First off, I finally figured out the digital thermostat.  That thing has been driving me crazy.  It shows a "target" temperature of 77 - or whatever you want to set it at, really, that's what I have it at. It will not turn on until it hits 79 degrees. It will not go off until it hits 75 degrees.  Freaking ridiculous.  The manufacturer's instructions were faulty. THAT is what the problem was and that's why it took me so long to figure it out.  It has a SWING option - and it was set at a 2 degree swing.  Up to 79, down to 75.  So, the thing sits there not doing anything until it gets to 79 degrees and then has to bring the temperature all the way down to 75.  That takes quite a while.  Once I figured out how to set the swing temperature - NOTHING like what the instructions say to do - I got it down to .25 change to start up.  That's what I want: cycle on and off at a constant range, not have a 4 degree change in temperature.  Enough of that, just one more thing I finally figured out.

So, I'm outside spending quality time with Century Link employees - nice people actually once you get them to start talking - I am not an ogre with these people, especially the people that show up to my property - and my son calls.

I'm now over by the ponds.  I like my ponds.  They are a place to contemplate,  have some peace, not have to deal with "things" in the house.

Whatever the case, we get to talking.  After all that stuff, I ask him what's up.  I mean, he doesn't really call me unless he needs something.  He wants a ride up to Heber on Sunday, to be there around 4:00 pm. I had to think about that for a minute.  Sunday, the final day of my vacation, facing getting up at 4:30 am, needing to go to bed early.

I can get home in about 2 hours 15 minutes or so.  Maybe a bit longer, just coming to a guesstimate.  I can get to my mom's property in about 1 hour 45 minutes and that's about a half hour to 45 minutes away from the camp, I think anyway if I remember correctly.

Well what am I going to do, tell my son no?  Lol.  I can be home early enough to get to bed early.  So yeah, I agreed to that and unless he ends up taking another ride up there, that's going to be Sunday.

Centurylink.  They were out here for almost 2 and a half hours.  A field tech, a supervisor and the dude that dissed me this morning at a remote location.  They check the interface - for a long time.  Then they move to the pedestal and then tell me that the pair was bad and they were changing it.  Everything they were doing required long testing periods.  Which I could have cared less, test all you want and then, fix it.

They did all of that - which ate up a lot of time and then came into the house.  I fired up both computers and still showed slow speeds.  So, they wanted to replace the line from my outlet to the modem. Be my guest.  That didn't change anything.  Then, they wanted to give me yet another router, that after they changed the type of service I was on.  I mean, this was endless changes.  Okay, a new, more updated router. Wasn't that what they gave me last week?  No, was the response, I was hooked up to an older system - ATMDSL - and now I am hooked up to "pure" DSL. I could only envision an ATM machine taking money and giving nothing back.

The explanation of ATMDSL was not sufficient enough for me to envision what it was, the guy was far too generalized about it.  It goes through "more routes to get where it's going". Whatever.  No biggies.

So, we get ALL of this done and after my computers still showing slow speeds, they get their OWN computer.  Yup. Slow but it has improved enough to meet their 20% standard.  20% slower than what I am paying for.  That was good enough for them and they were gone.

I'm pretty fried about it.  It's time to start looking on Craigslist and find a cable modem/router and get switched over.

Wednesday. Halfway point in my vacation.  Nothing exciting, really, just taking it easy.  I was going to go up north today, but that plan was yet hampered again by Centurylink and their apparent inability to diagnose a problem.  After a long and rather intense discussion with a manager yesterday, I was promised a high level tech and a supervisor to come out and find out what the problem is at 11:00 am.

I am not going to go into the details of that conversation, it would just take too long and it was such a crock of crap.  No-one in that company takes responsibility for anything,.  Such as the promise that I was going to have a 2cd tier tech come out yesterday morning, which did not happen.  I was just another tech who couldn't figure out what the problem was.

This manager yesterday could have cared less what was promised.  She just blew it off, but I kept bringing it up until she was forced to at least comment on a co-manager's statement that the problem would "finally" be taken care of.

