Last evening, one of my neighbor's pine trees shed a large branch which
ripped the Comcast cable off the wall of our house. Still works, but
it's laying on the ground.

So this morning I called Comcast. First I got a voice analyzer that
asked me to state the problem. I responded with "cable down" - got "do
not understand" - tried "cable on ground" - same response. After several
iterations I hit zero and got another recording. This one told me how to
reset my cable modem. I waited patiently through that one, thinking I'd
get to a human afterwards - no such luck - a recording that told me how
to reset my converter box.

By this point I had steam coming out of my ears so I pressed zero and
held it down for several seconds. After another "this call may be
monitored" response I finally got to a human being - in India of course.

It took a couple of tries but she finally understood what the problem
was. Then I was put on hold for 2 minutes while she contacted the local
office to find out when they could come out. Tomorrow at 9:20 AM she
said they'll call - not come out, just call - we'll see.

If I were to walk into a Comcast board meeting with an AK47 and spray the
room, there wouldn't be a jury in the land that would convict me :-).

Just in case the NSA is listening, I'm kidding. I wonder if they trigger
on words like "AK47"?

P.S. I did take the "customer satisfaction" survey. You can imagine my
comments.

On 9/11/2014 2:55 PM, Larry Blanchard wrote:
Last evening, one of my neighbor's pine trees shed a large branch which
ripped the Comcast cable off the wall of our house. Still works, but
it's laying on the ground.

So this morning I called Comcast. First I got a voice analyzer that
asked me to state the problem. I responded with "cable down" - got "do
not understand" - tried "cable on ground" - same response. After several
iterations I hit zero and got another recording. This one told me how to
reset my cable modem. I waited patiently through that one, thinking I'd
get to a human afterwards - no such luck - a recording that told me how
to reset my converter box.

By this point I had steam coming out of my ears so I pressed zero and
held it down for several seconds. After another "this call may be
monitored" response I finally got to a human being - in India of course.

It took a couple of tries but she finally understood what the problem
was. Then I was put on hold for 2 minutes while she contacted the local
office to find out when they could come out. Tomorrow at 9:20 AM she
said they'll call - not come out, just call - we'll see.

If I were to walk into a Comcast board meeting with an AK47 and spray the
room, there wouldn't be a jury in the land that would convict me :-).

Just in case the NSA is listening, I'm kidding. I wonder if they trigger
on words like "AK47"?

P.S. I did take the "customer satisfaction" survey. You can imagine my
comments.

Service from ATT is no better. A couple of years ago I was trying to
get a new connection made in a new house 700 miles from our current
home. For various reason I could not be at the closing and had to
initiate the Security service which require a telephone service at the
closing for the new house. I was on hold for two days a total of 12
hours before I final got through to a person. All of the time I was on
hold I heard their recorded message about the award winning customer
service.

I suspect the award was for the worst customer service in the business.
They never sent me a questionnaire, so I did not get to tell them what
I thought of their service.

On 9/11/2014 1:55 PM, Larry Blanchard wrote:
Last evening, one of my neighbor's pine trees shed a large branch which
ripped the Comcast cable off the wall of our house. Still works, but
it's laying on the ground.

So this morning I called Comcast. First I got a voice analyzer that
asked me to state the problem. I responded with "cable down" - got "do
not understand" - tried "cable on ground" - same response. After several
iterations I hit zero and got another recording. This one told me how to
reset my cable modem. I waited patiently through that one, thinking I'd
get to a human afterwards - no such luck - a recording that told me how
to reset my converter box.

By this point I had steam coming out of my ears so I pressed zero and
held it down for several seconds. After another "this call may be
monitored" response I finally got to a human being - in India of course.

It took a couple of tries but she finally understood what the problem
was. Then I was put on hold for 2 minutes while she contacted the local
office to find out when they could come out. Tomorrow at 9:20 AM she
said they'll call - not come out, just call - we'll see.

If I were to walk into a Comcast board meeting with an AK47 and spray the
room, there wouldn't be a jury in the land that would convict me :-).

Just in case the NSA is listening, I'm kidding. I wonder if they trigger
on words like "AK47"?

P.S. I did take the "customer satisfaction" survey. You can imagine my
comments.


So what do you expect from a company that has a total employee count of
13? :~)

Now we know how third world countries operate.

Larry Blanchard wrote:
Last evening, one of my neighbor's pine trees shed a large branch
which
ripped the Comcast cable off the wall of our house. Still works,
but
it's laying on the ground.

