My building has every convenience
It’s gonna make life easy for me
It’s gonna be easy to get things done
I will relax alone with my loved ones
Loved ones, loved ones visit the building,
take the highway, park and come up and see me
I’ll be working, working but if you come visit
I’ll put down what I’m doing, my friends are important
We are moving into a new condo in less than two weeks (yikes!) more details to come.

It’s been a slow week at work so far? I’m mostly waiting for other people to follow up on some issues we discovered at the last planning meeting. And I’m doing a lot of research for one of the new systems we’re going to be installing in the new building. Basically, it’s going to be a real-time streaming solution. We want to be able to take a live feed from the classroom and record it, and at the same time, automatically create an MPEG/Quicktime/Windows Media version of the recording. Then we’ll archive the recording and make it available on a webserver. So if you know of any turnkey solutions for that type of system, let me know!

In other news, I turned 29 yesterday!! 😉

Ah, Monday, the start of my second week here in the new job. Something funny (especially for those of you working or living in University towns)… On my drive to work, I cross “Cottage Grove” and then proceed to cross “University” and then turn on “Woodlawn”. Do all college towns have the same street names? Or are these names modeled after some locale I’m not familiar with?

I still don’t have my computer (it’s on order though) and I’m still waiting for the phone to be installed in my office. It’s hard to hit the ground running in academia. However, I did already have a *huge* project meeting already, which, thankfully, went very well.

And I spent the weekend relaxing, which was much needed. I got to catch up on some movies… finally saw Stevie which was really excellent, although somewhat troubling. And I was surprised by the Pirates of the Caribbean, which for a movie based on a Disney theme park ride was shockingly entertaining.

All in all, a good weekend, hopefully to kick off a good week at work…

Well, today marked my first day back in the working world as I started my new position at a major university as a staff member. I’ve been a professional staff member at a university before, so I knew a little of what to expect.

The day was pretty uneventful… my boss was out due to a family emergency, so that was a minor setback, but the rest of the staff picked up nicely. I’m still waiting on my phone and my machine. I have been placed in a temp office (they are building a new building and so I have no space until that opens up this summer!) and given a “loaner” machine so I can start being productive.
I met most of my staff today as well. They seem like a nice bunch and I’m looking forward to working with them. One of the nice things about this particular institution is that it’s reputation precedes it… and so far, it’s living up to my expectations. The people here are bright, dedicated and nice. If you’re going to work for someone else, it might as well be in a good environment like this!

Of course, it wouldn’t be a university if there weren’t some issues… namely parking. I had to put my name in a “lottery” for a parking permit today. Otherwise, it’s a “fend for yourself” system, which on campus can be pretty bad. Oh well, I suppose if I can get used to getting up at 7am to come into work, I can get used to hunting for parking. It’s rough giving up the “come and go as I please” atmosphere of working for yourself, but then again, it’s nice not to have all the 24 hour worry and ulcers that come with it!

Quizno’s Subs is running a new ad campaign that features the singing, um, things, from the Moon Song Flash. I have to say, these things are some of the funniest ads I’ve seen in a long time. Quizno’s has the ads on the site… check them out! Damn, those things are funny!

Um, okay… Janet Jackson and Kid Rock? Apparenly I missed something. I didn’t realize they still had careers. It’s like I’ve been time-warped to 1997!! Help!!

I mean, seriously, no one expects it to be good but c’mon. P. Diddy has resorted to ripping off Toni Basil??! I’m going to fire up Garage Band and launch my musical career posthaste. Apparently, I have enough talent in my average turd to get a spot in the Superbowl half-time show.

Not even Janet’s tit could save this monstrosity. And I’m sorry, if that wasn’t a planned exposure (and I could care less one way or the other) then why did she have on that sunburst nipple ring/pastie on under the bodice? Hmm?? Accident? Me thinks not.

Well, it’s finally done! Actually, it was done on Sunday, and I’m just getting around to writing about it, but that’s a good thing, believe me!

The wedding was a huge success… nearly everyone we’ve spoken with has agreed that the ceremony was the right length, the food was delicious, and the cake was one of the best they’d ever had. There were a few snafus, which is to be expected, I suppose. We had some family issues that were hard to deal with… a crisis here, some hurt feelings there… none of which were intentional, but I suppose that is the way it goes. You can please some of the people some of the time, but you can’t please all of the people… I’d say overall we were pretty successful.

I slept the best I’d slept in months on Sunday night… the relief of having all the wedding planning pressure over was incredible. Then we took a few days off to just be with each other, which was very nice. We’re going to shoot for our honeymoon over the holidays… it’s hard to get away when you’re both starting small businesses! But we’re both as happy as you can be!!

