Email sent to : we_can_help@comcast.com and William_Gerth@comcast.com (information via @comcastcares Twitter account/profile) *Note: I never received any messages back from either of those addresses. Unless they just escalate cases to someone higher up.. What’s the point of publicizing the email addresses on Twitter if they aren’t used?

Wednesday afternoon (5/9)

• Lost connection to home PC around 3PM

Wednesday evening (5/9)

• Arrived home from work at 6PM and noticed no internet or television service.
• Called Comcast
• Comcast CSR could not communicate with my modem/“box”
• He said there was a reported outage in the area and techs were out working on it
• He said he would add my account to the list of account holders that have called in
• He said that I would receive an automated call back from Comcast when they confirmed the outage had been resolved. I made sure to again ask that I receive this call.
• 29 minutes on phone

Thursday morning (5/10)

• Still no service
• No phone call from Comcast
• Called Comcast
• Comcast CSR said that the outage from last night was resolved. They would need to send a tech out to my apartment.
  • Already at work so can’t do Thursday
  • Scheduled for Friday 8-10AM.
  • Had I received a call late Wednesday or early Thursday, as promised, I could have adjusted my schedule on Thursday and been available for a tech to come out.
• 31 minutes on phone

Friday morning (5/11)

• Comcast Tech arrived at apartment around 8:15AM
• Confirmed a Comcast signal was received at the junction point on my floor in the building.
• Confirmed there was no signal from my apartment to the junction point
• Comcast Tech gave me a number to “Custom Cabling” (410-374-3648) and said to schedule an appointment with them to get new wire run from Comcast junction point in hallway to my apartment
• Comcast Tech left
• ~15 minutes on site
• I called “Custom Cabling” and scheduled an appointment for Monday between 8am and 12pm. (I didn’t understand why I had to do this – but did it anyway to get the ball rolling)

Friday morning (5/11)

• Called Comcast
• Spoke with Comcast CSR: “Tanya” (Very nice, also confused about all the confusion)
• Tech has notes “No access to Prem”
• There is no record of me calling into Comcast on 5/9 when I initially reported the issue. Probably why I never received the automated call I was promised (Follow up with manager to report this for disciplinary action. Unacceptable)
• Deeper into ticket the tech referred the case to the Maintenance Department
  • Noted that my location needed a “new post wire”
  • The Comcast CSR said that Comcast’s Maintenance Department handles the wiring and repairs and they would run any new wire.
  • I asked if Comcast uses outside Contractors for wire repair like this. CSR said, sometimes for new setups or if Comcast techs are not readily available.
  • Comcast CSR had not heard of a Comcast customer having to schedule a time with the Contractor directly
  • Comcast CSR setup a phone call with the Maintenance Department who would call me by 12:12PM on Friday to discuss the repair issue further and clear up the confusion
  • As of 1:15PM, no call (1 hour has passed)
• 30 minutes on phone

Friday afternoon (5/11)

• Called Comcast (1:15PM)
• Spoke with Comcast CSR and let her know that I did not receive the promised phone call from the “Maintenance Department”
• She said that the Maintenance Department does not usually talk with customers (I told her this was arranged by a Comcast CSR)
• She said the tech requested a new line run to my apartment
• She said that the “Technical Services” department would call me to further discuss – as they would have more information (knowledge?) than her on the issue.
• It should be within an hour, but I should definitely receive this call by 3PM today (Friday, 5/11)
• Comcast CSR said she would check-up and make sure the call was made
• 13 minutes on phone
• Called Custom Cabling (Contractor referred to by Comcast Tech this morning)
• Asked if they knew what to look at once they arrived on Monday morning
• She said they would analyze the wire from the outside box to the apartment
• Asked for clarification of “outside” – outside of my apartment door or outside the apartment building?
• She said outside of the building from the street to my apartment
• They would re-run the wire (if they could, they would do it that day, or schedule another time to come out)
• I just said “OK” – well see what they say on Monday when they come out – this doesn’t make much sense
• Is it typical for Comcast customers to schedule their own appointments with you?
• Usually the Comcast tech does it, but sometimes the tech will give our business card or phone number to the customer.
• No call from Comcast’s “Technical Support” department yet as of 3:40PM – 40 minutes past their maximum promised time.

Friday Evening (5/11)

• The Regional Executive Office gave me a call today at 5:30 basically saying we’ll talk on Monday.
• According to them the case was closed. (The case may have been “closed” incorrectly by the tech, but I don’t have Comcast service.)
• The gesture is nice – too bad I’ll be without Internet and television this weekend!

So, what am I waiting for? When Cabling Solutions comes out on Monday, what are they going to do? Where are they going to look? Is it going to be days of pointing fingers and scheduling more appointments?

Apparently Comcast Maintenance has already been dispatched – so I’m in their system to replace/repair the line within 2-5 business days from Friday (so sometime next week). This is going to end up being after Cabling Solutions comes out.

Who is paying for this? Certainly not me. Well, except for not having television and internet service for the past 2 days (and most likely this upcoming weekend) – and the time I’ve spent trying to figure this out with Comcast and documenting their dysfunction.

There is a serious lack of communication between departments, tech, and customer, following up on promises, and knowledge of what needs to be done.

