Battling with Rogers

AGAIN.

I have been battling with them since October.

(This is a long post)

In the beginning, we have some mysterious internet traffic that uses up our usage limit. Worked with the tech support of Rogers and they kept saying that it must be because we were either hacked or careless about how much shows and videos we were watching and hence the high traffic. But really, there’s no way there would be that much traffic one some random days. One of those days we were even out of town for a good part of it. So they had us temporarily changed to an unlimited usage account while we tried to figure out why. (of course we had to pay extra to change to the unlimited usage)

In the meantime, we changed our WIFI password and name. But the problem persists with random surge of usage. Since Rogers wouldn’t even entertain the idea that the problem might be on their end, we ended up buying an extra router (the modem from Rogers already has a router bundled in it) at home to monitor the traffic. We did the monitoring for a month and a bit. It turned out that for the most part, when there’s no traffic surge, our monitor and what Rogers telling us on the day-to-day usage on their website is essentially the same. But when the surge occur, that’s when our monitored traffic shows that we didn’t use that much data. I had to contact tech support again and told them what we found. And without sending them the monitoring report that our router generated to support our claim, the tech support scheduled a cable guy to come check the hardware outside out of our house immediately.

I have always heard stories that Rogers is always trying to scam ppl for a few extra dollars here and there and because they have so many customers, they ended up getting lots of money that way. I wonder if Rogers knows that it’s their problem all along and just wouldn’t admit to it until we figured out a way to prove it. Otherwise, why would they suddenly decided that it’s their fault without even seeing hard evidence from our report??

Anyway, cable guy was good. Found the problem right the way. It was indeed Rogers hardware issue outside of our house. So they fixed it and no more data usage surge.

But then I had to call in to downgrade our service back to the original plan (don’t want to pay unlimited cos we really don’t use that much). Also, I wanted them to credit us back the money we pay for the unlimited usage since the problem was on their side so why did we pay for extra for 2 months?? I didn’t even hope for a refund but just a credit.

For the downgrade, I had 2 complains. First, according to the representative, the downgrade can only start in the next billing cycle. That is totally BS. When I did the upgrade, it was effective immediately. The extra cost of prorated for the month. So how come they can’t do the same for downgrading? Again, back to the point that Rogers is trying to get a few extra dollars out of their customers whenever possible.

Second, and this is the big one. I used to have this 80GB usage plan and is locked in a contract. Since then, they have changed their packages and the closest package to my original only has 70GB. When I did the upgrade, I specifically asked the lady if I could get back to my old plan once everything’s sorted out and the answer was positive. But of course, now that this is actually being executed, the rep said that I can’t get back to that plan since it’s not being offered anymore. I can only get the 70GB, despite the fact that I was told otherwise previously. So effectively, I am paying the same to get less of the service. NOT IMPRESSED.

Getting the credit part was actually pretty good. They didn’t try to get out of it and give me the credit right the way. The only complain I have for that is how they transferred me back and forth.  I was with tech support to downgrade the plan so they had to transfer me to customer account to get the credit. When I explained the situation (AGAIN) to customer account, she told me that she had to refer me back to tech support about it. I was about to say what the fxxk. Luckily, she changed her mind and gave me the credit without going around in circles.

---

So that was all dealt with.

And then Dec came that’s when my contract with Rogers’ up so I had to contact them again to see if they will renew my discount (I was about to leave Rogerrs for Starts communications a year ago so they used a discount to keep me with them). And then good, my stuff was renewed (altho it would have been nice if I don’t have to do it every freaking year).

But came my last two bills. The internet service fee had increased by $3/month without warning. And they are also charging me for modem rental which was supposed to be waived according to my deal with them. So I contacted them on Wednesday night for an explanation.

I have to say, that guy, Michael, is as moron. Or he was hired to pretend to be a moron in order to scam their customers.

Apparently, there was a warning in my Dec bill but since Rogers decided that they will lump my Dec bill with my Jan bill, I didn’t get the warning. WTF. Anyhow, nothing I can do abt that anyway but to accept the change of service fee in the new year. But the modem, they said that the deal doesn’t include modem. WTF.

The package I had was supposed to include modem rental (no separate charge) but because I was going to get mine waived anyway, I didn’t press the point back then cos I figured that I wasn’t going to pay for it anyway.  So now, they were saying that it wasn’t waived. Unfortunately, Rogers has changed its packages (yet again) in the new year so the old package info cannot be found on the website anymore.

