Monthly Archives: May 2011

TIL Verizon sets up 4G LTE passwords the old school way

Posted on by

Yesterday I got a Verizon 4G LTE mobile hotspot, and so far it has totally smoked the Sprint and AT&T devices I used before.

It’s an idiot proof device with one power button. Turn it on, wait for the blinky light to go solid, and you’re online. Easy! It is also very fast. Much faster than Sprint and AT&T’s service down here!

So today I went to verizon.com site and was setting up an account to keep track of my data usage. After I keyed in the mobile hotspot’s phone number, the site said it was going to send a text message to my device with a temporary login password.

Sending a text message to a mobile hotspot? A device with no LCD monitor? Wait, what?

An email that appeared as soon as I hit SUBMIT confirmed that “A temporary password from Verizon Wireless has been sent to your cell phone with number XXXX”.

Just to be sure I wasn’t missing anything, I logged in to my mobile hotspot directly and checked the logs and under every sub-menu. Nothing.

I called Verizon tech support and they said sending a temporary password to my device wasn’t possible since it was so new. However they would send me a password… through postal mail… so I could complete my setup.

Um… how about emailing it to me? SMS it to the primary phone number? Authenticate my ownership through the device’s MAC address? Confirm the sim card number and device ID over the phone and issue me a new password right there and then?

The technical support was very professional, answered my bandwidth question, and answered the phone fast, so I have no complaints at all about them. As a matter of fact, Verizon has been a five star experience so far, and I don’t rate much of anything five stars. But this old school throwback has me slightly surprised.

No Wall Street Journal for 22 days. Major fail continues.

Posted on by

Just a quick status update on the original Wall Street Journal delivery article. As of May 2nd, I haven’t received one single newspaper. That’s 22 Wall Street Journals I’ve missed because of “production issues”. (I get M-Sat only. Sundays were never an option.)

I’m tired of paying for something I haven’t received. I’ll keep the updates going until this mess is resolved.

Texas valley subscribers beware! Delivery of the Wall Street Journal is not reliable!

No Wall Street Journal for 21 days. Major fail continues.

Posted on by

Just a quick status update on the original Wall Street Journal delivery article. As of May 2nd, I haven’t received one single newspaper. That’s 21 Wall Street Journals I’ve missed because of “production issues”. (I get M-Sat only. Sundays were never an option.)

Today I was actually told something different! That my account was in “severe” status. Wow. Maybe if I keep it up I’ll get to “critical” and then maybe “terminal”!

I’m tired of paying for something I haven’t received. I’ll keep the updates going until this mess is resolved.

Texas valley subscribers beware! Delivery of the Wall Street Journal is not reliable!

No Wall Street Journal for 20 days? Major fail.

Posted on by

I was totally geeked out when I got my subscription to the Wall Street Journal started back in August. I enjoyed the daily paper with my morning coffee and was hoping this was the start of getting other “big hitters” like the New York Times and the Washington Post down here in the Texas valley as well.

What’s that guy in the Simpsons always say? Not Homer, but the bully kid… oh yeah! “HA-HA!!!”

As of May 2nd, I haven’t received one single newspaper. That’s 20 Wall Street Journals I’ve missed because of “production issues”. (I get M-Sat only. Sundays were never an option.)

Every day I call it in, file it online, and send a direct email to Wall Street Journal customer service. I’m using three different venues in the vain hope one of those departments can actually do something about it.

Every single day, the 1-800 customer service number had the same old excuse. I can quote verbatim what I’m always told…

“Hello Mr Eddington. It seems there was a production problem in your area. We will escalate this to the regional distributor in your area and urgent copy the regional manager. We will also credit your account for the missed issue. Tomorrow you will get a copy of today’s paper with the most recent edition. Is there anything else I can help you with?”

At this rate, they’re going to need a dump truck to deliver all the back issues they owe me.

The email reply is about the same.

“Thank you for subscribing to The Wall Street Journal. We are writing to follow-up on your recent complaint regarding your Journal newspaper delivery. We would like to again apologize for any inconvenience you may have experienced. There is no need to respond if the issue has been resolved and you are pleased with the way your concerns were addressed.”

The only links in the email are to the 1-800 number I listed above or to the same address that just sent me the auto-response.

Fun.

I’m not sure if the regional distributor has a sudden case of “don’t give a damn-itis”, if the Wall Street Journal drew a line across Texas and said “nothing below that line gets a newspaper anymore!”, or if there’s just not enough material after the local crap gets printed for a real newspaper to get run on.

I’m tired of paying for something I haven’t received. Fortunately, I have a blog to post my rants on. Hmmm…. what should I end with? Ah! How about…

Texas valley subscribers beware! The Wall Street Journal delivery isn’t reliable!

Let’s see what happens form here.