Bruce M.
November 11th, 2009, 03:09 PM
17 Oct 09 - Aldo installed Cable TV and Internet on the 17 Oct 09.
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18 Oct 09 - We called to have our Email connected, we were told to call Tuesday as they did not even know we were connected yet (officially) and that would happen on Monday and they needed 24 hours to get things connected.
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20 Oct 09 - We start calling for our email. On the second or third call this day a friendly voice helps an we get a test email out. A second attempt with Thunderbird and it didn't work: "User name does not exist or password wrong". Another phone call and we're told to call back on Wednesday.
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21, 22 & 23 Oct 09 - It's a repeat story, during the process two people simply hang up on me, one hangs up on my wife and another has her in tears as she is asking (too politely for my liking) to be treated with respect, she's just a client that wants her email activated. Someone through all this told us that the mail servers are not TeleCentro's servers, that they are contracted from another company, and only "certain" people at TC can erase/setup the email accounts. When TC sets up an account with the password "abc123" it works fine. When I change the password, the webpage tells me everything is OK but we get the "User name does not exist or password wrong" error when we try to use it.
Also: 23 Oct 09 - A TC Service Tech came for a call about the Cable TV, he told us two things:
1. The lines going up and down the TV screen, most noticeable in TN (Channel 6) are normal there is nothing that can be done. It isn't 24 hours a day and sometime with two big lines on the screen. BULL!!!!
2. The problem with TeleCentro concerning our email is their problem, it is something that they know about, but won't say anything to a customer. Go figure!!
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23 Oct 09 - Josue (yes, that is his name) gave us the number SU-10990995 to get out mail setup tomorrow, and told us to call between 17 & 18:00. He said Ezequiel would be at work with a supervisor who could clean our password and have us set up.
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24 Oct 09 - When Liliana called, Mario told her that Josue had no right to tell her that Ezequiel would be at work today and simply told us to call again tomorrow. And that was that, he hung up!!
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25 Oct 09 - We still have no mail. I have had two "Service Techs" hang up on me and one on my wife - To date we have made at least 8 phone calls to get our email hooked up. Ezequiel Lambertucci, Josue Olivers and, today, Damien Otero are the only people, other than one unknown person from one of the first calls, who have treated us with respect and dignity.
Damien, however, said to call tomorrow (a very familiar story now) and we'll have it fixed and that if he can manage to get it fixed before that he would call. I'M NOT HOLDING MY BREATH! --- good thing too, he didn't call.
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26 Oct 09 - 11:15 - On Hold until: 11:40 - Mario: Just told Liliana that we have to wait "ANOTHER DAY!!" We have another work order# SU-10998705.
To hell with TeleCentro Email - Went searching for mail on the net and dumped Gmail when I saw all my local Email folders being uploaded to the net. Literally "pulled the plug on the modem", renamed my email directory, and plugged the modem back in. Went to Gmail and deleted the online folders that where there and then deleted the account real fast! Then I re-setup my Email here.
Ended up with Email at "lavabit.com" Pop3 - get my mail and delete it from the server. Sure I know Emails are all out there somewhere "archived" by "Big Brother" after being scanned with their list of keywords looking for threats and "things of national interest" Did I ever tell you I was paranoid? I'm not, just realistic. Smiley
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3 Nov 09 - Late in the day we loose Internet!!
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4 Nov 09 - Phone for tech support, early in the morning, they told us a service tech will be here Friday 6 Nov 09, between 08:00 and 13:00. (VT 1220533) At 10:30 someone at TC phoned to see if the technician had come. When we told him no, he asked it is was a morning or afternoon visit. He didn't know! This gets weirder!!
It is now 12:45, Liliana is talking to the TC Administration people now, or at least whoever answers the phones.
The net has been "intermittent" on off since yesterday - Modem says we are connected to 200.xxx.xxx.xx and download rates of 23 to 600B/s - just enough to say we are there.
17:10 - Liliana just called and found out there are no technicians coming, we have a new work-order number, VT 1227679 for NEXT WEDNESDAY!! I do NOT believe these people. I've unplugged the modem and it's sitting on the sofa.
Later Liliana called Aldo, see 17 Oct, who is contracted from another company to do installs for TC, and he's coming tomorrow morning just to check the cables, from the roof connection to the computer for us, we are paying him for this, just to know. So at 08:00 tomorrow we wait for him.
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7 Nov 09 - Got up and plugged the modem in and see strange things; of the six lights on the front: Power, DS, US, Online, Link & Tel, the first four lights were blinking! Aldo came a little late as he had car problems, but as soon as he saw the modem he knew it was toast!! He plugged in a new modem, without connecting it to the computer, just the cable and power, in less than a minute it was set up and ready to go with solid lights on Power, DS, US & Link.
