Yup, cursing in the title.... its gonna be one of those rants.
Why Microsoft, why did you just strait up reverse your policy and make the 360 2.0?
Instead of actually listening to complaints they decided to do a full reversal....
Most peoples complaints about the 24 hour thing would have been remedied by a longer time, OR disk authentication. Not disk has to be in drive even if you are online.
You fuckers out there on the internet that complained and didnt offer a creative solution (24 hours OR disk authentication) just fucked me out of roughly 300 dollars a year for another live account and two copies of half the games I buy... thanks for that....
You thought they were anti consumer and out to make money. Hey, guess what, the possibility of sales, gone, the fact that they want to make money...They are a frigging company, what do you think they are in business to do?
This is why people say to offer constructive criticism and not just criticism, waaa waa waaa gets things rolled back, waa why not do x gets things fixed.
Sorry for the rant... I am just a little annoyed that they went 180 instead of refining their approach.
Thursday, June 20, 2013
Friday, June 14, 2013
Is there a doctor in the house?
Here comes a rant...
If you are a doctor and someone comes to see you with some bad pain, don't rush running tests on a Thursday and tell that patient that you will call them Friday with the results and then take the day off and not have someone cover....
Short version of story:
Been in abdominal pain since Monday night
Went to doctor Thursday afternoon
doctor rushes blood tests and schedules ultrasound on gallbladder for 0830 Friday morning
I went to the ultrasound
my pain has eased significantly since Thursday night, was even able to eat today, doctor has no clue of this.
I called them at 4:45 to ask if my results were in and to talk to doc.
response I get is "Shes not here today but we have a printout of your blood test if you want it"
so now I get to sit all weekend wondering if I will be having surgery or what... Im nervous, and a tad scared.
If the pain comes back full strength I will go to the ER...
end rant
If you are a doctor and someone comes to see you with some bad pain, don't rush running tests on a Thursday and tell that patient that you will call them Friday with the results and then take the day off and not have someone cover....
Short version of story:
Been in abdominal pain since Monday night
Went to doctor Thursday afternoon
doctor rushes blood tests and schedules ultrasound on gallbladder for 0830 Friday morning
I went to the ultrasound
my pain has eased significantly since Thursday night, was even able to eat today, doctor has no clue of this.
I called them at 4:45 to ask if my results were in and to talk to doc.
response I get is "Shes not here today but we have a printout of your blood test if you want it"
so now I get to sit all weekend wondering if I will be having surgery or what... Im nervous, and a tad scared.
If the pain comes back full strength I will go to the ER...
end rant
Saturday, June 8, 2013
Hey Microsoft, please read this!
Dear Microsoft,
Please reconsider your stance on the Xbox One and 24 hours offline situation.
As I am sure you know, SONY has a Serial number (Unique) on every disk they ship out.
With that information I would request this change.
Please serialize every disk pressed, and write some code into the console's OS that allows, if the internet is down, the user to insert the proper disk into his/her console and that disk re-authorize for another 24 hours.
Note this is only for games that have disks, if purchased online download only, please move this to 3 or 6 days.
24 hours is not long enough for the average consumer. Perhaps in Redmond when the internet goes out they have it fixed within 24 hours. However here in Kentucky when there is bad weather (ie. an Ice Storm) the internet is typically disrupted for 2-6 days. Steam allows a nominal 30 days, this would be ideal. Please consider a longer time frame, especially for customers with Time Warner Cable, the average turnaround for them with a truck roll, cable cut, or even a dying node is at minimum two days. If any of those happened I wouldn't be able to use my Xbox One.
Internet outages are frequent occurrences here in the eastern central United States, please take this into account. The shortest outage I have had has been 12 hours, the average is 48. I dont think I would purchase an Xbox One based on that information. I am your target market, a 31 year old male, with a family, who has disposable income for games. I have been an Xbox fan since the beginning, 9 year XBL gold account, had 2 original Xboxes, 3 360s currently (I sent a total of 9 (BTW this better not happen with Xbox One) off for red ring of death), and was planning on at least 2 Xbox Ones.
Please consider this middle class American's views and help us out, this would probably smooth over some of the internet's ire.
Thank you for your time and attention
Christopher Van Leuven
31 Year old Middle Class Gamer
P.S. I have some other ideas on how to smooth over some of the internet ire if you would like to contact me.
Everyone that reads this, please share it and send it to microsoft, it probably wont help, but if they see it enough maybe, just maybe something could get changed.
Please reconsider your stance on the Xbox One and 24 hours offline situation.
As I am sure you know, SONY has a Serial number (Unique) on every disk they ship out.
With that information I would request this change.
Please serialize every disk pressed, and write some code into the console's OS that allows, if the internet is down, the user to insert the proper disk into his/her console and that disk re-authorize for another 24 hours.
Note this is only for games that have disks, if purchased online download only, please move this to 3 or 6 days.
24 hours is not long enough for the average consumer. Perhaps in Redmond when the internet goes out they have it fixed within 24 hours. However here in Kentucky when there is bad weather (ie. an Ice Storm) the internet is typically disrupted for 2-6 days. Steam allows a nominal 30 days, this would be ideal. Please consider a longer time frame, especially for customers with Time Warner Cable, the average turnaround for them with a truck roll, cable cut, or even a dying node is at minimum two days. If any of those happened I wouldn't be able to use my Xbox One.
