Bill's South Florida Blog

The Odyssey pt. 3-- leaving Bellsouth for Comcast

noreply@blogger.com (William Wetmore) — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 13:30:00 +0000

We pick up the story after I learn that Bellsouth has failed to meet the basic standards of DSL business service on my account, I spent days on the phone trying to fix this to no resolution, decided to move away from Bellsouth to Comcast and Vonage, and had to battle for several hours with Bellsouth to get them to find proof that I wasn't under a three year contract that expired in 2008 so I wouldn't have to pay an almost $500 penalty to cancel.

Now I'm awaiting a call back from Comcast, and have sent the order to Vonage to move my home phone number.

Vonage Email:
"Distinctive Ring (also called RingMaster or RingMate) is currently activated on your number. This allows different numbers to ring to the same phone with different ring tones. You will need to remove this feature in order to proceed with transferring your number.
In order to resolve this issue, we suggest that you :
Call your current phone company and request that Distinctive Ring be removed from your line.
Confirm with your phone company that your account has been updated to reflect the change by getting a confirmation number.
Call us with the confirmation number."

I have two accounts with Bellsouth. A home number, and also at home, a business DSL. At some point over the last billing cycle, they mysteriously reassigned my permanent Internet IP addresses on the Business DSL. Apparently, at the same time, they made my home number the primary line on my DSL, and put it on a Ringmaster account along with my business phone number. I didn't figure the thing about the Ringmaster out until after spending two hours on the phone after receiving the Vonage email telling me I had to change this to transfer my number.

"Hello, thank you for calling Bellsouth Residential servcies. Please enter your 10 digit home phone number to proceed..."

I tried and tried. I was continually either informed that that number didn't exist, or I was disconnected. Finally, I "0"'d out to get an agent and, two hours later, discovered that my home number wasn't my home number anymore.

Bellsouth: "Fortunately, your number hasn't been advertised yet, so we can remove it as a business line. I see that you have a cancellation request on your account. I can't make any changes while the line is being canceled."
Me: "The cancellation isn't for over a week."
Bellsouth: "Sorry, we would have to close the cancellation request to make any changes."
Me: "You made this change after I requested the cancellation, on your own. Why can't you undo it?"
Bellsouth: "No, this has been your business line, since you started service with us a week ago. Also, I see that you're on a three year contract with us, and that cancellation penalty payment is overdue. I need to send you through to our billing department to discuss any further changes to your account."
Me: "Does anything you just told me make any sense to you? It doesn't to me."

New agent... well into the conversation ...

Bellsouth: "I see that you've been a loyal customer with us since 2003. Is there anything I can do to have you stay with us?"

You'll know from Part 1 of this saga that I've been a loyal customer since 1993.

Anyhow. Finally, I managed to get the order in place to cancel my cancellation and the order in place to move the home line off of the ringmaster. I was told I'd have to meet a technician at my house to activate the new service...

Me: "Really? I'm not activating anything new- just fixing a problem you guys made for yourselves with my account in the computer."
Bellsouth: "No, to move a number from business to residential requires that we terminate a new line at your house."
Me: "I have a line at my house for this number. It's working."
Bellsouth: "That's impossible. We need to send a technician out to check."
Me: "I'll check myself when I get home in 2 hours."

I got home. The line was dead. There was a tag on my front door from Bellsouth saying: "Sorry we missed you. We were here to install your new High Speed DSL service. Please contact the 800 number to reschedule your installation."

I finally got the order to move the line straightened out, and the technician came out to my house three days later. I resubmitted the request to Vonage.

Friday, I got a new email from Vonage...

Vonage Email:

"Unfortunately, we have been advised by your current phone company that there is an issue that is preventing the transfer to Vonage. The below issue needs to be addressed in order to transfer your number.
Distinctive Ring (also called RingMaster or RingMate) is currently activated on your number. This allows different numbers to ring to the same phone with different ring tones. You will need to remove this feature in order to proceed with transferring your number.
In order to resolve this issue, we suggest that you :
Call your current phone company and request that Distinctive Ring be removed from your line.
Confirm with your phone company that your account has been updated to reflect the change by getting a confirmation number.
Call us with the confirmation number."

Of course, that was Friday too late to call Bellsouth Small Business Services (because no matter what I do, when I enter my home number, it still can only be dealt with by that group)."

This is monday. I'll let you know how that goes!

Meanwhile... Comcast has presented a whole new story of challenges... more in Part 4.

The Odyssey pt. 2-- leaving Bellsouth for Comcast

noreply@blogger.com (William Wetmore) — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 12:56:00 +0000

We pick up the story after I discovered that Bellsouth changed a key service on my DSL account without my request, mixed up my home phone number with my business number, and refused to set things straight after insisting that I'd been a customer with them for 10 years fewer than I actually have...

