it’s unix, not eunuchs

I just noticed that the Netflix Watch Instantly Service is down. I find users at Ars Technica complaining about it here and also users complaining inside Netflix’s forums here. I suppose this is one potential downside to the ultra-cheap Netflix Streaming Player that only caches 64MB. If Netflix sold a hard drive based player then you could ride through outages like this by watching 10 films or a hundred films that you had already downloaded.

I called and spoke to a customer service rep and was pleased with the experience. It was my second time dealing with Netflix Customer Service and both calls were answered with very little call tree nonsense. I just entered a 6 digit customer number they have assigned to me and I was talking to Neil in about a minute, just like the first time I called for something else. Just as I called, the system came back up, so I asked Neil about it and he said that yes, the server had been down earlier, but that everything should be working good now.

And oh yeah, don’t do what I was doing at one point.  Don’t keep hitting the refresh key, you just refresh the outage web page, which apparently may be accessible even when the service is back up.  Instead click out to the main netflix page and then click Watch Instantly again.

I RMAed my mini-ipod this Saturday. I get an email on Monday that was a bit confusing. It explained that the RMA had been approved and that I didn’t owe them any shipping. That’s in direct contrast to the $30 in shipping that the web page demanded when I entered the RMA. Plus it didn’t explain if they were shipping a box to me or if I had to package it myself. I decided to just sit back and wait.

Tuesday morning I head out for breakfast(I think.) Anyhow, I was heading out and notice a package on my porch. No one had rung the doorbell and instead of sticking the small package inside the screen door it was instead at the lip of the porch. I’m given the impression that DHL didn’t even ring the doorbell. This is my first experience with DHL so I won’t become jaded but it was a bit odd. So I open up the box and package the mini-ipod. But the instructions aren’t clear and the packing material they included was really poorly thought out. Not wanting to void the RMA I used it and dropped it off at the DHL location. Hopefully I’ll get a functioning device soon.

I’m on-call again. Hard to believe it’s already been 4 months. The laptop is acting a little shady so I hope I don’t have issues that make me work from the office all week. Chilli asked me over to his mom’s for Thanksgiving. I’ll be there, with laptop packed in the car in case I get a call.

Other than that not much going on around here. I’m catching up on the Tivo and drinking lots of tea. Would you believe Netflix sent me two Rocky DVDs and they were both cracked? What are the odds?

it’s broke again. victor had me flash the memory on the motherboard. still broke. now he wants me to run extended tests of the memory chips in separate slots again. I’ll do it but I’m still unhappy with their poor systems, poor support and their stupid “no managers at night” philosophy. If you’re going to run a flat support structure then you have to have managers around. The only other option is to have an escalation tier to help the frontline guys.

BTW, it’d be different if this was a standard company or a standard support contract. This support contract cost $300 and the computer was built by a company that targets the performance computer niche. This baby performs alright. It executes memory reads and writes with flawless precision.

This is just a note for myself. Read if you like

On hold for 8 minutes. Stacy answers the phone. Asked for a manager as I have a problem that has been ongoing for months. Her manager is not there. Can I leave a number and my name and have the manager call me back? No, she can not promise me that he will call me back. I explained that I called on March 22nd and was promised a call back by March 29th. Call back did not occur. Stacy put me on hold.

13 minutes into the call.

PBX is still messed up. Hold music cuts out all the time.

17 minutes into the call. She is still waiting to see if she can get me a supervisor. Placed back on hold.

23 minutes into the call.

Stacy comes back on and tries to convince me that she can fix my problem. I explain the problem. She had no ideas and places me back on hold. 27 minutes into the call.

35 minutes into the call. Stacy tells me a manager/supervisor is available. I’m put back on hold.

39 minutes into the call Paula joins the call.