So this morning I called Comcast. First I got a voice analyzer
that
asked me to state the problem. I responded with "cable down" -
-----------------------------------------------
That was your first mistake.

The only response you ever make is "OPERATOR".

After about the 4th or 5th "OPERATOR", you will be transferred to a
people.

May not solve your problem, but you have the satisfaction of getting
to a live person.

Lew

"Larry Blanchard" wrote in message

Last evening, one of my neighbor's pine trees shed a large branch which
ripped the Comcast cable off the wall of our house. Still works, but
it's laying on the ground.

So this morning I called Comcast. First I got a voice analyzer that
asked me to state the problem. I responded with "cable down" - got "do
not understand" - tried "cable on ground" - same response. After
several
iterations I hit zero and got another recording. This one told me how
to
reset my cable modem. I waited patiently through that one, thinking I'd
get to a human afterwards - no such luck - a recording that told me how
to reset my converter box.

By this point I had steam coming out of my ears so I pressed zero and
held it down for several seconds. After another "this call may be
monitored" response I finally got to a human being - in India of course.

It took a couple of tries but she finally understood what the problem
was. Then I was put on hold for 2 minutes while she contacted the local
office to find out when they could come out. Tomorrow at 9:20 AM she
said they'll call - not come out, just call - we'll see.

If I were to walk into a Comcast board meeting with an AK47 and spray
the
room, there wouldn't be a jury in the land that would convict me :-).

Just in case the NSA is listening, I'm kidding. I wonder if they
trigger
on words like "AK47"?

P.S. I did take the "customer satisfaction" survey. You can imagine my
comments.

Have some cookies and milk...you'll feel better

--

dadiOH
____________________________

Winters getting colder? Tired of the rat race?
Taxes out of hand? Maybe just ready for a change?
Check it out... http://www.floridaloghouse.net

On Thu, 11 Sep 2014 18:55:26 +0000 (UTC), Larry Blanchard
wrote:

Last evening, one of my neighbor's pine trees shed a large branch which
ripped the Comcast cable off the wall of our house. Still works, but
it's laying on the ground.

So this morning I called Comcast. First I got a voice analyzer that
asked me to state the problem. I responded with "cable down" - got "do
not understand" - tried "cable on ground" - same response. After several
iterations I hit zero and got another recording. This one told me how to
reset my cable modem. I waited patiently through that one, thinking I'd
get to a human afterwards - no such luck - a recording that told me how
to reset my converter box.

By this point I had steam coming out of my ears so I pressed zero and
held it down for several seconds. After another "this call may be
monitored" response I finally got to a human being - in India of course.

It took a couple of tries but she finally understood what the problem
was. Then I was put on hold for 2 minutes while she contacted the local
office to find out when they could come out. Tomorrow at 9:20 AM she
said they'll call - not come out, just call - we'll see.

If I were to walk into a Comcast board meeting with an AK47 and spray the
room, there wouldn't be a jury in the land that would convict me :-).

Just in case the NSA is listening, I'm kidding. I wonder if they trigger
on words like "AK47"?

P.S. I did take the "customer satisfaction" survey. You can imagine my
comments.
They are all the same. Up here it's Rogers Cable.
Internet service. 5 dedicated IP addresses. Big office.

Last Friday we had a bad electrical storm. Killed a student at one of
our local universities. It also killed our $8000 Watchguard
fire-wall/router.
Got a replacement shipped over the weekend - arrived Monday Afternoon.
Installed it and it worked - but old firmware. Updated it Wednesday -
after update and reboot - no internet. Called Watchguard. Everything
checked out perfectly but still no internet. Called Rogers - modem
off-line. All the lights said it was working - a litteral case of
"lights on - nobody home". They tried all kinds of tests to see if
they could "wake it up". It was DEAD Said they would have a
replacement modem out between 5 and 8 PM and would call before they
came. I called at 7:45 - and they had no service call booked. Said
they would be out between 8 and 11am today - finally showed up about
2:45 PM. These big companies somehow make "service" a four letter
word.

On 9/11/2014 1:55 PM, Larry Blanchard wrote:

Just in case the NSA is listening, I'm kidding. I wonder if they trigger
on words like "AK47"?

No matter, they're all "automatic assault rifles" to the press/government.


--
eWoodShop: www.eWoodShop.com
Wood Shop: www.e-WoodShop.net
https://www.google.com/+eWoodShop
https://plus.google.com/+KarlCaillouet/posts
http://www.custommade.com/by/ewoodshop/
KarlCaillouet@ (the obvious)

On 9/11/2014 3:12 PM, Lew Hodgett wrote:
Larry Blanchard wrote:
Last evening, one of my neighbor's pine trees shed a large branch
which
ripped the Comcast cable off the wall of our house. Still works,
but
it's laying on the ground.

