and once again i am in the middle of working on internet research and in the middle of watching something on tv and the crappy brighthouse service that i pay $130 a month for decides i can not do what i want to do and will i be compensated for my time?... the reboot started automatically about ten minutes ago and it continues... does brighthouse really care?... is brighthouse really a friend?... don't believe the bullshit commercials, they do not care and are not your friend... they continue to tell me that this should not be happening and continue to ask me for my time and my services without compensation - and they continue to provide a mediocre product with ineffective service...
and during the last service call, just two weeks ago, i told the tech what was going on and he suggested getting the new box... in other words, call for service again... and talking to two csrs on the phone to set up the service call (the first one was "disconnected" somehow), i explained all the issues and what happened?... nothing... the service tech had no clue...
so now this latest brighthouse-initiated reboot that interrupted my service took fifteen minutes and turned off my tv twice and now my tv will not go on... whatever signal was sent to the tv apparently rebooted my tv as well... and of course it turned off the cable box so the channel was reset... so now, twenty minutes later the tv is trying to connect to the but and on comes what?... not the channel i was watching (not that i want to watch a show after brighthouse forced me to miss 20 minutes of it), but the first-on channel and, of course, without sound... worst of all, the internet service has gone downhill since the move and it was the internet that was keeping me... the neighbor's dishes are looking more attractive once again...
Showing posts with label poor service. Show all posts
Showing posts with label poor service. Show all posts
Thursday, February 14, 2013
Monday, November 12, 2012
brighthouse continues to suck
so after a wonderful day out playing softball with friends and a wonderful evening home enjoying dinner with friends i decide to give up sleep tonight to watch something i was looking forward to for weeks, a 10 year reunion show for firefly and five minutes into the show for reasons only the intrusive people and computers at brighthouse know, the cable box turns off and goes into some sort of countdown followed by another countdown followed by a reboot and twenty minutes later i am still wondering why i don't just cancel this crap brighthouse service because the show will not go on...
so i will not get back the time or sleep i gave up tonight and i still do not get to watch the show i wanted to watch and brigthouse still charges more than they charged last year for service that gets worse every month... yes, besides exploring alternbative tv services and in spite of offers to help which do nothing to stop the deteriorating service and continuing service interruptions... in fact just it continues to get worse... i started keeping track and the current stats are:
brighthouse digital hd cable tv (table updated 12/14/12, still trending downward):
so i will not get back the time or sleep i gave up tonight and i still do not get to watch the show i wanted to watch and brigthouse still charges more than they charged last year for service that gets worse every month... yes, besides exploring alternbative tv services and in spite of offers to help which do nothing to stop the deteriorating service and continuing service interruptions... in fact just it continues to get worse... i started keeping track and the current stats are:
brighthouse digital hd cable tv (table updated 12/14/12, still trending downward):
| working perfectly working adequately not working properly not working at all | 0% of the time 0% of the time 90% of the time 10% of the time | no problems delays, box/channels reset occasionally, software does not adjust aspect ratio and picture size automatically sound does not go on at start, box resets/blinks every 60 seconds, aspect ratio and picture size are off box/channel resets every 10-15 seconds or other issue requires reboot, call to tech support, or visit |
Saturday, October 27, 2012
weather idiots
also know as weathermen (and not weatherwomen, but that's a prejudice so inherent in our language and culture it deserves complaints of it's own so we won't let this one get too distracted for now) and meteorologists... giving the people in this particular field of study some benefit of doubt, i will not propose to assume that all those who study meteorology are idiots... this complaint is primarily about tv meteorologists anyway... even there i will not propose to assume that all tv weather-people are idiots either... what i will state as this complaint is that almost all tv meteorologists appear to be idiots in the way they are scripted, presented, and possibly manipulated... business as usual, the media is selling product and not reporting the news accurately without bias and ulterior motives...
what i mean is... just like the news, the weather sells product... the news (and sports and weather) programming is big business and made way more dramatic, scary, shocking, and stupid than it needs to be to do what it is supposed to do, present an accurate report on real events outside of our homes and immediate daily experience... we want to know there are traffic delays on our routes to work or wherever we go, we don't need to know how many people died or are injured and what agony their family is going through "how do you feel about the critical condition your son is in?" type reporting... we want to know it is going to rain or snow or storm, but we do not need to know live coverage of idiots hanging on to street light polls in hurricanes telling us not to leave our homes...
today, i refer to an even more serious stupidity... a dangerous stupidity... i refer to the vultures picking at the carcass of potential news, specifically the over-excited alarmists trying to make much more out of the weather than is necessary or responsible... the problem with meteorologists who pander to the news media and actively represent themselves as prophets of doom on television is that goes beyond the irresponsible scare tactics that manipulate viewers... the serious issue is that people are conditioned to worry, stress, and even panic over storms that never appear and then are complacent when a real threat arises...
today's tv meteorologists are boys (and girls) who cry wolf and much like the story about the boy who cried wolf, they reduce their value to the public to side show annoyances... they find the one power line that is down and present it as widespread damage... they find the one branch that fell on one car and interview the owner as if he is one of many who were devastated by the storm... they "predict" worse case scenarios as if there is no doubt that we are all in serious danger...
earlier this year they did this with a storm that never actually became a hurricane but was still presented as a potentially catastrophic event... Hurricane Sandy that is heading up the east coast of the USA this week is the latest storm to be the fuel for irresponsible and dangerous reporting... if the world (God, Mother Nature, or whatever you believe might control the world) had a Risk Management department would identify the irresponsible cry wolf reporting by television meteorologists as a potential risk reducing actual preparedness for an actual serious weather event...
the culpability of the news media for false reporting and actively pre-determining heightened threats could be called into question in court by a savvy lawyer who demonstrates that repeated exposure to over-zealous television meteorological reports could desensitize and therein give credible cause for inadequate preparation that leads to serious injury by the public the news organizations are commissioned to serve...
