Not sure this will please my feminist readers, but it certainly applies to my lovely wife -except the cooking part, her cooking is so bad that recently the flies pitched in to fix our broken screen door.

I was a little perturbed, and wrote the CEO an email explaining my frustration, and what had happened during the installation:

Dear Directv,

After getting completely exasperated with Comcast, I finally decided to take the plunge and choose another provider for my TV viewing. I did extensive research and eventually chose DirecTv over Dish Network, mainly because of the excellent service I received during my research process.

When I ordered (around 9/9), I was given an installation date of 9/17 (today), which was later than I wanted but within a reasonable time frame. I was very careful to explain to the sales person the fact that my main tv is in the very center of my dwelling, and that running 2 cables (as required by the HD DVR) would be very hard. He assured me this would not be an issue, and that it was covered under standard installation mentioning a piece of equipment that no longer needs 2 wires (a SWM switch).

The sales person did not enquire about my roof construction material (tile), but did ask if I had a clear view of the southern sky (which I do).

So today, when the installation technician arrived (From Ironwood Communications) I was very disappointed to find out that they did not a) have the necessary mount to install on a tile roof, and b) have the required switch to run the satellite feed through a single wire as requested.

He rescheduled the appointment for an additional week (9/25) – or 16 days after ordering. I was disappointed and decided to call the installation help line. They gentlemen I spoke to there was sympathetic, but explained that there would be an additional cost by the installer, and the installers
are totally separate entities to DirecTv, and therefore Directv had no control over additional fees. When I explained that I had explicitly stated the layout of my house to the sales person when I ordered the service, and he had assured me that standard installation would cover this situation. The sales rep said the best he could do was to get the installer on the line, and determine the additional cost. I agreed thinking that the csr would stay on the line as well, but no, he just rerouted my call – without giving me the opportunity to request his name.

I spoke to a lady at Ironwood Communications who checked and assured me there would be no additional charge for the SWM module or the eave mount.

What really surprised me was the way the information I relayed to the sales guy was not on the order form the Ironwood communication installation technician had. I also was not aware the work was to be subcontracted, and was very surprised to hear that the CSR on the DirecTv helpline spent a lot of time explaining how the installer and DirecTv are separate. I consider this to be misleading as I ordered the installation through DirecTv and had the understanding the contract was between myself and DirecTv.

There does seems to be some miscommunication between the installers, the sales guys, and the CSR’s.

I really hope this is just a minor hiccough at the beginning of this service contract. However, now I am without TV service for 8 days, whilst I wait on the installation to proceed. Anything you can do to move up the appointment date would be really appreciated. I really do look forward to having
DirecTv as my tv provider.

The Geeky Brit

Well, within a couple of hours I had a lady from Chase Carey’s office (the Directv CEO). My installation has now been moved up to the day after tommorrow, all for free. I am finding it really pays to be polite, factual, keep records of who you speak to, and go straight to the top when needed.

Good job DirecTv, you have clutched at the last minute…

Well, I really only have 2 options for internet service- Comcast and AT&T. So when one service provider pisses me off, I have little choice. BUT it isn’t all that bad.

Comcast HSI provides me a 6Mbps download and a 1 Mbps upload speed. With powerboost, this can sometimes “feel” a lot faster – but only if you have a powerboost compatible modem. Until I replaced my modem a few weeks ago (Thanks to some crummy advice from Comcast), I did not. Now powerboost looks great on Speakeasy.com/speedtest, but I am not sure how valuable it really is. For those of you who do not know what powerboost is, it is basically the ability to download files at a super fast rate for the first few megabytes of the file – after which the file will download at the regular 6mbps.

DSL does not have powerboost, but it does have an equivalent 6mbps download, and 1mbps upload. Indeed, this is the maximum for my area, but in many places (Fresno included diatoid), there is a 10Mb per second service available – which is faster than what Comcast currently offers.

The 6Mb service is $35 per month, if you also have a phone line. With no phone line it is $45 per month – or $40 if you tie it in with your AT&T wireless plan. AT&T also offer a $150 rebate for switching from cable, so long as you sign up for the phone service as well. There are also other rebates available if you sweet talk the AT&T rep with your english accent. However the rebates are only available if you order a phone line, which you must keep for 30 days.

So what I did was order the most basic phone line money can buy ($11 with taxes and fees), I talked the rep up to $200 in rebates, and will cancel the phone line after I have received them taking my service cost to be $40 per month (I am also a AT&T Wireless subscriber). If you count the rebates, I amortize out a years internet service to cost me $24 per month!

Basically, the same service (not counting powerboost) for half the price. I will be testing the speed of the internet when it is installed on Tuesday, and will report on how it compares. I hope it will be more than adequate for me.

Btw, if you go for the 6Mbps service, you also get a free subscription to AT&T Wifi. This is what is at all the Starbucks now as well as many airports. So if my internet does go out at home, I will only be left paying for the coffee, the bits will be free.

