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So out of the blue one day last year our business gets a long distance bill from Qwest Communications. They wanted $1640.00 for domestic long distance charged at a rate of 45 cents per minute. This is the first thing we ever got from Qwest. There was never a “Thank you for signing up with Qwest, we are happy you have chosen to pay 500% to much for long distance” letter. Thing is we never asked Qwest to carry our long distance, after all at 45 cents I would of had to be out of my mind to agree to that.

During that period our phone/data T1 was being provided by Nuvox Communications. This service included to fairly large bucket of long distance minutes (1500 I think) at a reasonable rate if you went over that amount, so we allowed them to carry our long distance.

So after talking to Qwest they couldn’t produce a contract binding us to any agreement to pay this amount…so we didn’t. They claimed that the amount was due because Nuvox had electronically made the change. I don’t have a signed paper with Nuvox to make that change either. The customer service guys at Nuvox couldn’t tell us when/how it happened, and insisted it was “impossible”.

So we decided to call the Georgia Public Service Commission. They contacted both parties and both parties agreed to review the case. After a few calls and faxing paperwork in all diretions to parties at Nuvox and Qwest things finally seemed like maybe we were getting somewhere.

Three months pass without a call, then we once again begin to hear from Qwest collections. They want the $1640.00 still for service we never agreed should be rendered. Now Nuvox Communications won’t respond, and the Georgia Public Service Commission says about the only thing we can do is get a lawyer.

So here we are stuck in the middle of two companies that can’t get thier computers to talk to each other correctly with collections wanting $1640.00 from us! Itsn’t technology great? What would you do? Anyone know the number for the CEO at Nuvox….I think I need to give him a call.

Cingular has had some interesting advertising campaigns over the last few years. I have kind of enjoyed the unique ways they have come up with to picture the cell phone signal in the “Raising the Bar” commercials. But now, this latest “Least dropped calls of any network, and Cingular isn’t just saying the leading research company proved it.” As soon as I hear that I thought it was Consumer Reports, because I know from experience that you aren’t allowed to use the Consumer Reports name in advertising. But it wasn’t them, it was some obscure company I had never heard of called telephia.

Now I’m sure Telephia is great at what they do, but I have had friends with Cingular…most of which have switch to Verizon. Most of the talk about the poor coverage on Cingular. I guess when you have to stand under the tower to get good reception you tend not to drop calls.

I use Verizon. I have very few dropped calls. I have had some phone problems, which I tend to blame on Microsoft and Samsung more than Verizon, and my replacement XV6700 has been pretty good.  There are four places however where I am guarenteed my call will drop.

1. On “Old Alabama Road” at the first stop sign in Emerson Georgia.
2. Again on “Old Alabama Road” when I go past a mountain.
3. On Highway 61, south of the Carterville Regional Airport, again going through a pretty good valley.
4. On Dabbs Bridge Road, right after I drive over the bridge and round the corner and go behind a rather large hill/mountain again.

The last one I am experimenting with speed. I hoping that if I drive fast enough, I might loose audio for a few seconds but still keep the call up. So far no luck though.

With Verizon I have litterally made calls with clear quality when my phone show no signal bars. While I have been writing this I have been trying to remember the last time I was somewhere where I didn’t have a signal. I really am having a hard time with that. I think it might have been when I took Hurricane relief supplies down to my parents in Pensacola after Ivan. Since the trees weren’t standing, and there was no power I really couldn’t fault the network. BTW…how did I find my parents after the hurricane….they got through on a VERIZON cell phone.

I really went on quite the rant about this one. What cell phone company do you use? If it is Sprint you can now switch carriers and keep your number….even Cingular would be better.

Today Microsoft Outlook decided it was time to stop checking my email and started giving me “Unknown Error ‘0×8004060C’”. First thing I did was to verify my server wasn’t have any problems…server was fine. Then I decided to take a look at Google. The first returned page pointed me here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/q304863/. I thought “awesome, this is the exact error message”….so I started scanning the document for a resolution. I was happy to read ” 0×8004060C is a unique error code that is designated for a failure to deliver to a .pst file Inbox because the .pst file is full.”

So….if the KB document can be so clear that it is a “UNIQUE ERROR CODE” then WHY OH WHY does Outlook waste my time telling me it is an UNKNOWN ERROR…..GRRRR. If it had just said “Your PST file is too big, delete some of your junk mail and compress your PST” then I would have been happily on my way a lot quicker. Thanks Microsoft.

So yesterday while I was enjoying the BMW Ultimated Driving Expereience I was having the windows tinted on my 3 Series. To the legal limit of course. When I got back I talked to the installer about the window tinting law, telling him that my wife’s car was beyond the limit. He was nice enough to offer to retint the front two windows on my wifes bug for $100.00. He told me that he has heard that the ticket for window tint violation first offence is $104.00.

So I brought my car home after having it tinted yesterday. Parked beside my wifes car it is hard to even tell a difference between the 35% (legal) add 17% (illegal) tint. As far as visibility into the car for law inforcement, I don’t think it is that much greater with 35% than with 17%. I had a hard time seeing in with either applied. I will have to look again in full sunlight though, it was late evening by the time I got home. It made me start to wonder if my wifes car is really 17% or if the officer didn’t use his new tint detector toy properly. I might have to get it re-tested.

So, Georgia has a “new” window tinting law. Well they do as of June 2005. Will this one stay around this time? Last time they passed this a window tinting law in Georgia it was struck down as unconstitutional because it exempted out-of-state registered vehicles. It was debated that this was descriminatory to Georgia residents.

So they “fixed” the bill and re-passed it. Now it applies to everyone, so if you are a resident of a state that allows you to have your windows tinted you can get pulled over if you are driving through Georgia. Here is Georgia House Bill 20, so you can read for yourself.

So why are my feathers so ruffled about this, after all my car doesn’t have window tinting. My wife’s car does….which we just bought used about a month or two ago. It has very dark tinted windows. They only allow 17% of the light to pass through the window, House Bill 20 specifies 32% must pass.

So what do I do now? I bought the vehicle when it was equipped legally. I believe I ought to be able to have an exemption. However, House Bill 20 doesn’t allow for this. Why should I have to pay 100’s of dollars to remove window tinting that was perfectly legal to install when it was installed?

What’s next….will the Gerogia legislature decide it is unsafe for me have a silver car because it reflects to much light, blinding oncoming drivers, and make me have my car repainted?

I will admit that dark tinted windows can be a danger for Law Enforcement. But there are better ways to handle it. Make it a law that I MUST roll down my window when pulled over. But let me tint if I want to.

* End of Rant *