So, I can't trust Bellsouth anymore with my business DSL or home phone numbers. I started researching alternatives.

Several friends of my use Comcast for Internet access, and Vonage for telephone service. After a lot of research, I decided this was a perfect fit for my needs. So, two weeks ago I signed an order with Comcast, started a Vonage account, and informed Bellsouth that I would be canceling service in two weeks. Now the fun begins... the call to Bellsouth...

"Welcome to Bellsouth Small Business Services ... please enter your phone number ..."

Bellsouth: "Hello, I'm Irene. May I please have your phone number?"
Me: "I just typed it in, Irene, but here it is again..."
Bellsouth: "So I can look up your account, can you please give me the last four digits of your account number."
Me: "Sorry, Irene, I am unable to access my account number because my Internet service is currently down, and when I try to access it from my AT&T iPhone I'm met with a message that says it was unable to establish a secure connection and cannot access my account information. Is there another way that I can identify myself?"
Bellsouth: "Can you tell me the amount of your last payment, please?"
Me: "Well, I can't access my account... hold on... " I asked my wife to look up the payment on our American Express bill after calling her at work... "OK. it was $165."
Bellsouth: "And how many cents."
Me: "Hold on... " I try to call my wife back, but can't get her... "I don't have that information right now. But, if $165 is correct, isn't that enough- I mean it would be almost impossible to guess that number out of the blue, wouldn't it?"
Bellsouth: "I'm sorry, if you don't have the amount of your last bill, or the last four digits of your account, I can't help you."
Me: "Seriously? How about my address, social security, birthday, Mom's name... there isn't another way to do this? I held for 15 minutes to just get to you. Please help me out."
Bellsouth:" Sorry, without that information, I can't talk with you."
Me: "May I speak with a supervisor please?"
Bellsouth: "There are no available supervisors. That will take about 40 minutes. If you give me your number I can have one call you back."
Me: "Well, OK. Here's my cell number."

An hour later... no call back. In the mean time, I called American Express to get the exact amount of my bill: $165.79.

"Welcome to Bellsouth Small Business Services ... please enter your phone number ..."

Bellsouth: "Hello, I'm Macy. May I please have your phone number?" ... 20 minutes go by ...
Me: "Here it is again..."
Bellsouth: "So I can look up your account, can you please give me the last four digits of your account number."
Me: "Sorry, Macy, I am unable to access my account number because my Internet service is currently down, and when I try to access it from my AT&T iPhone I'm met with a message that says it was unable to establish a secure connection and cannot access my account information. Is there another way that I can identify myself?"
Bellsouth: "Can you tell me the last four digits of your Social Security number please?"
Me: "How about my last payment of $165.79... is that enough?"
Bellsouth: "No, sorry..."
Me: "Seriously?? I just got off a call an hour ago where that's all you needed, and all you could take, and I wasn't able to get help because I only knew the $165 part!!!! My last four are XXXX."
Bellsouth: "Thanks. How can I help you?"
Me:" I need to cancel my service with you. Can that be scheduled for a future date?"
Bellsouth: "Yes it can. I see that you're under a three year contract. The penalty for cancellation will be $480. When do you want to schedule this for."
Me: "Wait a minute. I'm not under a three year contract. I had a one year contract that expired last November. Please look more closely at my account."
Bellsouth: "Nope- you are at the middle of a three year contract. You requested the contract..."
Me: "May I speak with a supervisor please. This isn't correct."
Bellsouth: "I am a supervisor..."

So here's the back story on this. In 2005 I got a three year contract to try to keep my expenses down (they provided a discount.). One stipulation was that the contract would auto-renew if I didn't cancel it prior to Dec 2008. In September of 2008 I noticed that my contract discount wasn't on my bill, and went back to find that it hadn't been on my bill for months. I called to get that fixed, and while I was on the call, I told them to cancel the contract when it expired, and I moved to a one year contract that gave me a similar rate (without long distance which I never use anyhow).

My refund for the discount appeared on my next bill, but in December the new rate wasn't reflected; my bill was significantly higher. I called them on Dec 3, 2008 to get to the bottom of this. It turns out that they had ended the three year contract as expected, but hadn't activated the one year contract. I had that done while I was on the phone. My next bill reflected it.

Fast forward to this year... here I am being told that I'm on a three year contract, and will have to pay a hefty penalty to leave Bellsouth. Six phone calls, six amazing new revelations, and three hours later, I found an agent at Bellsouth who finally admitted that he had a copy of the 2008-2009 one year contract on my record, and didn't understand why everyone was telling me there would be a penalty to leave. This person was Tim. I have his email. Tim scheduled my Bellsouth cancellation for June 14th.