So the past few days have seen the internet drop out. It usually starts exhibiting issues around 3pm – slow downs etc. And then by 4 it is gone – only to reappear at about 7-8pm. I always plug my cable modem into every jack in the house to make sure it is not a line failure – and it never gets a signal. I have had Comcast out a few times – but they always show up in the morning. When it is working. The tech grumbles at me that if it ain’t broke he can’t fix it, and goes on his way. I can understand this, but doing nothing (a number of times) was starting to frustrate me.

So on Friday the internet went out, and it did yesterday too. Around 4pm. Now, we have had really hot weather these days, and I looked in my log to see when my internet was out before, and sure enough, it was when it was super hot. It seems my cable internet does not like heat. Eureka!

I phoned Comcast with the news, and this was met with a little disbelief, and the usual – well we can have a guy out next week, but if it intermittent there is nothing we can do. I asked if there was a service outage in my subdivision, and he said no. I asked how he knew and he said because none of my neighbors complained…

So I took my dog for a little walk, and guess what. Every house on my street has a satellite dish. Every one. I spoke with my neighbor and asked what service they used for High Speed Internet, and they said ATT dsl, cos cable is too expensive if you don’t get their TV service (it is about $58 a month). So if all those other neighbors have a Satellite dish, I am guessing they also use ATT DSL.

So Comcast, let me get this right. There isn’t a problem in my neighborhood, because no one else has complained – yet NO ONE ELSE USES YOUR SERVICE. Needless to say, I am done with Comcast.

1. Multi room DVR.
What I record in the living room I want to watch in the bedroom.
2. HD content.
I want my channels in HD… all of them. But be able to watch SD versions on my SD tv’s.
3. Same channel number for HD and SD
I hate having to learn different channel numbers for the bedroom and the living room. If I go to channel 32 (ESPN) I want it to be glorious HD in the living room, but be the sd variant in the bedroom.
4. True HD – and no twisting the figures
Working in the video industry my eyes have become accustomed to being able to distinguish video resolutions. Sometimes I am seeing some rather poor versions of HD, when the stream is limited in bitrate. I know Dish is now pushing the fact that their TurboHD is 1080p, but what is the bitrate? That is the key to the quality in reality.
5. My must have channels
All the locals, Fox Soccer Channel,BBC America, ESPN, ESPN2, and the local sports channels, Animal Planet, Discovery, History. I also would like to consider subscribing to Setanta Sports, and MLB Extra Innings.
6. Low hardware lease costs – minimal startup costs
I think the fact that hardware leases with my current provider cost MORE than a 2x TIVO subscription is a little ridiculous.
7. OnDemand HD Content
If I want to watch rent a movie, I want to do it through my tv. I am not a netflix fan, I can’t wait that long. When the mood takes me I want it now. If there is free content great, but that is not what I really need.
8. Reliable Equipment and Service, and good support when needed
Something I have had trouble with recently. This is the primary reason I am writing this list.
9. Remote Scheduling of my DVR
If I am on the road, I want to be able to schedule a recording on my DVR if I will not be at home on time.
10. Multimedia Center
I want to be able to export recordings I have made, and view photos, videos and listen to music stored on a central pc somewhere on my home network. Ya know, just that mythical convergence box we are all wanting.

So there it is, my ideal tv service wish list. This may be expanded, so DirectTV, Dish, AT&T, and even Comcast, let me know how many of the above points you can offer. I think it is only fair to say I am willing to spend up to $90 per month for all of the above.

Before you mention it – I do know TIVO does a great job on hitting some of these, but I want a tv service, not just a hardware platform. I am also dubious about the compatablity of a tivo box with HD content from a a satellite provider.

I also noticed my twitter feed was being picked up by someone called Frank whose username was comcastcares. Interesting, perhaps Comcast has started trying to solve customer issues when they blog about them. Thats a clever approach, the oil goes to the squeeky wheel, and in the age of blogging, the impact of being a dissatisfied customer and a blogger can have negative impacts…

A bit of research has found this link explaining what Comcast is up to. I wonder if it will catch on with other companies.

Perhaps by posting a blog entry about being underpaid I will get a raise – now there is an idea…

It has been an interesting time sharing my thoughts and ideas with you all, dear readers, especially when it came to vacation time in November.

Sometimes my posts have been few and far between, but being a coder, I go through phases at work where I am exceptionally busy. At these times, I lose the way, and choose not to spend any more time in front of my PC than is necessary….

Wow, I like it. Most frameworks I have seen require you to essentially rewrite your existing code to fit in with a certain design pattern. Zend allows you to use the functionality as a library, and gives you the option to integrate their MFC model. The option is just that. There is no requirement to use it. But the amount of inbuilt and upcoming functionality is very impressive. JSON, OpenId, Auth, validation … the list is long, check it out here.

This stuff is very nice, and if you like/use/dislike PHP I recommend you check this out.