So this morning I called Comcast. First I got a voice analyzer
that
asked me to state the problem. I responded with "cable down" -
-----------------------------------------------
That was your first mistake.

The only response you ever make is "OPERATOR".

After about the 4th or 5th "OPERATOR", you will be transferred to a
people.

May not solve your problem, but you have the satisfaction of getting
to a live person.

Lew

And if you're transferred to India, tell the rep his thick accent makes
it hard to understand him/her, and demand to speak with someone you CAN
understand. Keep demanding until they put someone on the line you can
understand.

Swingman wrote:
On 9/11/2014 1:55 PM, Larry Blanchard wrote:

Just in case the NSA is listening, I'm kidding. I wonder if they
trigger on words like "AK47"?

No matter, they're all "automatic assault rifles" to the
press/government.

And scarey looking too!

--

-Mike-

Larry Blanchard wrote:
Last evening, one of my neighbor's pine trees shed a large branch
which
ripped the Comcast cable off the wall of our house. Still works,
but
it's laying on the ground.

So this morning I called Comcast. First I got a voice analyzer
that
asked me to state the problem. I responded with "cable down" -
-----------------------------------------------

Lew Hodgett wrote:


That was your first mistake.

The only response you ever make is "OPERATOR".

After about the 4th or 5th "OPERATOR", you will be transferred to a
people.

May not solve your problem, but you have the satisfaction of
getting
to a live person.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
"Just Wondering" wrote:

And if you're transferred to India, tell the rep his thick accent
makes it hard to understand him/her, and demand to speak with
someone you CAN understand. Keep demanding until they put someone
on the line you can understand.
------------------------------------------------------------------
Yep, the old I'm sorry but I don't understand you, may I please speak
with your supervisor?

Works for me.

Lew

On Thu, 11 Sep 2014 19:10:25 -0500, Swingman wrote:

On 9/11/2014 1:55 PM, Larry Blanchard wrote:

Just in case the NSA is listening, I'm kidding. I wonder if they trigger
on words like "AK47"?

No matter, they're all "automatic assault rifles" to the press/government.

That's not quite right. I heard one teleprompter-reader whining about
someone with an "assault shotgun".

I saw a T-shirt that I wanted to buy but my wife put her foot down. It
had a picture of an AR-15 with the words "is it because I'm black?"
printed underneath.

On 9/11/2014 11:55 AM, Larry Blanchard wrote:
Last evening, one of my neighbor's pine trees shed a large branch which
ripped the Comcast cable off the wall of our house. Still works, but
it's laying on the ground.
....

P.S. I did take the "customer satisfaction" survey. You can imagine my
comments.

Dish and I have a good thing going. My favorite story has to do with
our previous home, at 7K feet elevation in SoCal mountains. The first
year we were there, our first forest fire evacuation occurred. We
returned home after a week and a half to no power and no cell service.
Started up the generator and turned on the TV. We were getting local
channels via Charter cable (no cable box) as the ISP. Cable was down.
SWMBO wanted to watch her reality tv show on a local channel. OOPSIE.
"Never fear!", shouts I. I called Dish (backup land line), asked for
local channels, and inquired as to the timing. "They should be there
now", came the reply. Problem solved.

This and other problems have been easily solved. It may take an extra
day to get liveware to my site, but that is SOP. Oh and I don't work
for DISH, etc.
mahalo,
jo4hn

On 9/11/2014 10:28 PM, wrote:
On Thu, 11 Sep 2014 19:10:25 -0500, Swingman wrote:

On 9/11/2014 1:55 PM, Larry Blanchard wrote:

Just in case the NSA is listening, I'm kidding. I wonder if they trigger
on words like "AK47"?

No matter, they're all "automatic assault rifles" to the press/government.

That's not quite right. I heard one teleprompter-reader whining about
someone with an "assault shotgun".

JarJar Biden?

pffft:

https://picasaweb.google.com/1113554...80285774814 6

I saw a T-shirt that I wanted to buy but my wife put her foot down. It
had a picture of an AR-15 with the words "is it because I'm black?"
printed underneath.

Love it.