Anyway, this guy calls me - Mike is his name - telling me he is here to fix the problem.  Great.  Are you a higher level tech?  I asked this time because no use wasting my time yet again with a person that isn't going to be able to figure out what's going on.  He doesn't answer the question.  He states again he is here to fix the problem. Great, I replied, are you a higher level technician?  Uhhh, just call me that, okay?  What kind of reply is that?  I asked him again: either you are or you aren't.  I have had numerous techs out here that couldn't fix the problem, you either are or aren't.

He then started in on this spiel asking me if he wanted to start a confrontation or did I want the service fixed. Wow.  Okay, let's see where this goes.  No, I asked you if you were a higher level tech, legitimate question especially with all the problems I've had here.  Well are you going to be contentious - yada yada yada.  How do you equate my asking you a simple question with being contentious?  The tone you answered the phone with (???) and the attitude you have with me now.

Attitude? I think the person that has the attitude here is you.  I have said nothing to you to start this kind of exchange, I asked you a legitimate, simple question.  Well, he replies, I heard you abusively treated a technician that came out here and started trouble on the phone with customer service, I am here to fix your problem, either you do or you don't.

Unbelievably appalling.  I have NEVER abused any technicians that have come out here save the person yesterday from Cox that changed their story 3 times and I finally got fed up with it.  I didn't get abusive, either, I just called him out on all 3 different version of his story and informed him in a very blunt manner that they were NOT going to be drilling a hole in the front of my house since there were legitimate, viable alternatives and that was that.  Those 2 individuals were from COX, not Century Link. I have never had a negative exchange with Century Link techs coming out here, I don't want to do that, it would serve no useful purpose.

I have gotten into it with Century Link managers because of their constant interrupting me and cutting me off in the middle of a sentence, a thing I don't take too well, especially from a company I am paying my hard-earned money to for their so-called "services".  Hey, Mike, what's your supervisor's phone number?  He started back-pedaling then, but it was too late. This guy is NOT coming onto my property.  If he can start such s*** on the phone, what on earth is going to happen when he comes into my house?!!

He hangs up on me, then calls me back 5 minutes later and gives me the number.  Okay? He states, as if he is going to end the call. Umm, no, Mike, actually, you can stay on the line while I call your supervisor.  I wanted Mike to here the entire phone call.  I called his supervisor and explained, verbatim, the exchange between Mike and I and then I hung up on Mike.  I explained to his supervisor that I would be happy to sit down with all 3 of us if Mike decided to offer a different story and I would happy to look Mike square in the eye while I give my recounting of what he said to me.  His supervisor  said no, let me deal with that, thanks.  Yes, I didn't expect him to take me up on the offer, just attempting to solidify my standing on the recounting of Mike's words to me on the phone.  Mike should have just answered my question and then he would have already been in here and hopefully done.

Instead, this supervisor and another allegedly experienced tech are coming out here to find the problem in about an hour from now.  I made a lot of phone calls before I finally was given an 800 number for a customer care center in Century Link.  I'm going to post it in it's own entry on here so as to have it handy.  I can always Google it, lol.  Umnm, posted it before posting this entry : )

As for Cox - well besides everything else yesterday, they left my yard in a shambles.  I mean, dumping river rock - must have been underground when they dug out the trench - on top of my landscaping rock.  It will take some time to pick, piece by piece, those rocks out of there and they did NOT install the line inside of conduit, as not only their own company's guidelines require, but also the city of Phoenix regulations.

I may address that situation, well I probably will after the altercation yesterday between those 2 "against" George and I.  I want to get this CenturyLink crap dealt with first.

I must be offa here.  Gotta go out and check some more things with the Cox setup.

ben

CenturyLink's Customer Care 800 Number

If you have been having problems with CenturyLink's service - or usually lack of service - have been treated poorly on the phone by their incoming call associates and have not been able to get your situation resolved, then this is the department/division/whatever they call it within their company to call.  I am a CenturyLink customer, I would only ask that you try all other options before calling this number. But, I can ascribe that after months of having technicians coming out to "fix" the problem with my internet service - and it never getting fixed - and having Centurylink management promising me that they would once-and-for-all get the problem fixed - which it wasn't on any of those occasions - I can totally understand anyone else's desire to escalate the urgency of the situation and get with someone who can actually do something about it.

Here's the number:
800-238-3095

Good luck!