Internet outages are frequent occurrences here in the eastern central United States, please take this into account. The shortest outage I have had has been 12 hours, the average is 48. I dont think I would purchase an Xbox One based on that information. I am your target market, a 31 year old male, with a family, who has disposable income for games. I have been an Xbox fan since the beginning, 9 year XBL gold account, had 2 original Xboxes, 3 360s currently (I sent a total of 9 (BTW this better not happen with Xbox One) off for red ring of death), and was planning on at least 2 Xbox Ones.
Please consider this middle class American's views and help us out, this would probably smooth over some of the internet's ire.
Thank you for your time and attention
Christopher Van Leuven
31 Year old Middle Class Gamer
P.S. I have some other ideas on how to smooth over some of the internet ire if you would like to contact me.
Everyone that reads this, please share it and send it to microsoft, it probably wont help, but if they see it enough maybe, just maybe something could get changed.
Thursday, June 6, 2013
Microsoft, What the hell are you doing?
Hey guys,
So anyone who has read my blog before knows I like Microsoft's Xbox, and I am not afraid to admit it. However, I just don't get what they are doing here with Xbox One now. First, yes they have answered tons and tons of questions, but everyone has a different answer. Second, all of the important questions people have been asking have gone unheeded, or responded with "You will see soon". I wish I could walk into one of the execs offices, slap them in the face, and yell "Hey idiot people want to know about the product you are putting out and you aren't sending a consistent message"! Now what did they do? they cancelled the Roundtable after the E3 press conference now. Why? Is this them taking the Sony approach to last generation? "Oh we are good enough, gamers will just want our box". Something is extremely rotten in Denmark and I am starting to become concerned. Has Xbox Services and Entertainment gone the way of the rest of MS in that interns are doing all the work then being recruited off? If that's the case prepare for iteration upon iteration.
On the upside for M$ Server 2012 R2 looks awesome.
Thanks For Reading!
So anyone who has read my blog before knows I like Microsoft's Xbox, and I am not afraid to admit it. However, I just don't get what they are doing here with Xbox One now. First, yes they have answered tons and tons of questions, but everyone has a different answer. Second, all of the important questions people have been asking have gone unheeded, or responded with "You will see soon". I wish I could walk into one of the execs offices, slap them in the face, and yell "Hey idiot people want to know about the product you are putting out and you aren't sending a consistent message"! Now what did they do? they cancelled the Roundtable after the E3 press conference now. Why? Is this them taking the Sony approach to last generation? "Oh we are good enough, gamers will just want our box". Something is extremely rotten in Denmark and I am starting to become concerned. Has Xbox Services and Entertainment gone the way of the rest of MS in that interns are doing all the work then being recruited off? If that's the case prepare for iteration upon iteration.
On the upside for M$ Server 2012 R2 looks awesome.
Thanks For Reading!
Thursday, May 23, 2013
Xbox One Used Game Fee
I just heard from a reliable source that works for Microsoft on used games... It's rumor until confirmed, so I hope this helps.
Buying a game day one, the game checks in and activates, as expected.
When you trade it in you tell ms it is being traded/sold and the game de-auths from your account and you are given a code to use when selling.
Person who buys game gets code, they activate license and game is installed.
Makes sense to me at least.
Follow up on the used game fee...
This is so a game is not purchased and installed or copied, basically it's so 2 people don't buy one disk to install.
Look at it this way, in this next gen you will be able to install games and not use the disks, this is in place to prevent you from installing it to multiple Xbox accounts.
As for lending games, he wasn't sure but the selling/trading system might work.
This is not all set in stone yet.
My take... this is expected, thing of it like steam, you can still buy games on disk that activate on Steam. Think of the disks as just a delivery mechanism for the data, not the actual game. This goes one step beyond steam and lets you trade your games in. All of this makes sense to me, and I wish people would slow down and think before flaming Microsoft on this. You are trading in a license not a physical game anymore.
As for Kinect being always there, okay we expected that, people are worried that COD is going to require you to use kinect? Really you think a game with people that play everywhere, and includes lets say less than active people, is going to require you to use kinect? Not damn likely. Maybe the voice stuff, but that still wouldnt mass appeal as not everyone likes to talk.
Why is everyone mad at Microsoft for saying Kinect will be there? It gives developers options to innovate, they even said developers dont have to use it.
Always on, you guys are killing me on this, they said it doesnt always have to be on but it does require a connection and periodic check in. Why do people think this means always on? I understand this screws people like the military, I am sorry to hear that and sympathetic. However they are moving to a licensing system instead of disk based DRM (or in addition to) you cant play steam offline indefinitely, eventually you have to go online so it can re-authorize your licenses.
What we are seeing is that Xbox is becoming more and more like Steam and everyone is up in arms, whereas everyone loves steam. This is the epitome of double standard.
Lastly, please note, even according to Microsoft Spin Doctor Larry Hyrb (Major Nelson) these policies are not set in stone.
Please people just think before you flame.
You guys should listen to the GiantBombcast for this week, specifically the part that Jeff Gerstmann was on, they even thought about the trade ins, as well as the always on, 24 hours is just a ballpark figure.
I know this will get flamed... sorry, and thanks for reading!
Shadow
ShadowCVL.com
[Update]
So everyone is aware, I have sent emails to Microsofts PR team to get a few answers.
Also Here is a link to this week's GiantBombcast: http://www.giantbomb.com/podcasts/giant-bombcast-05-21-2013/1600-489/
Buying a game day one, the game checks in and activates, as expected.
When you trade it in you tell ms it is being traded/sold and the game de-auths from your account and you are given a code to use when selling.