I did my homework before contacting them. I ended up paying $51.40 every month with the increased fee and modem rental with 70GB usage.  One of new plan Rogers came up with is 100GB, with the same d/l and u/l speed as the one I have. The package include modem rental. If I can keep my discount, I will end up paying $51.41, one cent more than I used to but with 30GB more usage (we are pretty closed to 70GB each month).

So now that I know I can’t get my modem waived and keep my old plan, I want to ask the rep if I can switch to the new plan and keep my discount.

The rep said that I could keep my discount and quoted me $52.xx per month cos he included $2 modem rental in the quote.  Another option to do get $25 off for the 1st 3 months (something that they offer to new customers) but after that I can’t keep my discount. So in the long run, of course I’m going to keep my discount.  What does he think I am? Stupid??

So I asked him why I need to pay for modem since the new package should have modem included already. He said that yes modem is included. I asked him how come the modem is in the quote then. He said he got some sort of error when applying my discount. So I asked him does it mean that I need to pay for modem if I want to keep my discount. He said he had to check. I kept getting back to him about how the website advertise the new package includes modem. And he finally agree that I shouldn’t need to pay for modem.

So finally, I said I would like to make the switch and the total should be $51.51/month. And then guess what? He got back to me saying that I had my figures off, it should be $52.xx instead. I was getting really pissed!! Cos all the back and forth he was working very very slowly. After every single comment I made, he said that he had to check or he’s looking into it and only gets back to me like 3-5 min later. I don’t know what the fxxk he was checking.  I don’t work for Rogers and I seem to know their packages better than this dude.

I told him to bring out his calculator and punched in the $64.99*0.7*1.13 to get my figure. He got back to me with his original quote with the $2 modem charge. I was furious at that point. I asked him once again how come there’s a modem charge since he himself told me that modem should be included in the package a few minutes ago and why we were going in circle again and again. Of course, he has to check again. Wasted some more of my time and came back to tell me that it’s the charge for the ‘rocket modem’.  But rocket modem is only necessary for some of the faster packages which I’m not subscribing to so I told him so. And he went off to check again.  Finally, he told me I was right and that we were on the same page. I honestly don’t know why there would be modem charge anyway cos even if I’m with the higher speed package, modem rental is still included in those package. I didn’t press the point since I don’t want to waste any more of my time with this idiot.

So finally finally, I told him to make the switch for me and make sure that the total I am going to pay is $51.41. Just as I was abt to get off the line with this dude, he told me that I have 5 days to switch the modem. I was like WHAT MODEM? I’m not getting any upgrade in speed so why wouldn’t my current modem be sufficient? And then he told me that I was right (once again) that I don’t need to change my modem.  He told me that it’s been a long day for him. I didn’t tell him but having a long day isn’t good enough of a reason to be SUCH a moron. One mistake maybe, but not again and again and again. Totally intolerable!

This person is either hired by Rogers to try to scam their customers or he is indeed to complete idiot and needs to be fired. I suspect that it’s both.

Anyway, that’s my recent battle with Rogers. Have been contacting them like every single month. I really hope that this is the end of it, until Dec anyway, when I have to call them to get them to renew my discount yet again. What a waste of my life!

Phone Problem

It is happening again. As mentioned in previous post, one of my phone’s power button doesn’t work so you can turn it on and off. The other phone can’t charge.

And then eventually, the 1st phone won’t charge either.

For some miraculous reason, the 2nd phone started charging again before everything died on me. So I’ve been hanging on with the 2nd phone only.

Yesterday, I dropped my phone on the floor… again… And the power button on the phone failed… I thought I was screwed but then I searched on Google Play for some app that would have an on-screen on-off button. I know it exists for iPhone so I figure I just need to find the Android counterpart. And I did succeed. Pretty pleased abt it. It’s working fine and solved my problem.

So I’m still hanging on with the crippled phone until, hopefully, when I go back to work so that I hv money to buy a new phone.

又被洗板

First of all, happy Chinese New Year!

However, this post isn’t going to be a pleasant ones. It’s gonna be the kind of post where I rant about other ppl… again… (Ya, I know. I’m such a bxtch!)

