"People come and people go"

"Winds that howl and winds that blow

And you, got to let it go.

People come and people go

Winds that howl and winds that blow

And you, got to let it go."

Strangefolk. Lyrics to "Lines and Circles". From the album,"Lore". 1995.

It's been a wild celebrity ride this year, and it's not even September yet. There have been so many deaths, someone, somewhere, is super mad at the hairless apes roaming the world. 

I'm not going to go through what will become the Television Academy's "In Memoriam" page, but I do want to touch upon several "big names" for me, leading to the more recent news this week. I also am going back and forth in months because I am looking them up as I type this.

I read last month that Bud Cort had passed away in February, due to "complications of pneumonia". I don't recall this making major news because I would have remembered hearing about it when it happened; unless outlets were covering it really quickly during working hours and my not watching television. While I've only seen a handful of his movies (most notably, "Harold & Maude"), I didn't know much more of him or that he had been doing a lot various gigs up until 2016 (when IMDB stopped listing his roles). It's been so long since I've seen the other films he's been in, I totally forgot he had a character in them. For example, "The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou", "Pollack", "Coyote Ugly", "But I'm A Cheerleader", "Dogma", "And The Band Played On", "M*A*S*H", and the list goes on. The characters may be briefly shown, but he's still very much credited. 

In March, the news broke about Nicholas Brendon, known primarily for his role of "Xander" on the "Buffy The Vampire Slayer" television series, but also later for "Kevin" on "Criminal Minds". He too, had an array of films and shows, but I think he was more remembered as Xander than anything else. He "died in his sleep due to natural causes" but was notorious for being a bad boy in some later years (including addictions to alcohol and pills, as well as multiple arrests and various charges). It's a shame because he seemed like a good guy and it only shows you how "the industry" can mess you up.

I am not much of a fan of James Van Der Beek, but he had passed away in February, "after a battle with colorectal cancer". He was known for playing the title character, "Dawson", on "Dawson's Creek" in the late 1990s and had some sports related movies during that time ("Varsity Blues"). He was also in the first season of "Pose" several years ago. His shows weren't ones I was regularly watching, and I think maybe I haven't seen a complete season of "Dawson" in my life. If I've seen 5 episodes, I've seen four too many. It wasn't one of those shows I was in to, but is still part of my generation. I watched "Pose" more for it being a Ryan Murphy series, as well as the portrayal of New York's ball culture rise in the 1980s. 

Showing my young age, the next name really shouldn't be on my radar, but neither should Bud Cort be listed here (and what will come later). However, I must add it because I am familiar with their work. 

Robert Duvall, who passed away in February, with nothing posted online as for reasons how (i.e. natural causes, etc). More known for his role in "The Godfather" series, he was a heavy hitter in other major films ("Apocalypse Now", "The Judge", "To Kill A Mockingbird") and television shows (known for working with horror master Alfred Hitchcock and on an episode of the science fiction shows such as "The Twilight Zone" and "The Outer Limits", although it was short lived episodes for him). More dramas and what feels like historical films than anything else, he is yet another name to add to the "M*A*S*H" movie line up (I'm sensing a theme here with the war film). 

You'd have to be living under a rock, if you didn't know the name "Chuck Norris". A man known for his action and martial arts roles, he passed away in March, after being "hospitalized for a medical emergency". Most people know Mr. Norris as "Walker, Texas Ranger", but he was also known for playing himself in television shows (walk on roles) and philanthropy work (martial arts for kids, various Veterans foundations). Local internet lore constantly churned out memes in his jokingly favor - if you needed help in a fight, Chuck Norris would scare the opponent into submission.

A voice and actress to be reckoned with, Catharine O'Hara died in January, due to a "pulmonary embolism". Known for playing Macauley Culkin's mom in the "Home Alone" movies, Ms. O'Hara was a comedic legend. She not only had a voice over role in "Nightmare Before Christmas" (one of my favorite Tim Burton movies), she starred alongside Winona Ryder and Michael Keaton in "Beetlejuice" (another Burton fave). If you look at her acting credits, it really does look favorable in Tim Burton's cache of films. Later years, she worked on the television series "Schitt's Creek" (something I didn't start) and "The Studio". This woman had such an array of credits to her name, it's amazing to see what she hasn't been in! 

I saw on the "Entertainment Weekly" website that Derry Brownson died on August 13. Derry was the keyboardist and a founding member of the British band, EMF. One of the band's top (known) singles would be "Unbelievable", which is from their 1991 album, "Schubert Dip". This, to some extent, feels like the only hit American airwaves heard from them because it hit Billboard's Hot 100 in the summer of '91. When radio stations weren't playing "Unbelievable" on rotation, parties were playing "Children" and "Lies", which is off of the same album. "Schubert Dip". It seems like that record dropped multiple singles, but the most known is track six, "Unbelievable". 

