2009, bad year, or worst year ever?

01/02/2009 12:06 am
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Since I haven't got my laptop back yet for the second time, I spent some time checking out desktops today. Priced out a system on HP and then found one on Best Buy's website that actually seemed somewhat palatable. Decided to go check it out and just price out and get a feel for what the monitor market is like these days. Got outside, my stupid leaky tire was totally flat. So I put on the spare, then tried to go to a gas station with free air to blow it up, of course their nozzle thingy is total crap, went to a different gas station and paid 75 cents to fill it up. Except I could hear it leaking when I was done which I didn't think had happened before. So not knowing how long it would stay inflated, it's on probation in the bed of my truck since I didn't want to go out to a flat tire before work tomorrow.

While I was doing that my mom called just to chat and I said I was busy and the phone call was about 30 seconds long.

Went to Best Buy the one PC I wanted to look at was hiding by the laptops. Looks pretty decent (especially with a nice 22" wide screen), except their floor model was literally on the floor and it was super filthy. Still undecided.

Went home, got to the door realized I left my phone in my truck, so had to walk back out to the parking lot, get my phone, went back inside. Flipped open my phone and it wasn't on, which was odd 'cause I was pretty sure I left it on. Power button does nothing. Plug into charger, no charger light. Take out battery, put it back it nothing. Argh! Looked up nearby Sprint stores and there is a full service one 9 miles away. It's about quarter to 7 and the website says they are open until 9, no mention of holiday hours. So I drive over there, missing a turn which lead me on a at least 5 minute detour, and of course they are closed.

Get home again, trying to find out from the Intertubes if it is likely just a fried battery (when I noticed phone was off the battery was quite warm) or if my phone (Sanyo M1) was toast. Didn't find anything other some people who said they had the same problem but no notes about getting it fixed. Found a replacement battery on Amazon for $5 bucks. Then was snooping around Sprint site and found the switch phone option, checked on the same forums to see if I should be able to switch to an old phone. Yep, should be possible and supposed to be no fee. So I get my most recent other phone, plug in the ESN, gives me next screen about setting up plan options, go to confirm, and it fails and says to call Customer Support (hmmm...). Next oldest phone steps up to bat, get's past that screen, I say ok confirm, what have I got to lose. Confirms switch, dropped text messaging and vision pack on plan which I'm sure is going to be nothing but billing issues but whatever. Gives me some ids for programming my phone, then a link to instructions which is another page with link to instructions which lists a bunch of Sanyo phones but not my SCP-6200.

Click on one of the other phones, follow those directions, nothing doing. Try to google it up, very sparse and shotgun spread search results, but after 20 minutes or so found instructions for some other phone hack which clued me in to how to get to the setup screen. Tried to match the data I was given with the options on the phone, reboot, still doesn't work. Although, possibly it takes up to 4 hours so maybe it will work tomorrow. But maybe not that I switched to that phone I can switch to my other backup phone. I'll try that next.

And technically this didn't happen in 2009, but my muffler is being held off of my driveshaft by a wire clothes hanger installed on Monday night, which is probably not going to work for long.
newalex.jpgAlex - I was too weak to give in Too strong to lose
01/02/2009 @ 12:12:15 AM
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Switching the newer old phone didn't work either, they have chat support but only until 10pm.
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face.bmpCarlos44ec - 2079 Posts
01/02/2009 @ 07:50:49 AM
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Sounds like a bad day, sucks, but I'm still optimistic for the new year.