Person who buys game gets code, they activate license and game is installed.
Makes sense to me at least.
Follow up on the used game fee...
This is so a game is not purchased and installed or copied, basically it's so 2 people don't buy one disk to install.
Look at it this way, in this next gen you will be able to install games and not use the disks, this is in place to prevent you from installing it to multiple Xbox accounts.
As for lending games, he wasn't sure but the selling/trading system might work.
This is not all set in stone yet.
My take... this is expected, thing of it like steam, you can still buy games on disk that activate on Steam. Think of the disks as just a delivery mechanism for the data, not the actual game. This goes one step beyond steam and lets you trade your games in. All of this makes sense to me, and I wish people would slow down and think before flaming Microsoft on this. You are trading in a license not a physical game anymore.
As for Kinect being always there, okay we expected that, people are worried that COD is going to require you to use kinect? Really you think a game with people that play everywhere, and includes lets say less than active people, is going to require you to use kinect? Not damn likely. Maybe the voice stuff, but that still wouldnt mass appeal as not everyone likes to talk.
Why is everyone mad at Microsoft for saying Kinect will be there? It gives developers options to innovate, they even said developers dont have to use it.
Always on, you guys are killing me on this, they said it doesnt always have to be on but it does require a connection and periodic check in. Why do people think this means always on? I understand this screws people like the military, I am sorry to hear that and sympathetic. However they are moving to a licensing system instead of disk based DRM (or in addition to) you cant play steam offline indefinitely, eventually you have to go online so it can re-authorize your licenses.
What we are seeing is that Xbox is becoming more and more like Steam and everyone is up in arms, whereas everyone loves steam. This is the epitome of double standard.
Lastly, please note, even according to Microsoft Spin Doctor Larry Hyrb (Major Nelson) these policies are not set in stone.
Please people just think before you flame.
You guys should listen to the GiantBombcast for this week, specifically the part that Jeff Gerstmann was on, they even thought about the trade ins, as well as the always on, 24 hours is just a ballpark figure.
I know this will get flamed... sorry, and thanks for reading!
Shadow
ShadowCVL.com
[Update]
So everyone is aware, I have sent emails to Microsofts PR team to get a few answers.
Also Here is a link to this week's GiantBombcast: http://www.giantbomb.com/podcasts/giant-bombcast-05-21-2013/1600-489/
Friday, May 10, 2013
YouTube, Let's Plays, and Xbox Capturing
Hey Folks!
Welcome to whatever re-incarnation this will be! Hopefully you found this blog by a google search or some other linked reference. I have started working on my YouTube channel, no more Vlogs, I suppose those have been gone for quite some time though! So now I am doing Let's Plays, I have about a month's worth posted, It also appears that YouTube is working on fixing an issue with my account.
So now I received an El Gato Game Capture HD this week, this weekend I will be starting a Let's Play of Batman Arkham City on Xbox. I recorded an intro last night and will play tonight or tomorrow and start on the editing. My next acquisition I need is a copy of Sony Vegas. It is on my list, and it is only $100 but I can do what I NEED right now with Windows Movie Maker, however I would LIKE to be able to do noise cancellation on videos, some better effects, and maybe even some better looking renders. As It stands with WMM if I import an elgato video (1080p, 30FPS) and cut off 10 seconds on the beginning the file size shrinks in half when WMM renders it, I don't need all that extra compression.
But I Digress, I will purchase a copy of vegas soon. I will also license a copy of xsplit for live streaming if there are any requests or demand for it.
So For now, here is my Channel Intro. Link Dump below
Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/vltek
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/shadowcvl
This Blog: http://shadowcvl.blogspot.com
Welcome to whatever re-incarnation this will be! Hopefully you found this blog by a google search or some other linked reference. I have started working on my YouTube channel, no more Vlogs, I suppose those have been gone for quite some time though! So now I am doing Let's Plays, I have about a month's worth posted, It also appears that YouTube is working on fixing an issue with my account.
So now I received an El Gato Game Capture HD this week, this weekend I will be starting a Let's Play of Batman Arkham City on Xbox. I recorded an intro last night and will play tonight or tomorrow and start on the editing. My next acquisition I need is a copy of Sony Vegas. It is on my list, and it is only $100 but I can do what I NEED right now with Windows Movie Maker, however I would LIKE to be able to do noise cancellation on videos, some better effects, and maybe even some better looking renders. As It stands with WMM if I import an elgato video (1080p, 30FPS) and cut off 10 seconds on the beginning the file size shrinks in half when WMM renders it, I don't need all that extra compression.
But I Digress, I will purchase a copy of vegas soon. I will also license a copy of xsplit for live streaming if there are any requests or demand for it.
So For now, here is my Channel Intro. Link Dump below
Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/vltek
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/shadowcvl
This Blog: http://shadowcvl.blogspot.com
Friday, July 20, 2012
My Letter to Directv
Ms. Filipiak,
I apologize for sending you this email directly, however I
feel it may be best you know of my recent experiences with DirecTV customer
service.
Full details of this can be found at a popular Satellite TV
forum: http://www.satelliteguys.us/directv-forum/288473-i-need-little-help-dealing-equipment.html
I will paste the essential details here:
I have a HR21 in the living room and a HR20 in
the bedroom
The 20 is the least issue, however its hard drive is getting so loud its starting to wake me up at night, I have had it since 2005/6
the 21... oh man
-I have to reboot it every 3-5 days because it locks up completely.