beyond litigation, people can be hurt and killed because they do not take weather dangers seriously because they have repeatedly been exposed to television weather idiots who manipulate news to over-state dangers only to be repeatedly proven to be wrong...
what i mean is... just like the news, the weather sells product... the news (and sports and weather) programming is big business and made way more dramatic, scary, shocking, and stupid than it needs to be to do what it is supposed to do, present an accurate report on real events outside of our homes and immediate daily experience... we want to know there are traffic delays on our routes to work or wherever we go, we don't need to know how many people died or are injured and what agony their family is going through "how do you feel about the critical condition your son is in?" type reporting... we want to know it is going to rain or snow or storm, but we do not need to know live coverage of idiots hanging on to street light polls in hurricanes telling us not to leave our homes...
today, i refer to an even more serious stupidity... a dangerous stupidity... i refer to the vultures picking at the carcass of potential news, specifically the over-excited alarmists trying to make much more out of the weather than is necessary or responsible... the problem with meteorologists who pander to the news media and actively represent themselves as prophets of doom on television is that goes beyond the irresponsible scare tactics that manipulate viewers... the serious issue is that people are conditioned to worry, stress, and even panic over storms that never appear and then are complacent when a real threat arises...
today's tv meteorologists are boys (and girls) who cry wolf and much like the story about the boy who cried wolf, they reduce their value to the public to side show annoyances... they find the one power line that is down and present it as widespread damage... they find the one branch that fell on one car and interview the owner as if he is one of many who were devastated by the storm... they "predict" worse case scenarios as if there is no doubt that we are all in serious danger...
earlier this year they did this with a storm that never actually became a hurricane but was still presented as a potentially catastrophic event... Hurricane Sandy that is heading up the east coast of the USA this week is the latest storm to be the fuel for irresponsible and dangerous reporting... if the world (God, Mother Nature, or whatever you believe might control the world) had a Risk Management department would identify the irresponsible cry wolf reporting by television meteorologists as a potential risk reducing actual preparedness for an actual serious weather event...
the culpability of the news media for false reporting and actively pre-determining heightened threats could be called into question in court by a savvy lawyer who demonstrates that repeated exposure to over-zealous television meteorological reports could desensitize and therein give credible cause for inadequate preparation that leads to serious injury by the public the news organizations are commissioned to serve...
beyond litigation, people can be hurt and killed because they do not take weather dangers seriously because they have repeatedly been exposed to television weather idiots who manipulate news to over-state dangers only to be repeatedly proven to be wrong...
Thursday, September 6, 2012
vista fail
as in microsoft vista so totally sucks and fails it is not funny... yes, #VistaFail is added to the growing list of #Fail hashtags and labels and no, it is nothing new, it is just getting worse and worse and there is no logical reason for software to deteriorate and consume more time and memory when nothing changes on a computer... so i guess i will simply get used to restarting every day and giving up 15 minutes or more daily to microsoft... if the software was free that would be barely reasonable...
i'm so fed up with microsoft vista i don't even want to continue...
i'm so fed up with microsoft vista i don't even want to continue...
Thursday, August 30, 2012
cable and internet search
the box once again is acting up, flicking the picture and sound on and off and preventing the signal from reaching the tv... shutting it off a few times and waiting did not help this time... a manual reboot is next... and since the brighthouse service will not work and not allow me to watch tv, it is time to invest some time in research for better service - so let's see what else is available at my address...
comcast... $40 cable and $30 internet from road runner (same company brighthouse uses)... the $30 internet is without taxes and without internet speed boosts... and is a time-limited offer, 6 months and then it goes to $50... a package for $80 sounds very similar to what i am currently getting from brighthouse for at least $20 more, so there is a draw for comcast... the site does not make comparison shopping easy and does not offer any comparison to brighthouse... a prime example can be found here on this page where they have the starter tv and the internet package for $30 each and then the combo of those two services for $70... simple math suggests this company has some serious math problems (and i should trust their tech knowledge?)...
even more unfortunately, it looks like a 2 year commitment is required, which is a big turn off for me as i might find major flaws in the service in the first few months and be stuck for two years... the lack of required commitments still keeps brighthouse ahead in spite of the horrible service lately...
still, saving $20-$30 a month is a major draw so i will explore comcast further... reviews show just as many complaints about comcast as there are for brighthouse, so the switch would have to be based on the details of costs, channels, internet speed, and the roll of the dice that the service may be a bit better... sometimes, after continuous dissatisfaction, any change is better than continued poor service... ultimately, the comcast experience may be better or worse than the brighthouse experience, but i will not know unless i try it...
centurylink (orlando)... sounds similar in cost, though i have not explored the details of the services and packages offered yet...
cleartv offers a bundle of tv and internet for $65, almost half the price i currently pay per month plus one month free, so it's worth a look as i continue searching... the page, however, gives the feel of a scam (not suggesting it is, it just lacks depth and detailed information and requests contact info immediately, before providing any shopping experience)... also appears to be a 4G at best internet, much slower than high-speed cable...
att u-verse presented challenging to find in this internet search and appears to require $91 to get HDTV, which is unacceptable pricing... also, the complicated internet presence presents a lot of scam-like "authorized representatives" so finding the source provider is not easy... at&t also requires a log-in to shop "build-your own" bundles on their site, definitely marketing that borders on the spam sites...
so after jumping through a few hoops i found that max internet is $63 and 300 channels is $87 and after rebates or whatever promo offers, it's $115 a month including a dvr and an additional $100 rebate for signing up for a year... still, i do not believe this includes HDTV, so not acceptable... bundling wireless service reduces the monthly bill to $110... knowing att, there is some hoop-jumping involved, as their complicated website showed...
and ah, i believe (again, the site is not simple to navigate) i found HD and it is an extra $10 a month, so $120 now... this plan includes a movie package for $20... unfortunately, it does not appear possible to remove the movie package and still get HDTV as HDTV is not available with lower priced packages... the $100 rebate brings the monthly cost down about for the initial year, so $112 a month, about the same as the current brighthouse we pay without the two dvrs and more channels...