My FB update was totally 充斥著 various ppl’s kids ‘同大家拜個年'.  Some of them wearing some sort of Chinese New Year-sy clothings. Some of them not even bother. For the most part, the kids are not in any type of 拜年 pose. The older ones were just standing in the pictures. The young (baby) ones were simply staring into the camera.

To me, it’s just another excuse for those ppl to post pictures of their kids, which most of those ppl do all the time anyway. I am not completely against ppl posting pictures of their own kids, but I don’t want my fb updates to completely flooded by them for a few days. Same goes with Christmas and other festive seasons. And these so called ‘greetings’ are so impersonal. Well… that’s the essence of fb anyway.

My Phones

My phone’s on/off button has been broken for a while. So I can’t turn the phone on if the screen is off and I can’t use it. The way to turn it back on is to plug/unplug it to the charger. Another way is to wait for ppl to call me then the screen activates so that I can answer the phone. Needless to say, this is not very useful at all.
Luckily, 詹占 had the exact same phone as mine and has moved on to a new one pretty much when mine fell apart so I could inherit a ‘new old’ phone.
Everything’s ok until the phone went for a swim in the toilet a few months ago. Since then, the USB isn’t quite working – I can’t transfer files between the phone and computer anymore. But other than that, the phone is basically functioning.
但係，好境不常，phone #2 suddenly can’t be charged anymore. Guess the USB plug finally had it.
So basically, I have

1. Phone #1, can be charged but the on/off button is broken. So if I leave the phone on, then it just drains my battery.
2. Phone #2, can be used but can’t be charged.

Because of that, I have to bring two phones and two batteries with me most of the time. One for using. One for charging. I also had to switch the batteries between the phones all the time, too. So stupid.
My 3-yr phone contract is finally up today. And I could get a new phone with a 2-yr contract but I am kinda waiting for the Nexus 6 to come out. 詹占 has moved on to Nexus 5 but discovered some issue with the sound capture when recording video.  Apparently, it’s a hardware issue so I don’t want Nexus 5.  But then there isn’t any announcement on the release date of Nexus 6 yet.  And it might never come. I have been trying to follow all the rumors on some tech/gadget websites but so far, everything’s just rumors.  So, I’m holding up, still using the two semi-broken phones in the meantime until either a new Google phone comes out or my semi-broken phones turn into completely broken phones.

Protect My Account?!

All these different email accounts are asking me either for a secondary account, phone number or other personal information in order to prevent identity theft and account hacking.

I usually just ignore these request as I’m feeling like these are simply excuses of the whichever company trying to get more of my personal information. So I feel like they are exploiting me rather than protecting me.

The annoying thing is that they keep asking every time I log in. Can’t they just rmb that I want to skip this procedure and stop requesting?? As a result, there’s an extra click and page load to be done in order to get to my email. Maybe their logic is that if they bug me long enough, I may give in at some point. Very annoying.

And recently my credit card came up with this new program that ask us to allow them to track my purchases and they will tailor some sales and promotion for me and that I can get extra reward points with those purchase. To me, it’s just that they try to legitimize the fact that they are tracking my activity. I did sign up (well… technically it’s 詹占 who signed up cos we are sharing a credit card account). I suspect that they are already doing so anyway but now they just want an formal permission from me so there’ll be no argument in the future.

Also, in a lot of stores these days, when you go pay at the cashier, they asks us for our address and/or phone number and/or postal code. Is that necessary??? I read somewhere a little while ago that customers does not have the obligation to provide them with that kind of information. So I have stopped giving them my info.

Not that I think anyone is trying to do me any harm since I’m such a small potato in this wide world but I simply do not like the idea that I’m being ‘tracked’. Altho I’m sure if they want to track me, they can find a way anyway… I highly doubt that anything I do would actually makes any difference…

Autocorrect

有朋友找到的，找來轉貼分享分享，有些我差點就在公司大笑出來，忍得超辛苦的，有點還差點笑到標淚。

http://www.buzzfeed.com/daves4/the-25-funniest-autocorrects-of-2012

我個人對 autocorrect 也是又愛又恨呀。

The End of An Era

Just heard from someone that Microsoft has decided to discontinue MSN messenger next March to make everyone move onto Skype.

That ends another era of virtual communication. It's kinda sad but it totally makes sense because there's hardly anyone using MSN these days, at least among my group of friends. Even the once all-timer 小笨 is no longer there.