-I know you have to wait several hours before its usable again, but running a search on the box locks it up for 45 minutes MINIMUM, ive seen it take 90 mins
-changing channels - 2-5 minutes
-bringing up the guide or DVR list - 2-4 mins
-deleting recordings.... well I started deleting 5 episodes of top gear (SD) almost 30 mins ago... still going
thats all the big stuff
CSRs, called last tuesday, spoke to a guy, walked me through the troubleshooting, for 2 hours... most of that time was waiting for the thing to respond
he spoke to a manager/supervisor, then said they would be replacing it... confirmed the address, etc... he gave me a reference number but my dumb ass didnt write it down (I have only had this reciever for a year and last time it went smoothly)
Apparently he didnt notate the account or get an order in... I would guess it was a system flake but...?
So noticing no DVR today I call in to inquire.. nice lady answers and doesnt see me even calling in other than hitting the phone tree... wonderful... so I Am a little annoyed but nice to her, she starts walking me through troubleshooting... first step, swap the satellite cables... live.. ummm let me just send a voltage spike down the line... somehow it didnt fry anything thank god. of course that didnt fix the issues... next step... look at free space on DVR... 38% her words "that dvr only has 5 (not 500, and wrong anyway since it has 320) gigabytes of space, and it has to stay above 50% to work properly" i was befuddled, she even refuted my logic when I said the one in the bedroom sits between 3 and 5% free... she didnt get the fact that I dont set things to always keep... I know I need to keep some free space, but 50%.... noooope. She also went on to tell me that it is like a computer in that it has to have space to put things... I agreed, except that it deletes the oldest stuff when it needs to... so then she goes and I love this "well I Can offer you an upgrade for $200" my response was a belly laugh and a no, though I did press her for info on the model... an hr21-500... sigh.. I gave up and nicely asked her to transfer me to retentions...(this was over the span of the troubleshooting, a good 45 mins worth)
Enter Cancellations (yeah wrong dept, didnt realize it until later) I told the nice gentleman about my problems, asked nicely many questions about items available to me... best he could do to fix all my issues was to offer a 300 dollar upgrade to a hr34 and take the hr20 and replace it with a non dvr hd receiver... told him 300 was way too much (I would have taken 100 and possibly 2, I am not unreasonable, and havent had an upgrade in 5ish years) he said he could transfer me to retentions... oh crap... at this point I thanked him and got off the phone politely...
So here I am asking for you guys thoughts and or help
Is there an executive escalations I can talk to (not retentions) I am not trying to get something for nothing, I am trying to be compensated for paying for service I am not getting, and willing to pay a little to get things resolved... seriously.
I am very willing to drop directv altogether, but I had dish in the past... didnt like the customer service... I can deal without the AMC networks. Other than that would be overpay for time warner... no way. If I have to suffer with dish for 2 years sobeit, but the hopper (yeah I know it has issues) would suit my needs just fine and is 99 dollars for everything I would need.
I would much rather stay with direct and either get 2 new/working good/properly DVRs OR go tot eh whole home HR34 and H(wahtever model) for the bedroom, I already have a H21 in my office connected to my slingbox and TV in there... I would move the bedroom receiver in the office but I foolishly didnt run 3 coax lines in here (1 is cable for modem) only 2.
I do not have DECA or SWM, I do have whole home over my Gig network (Directv is VLANed off)
I ahve done the factory reset about 9 times in the last year on the HR21.
And if anyone needs to know my background. I work in IT, I manage 2967 (actual number as of today) Servers (only about 900 are physical) for a large government entity.
Please help... anyone who has info on who I can call or email... I am going to attempt to refrain from calling tonight because I am very aggravated...
I know it is just TV, thats why I am trying not to get too worked up about it.
The 20 is the least issue, however its hard drive is getting so loud its starting to wake me up at night, I have had it since 2005/6
the 21... oh man
-I have to reboot it every 3-5 days because it locks up completely.
-I know you have to wait several hours before its usable again, but running a search on the box locks it up for 45 minutes MINIMUM, ive seen it take 90 mins
-changing channels - 2-5 minutes
-bringing up the guide or DVR list - 2-4 mins
-deleting recordings.... well I started deleting 5 episodes of top gear (SD) almost 30 mins ago... still going
thats all the big stuff
CSRs, called last tuesday, spoke to a guy, walked me through the troubleshooting, for 2 hours... most of that time was waiting for the thing to respond
he spoke to a manager/supervisor, then said they would be replacing it... confirmed the address, etc... he gave me a reference number but my dumb ass didnt write it down (I have only had this reciever for a year and last time it went smoothly)
Apparently he didnt notate the account or get an order in... I would guess it was a system flake but...?
So noticing no DVR today I call in to inquire.. nice lady answers and doesnt see me even calling in other than hitting the phone tree... wonderful... so I Am a little annoyed but nice to her, she starts walking me through troubleshooting... first step, swap the satellite cables... live.. ummm let me just send a voltage spike down the line... somehow it didnt fry anything thank god. of course that didnt fix the issues... next step... look at free space on DVR... 38% her words "that dvr only has 5 (not 500, and wrong anyway since it has 320) gigabytes of space, and it has to stay above 50% to work properly" i was befuddled, she even refuted my logic when I said the one in the bedroom sits between 3 and 5% free... she didnt get the fact that I dont set things to always keep... I know I need to keep some free space, but 50%.... noooope. She also went on to tell me that it is like a computer in that it has to have space to put things... I agreed, except that it deletes the oldest stuff when it needs to... so then she goes and I love this "well I Can offer you an upgrade for $200" my response was a belly laugh and a no, though I did press her for info on the model... an hr21-500... sigh.. I gave up and nicely asked her to transfer me to retentions...(this was over the span of the troubleshooting, a good 45 mins worth)
Enter Cancellations (yeah wrong dept, didnt realize it until later) I told the nice gentleman about my problems, asked nicely many questions about items available to me... best he could do to fix all my issues was to offer a 300 dollar upgrade to a hr34 and take the hr20 and replace it with a non dvr hd receiver... told him 300 was way too much (I would have taken 100 and possibly 2, I am not unreasonable, and havent had an upgrade in 5ish years) he said he could transfer me to retentions... oh crap... at this point I thanked him and got off the phone politely...