the catch may be that after the 12 month required contract, the $46 per month discount ends and the monthly cost is $166, are they nuts?... i'd have to speak with them before ordering, but the $112 for more channels, 2 dvr boxes (one wireless), and more sounds appealing...
directv... $40 cable for equivalent station lineup to what i have now and a dvr... regular price $70... requires a 2 year contract and goes up to $50 the second year... while the website makes comparing packages simpler than the cable providers sites, the discounts appear complicated as they are rebates requiring online submission and the risk of not getting the rebates if you do not do it correctly, typical pain-in-the-ass marketing technique)... also, auto-payment is required... again, road runner is the separate company that is bundled for high-speed internet access... the free nfl package makes directv a very serious draw in spite of the hoop-jumping required, however the time-sensitive rebate hoops make it a fourth choice for now behind the two cable providers bh and cc and att...
without the hoop-jumping, directv sounds pretty good... but the hoop-jumping suggest to me that dealing with this company will not be a simple or happy consumer experience...
brighthouse (central florida) currently charges us $120 for the cable internet (roadrunner) package (this includes taxes) for one cable box and this does not include a dvr... definitely the most expensive of the lot...
going to their bundles page i see an offer for $110 that includes phone... and $100 for the service i currently get (and why do i pay more for this, probably because i am not a new subscriber which adds to the price appeal of comcast and directv)... though the directv page makes it much easier to find prices, channel lineup details, and compare packages, the simplicity of no contract and no rebates makes this the simplest and most attractive front-end package i've found so far, yet the add-on packs can become confusing and the price difference combined with the actual experience of the poor quality of service brighthouse provides still leaves me a very dissatisfied customer looking for another provider...
it is interesting to note that brighthouse does not show up on the first search page doing a google search for "tv and internet costs orlando florida"... no charge for the marketing information, brighthouse...
wow, that was a long few hours to find all this information (and there are plenty of details i would dig deeper for before a final decision) and in fact, while this started out as a complaint, it may just be edited and become a consumer blog entry... but for this place, ultimately, i am leaning toward switching to providers unless brighthouse either improves service or meets a competitive monthly price... why pay $110+ a month for crap service when i can try an alternative with the same channels and internet speed and includes a dvr and more tvs for a lower price...
good question, aye?
comcast... $40 cable and $30 internet from road runner (same company brighthouse uses)... the $30 internet is without taxes and without internet speed boosts... and is a time-limited offer, 6 months and then it goes to $50... a package for $80 sounds very similar to what i am currently getting from brighthouse for at least $20 more, so there is a draw for comcast... the site does not make comparison shopping easy and does not offer any comparison to brighthouse... a prime example can be found here on this page where they have the starter tv and the internet package for $30 each and then the combo of those two services for $70... simple math suggests this company has some serious math problems (and i should trust their tech knowledge?)...
even more unfortunately, it looks like a 2 year commitment is required, which is a big turn off for me as i might find major flaws in the service in the first few months and be stuck for two years... the lack of required commitments still keeps brighthouse ahead in spite of the horrible service lately...
still, saving $20-$30 a month is a major draw so i will explore comcast further... reviews show just as many complaints about comcast as there are for brighthouse, so the switch would have to be based on the details of costs, channels, internet speed, and the roll of the dice that the service may be a bit better... sometimes, after continuous dissatisfaction, any change is better than continued poor service... ultimately, the comcast experience may be better or worse than the brighthouse experience, but i will not know unless i try it...
centurylink (orlando)... sounds similar in cost, though i have not explored the details of the services and packages offered yet...
cleartv offers a bundle of tv and internet for $65, almost half the price i currently pay per month plus one month free, so it's worth a look as i continue searching... the page, however, gives the feel of a scam (not suggesting it is, it just lacks depth and detailed information and requests contact info immediately, before providing any shopping experience)... also appears to be a 4G at best internet, much slower than high-speed cable...
att u-verse presented challenging to find in this internet search and appears to require $91 to get HDTV, which is unacceptable pricing... also, the complicated internet presence presents a lot of scam-like "authorized representatives" so finding the source provider is not easy... at&t also requires a log-in to shop "build-your own" bundles on their site, definitely marketing that borders on the spam sites...
so after jumping through a few hoops i found that max internet is $63 and 300 channels is $87 and after rebates or whatever promo offers, it's $115 a month including a dvr and an additional $100 rebate for signing up for a year... still, i do not believe this includes HDTV, so not acceptable... bundling wireless service reduces the monthly bill to $110... knowing att, there is some hoop-jumping involved, as their complicated website showed...
and ah, i believe (again, the site is not simple to navigate) i found HD and it is an extra $10 a month, so $120 now... this plan includes a movie package for $20... unfortunately, it does not appear possible to remove the movie package and still get HDTV as HDTV is not available with lower priced packages... the $100 rebate brings the monthly cost down about for the initial year, so $112 a month, about the same as the current brighthouse we pay without the two dvrs and more channels...
the catch may be that after the 12 month required contract, the $46 per month discount ends and the monthly cost is $166, are they nuts?... i'd have to speak with them before ordering, but the $112 for more channels, 2 dvr boxes (one wireless), and more sounds appealing...
directv... $40 cable for equivalent station lineup to what i have now and a dvr... regular price $70... requires a 2 year contract and goes up to $50 the second year... while the website makes comparing packages simpler than the cable providers sites, the discounts appear complicated as they are rebates requiring online submission and the risk of not getting the rebates if you do not do it correctly, typical pain-in-the-ass marketing technique)... also, auto-payment is required... again, road runner is the separate company that is bundled for high-speed internet access... the free nfl package makes directv a very serious draw in spite of the hoop-jumping required, however the time-sensitive rebate hoops make it a fourth choice for now behind the two cable providers bh and cc and att...
without the hoop-jumping, directv sounds pretty good... but the hoop-jumping suggest to me that dealing with this company will not be a simple or happy consumer experience...
