Verizon FIOS - Verizon SMIOS

Now that they have installed the new cable outlet, sans faceplate, I found my televisions do not turn on when I turn on the cable box. As a matter of fact they turn on when I turn off the cable box, and then turn off when I turn on the cable box. A little screwy - sure it is. I called for the set in my living room, thinking that had been the only one effected, and it took about 15 or 20 minutes for the person at Verizon to figure out how to have me correct it. Did you get that - I had to correct it! It cost me money today to have a new outlet installed, sans face plate, and they screw things up, now I have to do this and that a number of times with the remote, and the cable box, and the television, to get them synchronized so they turn off and on together. As if one set was not bad enough, now this is on all three sets that we have hooked up to the FIOS. So I guess I'll have to call them again, and reset each of the other two sets.

Now you may be wondering, will Verizon take anything off of the amount they are going to charge me for the install today. Well, I am wondering the same thing. You can bet your bottom dollar that it is a sure thing I am going to make an inquiry about just that when I call them to get the other two boxes synchronized with their respective TV sets. As a matter of fact you can safely bet that I will insist they take off a nice chunk of change on the cost of the install since they left me with this can of worms. And me the big jerk, I gave each of the installers a tip before they left! What a waste of money that was; it sort of sours me to the idea of ever giving a worker in my home a tip again, especially someone from FIOS.

All the best,
GB

Cable Instsallation...

...can be a pain in the butt if you do it yourself; and I am having it done professionally by Verizon FIOS and it still seems to be a pain in the other end. Brendan asked for a cable hook-up in his new room, so I decided to have Verizon come and do an installation for a new FIOS cable outlet in his room, an add on to our existing FIOS service. A lady showed up and got most of it done, but called for help. Then a gentleman showed up to give her a hand. What I thought would have taken an hour at most has now been well over three hours. Not installed exactly as I had hoped with the wire snaked down from our attic through the wall to a wall outlet/faceplate (as is our newest electrical outlet in that room); but instead run up into our attic and down through the closet ceiling, out of the wall and along the baseboard molding to behind the television. Where it comes out of the wall, they did not allow for enough room for a cover plate and it looks like shit a lousy job that was not thought out. I may get over that if Verizon drops the price a bit, or comes back to fix it properly. If not - oh well, I'll have to move the wire myself. I fill the old hole, drill a new one higher up, and put a face plate in. Ah heck, I'll probably just leave it the way it is, sometimes I wind up screwing things up more than they are already (I am no handyman) when I try to correct them. I hate it looking like crap, but if I use some paintable putty to close up the hole a bit around the wire, then paint over it, it will probably look at least a little better than it does now. Hopefully the longer than normal install will not cost more than they told me at $54.99. If it does cost more for any reason though, then I'll raise holy hell about the hole, and lack of a face plate.

I must admit the people who did the job were pleasant enough to deal with. At first I got the idea the lady did not want to go up in my attic - saying something like: "You mean you want me to up there in the dark, and without a floor" (we have sort of running boards up there) I got the idea she was none to happy about having to run the wire like that. When I told her if she did not want to do the job, I'd just cancel she said she would do it. Then I got her a clamp lamp and an extension chord and ran it up there so she could see. She seemed to appreciate that. So even if not the job as I had wanted it, they did it and were both pleasant when doing it.

All the best,
Glenn B

Romanian AKs - Is The Market Going Dry?

Well the folks over at Classic Arms seem to think so. According to them, the main manufacturer (maybe the only one from the way it sounds) has retooled their factory to make auto parts instead of AK rifles. If that is correct, what does it mean in the long run? It means that there will be few relatively inexpensive AK rifles on the market, so if you bought a few of them when you had the chance - you could be sitting on a small gold mine in the near future. It also means that if you don't own one yet, chances are they are going to become a lot more expensive, and you may need to be sitting on a small gold mine to be able to afford one. Click on Classic Arms to see their spiel on all of this.

Al the best,
GB