Thursday, January 31, 2002
Um … not really.
In this plastic crazy economy of ours, I pretty much had to use plastic to pay for the DSL connection to Condo Conner. Technically, it's a check card, not a credit card, but as it has that Visa logo on it, it works about the same, only I can't get myself in debt.
Now, I lost the card and had it
replaced. So it's no real surprise that I got a letter from my DSL provider that they experienced
a distrubance in the Force economic flow, as it were (never mind
that I've yet to actually see them debit my card, but I'll have to
pour over my bank statements a bit more to see what exactly might be going
on). They provided an 800 number I can call, stating “our customer service
represenatives are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.”
Okay, to me that means I can call at 2:00 am Eastern and get this straightened out.
So I call at 2:00 am Eastern to get this straightened out.
“ … and press two for your broadband service.”
Beep.
“For issues with broadband, please call 1-800-XXXXXXXX. Thank you for calling XXXXXXX.”
Excuse me? This isn't a small company by any means. This is a huge company. Can't they afford to automatically forward my call? Couldn't they have printed the correct 800 number to call? What, are they trying to turn everyone in the U.S. into phone operators?
So I call the new number.
“ … and for billing issues press four—”
Beep.
“Our billing office is currently closed and there are no represenatives able to take your call right now. Please call back during normal business hours of … ”
Um, guys? Customer service represenatives? Available 24/7? Remember? Hello? Hello?
Alligator Alley
I drove George to Naples which is on the west coast of Florida, so she could visit her parents. It's not a bad drive, about 85 miles, of which 78 are along Alligator Alley. Now it's I-75 and four lanes wide, but when I moved down here in 1979 it was a two lane road with a high death rate on it (78 miles with no exits and a huge truck doing 50 in front of you the tempation to pass is all too great … do you see where this is going?). It still has its share of accidents but they're not nearly as bad. And there are actually two exits now between the endpoints. Woo hoo!
The drive over took a little over an hour (Speed limit on Alligator Alley: 70 mph) so it wasn't that bad (it takes an hour to go from West Palm Beach to Miami and both are considered local towns here in South Florida). And dispite the please from George's parents, I could not stay for dinner as I had to drive back across the state to pick up Spring from work.
Threads
- Condo Commandos: They've been quiet since I called about unathorized occupants and the Head Condo Commando called back so it looks like the recent maelstrom has blown over for now. I think it also helped that I cleaned up the back porch.
- the Mercedes: It's been towed! Or at least moved somewhere else.
- the Impending Move: We still waiting to see if we've been approved for the townhome. They are waiting for confirmation that Rob and I are employed. Rob has it easy—he's employed! The rental office is just waiting for his company to fax back the information that Rob actually works there. I don't have it so easy; being self-employed it's a bit harder to say “Yes, I'm employed.” They want proof which means tax returns and various W-2 and 1099 forms and what not. On the plus side, if Rob is deened to make enough then it's not so important that I actually prove I make a minimum amount of income per year.
- Network Solutions: I have yet to print out the form and fax it back to them with photo ID. Seeing how I'm going to have to rent a fax as it where to do this, and money is a bit tight with the current housing situation this might take a few more days to get resolved.
- Web server/browser bugs: It turns out both Mark and I need to read
the HTTP
specification a bit closer. When a browser sends the
Host:header, it also sends the port number if the port isn't the standard HTTP port, which Mark didn't realize. So when he was sending the redirect, he was adding on the port number, which was already included in the host portion. Bug fixed.