So here I am asking for you guys thoughts and or help
Is there an executive escalations I can talk to (not retentions) I am not trying to get something for nothing, I am trying to be compensated for paying for service I am not getting, and willing to pay a little to get things resolved... seriously.
I am very willing to drop directv altogether, but I had dish in the past... didnt like the customer service... I can deal without the AMC networks. Other than that would be overpay for time warner... no way. If I have to suffer with dish for 2 years sobeit, but the hopper (yeah I know it has issues) would suit my needs just fine and is 99 dollars for everything I would need.
I would much rather stay with direct and either get 2 new/working good/properly DVRs OR go tot eh whole home HR34 and H(wahtever model) for the bedroom, I already have a H21 in my office connected to my slingbox and TV in there... I would move the bedroom receiver in the office but I foolishly didnt run 3 coax lines in here (1 is cable for modem) only 2.
I do not have DECA or SWM, I do have whole home over my Gig network (Directv is VLANed off)
I ahve done the factory reset about 9 times in the last year on the HR21.
And if anyone needs to know my background. I work in IT, I manage 2967 (actual number as of today) Servers (only about 900 are physical) for a large government entity.
Please help... anyone who has info on who I can call or email... I am going to attempt to refrain from calling tonight because I am very aggravated...
I know it is just TV, thats why I am trying not to get too worked up about it.
That was my first post.
MY first call on the issue was July 3rd
I took a few days to cool off and get all my ducks in a row,
I called Friday the 13th to find out if I was in contract, then
spent the day Friday talking to dish sales and time warner sales.
Saturday the 14th I called in to DirecTV to
cancel. Spoke to a very nice lady in
retentions, after 30-45 minutes on the phone with her she managed to retain me,
on one condition, that I get good working equipment. She gave me all kinds of credits and even
charged (then credited) 2 “Upgraded” receivers.
The basic gist of our conversation was that credits are great, except
they are pointless if the equipment frustrates you to the point where you can
not enjoy your entertainment. She agreed
and said she would do what she can to get 2 new receivers sent out.
Fast forward to Tuesday night (17th) I got home
from work, and there were 2 boxes from Directv on my stoop. I opened the first one, an HR21, then the
second one another HR21.
Let me pause here for a moment… The HR21 is what I would call in the IT business
the beginners box. If you have never
seen a different HD DVR operate it would probably be fine, for someone like my
dad he wouldn’t even notice the slowness.
However for someone like me in the IT field (13 years of experience at
this point if that matters for reference) the 21 line of DVRs are pieces of
junk, they were slow when first released, but the new HD guide made them almost
useless. A search of programs should not
take 45 minutes, nor should it take 3-5 minutes to change channel after the DVR
gets more than 50 percent full. There
are some more in depth review of the 21 out there on the web, but there is a
reason the warehouse is stuffed with refurbished ones
Back to Tuesday. So I
have 2 Refurb HR21s sitting at my house, first how is my “Paying” (it was
charged after all, then credited) for an equipment upgrade of equipment I
already have and getting the exact same equipment an upgrade. I wouldn’t take your computer to my office
dust it off, erase the hard drive, then bring it back to you and charge you for
an upgrade. But I digress, I will not
install these, Slow Hunks of Junk, sure it will work fine for a day or 2, but
once I record my usual stuff in less than a week itll be useless again. I phoned up retentions again since there was
a problem with my order through retentions.
Spoke to a nice lady who was surprised, at least she acted surprised, at
the fact that not only did I not get new equipment, but that I knew what I was
talking about. After a few minutes of
trying to figure it out she gave up and got a supervisor. The nice gentleman spent almost 45 minutes
trying to get me some newer equipment.
He, however, failed and sent an “escalation over to tech” and they
should call me in 24 hours. I was a
little mad at this point but I did mention that this has been an issue for over
2 weeks and he said “if you haven’t received a call by Friday call us back”. My response was that I would be for sure
calling if I hadn’t received a call because I would be cancelling.
Today is Friday July 20th, I have not heard a
peep from “Tech”. After my conversation
with Retentions last Saturday I was glad to stay with Directv, everything would
be ironed out right? Wrong. At this point I will be calling retentions
this afternoon to cancel. I have been
with Direct since 2004, have not had any real issues until now, and was only
late on 1 payment (I was switched to paperless billing a few years ago without
knowing and without a paper bill at the time no bills got paid). I realize I am 1 in 20,000,000 but in my life
I am unique. I am not asking for more
credits, I am asking for 2 things: 1. Something be done so no more customers
slip through the cracks (feel free to contact me if you would like more
perspective) 2. please get me NEW equipment or I will have to cancel this
evening.
I do not expect a response, however I will leave my contact
info below, thank you for reading and have a nice day.