brighthouse (central florida) currently charges us $120 for the cable internet (roadrunner) package (this includes taxes) for one cable box and this does not include a dvr... definitely the most expensive of the lot...
going to their bundles page i see an offer for $110 that includes phone... and $100 for the service i currently get (and why do i pay more for this, probably because i am not a new subscriber which adds to the price appeal of comcast and directv)... though the directv page makes it much easier to find prices, channel lineup details, and compare packages, the simplicity of no contract and no rebates makes this the simplest and most attractive front-end package i've found so far, yet the add-on packs can become confusing and the price difference combined with the actual experience of the poor quality of service brighthouse provides still leaves me a very dissatisfied customer looking for another provider...
it is interesting to note that brighthouse does not show up on the first search page doing a google search for "tv and internet costs orlando florida"... no charge for the marketing information, brighthouse...
wow, that was a long few hours to find all this information (and there are plenty of details i would dig deeper for before a final decision) and in fact, while this started out as a complaint, it may just be edited and become a consumer blog entry... but for this place, ultimately, i am leaning toward switching to providers unless brighthouse either improves service or meets a competitive monthly price... why pay $110+ a month for crap service when i can try an alternative with the same channels and internet speed and includes a dvr and more tvs for a lower price...
good question, aye?
Wednesday, August 29, 2012
not brighthouse
so once again i sit here with a lost internet connection and a lost tv cable connection in the middle of working and right at the beginning of a show so watching brighthouse cable tv is pointless and the job search i was in the middle of is not just pointless, but possibly a waste of the last hour or more since websites might not let me continue filling out their pages when the connection finally returns... how many ways can brighthouse suck...
and what will wasting more time on the phone with the tech department or wasting even more time rearranging my schedule for home visits really do that has not been done in the dozens of hours i've already wasted, really... as i said in a previous entry
there comes a time after speaking with a dozen different representatives and having a half dozen house calls over a couple of months that i run out of patience and more, i run out of belief that the brighthouse reps can fix the problem and need to take a break...
i have probably never been more ready for a sales pitch from dish or direct or u-verse or anyone but brighthouse...
... 18 MINUTES LATER... and now that the box FINALLY reset, i turn it back on (because it does not reset to the channel and show it interrupted, of course) and i return to the show i was watching and the box is blinking on and off, resetting every ten seconds or so... brighthouse decided i should not watch this show, obviously...
what kind of CRAP SERVICE is this - BRIGHTHOUSE SUCKS...
.... and now a few minutes later after turning off the box and tv and waiting and turning both on again, there is no sound... this happens at least 80% of the time we turn on the box and tv and the solution is switching stations, sometimes a few times, sometimes using the FAV button on the remote... this usually bring sound on most of the time...
i don't even mention the no sound and don't come here to record every box reset or glitch in service because this is just the kind of crap service brighthouse provides, but at least i found a fix for the no-sound problem... perhaps brighhouse sucks needs a blog all it's own because brighthouse is definitely spoiling the tongue-in-cheek tone this blog was intended to maintain because BRIGHTHOUSE SUCKS too much to laugh about it...
at least not all the time (though i should laugh at myself for capitalizations when i finally stop being angry at this latest brighthouse service failure...
sheesh...
and what will wasting more time on the phone with the tech department or wasting even more time rearranging my schedule for home visits really do that has not been done in the dozens of hours i've already wasted, really... as i said in a previous entry
there comes a time after speaking with a dozen different representatives and having a half dozen house calls over a couple of months that i run out of patience and more, i run out of belief that the brighthouse reps can fix the problem and need to take a break...
i have probably never been more ready for a sales pitch from dish or direct or u-verse or anyone but brighthouse...
... 18 MINUTES LATER... and now that the box FINALLY reset, i turn it back on (because it does not reset to the channel and show it interrupted, of course) and i return to the show i was watching and the box is blinking on and off, resetting every ten seconds or so... brighthouse decided i should not watch this show, obviously...
what kind of CRAP SERVICE is this - BRIGHTHOUSE SUCKS...
.... and now a few minutes later after turning off the box and tv and waiting and turning both on again, there is no sound... this happens at least 80% of the time we turn on the box and tv and the solution is switching stations, sometimes a few times, sometimes using the FAV button on the remote... this usually bring sound on most of the time...
i don't even mention the no sound and don't come here to record every box reset or glitch in service because this is just the kind of crap service brighthouse provides, but at least i found a fix for the no-sound problem... perhaps brighhouse sucks needs a blog all it's own because brighthouse is definitely spoiling the tongue-in-cheek tone this blog was intended to maintain because BRIGHTHOUSE SUCKS too much to laugh about it...
at least not all the time (though i should laugh at myself for capitalizations when i finally stop being angry at this latest brighthouse service failure...
sheesh...
Saturday, August 25, 2012
brighthouse service, not
once again the cable box brighthouse provides is resetting itself every ten seconds... turns off, turns on, just for whatever reasons...
so fed up with this crap brighthouse sucks service i don't even feel like a proper venting...
and they want to talk about it?
so fed up with this crap brighthouse sucks service i don't even feel like a proper venting...
and they want to talk about it?
