ToddKobus.com

AirTran charged $79 for this alleged over-sized bag ($59 oversize fee + std $20)

The morning was off to a great start.  My wife and I had packed everything the night before and had a good night’s sleep.  My buddy had arrived early to give us a ride to the airport and brought coffee and donuts.  We were on our way to Florida for a Disney Cruise with our two boys to celebrate my return home from Afghanistan.  The trip my wife and I have been planning and talking about since I arrived in Kabul a year ago was finally here.

It all went south when we arrived at the AirTran counter and attempted to check our bags.  Carmen Ortiz was the not so friendly attendant that informed us our bags were oversized and there would be a fee.  She had the tape measure out and said the bags measured 63 inches and the max size is 62 inches.  The bags were under the weight requirement, it was just the size.  I asked how much this was going to cost us.  She said $59 per bag.  This is in addition to the $20 per checked bag.  I asked if the $59 per bag was for round trip or just one way.  Ms Ortiz said it was one way, and that if we wanted to bring the bags back, it would cost us another $59 per bags on the return flight.  (ugh…  I don’t think she knew she was being absurd)

I was disgusted and powerless.  AirTran appeared to know they had my family by the stones, and did not appear to have any qualms about exploiting the situation. If this was another industry or purchase, I could take my business elsewhere if I was dissatisfied, but because our family vacation depended on getting to Florida on time, and there was no way for me to schedule another flight or get my money refunded, I was stuck with the fee.  I asked Carmen if this came with lubricant… She was not amused.  Another AirTran worker had just checked a bag that appeared larger than ours, but had not charged any additional fees.  He asked if there was anything he could do for me.  I again asked for lubricant.  He laughed and suggested the hand sanitizer may burn a bit.

I called 1-800-Air-Tran and talked to AirTran customer service.  They suggested I talk to the manager at the counter because they are able to waive the fee.  When I returned to the counter Ms Ortiz explained that she was the manager and said there wasn’t anything she could do.  I didn’t believe her, but was out of options.  I took down her name and hoped to resolve this later.

What a way to start off our family vacation.  If I had known AirTran was going to greedily rape us for an additional $240, I would have simply gone with a reputable airline like JetBlue. We only saved about $100 by using Bob’s Discount Airlines (AirTran).

To add insult to injury:

The flight was grossly overbooked, so while boarding the plane they were looking for people to fly out late that night…  Sorry, not a chance buddy.

Additionally, the Boeing 717-200 appeared to be so poorly maintained, that I was a bit apprehensive to board the aircraft (and I’ve been on plenty of military aircraft).

Once aboard the plane, everything appeared dirty (think early days of Southwest Airlines, then add a layer of filth).  The seats were so uncomfortable that I actually checked to see if there was a cushion.  There was fabric on my seat, but it appeared to just be over hard plastic.  Obviously there were no TVs or anything for the kids.

The tray tables didn’t work.  When the lady brought juice around for the kids, they couldn’t set the juice on the table without it sliding off.  Being disgruntled, I said to the kids ,”don’t worry if the juice falls off because the plane is broken.  The lady will come and clean it up for us.”  But, before I could watch the kids spill their juice, the lady next to Lisa bumped her tray and the whole thing collapsed spilling soda all over her lap.

Ultimately we arrived at our destination and the cruise should be much better.  The juxtaposition of Disney customer service and my friend Ms Ortiz at AirTran should be comical. Never again will I travel AirTran, and I suggest anyone reading this stay far, far away.  It’s just not worth the frustration.

Customer service at massive companies like Verizon appears to intentionally aggravate customers.  I suggest these customer service representatives when faced with a complaint are trained to save Verizon money by running the customer around in circles until they walk away.   Who can blame them?  What am I as a customer going to do?  Leave and join another service provider?  Verizon would just charge a surcharge and encourage me not the let the door hit me on the way out.  It’s almost cliché to complain about a lack of power as a single consumer against these large conglomerates.  By the same respect, why bother to vote?  What difference can one vote make?

My issue with Verizon surrounds a simple, honest mistake made by the Verizon tech that looked at my phone a couple months ago to determine it had died.  When he submitted the RMA paperwork, he entered the serial number to my wife’s phone not mine.  After I received my new phone in the mail, I promptly mailed back the broken phone with the prepaid FedEx sticker and went on my merry way.  A month later, when the phone bill came, there was a $600 charge for the phone I never returned.  After a couple phone calls, we were informed everything was all set and the charge would not appear on next month’s bill.  Great, no problem, honest mistake, have a nice day…