24 Hours from now, I will be in the middle of my wedding ceremony. And yes, I am nervous as hell! However, I’m not nervous about the actual marriage part. I’m worried that I’ll be late to the boat (we’re getting married on a yacht on Lake Michigan) or that the cake will be messed up, or that the flowers won’t be there… and about standing up in front of 120 people!

It’s been so much work planning this wedding, and dealing with all the problems that crop up along the way. My friend Kate said, “A wedding is a terrible way to start a marriage” and now I know what he meant! If we could go back to March when all this was set in motion, I think now we’d elope.

But I guess tomorrow it will all be over, and that will be a big relief, and I will be very happy!!

Listen up AT&T and AT&T shareholders. Apparently, this is AT&T’s idea of customer service. Well, this is one AT&T customer who will be leaving AT&T as soon as I have a choice: bring on the deregulation and competition is what I say.

I have cable television, but it is mostly a bonus; what I really depend on is my cable modem, because I make my living developing for the web. Yes, I have an office, but projects sometimes require extra work at home. Okay, they almost always require extra work at home.

I am also moving at the end of August. This is an important bit of information, because…

In my typical, over-prepared manner, I called AT&T Broadband last week, to schedule the transfer of service for my move on 8/31. No problems there, I got an appointment right away and all was well with the world.

Then, on Monday (8/12) I returned home to find I had no connectivity, and my cable box was displaying an “E5” error. Odd. So I called AT&T Customer Service, and after some file checking, the rep discovered that they had messed up the transfer of service date, and I’d been cut off about three weeks too early. Of course, since it was too late in the day to send someone out then, I would have to wait until morning for my service to be turned back on. I grumbled a bit, but the rep assured me that come Tuesday morning, at 8am, my service would be restored.

Tuesday came… and Tuesday went. When I got home from work on Tuesday (8/13) my service was still not restored. I called AT&T once again, and this time the Customer Support rep informed me that the window for service was 8am- 8pm, and since it was only 6pm, my service would be restored within the next two hours. I was skeptical, but I relented. 8pm came and went. My service was not restored.

I called the Customer Support line once more, again, since it was now past 8pm, I was told, “There is nothing we can do until tomorrow.” The Customer Service people were friendly and professional, although not terribly helpful. But they assured me in their calm soothing voices that they would make a note in my file, and that Wednesday, definitely Wednesday, my service would be restored properly. Sometime between the hours of 8am and 8pm.

Let me digress for a moment to explain here, that when they disconnected me, they did not need access to my house. They disconnected me at the “outside drop” according to one rep, so fortunately, I did not have to miss work.

However, another rep informed me that there was a note on the work order for Tuesday. Apparently, when the line tech came out to restore my service, they found that the “outside drop” was located in a locked box. A locked box owned by AT&T mind you, but apparently a locked box the line tech didn’t have a key for. Now common sense and good CRM would dictate that the line tech would return to the CO, find said key, and then correct the problem, making the customer happy and fixing what was a company error in the first place. Not AT&T. Their CRM manual apparently reads “If the Outside Drop Box should be locked and require a key, fuck that customer and move on to the next.”

So now it was (is) Wednesday. I arrived home from work at 5:45pm, and sure enough, I still had no service. I knew this was not a good sign, so I immediately called Customer Support. They were oh-so polite, and oh-so professional, and oh-so completely unable to do a single damn productive thing. The work order ticket was still open they said. The service should be restored by 8pm.

“Can you have the local service center contact me to verify that?” I naively asked.

“Um, no. Well, I can send them an e-mail and tell them to call you, but I don’t even have a contact number for the local dispatch,” replied the hog-tied Customer Service rep.

Yes, page two from the AT&T CRM manual apparently reads, “Do not, at any time, empower employees to properly escalate problems, or even give them access to simple internal company contact information.” It would have been easier to find Osama Bin Laden than to find the goddamn local tech service dispatch.

Between the hours of 6pm and 8pm, on Wednesday, August 14, 2002, I called AT&T Customer Service every 15minutes on the dot. I experienced no long hold times. The customer service representatives were all polite, sympathetic, and professional. They all took my information, yet again. They all sent an “electronic notice to local dispatch” telling them to call me, ASAP. They were all completely an utterly powerless to offer me any real solution to my problem, or actually get my service restored.

So 8pm came and went another day. And as of now, I have been without cable television and cable modem service for more than 48+ hours, all from a mistake the company made in the first place. I guess I just don’t “get it” because I would have expected AT&T to make fixing my outage a priority, since they caused it in the first place! But apparently, AT&T doesn’t give a rat’s ass about me, my (large) payments to them monthly, or retaining customers who always pay their bills on time.