Tuesday, August 21, 2012
brighthouse sucks, again
once again, in the middle of a program i am watching, the cable box is resetting on it's own... so i will miss ten or more minutes of the program i wanted to watch thanks to brighthouse sucks... they should just add the suck to their name... or put fail in their smiley face logo... i really do not want the horrible brighthouse service statistics i started keeping while waiting for service repairs to dominate this blog, in fact, i really don't want to be inspired to come to this blog in the first place, but i find that coming here and venting my immediate complaint, however meaningless, helps me deal with the frustration and anger i feel when my life and entertainment is interrupted or stopped by a corporate decision like right now... and it passes the time while i am waiting for the brighthouse service to return... i suppose it is just way too difficult (or simply a level of customer service that brighthouse does not wish to provide) to have a pop up on the screen ask me if this would be a good time to reboot the box or upgrade the software... especially since it also messes with my expensive plasma tv and the remote synch that is yet another frequent complaint... remotes could be so much more functional...
so the cable box is rebooting and the tv lost it's signal and is confused and thinks there was a power outage or hack attempt or virus or something as it went into emergency shut down mode... a smart tv knows when an unexpected shut down and signal change occurs, just like a computer does... but based on the poor service and products, it does not seem that the brighthouse people or software are up to speed with the latest tech... so the box is stuck on L-8 and has been since i started writing this comment... i mean, if the reboot reset upgrade or whatever is happening only took a minute, it would not be such a frustrating forget watching what you wanted to watch experience and probably wouldn't bring me to seek the distraction and venting of this complaint, but the box takes forever to do whatever it is doing without my consent... pathetic customer service...
almost any decent reliable software has a setting to "ask me before uploading updates" and "ask me before rebooting"... even microsoft in their all-powerful we-can-do-anything mindset finally understood that customer service... but not brighthouse...
not very bright, these people who make the big decisions at brighthouse...
and then of course when the box finally is rebooted, it defaults to off so i must turn it on which turns off the tv so i must get the tv remote to turn on the tv and of course the box returns to the start-up channel which comes on without sound as usual, just one more brighthouse fail i am ridiculously learning to live with... how much longer is getting shorter with each meaningless complaint (so maybe they are not as meaningless as they appear, aye?)...
and now i press the remote button to go to the next channel and i get a black screen partially burning into my plasma screen because it is a partial black screen and the box wants me to "please wait"... as if i have not waited enough...
no, i am not ready to spend a few hours and set up more appointments to try to fix things again... brighthouse wasted a lot of my time this year (and tonight( and giving them even more time just seems like getting screwed further... maybe next month...
UPDATE 3am = no, once was not enough tonight, another brighthouse interruption of service long enough to bring me here happens to ruin yet another hour of my viewing, that's three hours tonight of wasting my time paying for brighouse crappy service that is not providing what my contract says it will provide... and now the box decided to reboot yet again after another upgrade of some sort... so this is ridiculous... so yet another call to tech support to find out why my cable box is repeatingly rebooting tonight... one reboot ruining my viewing experience over two hours is not enough, another ruining a third show had to be done...
no warning, no prompt asking if this is a good time to shut down my tv enjoyment... just interrupt the shows and shut off the box after rebooting forcing me to deal with the crappy remote and the resetting of the sound because the box doesn't work right when it is turned on and resetting my tv and re-finding the channel i was watching... rub my nose in how crappy the brighthouse service really is...
it's ok, i can miss the first or last fifteen minutes of shows and still enjoy them... and adding insult to injury, the first thing i see is that bullshit brighthouse tv commercial... days are numbered for brighthouse getting my money if this keeps up...
so the cable box is rebooting and the tv lost it's signal and is confused and thinks there was a power outage or hack attempt or virus or something as it went into emergency shut down mode... a smart tv knows when an unexpected shut down and signal change occurs, just like a computer does... but based on the poor service and products, it does not seem that the brighthouse people or software are up to speed with the latest tech... so the box is stuck on L-8 and has been since i started writing this comment... i mean, if the reboot reset upgrade or whatever is happening only took a minute, it would not be such a frustrating forget watching what you wanted to watch experience and probably wouldn't bring me to seek the distraction and venting of this complaint, but the box takes forever to do whatever it is doing without my consent... pathetic customer service...
almost any decent reliable software has a setting to "ask me before uploading updates" and "ask me before rebooting"... even microsoft in their all-powerful we-can-do-anything mindset finally understood that customer service... but not brighthouse...
not very bright, these people who make the big decisions at brighthouse...
and then of course when the box finally is rebooted, it defaults to off so i must turn it on which turns off the tv so i must get the tv remote to turn on the tv and of course the box returns to the start-up channel which comes on without sound as usual, just one more brighthouse fail i am ridiculously learning to live with... how much longer is getting shorter with each meaningless complaint (so maybe they are not as meaningless as they appear, aye?)...
and now i press the remote button to go to the next channel and i get a black screen partially burning into my plasma screen because it is a partial black screen and the box wants me to "please wait"... as if i have not waited enough...
no, i am not ready to spend a few hours and set up more appointments to try to fix things again... brighthouse wasted a lot of my time this year (and tonight( and giving them even more time just seems like getting screwed further... maybe next month...
UPDATE 3am = no, once was not enough tonight, another brighthouse interruption of service long enough to bring me here happens to ruin yet another hour of my viewing, that's three hours tonight of wasting my time paying for brighouse crappy service that is not providing what my contract says it will provide... and now the box decided to reboot yet again after another upgrade of some sort... so this is ridiculous... so yet another call to tech support to find out why my cable box is repeatingly rebooting tonight... one reboot ruining my viewing experience over two hours is not enough, another ruining a third show had to be done...
no warning, no prompt asking if this is a good time to shut down my tv enjoyment... just interrupt the shows and shut off the box after rebooting forcing me to deal with the crappy remote and the resetting of the sound because the box doesn't work right when it is turned on and resetting my tv and re-finding the channel i was watching... rub my nose in how crappy the brighthouse service really is...
it's ok, i can miss the first or last fifteen minutes of shows and still enjoy them... and adding insult to injury, the first thing i see is that bullshit brighthouse tv commercial... days are numbered for brighthouse getting my money if this keeps up...