I contacted Comcast the next day, and that I'd be called back to make an appointment for my installation, that it should be about a week. I have two friends who just moved to the same Comcast service, and they were installed and running in 4 days, so I was excited to make the move. The monthly bill for a 12MB service with them would be $65, with a static IP address. $100 cheaper than Bellsouth, without the need for the phone number which I didn't need anyhow except as a requirement to have a Bellsouth high-speed business line. I also called Vonage and set in motion a move of my home phone number to them.

Next I find out that my home phone number can't be transferred to Vonage...

... continued in Part 3 ....

The Odyssey pt. 1-- leaving Bellsouth for Comcast

noreply@blogger.com (William Wetmore) — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 12:26:00 +0000

It all started four and a half weeks ago. My Internet service was down. This isn't an uncommon event with the Bellsouth service I've had since the early 90's, but this time it was different. I had dial tone on my DSL-connected phone; the first sign that something is wrong is usually a dead line. This time the problem wasn't my line or my modem (which has been replaced by Bellsouth four times); no, this time the problem was caused by Bellsouth.

I have a business line for which I pay $165 per month. This line provides me with a business phone number, Internet access, supposedly a 6Mb speed, and permanent static Internet IP addresses. I need these addresses and the high speed because I sometimes have to put systems online for my customers during projects. Well, on Saturday four weeks ago I had to do just that. I spent a day configuring a new system as a web server and for several other services using one of my permanent IP addresses. I put it online and discovered that I had no Internet service at all.

After an hour and a half of holding on the phone and answering idiotic questions such as "is the power turned on for your router," I finally discovered that Bellsouth had decided to reassign my permanent IP addresses. In case you don't have experience with these things, I'll use an analogy to explain... this is the equivalent of the US post office changing your address without telling you and proceeding to deliver all mail to... well... nowhere. Bellsouth had made no effort to even inform me of this change.

Here's how the technical support call proceeded:

Bellsouth: "There must be something wrong with your modem."
Me: "Well, I haven't changed anything."
Bellsouth: "Reset your modem to factory settings, and we'll reconfigure it from here."
Me: "OK- it's reset."
Bellsouth: "We can't seem to log into it ...." 40 minutes of random attempts and resetting goes by ... "you need to upgrade your firmware so we can get in..."
Me: "I will reconfigure from here, tell me what to do..."
Bellsouth: "OK- first, your IP address is 74.X.X.X ... use this subnet ... set this ..."
Me: "Why 74.X.X.X... my range is 68.X.X.X."
Bellsouth: "No, your static IP range is 74.X.X.X ..."

This is when we discovered the change. They insisted that I had always been using this new set of addresses they randomly assigned to me. It took until Sunday to get someone to admit that indeed my addresses were once something different. Then, when I asked to have them reassigned to the range I've had since the 90's, they first informed me that I'd only been a customer since 2003, and then informed me that reassignment to my old range would be impossible.

A week later, I still had no resolution of this issue. I spent every free minute on the phone calling them, having to tell my story from scratch each time, and being told various surprising things including:

"You don't have a DSL account with us."
"You requested the static IP range reassignment to 74.X.X.X last Saturday."
"Sorry, that number isn't on a business account..." we investigated this further and I was informed that my home number had been switched to the primary business account number, and had been put on something called a Ringmaster. According to them this was per my request a year ago. It wasn't. More on this in Part 2.

I also learned that if you follow all of the AT&T automated system requests while starting a call, 30% of the time you will end up right back where you started after putting in your phone number three times and being told to hold by three different voices.

After this experience, I decided that I could no longer trust AT&T as my Internet service provider, or even as the holder of my home phone number.

... continued in Part 2 ...

New Seafood place in Miami Springs!

noreply@blogger.com (William Wetmore) — Fri, 15 May 2009 23:32:00 +0000

Miami Springs has a new well-hidden pearl of a seafood restaurant. Although the address of 1 Westward Drive, placing it right on the circle, would seem to imply that Springs Seafood Co. is obvious and easy to spot, it's tucked in behind a Big Tomato and a Subway. The fact that the restaurant is crammed into such a tiny spot is perhaps a testament to the creativity of it's owners, at least we hoped that was the case as my wife and I entered the little triangular establishment.