Fans of "The Sopranos" would be remiss in knowing Vincent Pastore passed away on August first. His character, "Sal 'Big Pussy' Bonpensiero was a mainstay on the first two seasons of the mob show. My mom used to always watch this series, so I am familiar with the actor. His credit listing reads like he does mostly drama / gang (mafia) movies; he found his niche at being typecast as a New York bruiser. "Carlito's Way", "Goodfellas", "New Jack City", and "The Basketball Diaries" are a few other films he starred in. 

Sam Neill, better known for his work in movies such as "Jurassic Park", "Merlin" and "Peaky Blinders passed away July 13. The news reported most of his acting credits, but not once did someone mention "Merlin". It was weird and overall, his death was a shock to a lot of people. The crew of the 1920s Manchester mob show have lost a lot of people the last few years, and it's sad to see how connected to other movies they are (Helen McCrory comes to mind. She played "Aunt Polly" in the series, but she's also better known to "Harry Potter" movie fans as "Narcissa Malfoy"). 

There are way too many names on the list to continue cherry picking them and writing about it. My whole point of making this post is twofold: One to mention Dolly Parton and the other to mention Tim Curry. 

I'm not a huge Dolly fan, but I respect what she's done in her eighty years on this earth. The philanthropy she set in motion, such as libraries and reading materials for children and LGBTQIA etc. acceptance. She was an actress, a writer, a singer - royalty among her genre, but she wasn't afraid to fight for what she thought was right. She was a humanitarian and it seems a contradiction, but she was political in how she used her words in music; never in advertising or online. You just need to listen closely to figure it out. There was no malice or fighting with her when she spoke up or how she spoke up. According to reports, she made you feel like you didn't have to hide anything around her. You could be outspoken and she would not argue back (actually, she would, in her own Southern way) but you didn't feel dumb about it. She played a sort of safe route while trailblazing her way through life, not only for herself, but for others. She lived to help people, not harm them. I read the other day that she could have been a billionaire multiple times over, but due to giving away a lot of her wealth to various charitable organizations, she left this place with several million dollars. All due to her wanting to be better and do better for people. I'll always find it fascinating that she wrote the music to "9 to 5" on her fingernails! That's talent to get the rhythm down like that... seriously.  I'm glad I worked with a person who adored Dolly because I was one of a group of people who chipped in to buy him the last part of Dolly's memoir series, "Star of the Show: My Life on Stage". We all got to write a little passage in the first page of the book for the person and I think we made his holiday season. He has Dolly everything and I know he's probably not doing so well right now. JH, if you're reading this, you're being thought about and I'm so happy we all got you that book. It's a wonderful read about Ms. Parton and you deserve it. 

Tim Curry, on the other hand, is someone I've spoken about before. His acting and musical credits are pages long because he's been on stage and screen since the late 1960s. The last few times I mentioned his name here, I kept toying with the idea of buying his memoir, "Vagabond" and I'm glad I did. I really enjoyed reading it because he was insightful yet illusively evasive about his life. He wanted to write about the things he did and saw, but still kept a lot of it private. You could tell there were things he was leaving out, and it did make you want to know what it is, but I respect anything of reason for privacy. With his death on August 25 at age 80, there are rumors swirling on what triggered it, but I'm not posting those here. I will say, they would make sense, given the circumstances. Based on his book and his interviews, I know he's lived a long, hard life and again according to a few interviews he gave this year (because it's the 50th anniversary of "Rocky Horror"), he was given the death question. He said something to the effect of "not fearing it" and he is "trying to avoid it" even though he "would welcome it in the end". Based on the same interviews, I think he was appreciative for what he had in his life because his own father passed away at a young age due to a stroke. Tim was older than his father when he had his own stroke in 2012, so every year he lived past that day, was a good day. Fourteen years later, as my aunt texted me last night, "Do you think Dr. F-N-F has returned to his home planet?", to which I said "Anything is possible!". Long live Nigel Thornberry, Pennywise the Dancing Clown, Rooster Hannigan, Wadsworth, Long John Silver, The Lord of Darkness and Hexxus! 

There have been way too many memes the last 72 hours about Dolly and Tim's death, and unfortunately, some are very much geared to hating on a certain individual. I'm not linking anything here, nor am I going to explain it more. I'm leaving it at "the hairless apes roaming the woods around each continent are doing something to anger higher powers if we keep losing celebrities at a clip, yet others are still standing. Mother nature is very angry with us, given all the heat and humidity it doesn't belong in, the flash flooding, the power outages... we're definitely not on the right track". 

Until we get another list going and we fix our future, be mindful of your surroundings and tell your friends you dig them (or you'll help bury them if needed. Whatever works). Oh, and I just finished reading James Patterson's novel, "Zoo". I watched the television series when it aired, but think the book is way better. Check it out if you can. 