Well, I can only say this to AT&T: competition is coming. And when it does, I will be the first to jump ship. I will be a loud, loud voice, advocating anyone over AT&T to my friends, family, business colleagues, and anyone else within earshot on the train to work. And I’m gonna post this to my weblog. Just not from the comfort of my own home.

An AT&T Update

When I awoke this morning (8/15) of course my service was still not restored. I waited until around 9am (I am a dreamer, aren’t I?) and then placed a call to AT&T. The phone representative was once again polite and utterly useless. They assured me that the work order was in, and just to make certain, they also promised to have a supervisor call me back at my cell number. They lied.

AT&T Update Two
Having not been contacted by anyone by noon, I decided to call again. I don’t think the front line phone reps at AT&T could be any nicer, and how they manage to pull that off when they are, apparently, completely and utterly unable to actually help customers in any real way at all. I was once again escalated to a supervisor, Christy, who assured me that she would call the local dispatch herself, and call me back personally, at my cell number in the hour. Let’s not all hold our breath…

AT&T Update Three
Well, true to her word, Christy returned my call, and informed me that she had spoken directly with the local dispatch, and that my service would be restored today. The proof is in the pudding. Will I post my next update from home? Again, I’d like to say yes, but I’ll believe it when I see it.

AT&T Update Four
Well, Christy may have called dispatch, but apparently, dispatch doesn’t like her anymore than they like me. I arrived home at 5:30pm, still no connectivity. So I dialed up AT&T yet again (I have the number memorized now). Just to give you an example of how much I have been on the phone with AT&T in the past four days, the operator knew who I was. Yes, the operator at the AT&T customer service call center remembered me.

Again, she assured me it was no problem. I was in the system. By 8pm I would be channel surfing and web surfing. Ha! Six thirty rolled around. No service. I’m nervous. I call back, and this time I speak with Jason. Jason is a very helpful guy, and he escalates me to another supervisor, Mia. He assures me they will call back as soon as they have once again spoken to dispatch. I wait.

No call.

It’s now 7:30pm and we are once again perilously close to the dreaded 8pm daily cut-off. So I call back. The operator puts me back in touch with Jason, who indicates that Mia is on the phone with the local dispatch right now. Holy smokes! Could the end be in sight? There is a light at the end of the tunnel… and it’s the AT&T train, barreling down on your ass!

Jason comes back on the phone, and, guess what? AT&T will not be able to make it out to my place tonight! You have got to be kidding me. I explain to Jason, amazingly without using any profanity, that 1) this is AT&T’s mistake for disconnecting me erroneously on 8/12. 2) They missed their appointment to restore my service on Tuesday, 8/13. 3) They missed their second appointment to fix the problem on Wednesday, 8/14. And finally, that it was now Thursday, 8/15, and he was informing me that they were about to miss their third appointment in a row.

Needless to say, I was very, very angry. I asked Jason what he thought AT&T should do to compensate me for my lost time and the complete nightmare this has been in dealing with them. I’d been told before by reps that it’s AT&T’s policy to give a $20 credit for missed appointments. You know what, and listen closely AT&T: twenty dollars doesn’t mean shit to me. What means something are the four evenings I have now lost while being on the phone with AT&T all night. Four evenings I could have been productive on some of the projects I’m working on. Four evenings I could have spend with loved ones. So here’s the deal, AT&T, roll the twenty into a real tight little roll, and shove it up your corporate ass!

I explained to Jason that my time is very valuable, especially my free time after work. He sympathized and promised 1) that the problem would be solved tomorrow, Friday 8/16, and that 2) he would personally monitor my account, and call me at 10:30am tomorrow to discuss how AT&T might compensate me. Well, once again, I’m being asked to take the word of a company that has outright lied to me on multiple occasions. How they think they are going to compensate me I cannot even begin to imagine.

Now, do you want to hear the ironic part??? So, I have to get on-line to do a little work before I leave town this weekend. I get in my car to drive over to my girlfriend’s house… as I pull onto the expressway, what do I see? You guessed it! An AT&T truck! Well, actually an AT&T mini-van, but one with a ladder and a man at the wheel who looks suspiciously like a line technician.

*sigh*

AT&T Update Five

Friday. 10:45am. Still awaiting Jason’s promised call. Still no service.

AT&T Update Six
Friday. Noon. Still awaiting Jason’s promised call. Still no service. But, on the bright side, I just signed up for Direct TV. I will be cancelling my AT&T cable very shortly.