At first, you're met with the characteristic odors of a seafood market, mixed in with the smells of cooking. The special boards and seafood cold case dominate the decor, immediately pulling your attention to the fresh selection of the day. On this day the specials included a fried Honduran Grouper sandwich, Tuna, Chilean Sea Bass, Florida Lobster, and "Seafood Rice." Always thinking it's a good idea to take the proprietor's suggestion of what is the freshest fare at a seafood restaurant, we chose from this menu: the grouper and the Seafood Rice.

We were initially presented with a fresh blue-crab salad prepared in the style of a ceviche. Seeing Conch Chowder on the menu, we asked if this was "key west style," and we were told that it was. It turned out to be completely different, but good. The conch chowder had a tomato marinara base, thick and hearty.

The Seafood Rice, was essentially a Paella without the chicken. It included blue crab (in shell), mussels, clams, calamari, scallops, in a thick yellow rice, with cuban-style plantain tostones on the side. The Grouper sandwich was an incredible portion of fish, perfectly fried, with nicely cooked french fries on the side. Other customers ordered fresh oysters and cracked conch, and all seemed to enjoy their food as much as we enjoyed ours.

We were advised to try the key lime pie, but were out of room for more. We will definitely return to our new local Seafood treasure to try more, and to save room next time for the pie!

(parking is easiest along Westward towards the bank/post office).

Google voice search for iPhone

noreply@blogger.com (William Wetmore) — Tue, 12 May 2009 16:30:00 +0000

The new Google Mobile application for iPhone is an amazing voice recognition interface to Google web search. This simple and free APP uses several capabilities of the iPhone, including the motion sensors, GPS, and voice record. When you activate the APP, as soon as you put the phone up to your face to talk, a tone sounds, awaiting your request. The tone sounds again just after you finish talking. The request is recorded, instantly sent to Google's network, and interpreted. A result comes back far faster than you would have typed a request the old fashioned way.
You do have to enunciate clearly... I accidentally got back a search for "porn allergy" when I requested a search for "corn allergy" ... that was entertaining. As long as you speak clearly, and have minimal background noise, it's amazingly accurate at determining what you're searching for even if you provide it with an entire sentence.

Saying of the Buddha

noreply@blogger.com (William Wetmore) — Fri, 08 May 2009 04:08:00 +0000

Natthi santiparam sukham.

"There is no higher bliss than peace."

-- Post From My iPhone

Zen Afternoon

noreply@blogger.com (William Wetmore) — Wed, 06 May 2009 19:19:00 +0000

Butterflies, trees, a slight breeze, and the distant roar of jet planes; this is the Zen of a Miami afternoon. There is a sense of being connected to all things when contemplating a cloudless sky in the center of a metropolis. Miami is particularly good for this type of contemplation, because no matter how much time passes, minutes, hours or years, there is a similarity, a tone, a unique sense of "now" connected with this place.

As I sit in my living room on this 6th of May 2009, I am transported back to my grandmother's porch just two miles south of here, but 30 years in the past. The same sky, the same trees and butterflies, even the same distant roar of jet planes. It would seem that nothing has changed. But, of course, almost everything has changed, even myself. It's enough to give one a taste of the eternal.

This afternoon, my awareness arises concurrently with the breeze against the trees outside. Although I can capture this moment forever in word and picture, it is forever fleeting and gone, forever arising and new. Like the traffic passing by on Okeechobee road, there are starts and pauses, noises and silence. Each moment is a snapshot between changes of the signal.

Every change results in the arising of a new pattern. However, no matter how much change there is, there is always a sense of place, here, and of time, now. Here and now, whether in 1979 or 2009, it is all the same: a May Afternoon in Miami.

Islas Canarias: decent Latin food

noreply@blogger.com (William Wetmore) — Wed, 06 May 2009 18:25:00 +0000

Islas canarias, with locations on 27th ave and 137th ave in Miami, has been a popular Latin restaurant for over 30 years. They specialize in seafood, however the selection of Latin American standards is complete. Their picadillo- stuffed plantains (tostones relleno con picadillo) are a special treat, as are their overstuffed ham croquettes.

The service is a bit hectic and forgetful ( if something is taking too long, assume it's been forgotten, not that it's being prepared!), but many items come out quickly.

English isn't spoken here, which adds to the charm of this place! This is a great opportunity to practice your Spanish. If you don't speak Spanish, you can point to your menu item; however, something different may arrive. Of course, that's a great way to try new things!

-- Post From My iPhone

D-Link Internet Photo Frame Reviewed

noreply@blogger.com (William Wetmore) — Tue, 05 May 2009 04:06:00 +0000

D-Link DSM-210 WiFi Internet Photo Frame

The photo frame joins Social Networking

With Mother's Day just around the corner, my attention turned to finding a gift that could make a real difference for my Mom. Just a little over a year since my Dad passed away, I'm faced with the reality that my Mom is more alone than ever. This means there's a lot of pressure on me to be there for her, made very difficult by the fact that she lives 4 hours away.

