My Thoughts

A summary of my daily thoughts.

Tuesday, September 26, 2006

Update

I have no idea when I will be able to post this. At 10 PM the DSL
connection was working fine. When I turned on the computer at 5:30 AM,
I could not connect to the Internet. I called the AT&T Yahoo technical
support. The rep. concluded there was a line problem. I had two
lengthy waits on hold while he called other departments. Finally he
connected me with a woman from the line repair department. She said
the problem would be corrected sometime today. I think this is very
strange. This is the way it acted when the contractor cut the lines
which initiated one of the big digs in my neighbor's yard. I cannot
imagine that they were out cutting lines over night. If my neighbor's
yard is dug up one more time, I have no idea what will happen. The
neighbor lady said her husband is normally a very mild mannered
person, but now you can almost see steam coming out of his ears.

I was told by AT&T yesterday that CallNotes would be working by 5
PM yesterday. Last night I tried to follow the setup instructions for
CallNotes. It was the same problem as it was back on September 12. I
got my cell phone and called the new number that my phone was supposed
to be changed to. I got an error recording. Then I called the number I
have had since the beginning and it rang. I called AT&T. The women I
talked with said she saw the order for the change and it should be
changed by 3 PM today.

The woman from the community association called and told me she
understood I was very unhappy about the satellite dish. She asked if
she could come out and talk. I told her we could talk when she was
able to tell me why she approved the house across the cul-de-sac from
me and denied mine. The other house has an identical installation and
the side of the house is actually more exposed to Frisco Lakes Drive
than mine. If this woman tries to deny my neighbor after she has
already approved the installation, she will have another person as
angry as I am. I have talked to the neighbor and she is adamant that
the dish will not be moved. There are other dishes on the side of the
house along Frisco Lakes Dr. with mounted dishes. If necessary, I will
organize all the neighbors and start picketing in front of the sales
center.

Sears is supposed to be out sometime today to check out my appliances.
I checked the level of the dryer, and it is level. Maybe the thumping
sound is normal. I also read the washer manual. There is a beaded
strap that is supposed to be used to secure the drain hose when there
is a standpipe drain. My drain is between the washer faucets in one of
the laundry room drain faucet combinations. The manual just says to
secure the drain hose to the water hoses. Apparently no neat way of
doing this is provided. I think better tape than packaging tape could
have been used. At least I know the delivery men attempted to do the
proper thing. I checked the level of the refrigerator and it is off
quite a bit from front to back. This is probably the reason why the
doors are not closing by themselves. I just read the manual and the
door on this refrigerator has a feature to stay open if they are
opened beyond a certain point to allow you to put groceries away. This
may be part of the problem because I have noticed the doors do close
if they are only partially open. There is an open door alarm. It has
not sounded. My old GE refrigerator alarmed if the door was open more
than one minute. The manual says this one alarms if the door has been
open for three minutes. I think 3 minutes is too long and one minute
was too short. The alarm sounded all the time on the old refrigerator,
but I have not heard this one.

More Quality Construction

This morning I had a tub bath in the master bathroom. For the first
time I managed to adjust the faucets so the bath temperature was the
way I like it. I was relaxing in the tub and looked up under the
window sill and saw the big gap that has not been caulked. HEY
PULTE—YOUR PEOPLE ARE NOT DELIVERING A QUALITY PRODUCT!!! I left a
voice mail message for Meagan to try and get this on the list for
tomorrow. Now my biggest worry is that off center air return duct. I
do not have a clue as to how that will be fixed.

I got a call on my cell phone from Sears repair service. When I was
told my phone number would be changed yesterday, I called Sears and
gave them the new phone number so the technician would be able to
reach me. Of course, AT&T did not follow through and change the
number. The poor Sears technician did not know how to find my house
since my street is not on any map. He finally got through to me, and I
gave him directions. He sounded very nice on the phone. I have hope
that he will be able to do the right thing.

It is a quarter after eight and my DSL service is still not working. I
am watching for the digging crew to show up to desecrate my neighbor's
yard again. I am not certain of the reasons for all the digs, but I am
fairly sure that some of them were initiated by my trouble with the
DSL service. I remember the big digs back in Beaumont when a neighbor
got DSL.

Two separate technicians from Sears have already been here. Both were
very helpful. The washer and dryer technician redid the washer drain
hose placement and secured it with better tape. He listened to the
dyer and said the thumping was normal. This is the top-of-the-line
dryer that with dual motors. There is a separate motor blowing air out
the vent. This is the one causing the noise. I told him about how the
dryer would not cut off when I was drying small loads on the ultra
delicate cycle. He said with a very small load the clothes did not
contact the sensors properly so the sensors are behaving as though
there is still moisture in the clothes. What he said made sense. I
asked him about the problems I had seen reported in the Laundry Room
forum. He was well aware of the problem and said my machine was
manufactured after the problem was corrected. I told him I wished
Sears would give their sales people some of the training he has
because I was not able to get some of my questions answered before I
purchased the machines. He said Whirlpool did two years of laboratory
testing on these machines before they were released. He is a better
salesman than the Sears sales staff.