The following month a $600 past due charge was listed.  OK, this is a bit more serious, let’s visit the Verizon store to ensure this gets resolved.  The employee at the Verizon store indicated they did not have the authority to deal with billing issues over $200.  To me, this makes good business sense.  Keep the more important transactions with phone support, where they don’t have to look the customer in the eye.  After talking to customer service, they indicated that they never received the old phone back.  I mailed it using their pre-paid FedEx sticker, but I didn’t keep a receipt or anything.  I had no way to prove I mailed it.  Then they found the FedEx tracking number, but the FedEx site was down, so they couldn’t verify the package was received.  Later that night, I was able to verify the FedEx tracking number was signed for.  Bear in mind, each of these conversations takes quite a while.  The following day, my wife called and the customer service lady were able lookup the FedEx tracking number to verify the phone was received.  Again, she said the charge would be removed from the account.  OK, this was a bit of a pain, but whatever.

A week later, we receive a phone call indicating our service will be terminated the next day for failure to pay.  Again we called customer support.  Again they needed to check a bunch of things, again they said, no problem, you’re all set.  The following day neither my wife’s nor my phone were enabled.  What if daycare needed to call because there was an emergency with our children?  After work, my wife lost her cool and drove straight to the Verizon store located in the mall.  After dealing with holiday traffic and crowds she stormed into the Verizon store and immediately asked for a manager.  She then asked for a minute to calm down.  The manager did not hide behind the $200 rule and called Verizon support himself.  “All set, your phone will be back on within an hour.”  Great.

Three hours later and the phones still were not on.  At this point we had wasted countless hours of time and energy wrestling to get an honest mistake made by a Verizon tech straightened out.  This was a bit ridiculous.  We waded through holiday traffic back to the Verizon store at the mall to get the phones turned on.  I felt we were entitled to a couple dollars discount for the trouble, so I asked the customer service representative.  The customer service representative indicated they were all but neutered when it came to helping a customer with this regard.  Again, good business practice from Verizon corporate.  The store representative was able to call corporate to request the phones get turned back on.  While on the phone, I asked to speak with the person so I could file a complaint and request a discount.  This is when I became infuriated.  This is when it became crystal clear that Verizon could care less about an individual customer.

Before talking to customer service, I mentally decided that about $60 and a 5 minute phone conversation would be an acceptable solution.  After explaining the situation to the Verizon customer service rep, “B-Kara” x2693, and answering all the same questions again for about 5 minutes, she put me on hold.  I sat there on hold for at least another 5 minutes.  I expressed to my wife that “they must have a 5 minute dead-air requirement before they can offer a discount”.  When B-Kara finally came back, she informed me that she was prepared to offer %10 off our bill for the next three months.  I asked “what does that equate to?”  She said “8$ a month”.  That’s only %10 off one of the phone lines, not the whole bill.  I asked “are you kidding?”  She said “what?”  I said, “so you’re offering $25?”  “24” she said.  “Is there a manager available” I asked.  “Yes, would you like to speak to them?”  “No, I was just wondering if one was available, of course I’d like to speak to a manager.  This is absurd and I’m offended…”  The woman’s cavalier nature and I couldn’t give two sh!ts attitude had me enraged.  “Before I send you to the manager, do you accept the %10 discount?”  “are you kidding?  No”…  And back on hold I went.  This time for another 5 minutes.  It felt like a waiting game where the customer service rep was trying to drag her feat until I gave up and hung up in disgust.  I suspect she was doing her job perfectly.  But, I was making a mild scene in the local Verizon store and tying up the desk and phone of a local representative for over 20 minutes.  The store manager quietly came out to discuss with the local rep what was going on.  As the minutes ticked by our cell phones were reactivated.  Unfortunately I continued to get more heated with my anti-service representative on the phone as she had me waiting while she strolled to the vending machine for a Coke.  Finally B-Kara came back online, not the manager.  “I talked to the manager and we can discount you one month on your primary line.”  “What does that come to?”  “$68”.  I was pissed.  $60 would have worked if this was a 5 minute conversation, but now it was a matter of principal.  Was this lady saying my hours of wasted time and frustration are only worth $68?  She hadn’t even apologized.  I was pissed to be put on hold for so long.  I was frustrated to have to explain the problem over and over again.  I hung up.  She won.

Update: Mike from Verizon customer service just left me a voice-mail.  He apologized for the way Verizon handled everything, then had the stones to suggest “we all have to take responsibility for our part” and mentioned that I did not provide the FedEx tracking number.  Are you kidding me?  Nothing further came from the voicemail.

I just purchased a custom system to host a new Windows Home Server build for while I’m deployed to Afghanistan.  This should provide a great service sharing files (movies, pictures, music) and backing up everyone’s laptops.

