doing. Either reading off a mac or paying for a tech to come do it for you.
But I think it was called Robo Cop. Soon enough things like IRobot will start to happen, and then the robots will invent time travel and then things like T1 and T1000 will be roaming the streets looking for John Connor.
If you try to buy or upgrade a new phone over the phone = 3 calls
Calls to track phone package in shipment = 2 calls
Post sale check on the rebates that didn't get processed = 2 calls
Calls to straighten out the PCS services Sprint screwed up during the upgrade = 2 calls
Calls to straighten out the next billing cycle = PRICELESS
Sorry, I noticed an opening in your defenses and I took it. You walked into that one.I never said anything about not doing my job, even if the customer was a blatant moron or not. That's one thing I always prided myself on, and the one thing that let me get this position in my life.
Yeah, in all reality I guess most of my strife with people that can't do things on their own does come from my military mindset. But in all honesty that doesn't change the idea of what I was saying. If put into another context people would be saying different things. Had I used a car company and said if your car rolled down the hill becuase you left it in nuetral who's fault would that be? No one hear would have blamed the car company. But the same thing goes with a modem, if you can't get onto the internet because your modem is in standby...who's fault is that. Everyone here yells THE CABLE COMPANY. The sentiment is the same in any industry. It just so happens this is my industry that I know, so I'd rather talk about things I know. Nothing gets my goat more than people talking/complaining about things they dont' know and can't change.
Omg another that didn't read anything that was written before. 1. Most of your cable/phone companies account information came from the company they aquired. Spelled out: If you were with NEXTEL guess what, sprint probably doesn't know your phones serial number unless NEXTEL had it right. If they don't have it guess who needs to provide it? 2. No one, I don't care who you are, tells your cable/internet provider they're MAC address EVERY time they call in. 3. I don't have to quit. Becuase I don't deal with people like you. You call your internet/phone provider, they call a third party, and that third party calls me. Your qualms with your cable company no longer matter to me. They once did, but years of dealing with troublesome customers that should have learned to operate thier own devices changed that a LONG time ago. 3. Fuck you and your ideas about my mandatory certification. If you don't know how to change your screen saver, in ALL reality, that's not Microsofts problem....that's yours. The world is your internet. Use it or stfu.
If you can't provide internet service to somebody without having the customer read you an arcane 32 bit number in hexadecimal, perhaps there something you as a company could be doing better. If your system is so easy to break that a customer can screw you up by leaving off their fricking apartment number, then perhaps your company should've taken a look at itself instead of blaming customers for being stupid.
Did you read the part that more than half of any communication giants records come from other company's that went belly up due to poor record keeping? I'm guessing not....or you may have thought more about that. Because I actually argued both sides (certainly one more than the other) but both were argued. Otherwise I would have said nothing about the reps faking numbers just to get customers their service. And if you as a customer doesn't have the brains to figure out that you have an apartment number that would need to be divulged, then thats your fault. Sorry, if you don't tell the company about your living arrangements, there's no way for them to find out. The real simple and sweet of it, though is I don't need your apt #, your phone number, your serial or mac, or your ip to restart/deprovision/reprovision for any service. I don't even need to work for any of those companies that provides that service. All I need is my laptop and a node. But phone reps that you talk to on a daily basis don't have that. All they have is your record...that may have come from another company...that had who knows how many people changing numbers around to get YOU your service thru the years.
I'm guessing the miserable company you worked for never missed billing a customer for a dime, did they?
If you knew anything about the your phone company or cable company revenue allotment you'd know that more than $2m a year is reserved just for crediting for the company AND the consumers mistakes.
In the old days you would've sent somebody out there fix his problem instead of relying on him to do your field work for you.
And that's what happens. When its something that is the fault of the company a tech is sent out. If its something that can be fixed on the phone why would you waste the $150 it would cost to get out there and reset a modem?
Lets be real, your only complaint is that your company wants you to do their "field work" (your use of field work for this issue is completely wrong) is about not wanting to read a serial number. That's not only laughable, its lazy. If you have problems with doing that, then go ahead and request a technician. It will cost you anywhere from $29-$75 depending on the company your with because reading the MAC address off of your PERSONALLY owned modem is in fact NOT your ISPs job. Is that worth not being polite and picking up the machine that is by your foot and reading off the serial when asked? No, you'd rather spit profanities at someone, who for all intents and purposes could have just been released from prison no more than 3 months ago, and is now looking at your name, your address, your phone number, and your social if you provided it. You have no idea what type of person is on the other line, you just assume that because he's the "voice" of your company he's not going to do anything at all when you call him things you wouldn't call your worst enemy. Thank god, at least for the companies I've worked for, he's not. But you never know.
I was only pointing out what was my experience. You seem to have gotten offended by it. Statistics don't lie, emotions do. Call all you want. Your right. I don't care. And why should I? I came back from the Corps, after putting my life up for trade for your freedoms to spend the early part of my career being tr