Friday, August 17, 2012

Verizon Wireless Share Everything plan includes driver's license ID and Social Security number.

I tried the Verizon Wireless Share Everything plan today with the intent of adding the Jetpack MiFi device to share data with my smart phone.  After the typical Verizon aggravation with the worst website in the galaxy I got my plan changed.  Tonight I tried to buy the Jetpack.  Again the usual Verizon junk including the outrageous $35 activation fee.  I was even willing to swallow that but I balked at the final cryptic form when Verizon insisted that I provide my driver's license ID, Social Security number and birth date.  What?

I did an online chat and asked the Verizon person why Verizon needed that info when I was a long time Verizon customer and was billing everything to my existing account.  The reply was some junk about identifying me.  I pointed out that I had logged in to my Verizon account, which was enough to let me change my billing plan but not add a new device.

Wow.  It's 2012 and it never occurred to me that Verizon would still be screwing up this much.  Now I'm trying to cancel that stupid Share Everything plan.  No sign that I can do that on the website.  Another call to Verizon.  Oh, the humanity!

Friday, August 3, 2012

Google Play Support Team replies to my written message.

from: Device Store on Google Play googleplay-support@google.com
sender-time: Sent at 8:02 AM (UTC). Current time there: 12:39 PM. ✆

date: Fri, Aug 3, 2012 at 8:02 AM
subject: Re: [#1087338058] General questions
mailed-by: google.com
signed-by: google.com
: Important mainly because it was sent directly to you.

Hi there,

We've received your information and will be in contact with you as soon as
possible. We're experiencing extremely high volumes at this time, so
please expect some delay in response. If you have anything else to tell us
in the meantime (additional details or new developments), feel free to
reply to this e-mail.

In the meantime, please check out our help center for more information:

http://support.google.com/googleplay/

Thanks!
The Google Play Support Team

Google Play Nexus phone number: 855-836-3987

Currently on hold while Google person is checking with a supervisor about what the heck happened to my June 28 order.  See previous post.

... Google has no idea!  I guess Google is not ready to take over the universe.

I asked for some consideration for my frustration and inconvenience: $25 ($50 would be nice) to my alleged Google Wallet account.  Google refused.  Just flat out refused ... under the guise that it cannot.  I pointed out that it can, as Google had in an unsolicited e-mail message it sent to me June 26, 2012 for stuff I did not want:


Get $25 with Google Wallet
Hello,


It’s time to start using your Google Wallet™ because now, for a limited time only, you’ll get $25 free when you activate Google Wallet and the Google Prepaid Card on the:


LG Viper™ 4G LTE from Sprint
LG Optimus Elite™ from Sprint
LG Optimus Elite from Virgin Mobile
______________________________________

The point is that Google could have given me a credit but declined.

Google Play failed to process my June 28 order.

June 28, 2012 I thought I was one of the first to order the new Google tablet, the Nexus 7.  I thought I had ordered it directly from Google through its Play Store, which at the time seemed like a great alternative to Apple iTunes and Amazon.

https://play.google.com/store/devices?feature=corpus_selector

I should have been suspicious of an ordering web page with no way to contact the seller.

I received an e-mail message from my bank with a one dollar charge from Google, the kind of thing that I had seen before when ordering on the web.  The merchant is probing to determine if the payment info is legit.

I cannot find a confirmation e-mail message from Google.  What went wrong?  Beats me.

It's really hidden but I finally found a way to contact Google:

http://support.google.com/googleplay/

I sent the link to this post and info from my bank.  Let's what if anything Google does.

Thursday, August 2, 2012

emPower! flopped.

I finally checked it in person last week.  At least Superfocus actually did what was supposed to, just too clumsily and it was really ugly. emPower! was confusing.  I had read about it but when I discussed it with a sales person and tried a couple of pairs I saw little benefit.  I had thought that it would switch between all distance and trifocal progressive but apparently it merely eliminates the reading part of trifocal.  Plus, even the sales person was confused about what mode it was in.  I told him that I saw no change when I tapped the side.  He coached me to do it differently.  Finally he looked inside and guessed that it was in auto mode and that my tapping did nothing.

I was very disappointed.

Verizon: how many dead links does your website have?

Message just sent to Verizon customer service:


I tried to fill out your form but it still fails.

http://www22.verizon.com/support/residential/internet/highspeedinternet.htm

How many dead links does your website have?  Another recent one is for
home monitoring, which I might consider if I could learn more.

My Internet service at home has been very slow for a long time for
multiple PCs used one at a time with different OS: WindowsXP,
Windows7, Chromium.  Old PC, new PC.  Doesn't matter.  About 10 hops
for both wired and WiFi.  Mbps: 32 wired, 17 WiFi.  Browser refresh is
unacceptably slow.

Please resolve and offer a good price or I will need to consider alternatives.