I have had Windows Home Server running at home for a couple years and it’s been phenomenal.  I can’t say enough about it.  The server provides easy access to the kids DVDs that have long since been scratched and ruined.  It keeps all the kids pictures safe in a central repository.  It backs up the other computers and laptops in the house.  I’ve had to use WHS to restore two different systems, and each time it went smoothly.  I have even recovered from a failed hard drive on the server.  All of this was fairly painless.  The integration with the Xbox 360 is great.  The Xbox WHS UI isn’t as pretty as the UI for Windows Media Center, but the functionality blows WMC out of the water (9 times out of 10, I just want to throw the controller across the room while browsing for a movie in WMC).  All of this functionality will translate well to a small group of soldiers in country.

What makes me nervous is that WHS is built on Windows Server 2003 which is more than a bit dated.  A quick Google search to check the status of WHS v2 (Vail) indicates that Microsoft has decided to turn off the drive extender functionality and HP has decided to abandon their Media Smart systems.  This seems to indicate WHS is all but dead.  Drive extender was the foundation that made WHS such a viable solution for the home user.  It’s a shame to see Microsoft get things so right the first time out, only to throw the project away for version 2 (Boondock Saints 2 of software?).  Personally I’m still holding on to hope that Microsoft will come to their senses and release a viable WHS upgrade.  If not, hopefully I can get another couple years out of my existing systems and wait for another vendor to fill the void.

Chem Dry wins…

After using Chem Dry on numerous occasions to clean our carpets, Chem Dry was not available to come out in time to clean our carpets before Sunday, so we called Stanley Steamer.  Our carpets are a high quality four year old light khaki Burber.  With two kids and a dog, the carpets get dirty pretty quick and we tend to get them cleaned about every six to nine months.  I had always been happy with the Chem Dry results.  The carpets always look brand new when they leave.  I do tend to get a bit disgruntled with how much Chem Dry charges.  We also had a no call, no show one day and I question their Scotch Guard chemical upgrade as simply a ploy to extract even more money from my unsuspecting wife.

Today after having my carpets cleaned by Stanley Steamer, I am convinced that Chem Dry provides superior results.  Stanley Steamer definitely did an OK job cleaning the carpets.  They look much better now than they did before they were cleaned, but they don’t have that rejuvenated new look like they do after Chem Dry finishes.  I’m not sure about all Stanley Steamer carpet cleaners, but the guys who cleaned my carpet were quick to give up on cleaning tough stains.  It was as if they did not have any faith in their equipment or products.  I ended up on my hands and knees scrubbing at a stain to get it cleaned after they had shrugged their shoulders and given up.  There was another stain where we had spilled some laundry detergent.  The guys were able to clean most of the stain, but ignored the area under the doorway.  I had them come back to open the door and clean the rest of it, but the tool couldn’t quite reach into the difficult corners.  When the Chem Dry guys cleaned our carpets they ruthlessly tracked down and cleaned any stains they could find.  The Chem Dry cleaners seem to take great pride in their work and enjoy cleaning the difficult stains.  I think the big difference is that Chem-Dry uses that big buffer machine to really scrub and revitalize the carpets, where Stanley Steamer just sprays steam down and sucks it back up.

As for the add-on pressure sales, Stanley Steamer may actually be a bit worse than Chem Dry.  They tried to sell this outdoor mat to prevent us from tracking in dirt.  We agreed to purchase the Scotch guard, for an extra who knows how much.  I was disappointed when the guy half heartedly applied the scotch guard via a chemical sprayer and maybe got all the carpet, maybe he didn’t.

All in all, both companies cleaned the carpets sufficiently, but Chem-Dry’s process is superior.  I am happy to have tried both companies because I didn’t like Chem-Dry as a company, but the two items that matter when getting your carpets cleaned is the cost and the results.  Chem Dry produces sufficiently better results for only a little more money, so I will be going back to them when I need the carpets cleaned again.

Update: After giving the carpets time to dry after Stanley Steamer left (24+ hours with fans on), outlines of many stains have come back.

I finally hooked up my third monitor….  Very nice!

So I ran out to Best Buy tonight to purchase three items:

• a PCIe gigabit ethernet card
• a SATA cable
• and a Music CD

Best Buy in Attleboro does not carry the ethernet card.  The music isles were such a mess and so disorganized that I decided to just grab the CD on Amazon.  But, the thing that got me angry enough to post this was the SATA cable.  I did not check the price before checking out and it didn’t hit me that I had been robbed until I left the store.  They charged $19.99 for the SATA cable (see receipt below).  This wasn’t a Monster Cable or a gold plated uber cable.  It is a generic store brand garbage Dynex cable.  Currently NewEgg.com has more than 20 different SATA cables for under two dollars.  I knew BestBuy charges an arm and a leg for accessories, but I was amazed that Best Buy had the stones to mark up the cable by 900%.  I have since purchased both the cable and the ethernet card from NewEgg.  I will return the cable tomorrow.