Thursday, August 16, 2012
brighthouse sucks, chapter whatever
yes, brighthouse brings me here again... let's do a quick status check:
brighthouse digital hd cable tv (table updated 11/12/12, still trending downward):
brighthouse roadrunner broadband turbo internet (updated 9/5/12, trending upward):
and the vent as it was happening...
another hour and a half of my time working for brighthouse and i am paying them to work for them... i was working for myself on the net juggling a lot of tabs searching for tires and blogging and the modem decided to stop, blink, just stop... i rebooted four times and nothing... next came shutting down the computer and it took a half hour to save all the work i was in the middle of, but i saved everything and shut down the computer... turned it on, no change... local service only... we've been here before a few times and it ended up with blaming my computer and then service calls and then changing out the modem... i hope this isn't the start of yet another time consuming no-service cycle as i need to stay connected to continue job hunting...
i called brighthouse and was on hold a half hour listening to how easy it is to resolve modem issues by rebooting the modem... reboot, no change... reboot the modem again... no change... again, no change... reboot the computer again, no change...
after about an hour of rebooting the modem and the computer, suddenly there is a connection again... i was still on hold with brighthouse listening to the repetitive messages, so i hung up... thanks for the crappy service once again, brighthouse...
yeah, i know a brighthouse representative left a message here last month offering to help, but there comes a time after speaking with a dozen different representatives and having a half dozen house calls over a couple of months that i run out of patience and more, i run out of belief that the brighthouse reps can fix the problem and need to take a break...
the tv cable box still sucks too, but at least it's been working adequately most nights... sometimes it just starts blanking out every fifteen seconds or so and sometimes it works ok... sometimes the sound works when the box and tv go on, sometimes it doesn't... the channel needs to be changed to get the sound to work and that works about 75% of the time... the box needs rebooting at least once a week... it's a shame that i've gotten used to such poor service...
and the long term damage that i am going to have to remedy is that the box is definitely the wrong box for a plasma tv because the box does not resize the images like the other box does (a difference in software i am told, but can i believe the techs?) so some burning in of the images on the plasma screen has started... i just have not had the patience to call and set up yet another service call to change boxes again because this box at least works about 60-70% of the time and the last few boxes have not been nearly as mediocre ( in other words, they worked worse)...
one of these days i will just have to make the time to research the alternatives, direct tv, dish, u-verse, century link... friends have those others services and most seem to like them... there are drawbacks to all of them, but brighthouse is just becoming intolerable and they are the highest price service of them all...
i am so tired of wasting my time with them...
UPDATE 3:15AM... and about ten minutes later... this entry was uploaded and the brighthouse service went out again so i called brighthouse back... good news, this time i was actually connected to a tech support rep after about five minutes... this time the modem reset itself, all lights blinking off and then back on just before the rep came on the line... i shut down the computer again and when i turned it back on, it was connected again... the rep put me on hold and returned a few minutes later informing me that the tests he ran showed the modem was shutting down on it's own... well at least they see that on their end... now i am waiting for a level 1 support tech troubleshoot the problem... i hold we don't have to go to yet another visit from brighthouse to exchange modems again...
oh crap, i am listening to the annoying modem reset message again... i hope this does not mean i was reset in the queue and have an hour wait like last time... the more i listen to that stupid unplug your modem message, the more i want to hang up and unplug from brighthouse for good... i will be back later with an update...
UPDATE 3:34AM: waiting for the level 1 tech... they finally came on after 20 minutes and gave me the there is an outage in your area and technicians are working on it line... i had to wait 20 more minutes and give my telephone number and identification information and explain the problem again just to get that standard line... the previous tech could not say that... this tech chould not just say that without my repeating the ID info and problem again... they just wasted another half hour of my time... what is wrong with that picture?...
brighthouse - still poor equipment, poor technical service, and poor customer service... at least they are consistent...
brighthouse digital hd cable tv (table updated 11/12/12, still trending downward):
| working perfectly working adequately not working properly not working at all | 4% of the time 8% of the time 68% of the time 20% of the time | no problems delays, box/channels reset occasionally, software does not adjust aspect ratio and picture size automatically sound does not go on at start, box resets/blinks every 60 seconds, aspect ratio and picture size are off box/channel resets every 10-15 seconds or other issue requires reboot, call to tech support, or visit |
brighthouse roadrunner broadband turbo internet (updated 9/5/12, trending upward):
| working near perfectly working adequately not working properly not working at all | 55% of the time 30% of the time 10% of the time 5% of the time | no problems slow downs modem requires a reboot requires a call to tech support or repair visit |
and the vent as it was happening...
another hour and a half of my time working for brighthouse and i am paying them to work for them... i was working for myself on the net juggling a lot of tabs searching for tires and blogging and the modem decided to stop, blink, just stop... i rebooted four times and nothing... next came shutting down the computer and it took a half hour to save all the work i was in the middle of, but i saved everything and shut down the computer... turned it on, no change... local service only... we've been here before a few times and it ended up with blaming my computer and then service calls and then changing out the modem... i hope this isn't the start of yet another time consuming no-service cycle as i need to stay connected to continue job hunting...
i called brighthouse and was on hold a half hour listening to how easy it is to resolve modem issues by rebooting the modem... reboot, no change... reboot the modem again... no change... again, no change... reboot the computer again, no change...
after about an hour of rebooting the modem and the computer, suddenly there is a connection again... i was still on hold with brighthouse listening to the repetitive messages, so i hung up... thanks for the crappy service once again, brighthouse...
yeah, i know a brighthouse representative left a message here last month offering to help, but there comes a time after speaking with a dozen different representatives and having a half dozen house calls over a couple of months that i run out of patience and more, i run out of belief that the brighthouse reps can fix the problem and need to take a break...
the tv cable box still sucks too, but at least it's been working adequately most nights... sometimes it just starts blanking out every fifteen seconds or so and sometimes it works ok... sometimes the sound works when the box and tv go on, sometimes it doesn't... the channel needs to be changed to get the sound to work and that works about 75% of the time... the box needs rebooting at least once a week... it's a shame that i've gotten used to such poor service...
and the long term damage that i am going to have to remedy is that the box is definitely the wrong box for a plasma tv because the box does not resize the images like the other box does (a difference in software i am told, but can i believe the techs?) so some burning in of the images on the plasma screen has started... i just have not had the patience to call and set up yet another service call to change boxes again because this box at least works about 60-70% of the time and the last few boxes have not been nearly as mediocre ( in other words, they worked worse)...
one of these days i will just have to make the time to research the alternatives, direct tv, dish, u-verse, century link... friends have those others services and most seem to like them... there are drawbacks to all of them, but brighthouse is just becoming intolerable and they are the highest price service of them all...
i am so tired of wasting my time with them...