It makes me feel so old for some reason...

iPad Experience

Was in a rather fancy hotel, The Inn At Penn, in Philadelphia. I was there because JS has a conference there so me and JJ tagged along for the free hotel to make it a road trip. The hotel is so fancy that it gives you an iPad to use in each room, free of charge, and hence my first iPad experience.

 Do I like it?

Hrm... Can't really say... I found that a lot of the interface isn't really that user-friendly but I m not sure if that's an iPad issue or if it's the issue of the specific iPad version of the websites. I was trying to look for attractions and stuff to do in the city but it was hard as hell. Took forever to find an ATM machine. Actually, we failed to find ATM machine (partly because google map failed to give us any useful location but the interface also played a part into the time spent). We ended up going down and asked the receptionist and that took us a grand total of 30sec. Sometimes, old school is a much better method that the oh-so-good technology.

 I also found browsing relatively slow, compared to a regular laptop, but just slightly slower compared to, say, a netbook. I m not very patient when it comes to that so it irritated me a little. But then, the page I was trying to view had quite a bit of images on it. Maybe that was why it took longer than I would like.

My very limited experience wasn't all negative tho. For instance, I love the typing ability of the iPad. A few of my recent post are a result of it. I probably wouldn't have the time to retract and type all these after I got back home. Not that it can totally replace the old keyboard cos I found that I make more typo and have to backspace and correct myself a lot. Having said that, it is definitely much much better than typing with my android. And I also suspect that it's related to the fact that I m not too used to the iPad. I bet I can type much better if I have an iPad to play with from time to time.

Given my very limited experience, would I spend a few hundred bucks to buy an iPad for its ease to blog? Most likely not. I mean, I m pretty sure it can do more than blog but I personally don't have a real need for it. I could totally use a couple hundred bucks somewhere else.

Phone Software Update

After the operating system update, the resolution of my phone camera has been set to the lowest setting.
I didn't know until very recently.
Even as I reset the option, I didn't realized how big the damage was until I have downloaded the pictures onto my computer.
There were actually quite a few pictures that I really really liked but now I only have the low low resolution of them.
ANNOYED!!

Blogger Droid

Android users: Do not download n use Blogger Droid.
I know it's free but it sends u spam notifications.

My dear Matlab

I feel like I am doing research in the past two weeks. Basically trying to write a program to do data fit based on a certain hypothesis.

Doing numerical analysis reminds me of the days of Matlab. Matlab is definitely the way to go in these kinds of things. I’m doing it on c# which is not as convenient as Matlab. You can plot things on the fly with Matlab which is nice for both debugging and visualization. Luckily, my company has this 3^rd party charting software which makes it possible to plot my data but it’s not on the fly like Matlab does. It can probably do it on a window app basis and can hence be done on the fly but we have been using it strictly for web purposes and I don’t have the luxury to invest any time in investigating how to use it in window app.

But without a doubt, Matlab is still way more superior in numerical analysis with a lot of great built in functions and easy matrix manipulations. I never really appreciated Matlab until now. I always wonder y all the researchers are using Matlab while there’re so many other better supported software out there. Well… now I know y. Basically, it took me a few days to do something that 詹占 could do in Matlab in less than half an hour.

And again, I’m glad that we have some sort of charting ability. Otherwise, I either have to spend time finding some free app that I can integrate into my thing or export all the data in excel and chart in excel. So I guess it could be worse.

Oh… I miss Matlab. (totally forget how to write code in Matlab though...)

Mouse Problem

It's computer's mouse, not the animal.

I had been skeptical about the Apple mouse even before I bought the computer cos I simply like my logitech mouse that I bought for my old laptop too much. It's not fancy wireless or anything. In fact, it is wired but it's simple 啱我手型 and I just loved it. But as 腎腎 said, it looks nicer to have to whole setup of the same style so I have been using the Apple mouse ever since I got the new computer.

I have had problem with the speed of the mouse from day one. I'm the kind of ppl who like to set the sensitivity of the mouse motion to pretty high. I used the max setting on my Mac and I still find it too slow. I hate it when I have to lift the mouse and then put it down in order to move through the whole screen. Some ppl do not mind it and do so even when it's not necessary (like some ppl in my office) but I don't like it. I want to be able to move through the whole screen in one continuous motion.