--
eWoodShop: www.eWoodShop.com
Wood Shop: www.e-WoodShop.net
https://www.google.com/+eWoodShop
https://plus.google.com/+KarlCaillouet/posts
http://www.custommade.com/by/ewoodshop/
KarlCaillouet@ (the obvious)

On Thu, 11 Sep 2014 18:55:26 +0000 (UTC), Larry Blanchard
wrote:

Last evening, one of my neighbor's pine trees shed a large branch which
ripped the Comcast cable off the wall of our house. Still works, but
it's laying on the ground.

So this morning I called Comcast. First I got a voice analyzer that
asked me to state the problem. I responded with "cable down" - got "do
not understand" - tried "cable on ground" - same response. After several
iterations I hit zero and got another recording. This one told me how to
reset my cable modem. I waited patiently through that one, thinking I'd
get to a human afterwards - no such luck - a recording that told me how
to reset my converter box.

By this point I had steam coming out of my ears so I pressed zero and
held it down for several seconds. After another "this call may be
monitored" response I finally got to a human being - in India of course.

It took a couple of tries but she finally understood what the problem
was. Then I was put on hold for 2 minutes while she contacted the local
office to find out when they could come out. Tomorrow at 9:20 AM she
said they'll call - not come out, just call - we'll see.

If I were to walk into a Comcast board meeting with an AK47 and spray the
room, there wouldn't be a jury in the land that would convict me :-).

Just in case the NSA is listening, I'm kidding. I wonder if they trigger
on words like "AK47"?

P.S. I did take the "customer satisfaction" survey. You can imagine my
comments.

And when they do get there, they may not know what to do.

My next door neighbors still have Comcraptic. There's a service truck
there almost monthly - several times there have been as many as three
Comcast trucks there at the same time.

We have underground utilities and the neighborhood is about 40 years
old. Care to bet that even good coax has a limited life when buried?

The last time I cut the lawn, I noticed there was a new "device" in
the grass behind the cable pedestal at the corner of the yard. Looks
like they've decided to put an amplifier in-line at the pedestal
instead of running new cable under the neighbor's driveway.

For us, U-verse is a great improvement over Comcraptic. No more
near-continuous pixellation in the evenings. No more channels just
"going away" for minutes/hours.

On 9/11/2014 7:10 PM, Swingman wrote:
On 9/11/2014 1:55 PM, Larry Blanchard wrote:

Just in case the NSA is listening, I'm kidding. I wonder if they trigger
on words like "AK47"?

No matter, they're all "automatic assault rifles" to the press/government.



All that kind of monitoring is done by software, not people.

Messages with "sensitive content" are flagged, but there are squillions
of those messaged flagged ever day.

My bet is they correlate across several messages before the flag changes
to a high enough priority that a human is notified.

So maybe a single message containing NSA, AC47, trigger and automatic
assault riffle would get reviewed immediately.

Or maybe not.

If they raid you and haul you off, would you mind sending a last note
so we know?

On 9/11/2014 10:28 PM, wrote:
On Thu, 11 Sep 2014 19:10:25 -0500, wrote:

On 9/11/2014 1:55 PM, Larry Blanchard wrote:

Just in case the NSA is listening, I'm kidding. I wonder if they trigger
on words like "AK47"?

No matter, they're all "automatic assault rifles" to the press/government.

That's not quite right. I heard one teleprompter-reader whining about
someone with an "assault shotgun".

I saw a T-shirt that I wanted to buy but my wife put her foot down. It
had a picture of an AR-15 with the words "is it because I'm black?"
printed underneath.



Gimme link.

I want one!

Larry Blanchard wrote in
:

So this morning I called Comcast. First I got a voice analyzer that
asked me to state the problem. I responded with "cable down" - got
"do not understand" - tried "cable on ground" - same response. After
several iterations I hit zero and got another recording. This one
told me how to reset my cable modem. I waited patiently through that
one, thinking I'd get to a human afterwards - no such luck - a
recording that told me how to reset my converter box.

I think you meant to say you called Comcast tech support.

I'll let you in on a secret (don't tell anyone I told you).
The way to do it is to call the number for signing up for
new service. You'll get a person, not a voice response
system. Ask them to transfer you to someone in tech support.
Usually that will go direct to a person.

John

On Fri, 12 Sep 2014 14:19:56 -0400, adsDUMP wrote:

It took a couple of tries but she finally understood what the problem
was. Then I was put on hold for 2 minutes while she contacted the local
office to find out when they could come out. Tomorrow at 9:20 AM she
said they'll call - not come out, just call - we'll see.

Nobody called, so at 10:30 I tried the on-line chat. Took half an hour -
I suspect the rep (still overseas) was typing the responses to several
people simultaneously - or was looking up the right response in her
script.