If deciding between the D3000, D5000 or D90, I suggest the D3000 or the D90. Stay away from the Nikon D5000. I purchased the D5000 for the movie mode, live view and articulating display.  The movie mode flat out doesn’t work (you are forced to manually focus) and shooting from live view mode takes so long to focus that it’s too frustrating to be an option. The D3000 is the same as the D5000 except without the gimicks that don’t actually work anyway.  Also, if I were better with the manual settings, I may be frustrated to not have dedicated buttons for some of the more complicated manual settings.  The D90 has more dedicated buttons for settings than what the D5000 or D3000 include.

Bottom line, if you’re looking for an entry level SLR and will in reality stick with ‘auto’ mode most of the time (like me), then stick with the D3000. If you want to buy a border-line professional camera and get crazy into taking pictures, then the D90 may be a better option.

Also, I tested a Canon Rebel XSi and was very happy with it.  The user interface was far superior to that offered by Nikon, but I’ve been told the Nikon images are better, so I went with the Nikon (Personally, I couldn’t see the difference).

I have had Windows Home Server (WHS) installed for about four months now.  This is an amazing piece of software.  I can’t believe it hasn’t caught on with more people.  WHS handles all of my home networking needs.  It does daily backups of both my laptop and my wife’s laptop.  It stores all of our pictures and music on redundant storage.  It provides a free dynamic DNS service, so I can connect to my home network and establish a remote desktop connection to my home machine from anywhere.  It doubles as a media server accessible from both the XBox 360 and any computer in the house.  I understand each of these features may be available independently via open source options, but WHS makes everything simple, it works and it was inexpensive $90.  I admit the UI is ‘clunky’ and overall feels pieced together, but that’s because it is.  WHS is a stripped down version of Windows 2003 Server with a few WHS services running.  For more info see: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/windowshomeserver/default.mspx

For my configuration, I converted my old desktop to a WHS machine.  I have an old Dell with an AMD Dual Core something or other processor.  I added two new 1.5TB Seagate drives at ($129 a piece), added an extra couple GB of RAM (memory usage seldomly rises above 1GB) and I upgraded to a gigabit NIC and Router.  Then I threw the machine in the basement without a monitor or keyboard or anything and never have to touch it.  I can’t express enough how easy and powerful this thing is.  It solves numerous problems and does so for a reasonable cost.  All together it cost about $500 to get the whole system up and running.

I use the following WHS Add-Ins:

FirePlay – http://www.mediasmartserver.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=3999

Disk Management – http://www.tentaclesoftware.com/WHSDiskManagement/

Advanced Admin Console – http://mswhs.com/2008/01/22/add-in-advanced-admin-console/

FileZilla FTP Server – http://computingondemand.com/?p=961

To those that remember the underground world of BBSes, there is a podcast available at HanselMinutes.com where Scott Hanselman interviews the founders of Mustang Software and explores the joys of personal computing in the early 90′s.  If you remember those days, you should definately check it out.

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Just last month, while juggling for my son, my wife asked me how or why I learned to juggle.  I explained that there was quite a bit of waiting around associated with running a BBS.  She had never heard of a BBS, nor had I ever disclosed the uber-geekdom associated my days as a SysOp within the Massachusetts BBS community.  She did not understand the excitement associated with waiting over 30 minutes for the latest version of Duke Nukem to download.  Or the fun associated with watching someone browsing around your site, then popping in to say hello.  At the height of it’s popularity, my BBS received over 100 calls a day. OK, maybe I’m the only one impressed, but it wasn’t bad for a highschool kid with a 14,400 modem installed on his fancy 486DX33 (that’s right… DX… math co-processor in full effect… ).

.:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*~*:.

I did a quick search for ANSI art to find an image for this post and was amazed to find a downloadable copy of TheDraw… 

Regards,
Todd Kobus,
SysOp DD BBS

Oh, thanks Kevin for that special copy of Win95…

Acresso has answered my question regarding 64 bit custom actions.  The bottom line is that they are not allowed.  

You are correct that you cannot call a 64 bit dll from a managed custom action, however this is not dependent on setup.exe or any prerequisites.

Windows Installer does not have a managed custom action type so InstallShield wraps the managed dll in a native 32 bit dll. The issue is then that the 32 bit wrapper can’t call into a 64 bit dll and so there is no way to do this. So the technical restriction is that our 32 bit wrapper is unable to call into 64 bit dlls.

It is possible to launch a 64 bit executable from a custom action and do whatever is required from the 64 bit exe. 

Additionally, you can create a class that derives from the System.Installer class and set the “.Net Installer” property within Install Shield, but it is more difficult to control when the code is called.