Christopher M Van Leuven
Cell xxx-xxx-xxxx
Office xxx-xxx-xxxx xxxx
Home: xxxxxxxx
Work: xxxxxxxxx
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Why I HATE wireless carriers, phones, et al
I finally switched wireless carriers this year, 11 years with Tmobile and I was sick of them...
I got Tmobile in 2001, actually it was powertel then, but they changed names quickly. I was mostly satisfied with the service, except where it didnt work. Back then it wasnt uncommon for carriers not to have service in places like London, KY or in Lawrenceburg, KY but that has changed, in 2004 I noticed I had signal in London, and when I was shopping for houses I had signal in Lawrenceburg, yee haw. Then it was the coming of the smartphone, in 2005 I got a Tmobile HTC Dash, the phone was awesome, it had windows and a full keyboard, I was High Falutin. LAwrenceburg only had GPRS data, Frankfort in some places had Edge.. okay, no biggie, there is Wifi at home and where I was working. Then I got an android phone, a Motorola Cliq, I was upsold on it at the tmobile store, but Motorola phones are generally pretty good. So 3 months later when it started randomly rebooting I got concerned, Called tmobile, they replaced the phone, 3 months later same issue... called tmobile, they got motorola involved, after 6 months of dealing with tmobile trying to get a working phone the thing would reboot continuously until I would pull the battery and let it cool down, then I could get it working to send roughly 3 texts before it would reboot. it was a known issue of overheating. So I decided to change phones and got the HTC Mytouch 4g. It was a top of the line phone, had every feature I needed. even had 3g where I was working. This phone lasted 6 months before it somehow corrupted its OS and hung in a continual reboot. Wonderful, so I call tmobile and get a replacement. Its working again. But android was annoying me to death. I had to reboot it 3 or 4 times a day or it would get so slow it was unusable. even fresh out of the box it would do this. No one has an answer on that. Plus the android random restarts at least once a week, inevitably while I need the phone.
During all this time I got a used original iPhone right when the 3g iPhone came out. Hacked it, got it on Tmobile and all was well, it was used on my spare line. Thing is, the phone never had 1 issue, it always just worked. That fact alone tempered my judgement, could a almost-smart phone actually fill my needs better than tempermental android. If there is one piece of technology I need to always work its my phone. My Cell phone is my lifeline.
So I need an iPhone, great, waht phone doesnt Tmobile have? yeah, an iPhone. And since Tmobile doesnt work in my building at work... time to make a change, but to who?
it stars on January Second, my odyssey into madness.
I need to switch 4 lines over, ATT is out becuase not only are they high priced, but also ranked the worst in all other fields, I have more negative experience with ATT than any company ever.
Sprint, okay I had issues with an AirCard with Sprint, but it was mostly due to my former employer ACS. I start working with sprint on pricing and such to get 4 lines moved. Everything is set, until they run my credit and only approve 3 lines... wait what? I have 5 lines with tmobile, never paid late, my credit is very good, I just refinanced my house and bought a car, so its not as good as 6 months ago, but still very good. Sprint refuses to budge... no idea why.
Verizon, whatcha got? More expensive plans, no unlimited data, a comparable discount through my employer as they had with Sprint... Alright so I contact Verizon, get a call back in less than 10 minutes and we get the ball rolling. 2 iPhones and 2 flip phones for my parents. no problem, the rep runs my credit to check if a deposit is needed. Approved for 5 lines no deposit... what the hell sprint? So we get the flip phones and iPhones ordered, flip phones show up first, then the iphones (they were on backorder). The port ins took (and I kid you not) less than 5 mins per line.
My bill posted to the account this morning, it is within 2 dollars of what my tmobile bill was. So I have the phones I want, on the #1 provider, and the bill is basically the same. works for me.
I got Tmobile in 2001, actually it was powertel then, but they changed names quickly. I was mostly satisfied with the service, except where it didnt work. Back then it wasnt uncommon for carriers not to have service in places like London, KY or in Lawrenceburg, KY but that has changed, in 2004 I noticed I had signal in London, and when I was shopping for houses I had signal in Lawrenceburg, yee haw. Then it was the coming of the smartphone, in 2005 I got a Tmobile HTC Dash, the phone was awesome, it had windows and a full keyboard, I was High Falutin. LAwrenceburg only had GPRS data, Frankfort in some places had Edge.. okay, no biggie, there is Wifi at home and where I was working. Then I got an android phone, a Motorola Cliq, I was upsold on it at the tmobile store, but Motorola phones are generally pretty good. So 3 months later when it started randomly rebooting I got concerned, Called tmobile, they replaced the phone, 3 months later same issue... called tmobile, they got motorola involved, after 6 months of dealing with tmobile trying to get a working phone the thing would reboot continuously until I would pull the battery and let it cool down, then I could get it working to send roughly 3 texts before it would reboot. it was a known issue of overheating. So I decided to change phones and got the HTC Mytouch 4g. It was a top of the line phone, had every feature I needed. even had 3g where I was working. This phone lasted 6 months before it somehow corrupted its OS and hung in a continual reboot. Wonderful, so I call tmobile and get a replacement. Its working again. But android was annoying me to death. I had to reboot it 3 or 4 times a day or it would get so slow it was unusable. even fresh out of the box it would do this. No one has an answer on that. Plus the android random restarts at least once a week, inevitably while I need the phone.