Daily phone conversations leave much to be desired. However, ever since Dad passed, Mom has become less and less tech-savvy. She used to sit and check her email, browse the web, and look at my and my wife's pictures online from our Apple MobileMe account. Without my Dad there, however, she has turned away from the computer, and I'm lucky if one email exchange a month occurs. The problem is, I have moved along with the rest of my generation (and newer generations) away from the telephone, and into social networks, online.

FaceBook and Twitter have become my Social Networks of choice... and I'm (as you can see) starting to Blog using blogger.com. Suddenly the half hour phone calls are just out of step with my life. So, in an effort to give my non-tech savvy Mom a window into this new universe that I inhabit, I'm employing a new Internet Appliance called the Internet Photo Frame.

Several companies have started making enhanced versions of the now-ubiquitous electronic photo frame. These Internet-attached frames can attach to RSS (really simple syndication) feeds which are available from diverse sources such as your local news channel or your favorite political party. They can also attach to Social Networking sites such as FaceBook and Twitter.

A free Web-based service called "FrameChannel.com" further enhances the available content for an Internet photo frame. This service allows easy access to RSS feeds, Social Network sites, photo sharing sites such as MobileMe from Apple, and custom content like weather and daily horoscopes.

After researching Kodak, D-Link, and a handful of other possible Frame choices, I settled on the D-Link DSM-210. This very new product caught my eye because of it's unique auto-sleep capability linked to a motion sensor, appealing to my "greener" side to save power.

In my research efforts, I discovered that the telephone and live-chat support services for Kodak and D-Link are very much lacking any practical knowledge or information about these devices. Kodak, for instance, insisted that I would need a computer turned on in my Local Area Network to feed information to their frame. I'm certain this isn't the case- because these frames are specifically made to link directly to Internet content.

Once my D-Link arrived, I hit a similar snafoo with their tech support; after setting up a FrameChannel feed (see below) on the Internet, and pairing my frame with the FrameChannel site, I discovered that the slides (each screen is called a "slide" for these devices) advanced once every 10 seconds. The DSM-210 has a menu option to change this interval from 3s to 1h, but no change would work- it only advanced once every 10s. I called D-Link, and they told me that the frame had to be faulty, and to return it to Amazon.

This didn't sit well with me- afterall, it just didn't make sense that the frame would work perfectly otherwise, but not allow me to change the advance slide interval. To test this out, I actually loaded some photos into the "favorites" on-board memory for the frame, and set those to advance every 30s. This worked. So, I became fairly certain that the interval setting for the FrameChannel feed was being controlled from the Internet, not from the Frame. This proved to be true. D-Link should have known.

The setup of the Internet Frame from D-Link was very simple. First I unboxed the frame, plugged it in, and used the remote control to attach it to our WiFi network at home. Then I went to FrameChannel.com and registered for a new account. Almost immediately the web site asks for the activation code from the frame. Going to Internet on the frame displayed this code. That's it for Frame-side configuration. You can control the transition between slides, and that's about all.

All the other settings come from the FrameChannel.com web site. You can browse through dozens of information sources, and add them to your channel (located under the My Frame Channel tab on the account Home page). Under account settings, you can then control the individual settings for each information source... for instance, you can set the picture display interval time for your pictures from MobileMe to 30 seconds, and the Buddha's Quote for the day can display for 2 minutes at a time between 7 AM and 9 AM weekdays. Discovering these detailed "Channel Rules" was critical to accomplishing what I want to do for my Mom.

Now the frame is configured. In the morning it displays the local news RSS feed, in rotation with photos from my MobileMe gallery. As the day progresses, it switches to the daily horoscope, the three day forecast, a generic quote of the day, and in the evening it shows my blog RSS feed and Twitter feeds. This way, I can send messages directly to Mom (I set up a Twitter account for her for the soul purpose of following my feed and displaying it on her frame). Now, rather than relying on that daily (or less) phone call at odd hours while I'm driving in rush hour traffic, Mom can see bits and pieces of my Social Networking life, and share in my latest photos.

Best of all, Mom doesn't have to log into anything, type anything, and can't accidentally delete anything! The frame is as passive as a television, delivering interesting content that I can customize and control remotely via FrameChannel at any time. I can even send photos from my iPhone immediately into the frame. This is an incredible, easy, and inexpensive solution that helps fill a need in my Mom's life. Who knows, perhaps she'll ask for an iPod touch for Christmas, and then start twittering back to me!