In an attempt to keep the conversation short I told Paula that I am a cheapskate and the house is cold. Yet the system keeps rebooting. Paula harangued me about the overheating issue. I had to assure her repeatedly that no the device was not in an enclosed space(like an entertainment center) and did not have anything(even a “piece of paper”) placed on top of it. Because manufacturing and installing a device in peoples homes that could malfunction if you put a piece of paper on it is such a great fucking idea. Anyhow I also mentioned to her that since they’ve already sent two people onsite to investigate that they would have found an issue with the install if there was a problem.

42 minutes into the call and I’m back on hold.

45 minutes into the call and Paula comes back on. Security device is installed on the box. If it doesn’t respond in a timely manner they will reboot the box. That has been disabled. Low signal issue. I explained that the other two techs haven’t seen this low signal problem. Turns out that there is an issue in the area that may be causing the low signal issue.

Credit offered on the account for the on-demand and dvr service. She will check my signals tomorrow and call me back.

Pointed out that I’ve been on the phone for 50 minutes. At a dime a minute that equals the $5 she wants to credit me. Additionally why didn’t I get called from the last on-site visit? For the money it costs to send a person on-site it certainly deserves a call-back. Credit given is 18.86.

Call finished 56 minutes in.

Another 56 minutes of my life lost to poor customer service. Maybe I should just start reading more.

1:32 PM 12/17/2004 Calling Alienware back. AJ answers the phone.
1:40 PM 12/17/2004 Ask for a manager,
1:44 PM 12/17/2004 No manager/supervisor is available. Within 2 hours I will get a call back.

FIRST CALL:

6 minute hold time. Tech had a hard time looking up my account number. After 4 minutes of trying to look me up the call ended abnormally. I don’t know why.

SECOND CALL:

John picked up right away. He looked up my account number quite easily. My account number is 229408. I explained my complaint about last night. John is getting me a supervisor.

After 6 minutes of holding came back on line and offered to transfer me to customer service.

After holding for 4 more minutes, John comes on and apologizes again.

It’s been 8 more minutes of being on hold. John comes back on the call and apologizes again.

A minute later Ace, who works in Customer Service, comes on the phone. I explained my complaint about last night. He explained that normally tech support supervisors leave the office at midnight EST. I explained that I called at 10:00 PM EST. He thinks that maybe they had to leave the facilities early for a meeting. Put on hold while he checks on that.

After 3 minutes of on hold Ace came back on the line. He called tech support and asked them when supervisors are available. Apparently supervisors are in the call center 24 hours a day. Ace thinks that maybe the supervisor was on a call with another customer and was not available when I asked for him. The tech support supervisor has promised to give me a call or email in the next 48 hours. Ace updated my phone information and then we finished the call.

Called Alienware. I worked with them 4 days ago on a hardware issue I was having. They diagnosed it as a memory problem. I agree with them. So we pulled a stick and ran for a few days. Things seemed ok for a while. Then it blue screened during a reboot. The blue screen referred to disk issues. The guy I got tonight is an idiot. Told me to re-install the OS. I agree that I need to format that system, but there is also a hw problem. I told him about my POST error codes for the memory. He told me that it was associated with the OS problem. I mentioned that it’s impossible for an OS problem to give an error before the MBR is referenced.

Then the guy started arguing with me. I’ve given up hope on getting mad at these guys. I asked for his boss or another tech. He refused. No bosses are there at night and he’s not allowed to transfer a call to a peer. I told him I’d call back in the morning. He assured me that he could help me. I assured him that I didn’t want to work with someone who argues with me.

I’ll call back tomorrow and complain about not having any bosses on the night shift.

I’ve decided on a new strategy with Alienware. I’m going to call them about everything. If anything at all breaks. ANYTHING…I’m calling them.

called up…tried to get service…got lip instead…disconnected the service…they’re mailing me boxes and I’ll send the receiver back to them.

Called up Time Warner and they have someone scheduled to be here Saturday morning. Their DVRs are smaller, but if they work, I don’t care. And, did I mention that they were polite? Who would guess it, customer service wins out again.