I had a good day though...
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newalex.jpgAlex - 3619 Posts
01/02/2009 @ 07:37:19 PM
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Good news is my newer old phone is setup as active now. Bad news is it took about .3 seconds at the Sprint store before an employee said, "Hey, why don't you just buy a new phone?". They said I could have them try to repair it which could be a 45 minute wait, and they had replacements available but it would take 2 days to ship it. I said, let's just activate this old phone for now. While doing that someone checked for a spare battery, which they didn't have. At which point, I wanted to say, "How exactly do you plan on fixing my phone when it won't turn on at all and you dorks don't even have an extra battery, which seems like the first step on the troubleshooting list for power issues?". But I instead tried to get an answer on whether it was likely to just be a battery issue, and didn't really get anything out of them. They also tried to tell me that I've had my phone for 2 years which qualifies me for the $150 new phone discount, except that I found the receipt last night and I bought it on 3/31/07. Which is important cause if my contract is up I'm thinking about exploring my options since Sprint doesn't seem to be all that and a bag of chips ahead of the competitors these days.
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newalex.jpgAlex - 3619 Posts
01/02/2009 @ 08:06:15 PM
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And this should probably go in the "The System is Down" thread, but once my phone was working I got to listen to a delightful voice message from an Asian woman that I could barely understand who said my laptop wouldn't be back until the 16th.
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thumbnailCAW1I0O3.gifMatt - Ombudsman
01/03/2009 @ 11:48:45 AM
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I liked this story better the first time I read it. emoticon
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newalex.jpgAlex - 3619 Posts
01/17/2009 @ 04:12:06 PM
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The phone battery that I bought got my phone to turn on, but they don't send the battery with much juice, so I left it to charge overnight and the next day it was dead again, so my phone has become a battery assassin apparently.

Anyone have a Katana Eclipse X, Samsung Highnote, or Motorazr VE20? I'm looking for good phone calls (on a phone? no way!), ability to use an MP3 player occasionally (doesn't need to be super fancy), and a halfway decent camera. So far I'm thinking I don't really like the Highnote, 50/50 between the other 2. All 3 of my previous phones have been Sanyos, that one is a little cheaper, but the VE20 has a better camera, worse buttons, and from what I've found so far online better call reception and quality.
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face.bmpCarlos44ec - Since 1980!
01/19/2009 @ 12:37:37 PM
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I dig most anything samsung makes- the last phone I had on T-Mobile was awesome, and outlived the contract.
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newalex.jpgAlex - Ignorance is bliss to those uneducated
01/23/2009 @ 08:20:06 PM
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Hello Moto! My M1 didn't quite survive the contract but I guess I still qualified for the maximum discount anyway so that was good. I really wanted to show brand loyalty to Sanyo, but the Katana Eclipse X just wasn't as good a phone as the Razr, and I didn't really like the layout of the Highnote, which is a 2-way slider.
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2887.gifAlex - 3619 Posts
01/24/2009 @ 05:27:28 PM
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I've decided that auto companies are in trouble, because back in the day that was probably the "thing" to spend some extra money on, but now it's electronics. I channeled my inner vulture today and descended upon Circuit City, picked up a micro usb data cable, 8 GB micro sd memory card, and some headphones for my new phone. Remember when I spent like $70 on a mini sd 512mb card 4 years ago, and then today I spent $45 on a chip that has 16x (yes, I know, not exactly) the capacity and is half the size?
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face.bmpCarlos44ec - ...and Bob's your Uncle!
01/27/2009 @ 08:34:16 AM
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I went in to CC yesterday too. Some decent deals on memory and all that rot, but at the 10-15% off, I can think of better things to spend money on. When they get to 20-30, then I will consider things.

There's just nothing I really need right now, so that sucks.
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2887.gifAlex - 3619 Posts
01/27/2009 @ 01:03:49 PM
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Yeah, I think they played the "we have to sell everything" card pretty early. 10% off isn't that much, and even at that price I saw a couple things that were also at Best Buy for the same non-sale price. Plus at Circuit City they have signs saying they are still getting in new stuff every day. So the fire sale really hasn't started yet.
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fry6beeu9.jpgJeremy - 9506 Posts
01/27/2009 @ 01:56:13 PM
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Alex Wrote - Today @ 01:03:49 PM
even at that price I saw a couple things that were also at Best Buy for the same non-sale price.


One wonders why they're going out of business.
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reign_of_fire_150.jpgMicah - 584 Posts
01/27/2009 @ 02:09:46 PM
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This is a pretty standard liquidation process. They jack everything up to retail prices and then do 10-20% off to get people who just look at the percentage off to pay the prices they would have paid all along. There will be a few good deals, but probably not until it gets to 40-50%. You also might be able to get 5% off an ipod, which, if you're in the market, is about the best you're gonna get.
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jon.jpgJon - 3406 Posts
01/29/2009 @ 12:29:17 AM
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Prange Way in EC went out of business years ago, but I think actually got into some legal trouble for claiming to mark down items that were never actually marked down or something like that.
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2887.gifAlex - Who controls the past now controls the future
09/21/2009 @ 05:43:54 PM
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Also I've been house shopping all summer, fishing was generally unsuccessful, and now my reversible belt buckle fell apart (Made in China at its finest).