Just as the washer-dryer man was leaving the refrigerator technician
arrived. He checked out the doors and said mine were normal. I think I
like the old door design better. I am always going to have to be sure
that the doors are pushed close. The door will alarm, but I have not
heard it yet. I may be in another part of the house by the time the
alarm sounds and not be able to hear it. He then tried to sell me a
service policy on the refrigerator. I purchased the refrigerator on
July 23, but it was not delivered until September 9. I am already past
the window to get the lowest price on the service policy. I usually do
not purchase extended service policies, but I have had bad experiences
with GE refrigerators and this is a new untested model. My neighbor
bought a slightly smaller top-of-the-line GE refrigerator that has
most of the features of mine. She has several problems with hers. I
appear to have been lucky with mine. Other than the doors not closing,
I have found nothing wrong. I was so worried about being able to get
the refrigerator before I moved that I think it is rather ironic that
the refrigerator is the one thing that has gone right. I noticed that
Lowes, Home Depot and Best Buy now all have this model on their
websites. All have higher prices posted than what I paid and all of
them still say unavailable. The Sears sales person who said Sears has
a special arrangement with GE must have been telling the truth.

It is now 11 AM and the DSL is still out. I made another lengthy call
to AT&T. Since I have had the eye surgery I have been unable to cry.
While I was on the phone with AT&T I actually started to cry. Tears
rolled down my cheeks. It almost made me laugh. I think my performance
got to the woman I was talking with. She saw where the changes to my
service and the new phone number were supposed to have taken place,
but it was held up for some unknown reason. She assured me that she
got it straightened out and the phone number will be changed today.
She then checked into the line repair for DSL. She said it would be
complete by 7 PM. I told her I was not getting the service I am paying
for. She issued a credit for $19.99 for a month's DSL service. I asked
for her name and I.D. I am making careful notes of all my calls
including the date and time.

Meagan came by and glued little pads to cushion the flapper in the
range hood vent line on the outside wall. I don't think those pads
will stand up to the weather. Meagan is a nice little girl who means
well. I vented my frustrations. I am sure she will carry my words back
to the Del Webb/Pulte powers that be. I was telling her that I was
ready to picket in front of the sales office, and I would not be
alone. I also told her if I heard one more word about the dish, I
would be enlisting the services of an attorney. I don't like to get
into fights; but when I do, I mean business.

I was telling my neighbor across the street about the noise from the
vent flapper. We looked at her vent and there is a big piece of piping
missing in her kitchen. Her vent hood is not connected to the outside
vent--more quality construction.

It is after 12 PM now and still no DSL. Yesterday I was in such a foul
mood that I did not accomplish very much. I did manage to open two
more boxes that contained my Kodak Carousel slide trays. It would be
nice to have those pictures digitized. It would save a lot of space if
I no longer had the slide projector, table, screen and all the trays.
I counted and there are seventeen book boxes in the garage.

The lawn service just arrived. This is the third time that they have
mowed my grass.

It is now 2:15 PM. The DSL is still not working. In addition my phones
do not have a dial tone. I was told the switch to the new number would
take place by 3 PM. I am going to wait until 3 PM to call AT&T. I feel
another crying spell approaching. They may be in the process of making
the number change. I really feel defeated. I am beginning to wonder if
the hurricane was all that bad.

The weather is really beautiful today. I know that Beaumont is not
this comfortable. I put away most of my kitchen equipment and have
most of the kitchen counter cleared. I also cleared the table in the
nook. Little by little things are shaping up. I have spent seventeen
days in the house. With all that I have been through it already feels
like years.

Well at last something worked. At 2:25 PM I checked the phone and it
had a dial tone. I dialed the new number and followed instructions to
set up CallNotes. I now have voice mail on my phone. Now I have to go
back and notify everybody of the new phone number. At last something
worked. The Internet light on the router is still red. If AT&T does
not mess up the billing I think I will enjoy the telephone services
that I am getting and it will be nice to be able to make calls and not
worry about tolls or long distance charges. AT&T has one year to prove
their worth. If I continue to have trouble, hopefully Time Warner will
come into Frisco Lakes and I can get cable. Their $39.95 VOIP phone
service is cheaper than AT&T and Vonage is even cheaper.

Yesterday when I called the DSL technical support I asked why the
router uses WEP instead of WPA for the network security. I was told
what I suspected is that my WiFi adapter is only capable of supporting
WEP. I tried to find an updated driver on the dLink website for my pc
card but was unable to. At least when I get a new computer next year,
I can use the stronger encryption. Also I was told the router that I
have will support the 802.11g standard. Right now it is running at the
slower 802.11b rate. I am not sure if the new standard 802.11n is
officially released and did not ask about the routers ability to
support this. From what I am reading AT&T is using the 2Wire routers
for the U-verse television service in San Antonio. I wonder if the
people in San Antonio are having as much trouble with the fiber to the
door technology as I am here in Frisco.

At 2:50 PM my DSL Internet service started working again.

There was a bill from Time Warner Beaumont in my mail. My hands were
almost shaking as I opened the envelope. I just cannot take on another
battle. It was such a relief to see Balance: $0.00 – Do Not Pay.

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home

[print version]
Visit www.dailysudoku.com for more puzzles, solutions, hints, books and other resources.