For ppl who might now know, Apple mouse only has one button, not two like most mice do. And its scroll button is a ball that can be turned in any direction. The one button thing was the one of the main reason y I didn't switch to my logitech cos I for sure will try to do right click instinctly. But last week, I couldn't take the tracking speed of the apple mouse anymore. I decided to give my logitech a try to see if I can get a better speed out of it. And .... I LOVE IT. I found the perfect speed that I want to operate with. And to my surprised, I realized that the right-click button is actually implemented!!! Awwwwwwwwwwesome! With the apple mouse, if you want to pop up the menu that u normally get with a right click, you have to use the keyboard in combination with a mouse click. I am quite a keyboard person at work but it's a bit annoying to have to do both mouse and keyboard at the same time at home cos my hands tend to freeze at home so that I normally like to sit on it or put hand in pocket etc. I'm so glad that the right click works.

The only thing is the "back" button on my logitech. It doesn't do the "back" action on the browser but activates the "space" instead. In case I can't find a way to override that default behaviour, I will just have to live without the convenient "back" button on my mouse and have to actually press the "back" at the corner of the browser instead. Also, I lost the 360 scroll button on the apple mouse as well as the nice look for the whole apple theme. But none of them is a big deal, really. I am simply so happy with the current tracking speed of my mouse.

Yay for logitech!

Church Website (Advertising Post :P)

Wa... Friday already. This week kinda flew by.

Have been working on web site stuff on my free time at home. I have two websites to manage these days. Both of them comes from church. I inherited the management of this one site about 1.5 years ago and it has been a bit of disaster. The original site wasn't written too well so it's quite hard to manage. Luckily, most of the things on the site do not change too much so it's pretty low maintenance. I have done some changes to it but it still looks quite ugly. well...it's probably my fault. I should have done a better job on changing its look but I really don't want to...

Another site is a new born baby. It's the website for my own church. Ya, my church hasn't had a website all these time. 真是有夠 outdate 的. Anyway, this one is starting from scratch so I can get all the files and scripts organized the way I wanted. From finding web host to actually writing the html were all done in solo bcos in the tiny aging congregation that I'm in, not many ppl could help me on that. 但也由於是一手一腳的包辦，所以是很有心機的去做啦．Although it's just a very simple website, I'm no designer so it took me a quite a long time to finalize on the layout and design of the page. It's still very simple but I like it cos it's clean and neat. And that's pretty much the best I can do by myself without an artist to help me on the art side of the page.

Content 方面，shamefully, 真的是很不濟，因為也是我寫的，跟我一起讀過中學，認識我的人也知道我作文是多麼的叻．I have asked ppl to help me but I didn't get any response, 無奈地唯有自己從其他教會網頁左抄左抄的拼出來．

還有要做的是 English + Chinese. Chinese 仲要 traditional chinese + simplified chinese. 本來有個可以打中文的教友可以幫忙的，but again didn't hear much response. 咁一不做，二不休，continue solo. Hope that he can help out in the future updates of the site. Right now, I just want to get it done instead of leaving it hanging.

Finally everything is finished last night. Honestly, there's really not that much on the website right now. Mostly having the site so that ppl know that we exist. Content 方面，還是慢慢的 expand 吧．There's also not much pictures on the site (besides the gallery page). Asked for pictures and once again, no response. 唯有有時間的時候自己去拍完再 upload吧．

After so long, here's the link:
http://www.torontoclc.org

Comments and suggestions are welcome. Can either tell me directly or use the comment form on the website bcos the forms are submitted to, of course, me! haha...

I'm glad that I can use what I've learned in work in web programming 去為教會出一點點的綿力, maybe that's y I'm still stuck with this job! ha.

Web Host

In the process of searchinh a web host for the potential website for my church, I found that it's quite cheap these days to own a website.  The cheapest I've seen so far is $3.95 USD per month.  And this include free domain, unlimited storage, unlimited bandwidth, different scripting language support etc.

Almost too cheap to be true.  Really, unlimited storage for only $3.95 per month??  I can host all my pictures there without even considering all these album hosts...  $3.95, a few cups of coffee or even just one cup of fancy coffee and that's ur $3.95.

Of course $3.95 is cheap but cheap as me, I am still not quite willing to pay this price yet.  haha...  But it's gd to know that if I even want to have my own website, it's definitely affordable.