Obviously he could not leave the modem with us as it was not his to do so, each modem has to be "initialized" at the tech center. So Liliana phones once more and explains to the person on the phone about are problems from day one, and she gets another number: SU 11100023, registering our complaint. This supposedly will go up the line to some supervisor, like I'm holding my breath here. Anyway the person on the phone said that they have specifically said in the work-order that the technician must bring a new modem, as this one is not working. Great, now as long a Wednesday isn't another Friday and the &%#ing guy shows up!
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10 Nov 09
21.30 - OK, tomorrow they come, or I should say they are scheduled to come yet again! If you hear what you think is English swearing and can't figure out where it's coming from it means two things, you have NOT read this and that was me cursing loud enouth that every TC employee can hear me no matter where they are!
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11 Nov 09
08:31 - Victor came! What a guy. First he checked the modem. OK, it didn't work, then he tested the cable, it had NO signal. Up to the roof where he checked everything. This building has 120 apatments in two wings and on the roof there are "nodes" the same as on the street because of the number of apartments each feeds (60), not the regular type "box" a building would have. One had NO signal for Internet one (ours had a weak signal). Victor did his magic and boosted the signal somehow. Then he came back to the apartment, and hooked a new modem up directly with the cable from the roof. In less than a minute it had the lights working and we have a new modem online.
However when he hooked it up to the computer it didn't work. Here's where "Apollo 13" became "TeleCentro 9". Remember when they had to "steal" amps from the Lunar lander to get the Space Capsule up and running, Victor did the same here, he started "stealing" signal from TV to power Modem. First he changed the splitters that divided the signal equally for one that sends more signal out of one exit than the other. He needed to change two of those. The original cable comes into the living room and is split in two for TV's in the living room and bedroom. On the way to the bedroom there is another splitter to add the modem. Now it's wired in such a way (2 extra wires on the floor) so that the modem gets the signal first out of the strongest side of the splitters, then it feeds the living room TV and the Bedroom TV.
The problem however, is not fully solved. While we have Internet, it is slow. They are, or will be, working on a "node" on the street today or tomorrow, as that's where the problem originates, and again on the roof. Apparently they have 48 hours to change that and they were advised of the problem yesterday.
So --- after 9 days, we have Internet again.
I hope you didn't think I deserted you.
Have a GREAT day.
Bruce
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18 Oct 09 - We called to have our Email connected, we were told to call Tuesday as they did not even know we were connected yet (officially) and that would happen on Monday and they needed 24 hours to get things connected.
-----
20 Oct 09 - We start calling for our email. On the second or third call this day a friendly voice helps an we get a test email out. A second attempt with Thunderbird and it didn't work: "User name does not exist or password wrong". Another phone call and we're told to call back on Wednesday.
-----
21, 22 & 23 Oct 09 - It's a repeat story, during the process two people simply hang up on me, one hangs up on my wife and another has her in tears as she is asking (too politely for my liking) to be treated with respect, she's just a client that wants her email activated. Someone through all this told us that the mail servers are not TeleCentro's servers, that they are contracted from another company, and only "certain" people at TC can erase/setup the email accounts. When TC sets up an account with the password "abc123" it works fine. When I change the password, the webpage tells me everything is OK but we get the "User name does not exist or password wrong" error when we try to use it.
Also: 23 Oct 09 - A TC Service Tech came for a call about the Cable TV, he told us two things:
1. The lines going up and down the TV screen, most noticeable in TN (Channel 6) are normal there is nothing that can be done. It isn't 24 hours a day and sometime with two big lines on the screen. BULL!!!!
2. The problem with TeleCentro concerning our email is their problem, it is something that they know about, but won't say anything to a customer. Go figure!!
-----
23 Oct 09 - Josue (yes, that is his name) gave us the number SU-10990995 to get out mail setup tomorrow, and told us to call between 17 & 18:00. He said Ezequiel would be at work with a supervisor who could clean our password and have us set up.
-----
24 Oct 09 - When Liliana called, Mario told her that Josue had no right to tell her that Ezequiel would be at work today and simply told us to call again tomorrow. And that was that, he hung up!!
-----
25 Oct 09 - We still have no mail. I have had two "Service Techs" hang up on me and one on my wife - To date we have made at least 8 phone calls to get our email hooked up. Ezequiel Lambertucci, Josue Olivers and, today, Damien Otero are the only people, other than one unknown person from one of the first calls, who have treated us with respect and dignity.
Damien, however, said to call tomorrow (a very familiar story now) and we'll have it fixed and that if he can manage to get it fixed before that he would call. I'M NOT HOLDING MY BREATH! --- good thing too, he didn't call.