Half her typing was "I apologize" or "I'm notating that". I finally told
her the word was "noting". But the important thing was that she informed
me that the normal response to problems of that type was 7-10 business
days! Someone would call me today or tomorrow (no more "at 9:20" or the
like) to set up the appointment.

@#$%!

But not 15 minutes after I finished the chat, the local Comcast office
called and told me the service guy would have been out tomorrow but would
be out today! He was, the cable is back up, and there was no charge.

Talk about the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing!

Richard wrote in
m:

On 9/11/2014 7:10 PM, Swingman wrote:
On 9/11/2014 1:55 PM, Larry Blanchard wrote:

Just in case the NSA is listening, I'm kidding. I wonder if they
trigger on words like "AK47"?

No matter, they're all "automatic assault rifles" to the
press/government.



All that kind of monitoring is done by software, not people.

Messages with "sensitive content" are flagged, but there are
squillions of those messaged flagged ever day.

My bet is they correlate across several messages before the flag
changes to a high enough priority that a human is notified.

So maybe a single message containing NSA, AC47, trigger and automatic
assault riffle would get reviewed immediately.

Or maybe not.

If they raid you and haul you off, would you mind sending a last note
so we know?


We promise we'll take good care of your stuff... That would make a fun
series of posts: Reviews of someone else's tools: Swingman obviously
wasn't joking about his Festool Sander and vacuum. It shows obvious
signs of use, but I agree with Leon that it makes sanding almost fun. It
did a great job cleaning up the black paint on the Cherry I found.

Puckdropper
--
Make it to fit, don't make it fit.

On 9/11/2014 10:28 PM, wrote:
On Thu, 11 Sep 2014 19:10:25 -0500, Swingman wrote:

On 9/11/2014 1:55 PM, Larry Blanchard wrote:

Just in case the NSA is listening, I'm kidding. I wonder if they trigger
on words like "AK47"?

No matter, they're all "automatic assault rifles" to the press/government.

That's not quite right. I heard one teleprompter-reader whining about
someone with an "assault shotgun".

I believe John Browning made one for the Marines in WWI.

Mark

On Fri, 12 Sep 2014 13:23:55 -0500, Richard
wrote:

On 9/11/2014 10:28 PM, wrote:
On Thu, 11 Sep 2014 19:10:25 -0500, wrote:

On 9/11/2014 1:55 PM, Larry Blanchard wrote:

Just in case the NSA is listening, I'm kidding. I wonder if they trigger
on words like "AK47"?

No matter, they're all "automatic assault rifles" to the press/government.

That's not quite right. I heard one teleprompter-reader whining about
someone with an "assault shotgun".

I saw a T-shirt that I wanted to buy but my wife put her foot down. It
had a picture of an AR-15 with the words "is it because I'm black?"
printed underneath.



Gimme link.

Here's one:
http://www.ebay.com/sch/items/?_nkw=Its+because+Im+Black+Gun+T+Shirt+All+Sizes+S mall+3X+Pro+Gun+AR+15+White&_sacat=&_ex_kw=&_mPrRn gCbx=1&_udlo=&_udhi=&_sop=12&_fpos=&_fspt=1&_sadis =&LH_CAds=



I want one!

On 9/12/2014 9:58 PM, wrote:
On Fri, 12 Sep 2014 13:23:55 -0500,
wrote:

On 9/11/2014 10:28 PM, wrote:
On Thu, 11 Sep 2014 19:10:25 -0500, wrote:

On 9/11/2014 1:55 PM, Larry Blanchard wrote:

Just in case the NSA is listening, I'm kidding. I wonder if they trigger
on words like "AK47"?

No matter, they're all "automatic assault rifles" to the press/government.

That's not quite right. I heard one teleprompter-reader whining about
someone with an "assault shotgun".

I saw a T-shirt that I wanted to buy but my wife put her foot down. It
had a picture of an AR-15 with the words "is it because I'm black?"
printed underneath.



Gimme link.

Here's one:
http://www.ebay.com/sch/items/?_nkw=Its+because+Im+Black+Gun+T+Shirt+All+Sizes+S mall+3X+Pro+Gun+AR+15+White&_sacat=&_ex_kw=&_mPrRn gCbx=1&_udlo=&_udhi=&_sop=12&_fpos=&_fspt=1&_sadis =&LH_CAds=



I want one!


I went ahead and made my own...
Guess Im not very politically correct any more.

http://www.home.earthlink.net/~cave-.../m16-black.jpg