UPDATE 3:15AM... and about ten minutes later... this entry was uploaded and the brighthouse service went out again so i called brighthouse back... good news, this time i was actually connected to a tech support rep after about five minutes... this time the modem reset itself, all lights blinking off and then back on just before the rep came on the line... i shut down the computer again and when i turned it back on, it was connected again... the rep put me on hold and returned a few minutes later informing me that the tests he ran showed the modem was shutting down on it's own... well at least they see that on their end... now i am waiting for a level 1 support tech troubleshoot the problem... i hold we don't have to go to yet another visit from brighthouse to exchange modems again...
oh crap, i am listening to the annoying modem reset message again... i hope this does not mean i was reset in the queue and have an hour wait like last time... the more i listen to that stupid unplug your modem message, the more i want to hang up and unplug from brighthouse for good... i will be back later with an update...
UPDATE 3:34AM: waiting for the level 1 tech... they finally came on after 20 minutes and gave me the there is an outage in your area and technicians are working on it line... i had to wait 20 more minutes and give my telephone number and identification information and explain the problem again just to get that standard line... the previous tech could not say that... this tech chould not just say that without my repeating the ID info and problem again... they just wasted another half hour of my time... what is wrong with that picture?...
brighthouse - still poor equipment, poor technical service, and poor customer service... at least they are consistent...
Monday, August 13, 2012
#NBCFail
the person and/or people in charge of the NBC broadcast of the 2012 Olympics learned nothing from two weeks of harsh criticism and complaints from thousands (at least) of viewers and most of the media critics as the hashtag #NBCFail appears all over the internet... sadly, the error that Twitter made in supporting and even colluding with the #NBCFail failure compounded itself tonight as they blocked the #NBCFail hashtag from showing up as trending in spite of the hundreds of tweets per minute with the #NBCFail tag... #TwitterFail hurts even more as it shows the new boss is the same as the old boss and people are getting fooled again...
the irony of the song lyric reference is excruciating as perhaps the largest exclamation point on the #NBCFail failures was to edit to death the closing ceremonies (editing out Muse, the band that wrote and played the Olympics theme song, among other bands) and almost an hour of the closing ceremony production and finally cutting away just before the finale starring The Who to insert a new #NBCFail sit-com - without commercial interruption (after more than 33% commercials per hour throughout the Olympics, that is insult upon injury) - and pushing the finale off for an hour to midnight on a Sunday night (so even non-internet savvy people, their primary demographic audience perhaps, had to miss the 2012 Olympics finale - getting up for work in the morning, are we?... and each night Ryan Seacrest (who was definitely not cresting this week) was asked how they were doing on the social networks to lead into a segment on how social media was talking about the Olympics and they lied by omission as the dozens of articles and many thousands of complaints were never address #NBCFail...
even the lead commentator for NBC, Bob Costas, acknowledged the issues and validated the complaints tonight as he noted that the next Olympics will be just in a much closer time zone, referencing the complaints over ridiculously alienating (and poorly produced) tape-delays... but like a nightmare that repeats, NBC failed again tonight even bigger than previous nights... the band playing the final song?... The Who... the song?... My Generation.... yeah, and we did get fooled again...
Costas also mentioned that two high ranking NBC sports producers did call this their last Olympics... whether that was their intention before the games or whether the criticism and their poor judgment calls lead to the resignations or retirements is for anyone to speculate)... most Olympics viewers are shuddering to think about the next few Olympics as #NBCFail has exclusive rights to mess up those broadcasts too...
The New York Times agrees, establishment enough for you, #NBCFail producers?
I turned off #NBCFail and missed the fiasco, but it was interesting reading all over the internet... sad that #TwitterFail conspired in the corporate betrayal of consumers... but the bigger they get, the more out of touch they get... history repeats, redundantly... la la la...
and the NY Times was not alone... i'll be back with more as this turns into a rant for other blogs... StarTribune - monkey shine perez hilton just look up (Google for you younger folk... snark at m-m-my generation nyuk nyuk narf... oh, and you'll have to use -zimmerman in your search query or you'll get all the apologies NBC made in their George Zimmerman reporting mess-up... if you don't understand, then google how to use google for advanced searches or boelean searches and you'll be fine... aherm) apology online (especially the past 24 hours) and even Google will prove #NBCFail - it even gets it's own label...
so how was your night? (laughing with me, i hope :)
Tuesday, July 3, 2012
cable services
maybe it's not as bad as brighthouse sucks, but maybe... three or four services calls in the past two weeks and still not right...
so the cable guy finally showed up and after asking what's wrong (why do i call in a service request giving details of what's wrong if the request is not documented for the tech?) and he played with the box a bit (my request was a replacement box due to the box repeatedly freezing)... he came and went twice bringing in two other replacement boxes until one seemed to work... jackson had to all him back in from his truck cuz the HD aspect ratio was off and he explained that the samsung software accounted for that but the sysco software did not and they've been having a lot of problems with the samsung box... so ok, i said i'd explore the features and he said call us anytime...
every cable guy has different answers and excuses and none have been proven right... worse yet, each cable guy set the features, remote, resolution, aspect ratio, and so on differently... they do not seem to know the best settings for a given HD tv... poor training, poor knowledge, poor service...
and i discover that this latest box (maybe the seventh or eight box this year) apparently does not convert to a 1080 signal so the max resolution is 720 and that is a downgrade from the previous box... yeah, it froze, but i want 1080 resolution (why buy a tv if you can't use the features, right?)... so i went online and wrote brighthouse support by email instead of calling... i am tired of calling... definitely not a satisfied customer...