During all this time I got a used original iPhone right when the 3g iPhone came out. Hacked it, got it on Tmobile and all was well, it was used on my spare line. Thing is, the phone never had 1 issue, it always just worked. That fact alone tempered my judgement, could a almost-smart phone actually fill my needs better than tempermental android. If there is one piece of technology I need to always work its my phone. My Cell phone is my lifeline.
So I need an iPhone, great, waht phone doesnt Tmobile have? yeah, an iPhone. And since Tmobile doesnt work in my building at work... time to make a change, but to who?
it stars on January Second, my odyssey into madness.
I need to switch 4 lines over, ATT is out becuase not only are they high priced, but also ranked the worst in all other fields, I have more negative experience with ATT than any company ever.
Sprint, okay I had issues with an AirCard with Sprint, but it was mostly due to my former employer ACS. I start working with sprint on pricing and such to get 4 lines moved. Everything is set, until they run my credit and only approve 3 lines... wait what? I have 5 lines with tmobile, never paid late, my credit is very good, I just refinanced my house and bought a car, so its not as good as 6 months ago, but still very good. Sprint refuses to budge... no idea why.
Verizon, whatcha got? More expensive plans, no unlimited data, a comparable discount through my employer as they had with Sprint... Alright so I contact Verizon, get a call back in less than 10 minutes and we get the ball rolling. 2 iPhones and 2 flip phones for my parents. no problem, the rep runs my credit to check if a deposit is needed. Approved for 5 lines no deposit... what the hell sprint? So we get the flip phones and iPhones ordered, flip phones show up first, then the iphones (they were on backorder). The port ins took (and I kid you not) less than 5 mins per line.
My bill posted to the account this morning, it is within 2 dollars of what my tmobile bill was. So I have the phones I want, on the #1 provider, and the bill is basically the same. works for me.
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
EAAAAAA!!!!! (In best Kirk Voice)
Of all the times you needed to get it right, of all the years to put your absolute 100% best foot forward on consoles EA, you Fucked Up! I suppose I shouldnt be surprised, after all it is what you are good at.
Let me qualify here...
I am NOT a COD Fanboy, as a matter of fact I LOVE the Battlefield Series, Ive owned them all, except 2142, I think it just hit at a weird time that I wasnt gaming on PC at all.
I dont game on PC anymore, it hurts my back because I get all tense in an office chair. I could rig up something for the living room computer (its a last year high power machine hooked to my 65") but its not worth the effort when my 360 and PS3 are right there as well.
SO BF3 on 360, a different beast from PC, this is ONLY about the 360, because lets face it if you play COD the Majority is on 360. BF3 has made great improvements over the last console iteration BF:BC2... of note are the server browser and ease of playing with friends. It has the same flaws as public COD matches, but if you can get 12 friends going on one server you could occupy an entire team and use team chat. problem 3/4 solved. Still not as easy as COD, but when was the last time you could drive a tank in COD (Yes I know the Treyarch 3, and 5, which were... yuck) nevermind a helo or jet.
What is almost impossible to forgive though are the Dedicated servers. Okay listen EA, I know you are going for a profit here, I know you are maximixing that profit. BUT, what is the cost for leasing some extra servers (or BLADES) for say 2 to 4 weeks for launch?
Launch night was a DISASTER, I played 14 matches total. Do you know how many actually completed without the server(s) crashing or the Bandwidth pipe causing a DOS? 2... Two... let that sink in for a moment.
Sunk in yet? Ok Good, moving along... What are the implications for that? well when the server drops/dies/is unreachable guess what happens to the points you had... they are gone. By my best estimate I lost about 10000 points and unlocks/levels last night. One match, and the one I almost threw my controller, I began at the beginning of the match, it was a very hard fought fight, I had 3000 points and the enemy team had 11 tickets left when *boop* black screen, then "EA servers unavailable" I understand launch days can be screwy, thats fine, I fully expect the COD MW3 launch in 2 weeks to do the same(ish) stuff. But I doubt Ill lose my progression when the network fails. Thats a damn big one EA... and I mean DAMN BIG.
So Instead of being a level 3 when I next login on one of my 2 game nights a week I will still be level one with a whopping 2 matches played, and all that extra time is gone.
So, thats my rant. I may write up a review on this game once I have played more matches, but I will definitely compare the 2 Shooters that are Directly competing this holiday.
and BTW EA unless Activision really badly screws the pooch on launch, you lost, that market share of the console shooters you were teasing activision about, enjoy that Crow taste, im sure its tasty.
Let me qualify here...
I am NOT a COD Fanboy, as a matter of fact I LOVE the Battlefield Series, Ive owned them all, except 2142, I think it just hit at a weird time that I wasnt gaming on PC at all.
I dont game on PC anymore, it hurts my back because I get all tense in an office chair. I could rig up something for the living room computer (its a last year high power machine hooked to my 65") but its not worth the effort when my 360 and PS3 are right there as well.
SO BF3 on 360, a different beast from PC, this is ONLY about the 360, because lets face it if you play COD the Majority is on 360. BF3 has made great improvements over the last console iteration BF:BC2... of note are the server browser and ease of playing with friends. It has the same flaws as public COD matches, but if you can get 12 friends going on one server you could occupy an entire team and use team chat. problem 3/4 solved. Still not as easy as COD, but when was the last time you could drive a tank in COD (Yes I know the Treyarch 3, and 5, which were... yuck) nevermind a helo or jet.
What is almost impossible to forgive though are the Dedicated servers. Okay listen EA, I know you are going for a profit here, I know you are maximixing that profit. BUT, what is the cost for leasing some extra servers (or BLADES) for say 2 to 4 weeks for launch?