-----
26 Oct 09 - 11:15 - On Hold until: 11:40 - Mario: Just told Liliana that we have to wait "ANOTHER DAY!!" We have another work order# SU-10998705.
To hell with TeleCentro Email - Went searching for mail on the net and dumped Gmail when I saw all my local Email folders being uploaded to the net. Literally "pulled the plug on the modem", renamed my email directory, and plugged the modem back in. Went to Gmail and deleted the online folders that where there and then deleted the account real fast! Then I re-setup my Email here.
Ended up with Email at "lavabit.com" Pop3 - get my mail and delete it from the server. Sure I know Emails are all out there somewhere "archived" by "Big Brother" after being scanned with their list of keywords looking for threats and "things of national interest" Did I ever tell you I was paranoid? I'm not, just realistic. Smiley
-----
3 Nov 09 - Late in the day we loose Internet!!
-----
4 Nov 09 - Phone for tech support, early in the morning, they told us a service tech will be here Friday 6 Nov 09, between 08:00 and 13:00. (VT 1220533) At 10:30 someone at TC phoned to see if the technician had come. When we told him no, he asked it is was a morning or afternoon visit. He didn't know! This gets weirder!!
It is now 12:45, Liliana is talking to the TC Administration people now, or at least whoever answers the phones.
The net has been "intermittent" on off since yesterday - Modem says we are connected to 200.xxx.xxx.xx and download rates of 23 to 600B/s - just enough to say we are there.
17:10 - Liliana just called and found out there are no technicians coming, we have a new work-order number, VT 1227679 for NEXT WEDNESDAY!! I do NOT believe these people. I've unplugged the modem and it's sitting on the sofa.
Later Liliana called Aldo, see 17 Oct, who is contracted from another company to do installs for TC, and he's coming tomorrow morning just to check the cables, from the roof connection to the computer for us, we are paying him for this, just to know. So at 08:00 tomorrow we wait for him.
-----
7 Nov 09 - Got up and plugged the modem in and see strange things; of the six lights on the front: Power, DS, US, Online, Link & Tel, the first four lights were blinking! Aldo came a little late as he had car problems, but as soon as he saw the modem he knew it was toast!! He plugged in a new modem, without connecting it to the computer, just the cable and power, in less than a minute it was set up and ready to go with solid lights on Power, DS, US & Link.
Obviously he could not leave the modem with us as it was not his to do so, each modem has to be "initialized" at the tech center. So Liliana phones once more and explains to the person on the phone about are problems from day one, and she gets another number: SU 11100023, registering our complaint. This supposedly will go up the line to some supervisor, like I'm holding my breath here. Anyway the person on the phone said that they have specifically said in the work-order that the technician must bring a new modem, as this one is not working. Great, now as long a Wednesday isn't another Friday and the &%#ing guy shows up!
-----
10 Nov 09
21.30 - OK, tomorrow they come, or I should say they are scheduled to come yet again! If you hear what you think is English swearing and can't figure out where it's coming from it means two things, you have NOT read this and that was me cursing loud enouth that every TC employee can hear me no matter where they are!
----
11 Nov 09
08:31 - Victor came! What a guy. First he checked the modem. OK, it didn't work, then he tested the cable, it had NO signal. Up to the roof where he checked everything. This building has 120 apatments in two wings and on the roof there are "nodes" the same as on the street because of the number of apartments each feeds (60), not the regular type "box" a building would have. One had NO signal for Internet one (ours had a weak signal). Victor did his magic and boosted the signal somehow. Then he came back to the apartment, and hooked a new modem up directly with the cable from the roof. In less than a minute it had the lights working and we have a new modem online.
However when he hooked it up to the computer it didn't work. Here's where "Apollo 13" became "TeleCentro 9". Remember when they had to "steal" amps from the Lunar lander to get the Space Capsule up and running, Victor did the same here, he started "stealing" signal from TV to power Modem. First he changed the splitters that divided the signal equally for one that sends more signal out of one exit than the other. He needed to change two of those. The original cable comes into the living room and is split in two for TV's in the living room and bedroom. On the way to the bedroom there is another splitter to add the modem. Now it's wired in such a way (2 extra wires on the floor) so that the modem gets the signal first out of the strongest side of the splitters, then it feeds the living room TV and the Bedroom TV.
The problem however, is not fully solved. While we have Internet, it is slow. They are, or will be, working on a "node" on the street today or tomorrow, as that's where the problem originates, and again on the roof. Apparently they have 48 hours to change that and they were advised of the problem yesterday.
So --- after 9 days, we have Internet again.
I hope you didn't think I deserted you.
Have a GREAT day.
Bruce