they did give me the second discount for this year so the recognize the shoddy service, but saving $37 bucks is not fixing the problem... so the continuing saga of poor cable service drums up this meaningless complaint...
so the cable guy finally showed up and after asking what's wrong (why do i call in a service request giving details of what's wrong if the request is not documented for the tech?) and he played with the box a bit (my request was a replacement box due to the box repeatedly freezing)... he came and went twice bringing in two other replacement boxes until one seemed to work... jackson had to all him back in from his truck cuz the HD aspect ratio was off and he explained that the samsung software accounted for that but the sysco software did not and they've been having a lot of problems with the samsung box... so ok, i said i'd explore the features and he said call us anytime...
every cable guy has different answers and excuses and none have been proven right... worse yet, each cable guy set the features, remote, resolution, aspect ratio, and so on differently... they do not seem to know the best settings for a given HD tv... poor training, poor knowledge, poor service...
and i discover that this latest box (maybe the seventh or eight box this year) apparently does not convert to a 1080 signal so the max resolution is 720 and that is a downgrade from the previous box... yeah, it froze, but i want 1080 resolution (why buy a tv if you can't use the features, right?)... so i went online and wrote brighthouse support by email instead of calling... i am tired of calling... definitely not a satisfied customer...
they did give me the second discount for this year so the recognize the shoddy service, but saving $37 bucks is not fixing the problem... so the continuing saga of poor cable service drums up this meaningless complaint...
Sunday, October 16, 2011
ted turner broadcasting
i don't know if it is ted turner himself who is the psychotic control freak deluded with religious fears of sexuality and realism in movies but the television stations he created have destroyed so many good films by editing and re-editing until they are artistic nightmares made of chopped up scenes and hacked-job cuts that would be laughed at by professionals in the industry and are flat out insulting to the original film crew, actors, editors, director, and others who worked on the film (some of whom won academy awards for the original film before it was 'edited for television'...
just happened on to total recall on tnt... pathetic... criminal, even, or should be... there really ought to be a law protecting art from such incompetent, talentless, deliberate vandalism by people with a religious agenda... would it be ok to paint over the mona lisa or change the last supper painting?... so why is it ok to change the editing of a film?...
human beings destroy, that is what they are best at... sad, really...
just happened on to total recall on tnt... pathetic... criminal, even, or should be... there really ought to be a law protecting art from such incompetent, talentless, deliberate vandalism by people with a religious agenda... would it be ok to paint over the mona lisa or change the last supper painting?... so why is it ok to change the editing of a film?...
human beings destroy, that is what they are best at... sad, really...
Monday, August 8, 2011
beware of groupon
that is groupon, a good idea but a website and company that is not to be trusted because they secretly install something on your computer that creates links on your web pages that create pop-ups advertising the groupons... very not right... and the virus software and windows software and all the protections on this new computer didn't stop it... very sneaky...
it took me a while to figure out why my web pages, even my personal web pages, were altered... hopefully it is not viable from other computers because using my personal web pages to advertise their site would be very unethical... and should be illegal...
if you check out their site, which is a good idea, make sure you email their support people first to find out how not to become a shill for their business without knowing...
it took me a while to figure out why my web pages, even my personal web pages, were altered... hopefully it is not viable from other computers because using my personal web pages to advertise their site would be very unethical... and should be illegal...
if you check out their site, which is a good idea, make sure you email their support people first to find out how not to become a shill for their business without knowing...
Saturday, October 23, 2010
taco bull
yeah, that's taco bell bullshit in the title there... i should have known better than to go into the college taco belle, too many fast food joints and other food establishments right next to a university dish out crap because they assume most of their customers are drunk college kids, especially on saturday nights... so the XXL double beef chalupa was a great commercial for 'where's the beef'? because there was less beef in it than in the average taco from a decent taco place... most bits had no beef, so much for double beef... and the cheesy bean and rice burrito had no cheese or rice, just a smear of bean dip... by far, this was the worst taco bell food i've ever had...
so the receipt says tell us about your visit on a brief survey and i go to the website to take the survey and enter the store number and
i guess the universe was looking out for me... i've been wanting to try the double beef chalupa since it started being advertised and have tried it and instead of being a deliciously enjanced version of my favorite taco bell food, it sucked so bad i don't want to visit taco bell again... better for my health, the waisteline, and probably the earth...
bye bye taco bell, no more runs to the border for me...
so the receipt says tell us about your visit on a brief survey and i go to the website to take the survey and enter the store number and
of course, they probably get so many complaints about this particular location that they've turned off the survey for the store... great customer service there, taco bell bull...We're sorry, but this restaurant is not collecting Web surveys at this time. We encourage you to call our toll-free phone number 1-888-731-9645 to share your opinions and enter the Sweepstakes.
i guess the universe was looking out for me... i've been wanting to try the double beef chalupa since it started being advertised and have tried it and instead of being a deliciously enjanced version of my favorite taco bell food, it sucked so bad i don't want to visit taco bell again... better for my health, the waisteline, and probably the earth...
bye bye taco bell, no more runs to the border for me...
Saturday, October 9, 2010
poor service sucks
went to giovanni's for dinner (yum, but the worst witress service we've ever had there as i had to ask for a refill for my drink several times {starting at the appetizer even though the empty glass was sitting right on the end of the table as a reminder} and the refill {one refill... i was considering going to the bar and asking for a drink} finally came at the end of dinner and she had to go find a straw cuz she forgot to bring one and she served another table and returned and forgot the straw... she didn't even acknowledge the poor service... very surprising to have such neglect of service at that place... waited so long for the drink there was no mood for dessert and the worst thing of all was no apology at all as she asked if we wanted dessert or anything else and wished us a good night... clueless waitresses are the bane of dining out and this was after 8pm, so the mad dinner rush was over and the place was 3/4 empty... so there's the first major strike against our favorite neighborhood place), which was a bummer but stopping for dessert elsewhere brought the sweet dining out on my favorite foods mood back...
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