Launch night was a DISASTER, I played 14 matches total. Do you know how many actually completed without the server(s) crashing or the Bandwidth pipe causing a DOS? 2... Two... let that sink in for a moment.
Sunk in yet? Ok Good, moving along... What are the implications for that? well when the server drops/dies/is unreachable guess what happens to the points you had... they are gone. By my best estimate I lost about 10000 points and unlocks/levels last night. One match, and the one I almost threw my controller, I began at the beginning of the match, it was a very hard fought fight, I had 3000 points and the enemy team had 11 tickets left when *boop* black screen, then "EA servers unavailable" I understand launch days can be screwy, thats fine, I fully expect the COD MW3 launch in 2 weeks to do the same(ish) stuff. But I doubt Ill lose my progression when the network fails. Thats a damn big one EA... and I mean DAMN BIG.
So Instead of being a level 3 when I next login on one of my 2 game nights a week I will still be level one with a whopping 2 matches played, and all that extra time is gone.
So, thats my rant. I may write up a review on this game once I have played more matches, but I will definitely compare the 2 Shooters that are Directly competing this holiday.
and BTW EA unless Activision really badly screws the pooch on launch, you lost, that market share of the console shooters you were teasing activision about, enjoy that Crow taste, im sure its tasty.
Thursday, August 4, 2011
I've got some Dust in my eye
Ah From Dust, where did you come from?
I have never really tried/gotten into these God games that are out there. None really appealed, well, with the exception of Sim City. I used to play com city for hours, tough half the fun was cheating, building a huge city then triggering multiple disasters.
From Dust is a very cute game, yeah, I said cute. It blends some incredibly beautiful visuals with some interesting character, and throws in some really nice gameplay. It is not for everyone, I started playing this Tuesday night, played for maybe an hour, cleared a few maps. Then I played Wednesday night, ran 4 maps, a Tropical Volcano, a Desert (more on that one), a Daytime Fire Island?!?, and a night time desert? (more on that last one). I thought I had only played for an hour, turned out to be almost 4... oops.
So I am addicted to it while playing it, that's different, but not too new for me. The maps so far have produced interesting challenges, specifically the Desert and Night Desert maps. The Volcano was fun, no big challenge for me, the Fire Island one had no challenge at all for me.
The Desert map starts off with a little water and 3 springs sitting right in front of you, you clear off some brush and place your first village. The game then tells you that it is too dry and that you need water to spread vegetation, fair enough, so you move some of the water coming out of the springs and voila you have vegetation in the area. I should note that the vegetation isnt required but it is part of the challenge. Next I started clearing a path for my little guys to grab the repel water and next totem... then it happened, I hit another spring, crap its gonna flood my village, so I clear a channel for it to flow down, in clearing that channel i hit 5 more springs, this is a desert right? After a long while of clogging springs and channeling water I got the 100% vegetation, but it wasnt a desert any more, looked more like a group of islands.
The night desert map was a neat map in that the center of the map acted like a see saw or one of those single pole single throw switches that rocks back and fourth, the trick here, water sloshes in that little area, and there is a totem at one end. After acquiring the repel water power it was made easier, however there was some hilarity to be had right there.
So here I am talking about a god game. It definitely has a lot of fun and character to it, but I found it to be an instant purchase after playing the demo. So try the demo, if you dont like it, well then move on, but if you do, buy it.
http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/Product/From-Dust/66acd000-77fe-1000-9115-d80258410a91
I have never really tried/gotten into these God games that are out there. None really appealed, well, with the exception of Sim City. I used to play com city for hours, tough half the fun was cheating, building a huge city then triggering multiple disasters.
From Dust is a very cute game, yeah, I said cute. It blends some incredibly beautiful visuals with some interesting character, and throws in some really nice gameplay. It is not for everyone, I started playing this Tuesday night, played for maybe an hour, cleared a few maps. Then I played Wednesday night, ran 4 maps, a Tropical Volcano, a Desert (more on that one), a Daytime Fire Island?!?, and a night time desert? (more on that last one). I thought I had only played for an hour, turned out to be almost 4... oops.
So I am addicted to it while playing it, that's different, but not too new for me. The maps so far have produced interesting challenges, specifically the Desert and Night Desert maps. The Volcano was fun, no big challenge for me, the Fire Island one had no challenge at all for me.
The Desert map starts off with a little water and 3 springs sitting right in front of you, you clear off some brush and place your first village. The game then tells you that it is too dry and that you need water to spread vegetation, fair enough, so you move some of the water coming out of the springs and voila you have vegetation in the area. I should note that the vegetation isnt required but it is part of the challenge. Next I started clearing a path for my little guys to grab the repel water and next totem... then it happened, I hit another spring, crap its gonna flood my village, so I clear a channel for it to flow down, in clearing that channel i hit 5 more springs, this is a desert right? After a long while of clogging springs and channeling water I got the 100% vegetation, but it wasnt a desert any more, looked more like a group of islands.
The night desert map was a neat map in that the center of the map acted like a see saw or one of those single pole single throw switches that rocks back and fourth, the trick here, water sloshes in that little area, and there is a totem at one end. After acquiring the repel water power it was made easier, however there was some hilarity to be had right there.
So here I am talking about a god game. It definitely has a lot of fun and character to it, but I found it to be an instant purchase after playing the demo. So try the demo, if you dont like it, well then move on, but if you do, buy it.
http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/Product/From-Dust/66acd000-77fe-1000-9115-d80258410a91
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)