AT&T Update Seven
Fortunately, I was out of town most of Friday and all day Saturday. That helped me from going insane in dealing with AT&T. However, when I returned on Sunday, my service was still not working. I called, and fortunately, the line people had been to my outside drop and re-connected me; all that was needed now was to reactivate my account. The customer support representative did so in about 10 minutes, and behold: I was once again watching bad television. Not that it mattered, with the Tivo, I really hadn’t missed the television part much, it is the cable modem outage that is really hurting, and get this: continues to hurt! That’s right… I still do not have cable modem service.
The phone rep explains to me that they “only do the tv part” and that I will need to dial a different number for the broadband portion of my fiasco. So I dial, and after the Tier One support person is unable to help me, I am escalated to Tier Two. Doug, the very friendly and helpful Tier Two technician explains to me that, yes, my cable is back on, but unfortunately, because my modem has been off-line so long, it has been de-registered. I about crap my pants on this one… I mean, really. Now I am faced with waiting for them to re-register my cable modem, because it was out for so long, because they erroneously disconnected me in the first place. I’m going mad.

Doug explains that if this were a weekday, he could get on-line to the database people and have me fixed in a jif… maybe a half-hour. But since it is Sunday, the best he can do is send off an e-mail (of course, they can’t even give me a trouble ticket number, because, I have to be in the database for that. Idiots.

Who built this CRM system for AT&T? Anderson Consulting???!) So I am now going to be without cable modem service for one week.

AT&T Update Eight
So, first thing today I call the friendly folks at AT&T Broadband. Since the rep yesterday explained this was an easy fix (just re-adding me to the database so I can once again register my cable modem) I’m in a cheerful mood. I should know better, I really should.

Again, I go through the script with the Tier One support in order to get escalated to Tier Two (this is perhaps the stupidest customer service model I’ve ever encountered). But this time I’m greeted with some shocking news. This time, the Tier Two representative explains that the best she can do is send another e-mail, but that it might take 3-5 business days for them to get around to adding me to the db, because of their backlog. Holy fuck. That’s all I can say. I explain that I’ve already been down a week… and that it was AT&T’s fault in the first place. Well, she says, they can send someone out to my house, since the line technicians can call the database people directly. But that option will probably take a week, and I would have to be home during the appointment.
Ahem. Allow me to reiterate my rant to AT&T here: You mean to tell me that all that needs to happen to fix my problem is to re-enter my account information in a database, and that while a line-technician can call the database people directly and make it a priority, the customer support organization has no way of contacting those same database people in order to get my problem fixed????? Yes. That is how fucked up AT&T is. Is it any wonder we have service at all?

Of course, I’m livid, and so I demand to speak with a supervisor. He confirms, that indeed, AT&T’s organization is fucked up beyond belief, to the point where the customer support people are basically powerless to do anything be send off e-mails asking for these things to be done, but with no power to ensure that they actually get done, or that anyone there gives a rats ass at all.

So here I am, still without cable modem service, which is what I really cared about in the first place, waiting for some random DBA to add my information to the database, and hoping that she or he finds the e-mail that customer support sent him as being compelling enough to bump me up in the queue.

Can you believe this shit? AT&T stockholders, are you listening? I hope you aren’t counting on this company going anywhere. I am canceling my cable television service, I’ve already ordered DirecTV. And the only reason I haven’t dropped the cable modem is that there is no other provider in the area… rest assured, as soon as there is, AT&T will no longer get my business.

The Rest of the Story
Well, AT&Amp;T finally got my cable modem back up and running, and then a mere week later, I moved into my new place. The DSS people were Johnny-on-the-spot when it came to their installation appointment, and I’m now an incredibly happy DirecTV subscriber. The picture quality is astonishing compared to the crap-ass (that is the technical term) image I got from AT&T. I couldn’t be happier.

On the cable modem front, since there is no other provider in my area, I had to go with AT&T for my broadband, even though it caused me great pain. A few days after my modem service was restored at the old place, I got a call from a very apologetic corporate representative. They basically fell over themselves trying to make it up to me, and they got me an early appoinment for the install at my new place.

Now, if you’ve read this far, then this should come as no surprise to you: AT&T missed their installation appointment at my new residence! Yep. Amazing, isn’t it?

However, this time since I was dealing with a corporate rep, they rescheduled right away, came out and got it working in no time. Squeaky wheel, I guess. So I do now have working cable modem broadband access from AT&T. And they credited me for the outages and missed appointments. But I can tell you this, there is such an opportunity for competition in this market it’s scarey. And I’ll be one of the first to jump ship from AT&T as soon as there is a choice.