Plus, the Brewers were disappointing, Weeks got hurt after looking awesome, Hardy got sent to the minors, and the starting rotation imploded. The government has roughly doubled the national debt and is attempting to take over every major industry (I heard Obama wants to give newspapers bailouts now). The Packers have half an offensive line and lost to the Bengals at home, and Brett Favre plays for the Vikings! Worst year ever is definitely in sight.
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hoochpage.JPGSarah - So's your face
09/21/2009 @ 07:18:51 PM
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emoticon
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newalex.jpgAlex - 3619 Posts
11/27/2009 @ 03:26:16 PM
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I could probably start a new blog for this, but I just want to vent that Charter is a horrible company. I didn't want to setup service over the phone because I didn't want to deal with the full-court sales press, so I built my own bundle online. Which was really confusing because their packages and prices are, I believe, intentionally unintelligible. Anyway, got done with that and then had my choice of calling them, having them call me, or doing online chat to setup my installation. So I went with that chat. It took them like 5 minutes to get my address "entered into their system", but that's part of the reason I went with the chat because I was keeping busy in the meantime. Then the rep offered me installation times of 1 pm, 3 pm, or 5 pm. 5 pm sounded great because I could just go into work early and leave early. So the day of, I had my cell off at work since I get bad reception there, left work at 20 to 5pm and had 3 voicemails. Automated calls at 1 pm and 3:15pm to confirm my appointment at 3pm, then a person at 3:20 saying the tech was at my door. I got home, called the 888 number, and that guy said that the techs only work until 5. Which means whoever I was chatting with was on crack. Then I had to wait another 4 days for the next installation time. And the kicker was that while I was trying to get that straightened out he tried to sell me their phone and premium packages. emoticon Installation went ok I think, although he ran a new line into my house from the box, which leaves me with a preexisting line in the basement that I don't know what it connects to. Hopefully he wasn't on crack to. But they've already stopped burying lines until spring, so now I have a nice orange cable chilling on the lawn. Today, I go to check out some of the sports package channels that I included when I picked my options online, and of course I'm not authorized. So I have to call them up again, get the home phone sales pitch again, and they're going to charge me a $2 "screw you" fee for "adding" the sports package. What a bunch of tools.
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Alex perfected this 2 times, last at 11/27/2009 3:26:54 pm
matt.jpgMatt - Washington Bureau Chief
11/28/2009 @ 01:26:59 AM
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Agreed. There has been an orange cable in my parent's backyard since August waiting to be buried. My dad called them about 3 times trying to get someone out to bury it, and each time was told that they would take care of it. They didn't. Then a few weeks ago on my dad called again and now they said it would have to wait until spring since they had stopped burying cables for the winter.
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fry6beeu9.jpgJeremy - 9506 Posts
11/29/2009 @ 03:04:30 AM
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We had cable run to the box and then to every room with splitters in the basement when our house was built. When the cable guy came he said their stuff was "crap" and ran a new line out to the box, then replaced all the splitters. When we switched to satellite they ran a new line in from the dish, then told us the splitters were crap and gave us new ones.

I think, especially with charter, it's a symptom of job security. These are usually subcontracted jobs and if all they ever did was flip a switch at the cable box, or now with everything being digital, just drop the boxes off, or hook them up, charter would get rid of them because the UPS guy would be just as good at dropping off electronics.

Either that or they don't want to take the time to find out if your setup works because it's faster for them just to make up some nonsense about ohms/resistance and use their own crap (which they then, almost assuredly, bill charter for.)
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2887.gifAlex - Ignorance is bliss to those uneducated
11/29/2009 @ 11:39:57 AM
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Yeah, I wasn't sure if there was a line to the house yet, otherwise after the 1st botched installation I would've just gone to Charter and said give me the equipment, I'll se it up myself.
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