Waiting on hold for 20+ minutes for a Comcast CSR

]]> http://blog.jayunsplanet.com/2011/09/28/stream-your-music-collection-anywhere-with-subsonic/feed/ 0 http://blog.jayunsplanet.com/2011/09/14/windows-8-developer-preview/ http://blog.jayunsplanet.com/2011/09/14/windows-8-developer-preview/#comments Wed, 14 Sep 2011 14:13:02 +0000 Jayun http://blog.jayunsplanet.com/?p=1122 I don’t have a spare 64bit machine to dedicate to this preview, so the obvious thought was to just create a virtual machine. Well, apparently the only version of VMWare Workstation that is compatible is V.8 which was just released today. Same result in VMWare Player 2.5.x. Supposedly, Windows 8 requires ACPI 2.0 which previous version of VMWare Workstation do  not  have. I tried the 64bit and 32bit ISO’s. Ultimately, I installed VirtualBox and successfully installed Windows 8 Developer Preview as a VM.

Immediate first impressions: it’s glossy and freshened up a bit in areas, but it’s not a major rework. We’ll see how things go.

Coincidentally, the other day, my phone rebooted on it’s own and was locked up at the Apple icon loading screen – took 3 or 4 long press/holds of the power button to eventually shut the phone off and reboot.

iPhone 4 – 4.0.2 (8A400)
Never jailbroken or modded in anyway

(Have not tried a restore with iTunes yet – as I’m currently putting in a new SSD HDD in my MBP.)

Apple Discussion Thread

*Update 10/16 – I decided to just rebuild my phone. I synced it with my MacBook Pro, which did have full backups, but I didn’t want to lose text messages and stuff. So I just re-installed all my applications that were saved in iTunes and had to re-do the folders. It wasn’t a big deal. But it should not have happen. Both of my Apple products crapped out within the past month. This doesn’t help an anti-Apple person try to get over their dislike of a company.

Warning
Ensure that you backup the informaiton contained in the users profile – this includes the typical Documents, Music, Pictures — but also, Favorites, AppData, Outlook PSTs, any custom settings stored in files. I’d suggest you enable showing Hidden Files in Explorer so you can see directories that are hidden. | http://i53.tinypic.com/flk0ox.jpg

This mainly applies to network users that log into a domain and have a local account created for them on their system. Profiles occasionally get corrupted, and a quick fix, provided you back up your data or store it on the network and not locally, is to simply recreate the profile.

Delete the actual User folder of the profile in quesiton – C:\Users

Remove the user profile from the registry
Start > in the search bar right above the Windows logo type regedit

Browse to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
SOFTWARE
Microsoft
Windows NT
CurrentVersion
ProfileList

Select through the profiles listed in the left pane (GUID) and in the right pane you will see the actual username. That will help you determine what profile is which. Right click on the GUID, ‘Delete’

http://i53.tinypic.com/104kpx4.jpg

Click here to view the embedded video.

(On a side note: The latest Facebook iPhone app release seems to have resolved the slow/lag time after posting a comment on an item. Your comment is posted as soon as you finish typing and hit “Post” as fast as your internet connection allows. It used to lag several seconds.)

I previously tried replacing the antenna, which worked VERY well, but it was a little too bulky and tacky – and let’s face it, I only bought an iPhone so I could make a statement to everyone else about how much of a hip tech guy I am. Form > Function.  Click here to see details on the first antenna mod I tried.

/satirical sarcasm.

]]> http://blog.jayunsplanet.com/2010/08/09/iphone-4-reception-issues-revisited/feed/ 0 http://blog.jayunsplanet.com/2010/07/21/part-of-a-pop-up-window-appears-off-screen-in-internet-explorer-8/ http://blog.jayunsplanet.com/2010/07/21/part-of-a-pop-up-window-appears-off-screen-in-internet-explorer-8/#comments Wed, 21 Jul 2010 15:36:39 +0000 Jayun http://blog.jayunsplanet.com/?p=789 In reference to Microsoft KB974537. Read that for more information.

Issue:

On a computer that is running Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2, you use Windows Internet Explorer 8 to browse a Web page. You maximize the window that contains the Web page. This Web page contains a pop-up window. In this scenario, part of the pop-up window appears off-screen. However, you expect the pop-up window to appear completely on-screen.

In-correct
Correct
My experience:Windows 7 Enterprise, 64bit | Internet Explorer 8.0.7600.16385, 32bit

System is current with Windows Update.

Issue is most prevalent in Microsoft Dynamics CRM (That uses numerous pop-ups and menu’s)

I ran the registry edit suggested by Microsoft. Didn’t fix it.

The “Hotfix” suggested by Microsoft requires you to contact their HotFix department so they can send you a link. Although I knew my system was up to date and already included the fix that this “HotFix” would provide, I contacted Microsoft for the HotFix. They sent me the 32bit and 64bit HotFix. Nothing.

Resolution:Again, make sure Windows is up to date – especially IE updates

Apply the following registry edit:

Quick version: (for IT Pros)

1. Open registry editor – regedit
Start > type regedit in the search box > hit enter

2. Browse to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main\FeatureControl

3. On the Edit menu, point to New, and then click Key.

4. Type the following key name, and then press ENTER:
FEATURE_FORCE_POPUPS_ONTO_MONITOR_KB974537

5. On the Edit menu, point to New, and then click DWORD Value.

6. Type iexplore.exe, and then press ENTER.

7. Right-click iexplore.exe, and then click Modify.

8. In the Value data box, type 1, and then click OK.