Cheers;

See also:

• Strangefolk "Lines and Circles"  / "Lore" album on Amazon
• Bud Cort page on IMDB
• "Harold and Maude" film via Amazon
• Nicholas Brendon page on IMDB
• "Buffy The Vampire Slayer" series on Amazon
• James Van Der Beek page on IMDB
• "Dawson's Creek" on Amazon
• Robert Duvall page on IMDB
• "The Godfather" series on Amazon
• Chuck Norris page on IMDB
• "Walker, Texas Ranger" series on Amazon
• Catharine O'Hara page on IMDB
• "Home Alone" on Amazon
• EMF's "Schubert Dip" album on Amazon
• "Entertainment Weekly" article about 2026 celebrity deaths
• Vincent Pastore page via IMDB
• The Sopranos series on Amazon
  
• Sam Neill page on IMDB
• "Jurassic Park" franchise via Amazon
• Dolly Parton's 2025 book, "Star of the Show: My Life on Stage" via Amazon
• Dolly Parton on Amazon
• Tim Curry page on IMDB
• Tim Curry's 2025 memoir, "Vagabond" on Amazon
• "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" on Amazon
  
• James Patterson's novel, "Zoo" on Amazon

I'm not good at math or measurements

 .. so I stay out of certain industries.

However, someone failed to do their job correctly when mass producing an organization system.

The machine wasn't correctly level or numbers not properly put in correctly to make the overall inside rods fit in the holes.

Okay, back up for a minute. 

At some point last year, my mother saw on her Facebook feed, a random user bought a "True Living Compact Closet Shelves" organization system and converted it to a bottle holder. It was purchased by the user at Dollar General for around five dollars (it's now listing at close to nine) and she liked the idea enough, she decided to try it out for herself.

The only thing I could find on Amazon is the Whitmor 4-Tier Compact Closet Shelves - Gray. It looks really similar to what my mother ended up buying but the A to Z version is "not currently available" to purchase, unless you use a third party vendor. 

The reasons for Amazon not making it available for purchase with them?

"No featured offers available

We feature offers with an Add to Cart button when an offer meets our high standards for:

Quality Price,

Reliable delivery option, and

Seller who offers good customer service

“No featured offers available” means no offers currently meet all of these expectations. Select See All Buying Options to shop available offers."

Apparently this doesn't meet their standards, and based on what I'm going to say, I think they're right. Especially since I've stumbled on other bad reviews of this same looking product (even the DG version).

Although "hindsight is always 20/20", she bought the Dollar General contraption so we could clean up our washer and dryer area a little bit. Cases of water are everywhere, and there seemed to be a lot of positive reviews about turning a shoe rack into a more economical bottle bottler rack. 

Once home, she puts the thing together, it lasts okay, and now that we're using the bottles more frequently (because the "best buy date" is coming up... yes.. plastic bottles!! We also don't drink as much as we should from the plastic containers as we use the contraption in our fridge for H2O consumption), we are noticing some defects in the organizer. 

Overall, yes, it's nice and slim, but the rods aren't long enough. They keep sliding from the holes, making everything fall into the middle and mound upwards. It's a big pain in the butt because nothing is lining up properly and holding steady. 

It's like whoever designed this organizer, didn't expect things to sit in the middle. If they did, they were expecting feathers. The rods are literally a hairpin short on each side, so the second you get it lined up right, it falls out the second you turn away. Let alone when and if you try to balance something on it.

So this week, I got tired of looking at the water bottles piling up and decided to take action. 

I got some tape, made little arms from the tape, and then stuck it in each end of the rods. Then I taped around the rod ends and onto the little arms I made, making a little more stability. From there, put the rods back on the holder. 

Seems to be working. 

It's like, "how can you mess up something this badly and mass produce it?", like the upside down "Made In America" sticker on my laundry machine. (Someone failed to quality control that one too). 

Why is this okay? Because it's "cheap enough", people won't mind? 

I fail to see the logic behind it. Why should I have used tape to secure the thing together? Like bubblegum and shoe strings, this thing got Macgyvered (for those who may not know the reference, do yourself a favor and watch the Richard Dean Anderson series). 

On another note, I got new shoes!

Ground Up came out with a new pair of Nightmare Before Christmas shoes, but they're not on Amazon, sadly, but there are new Crocs.

I wore them today, and they're comfortable. I just need to wear them in a little more and break them in. They're not canvas like the other ones I have. They're a leather material, so they squeak a bit when I stand still and move my feet a bit. More reason they need to be worn and broken in.

The bottom back says "Pumpkin King" and the inside has Oogie Boogie. The tongue says "JACK" and has a pumpkin on it. It looks like the eyelets, bats and "Pumpkin King" may be glow in the dark, but I don't know. I'll have to see if I notice it tonight, since I have that other pair that surprised glowed for me. 

That's about it for now. Photos taken on an iPhone 11 and put into Photoshop to have my name on them. My window is open and it's been cool in the mornings. Summer is trying to show its face, but the humidity hasn't stayed all day yet. It's coming, though... it's coming. 

Guess for now, stay warm if you're in the colder regions, stay dry if you're in the wet regions, and do take care of yourselves. Be happy and research everything (before you buy it)!!

Cheers; 

When does customer service NOT work in your benefit?

When too many Karens make a mockery of the industry.

I realize this post is going to come off as me being a Karen, but it's not. I had an incident last night with a call center, because in person, it was just strange. 

Thursday my mother and I had gone to one of the local Dunkin Donuts. There's a deal going on this month where you can get a $2 medium iced coffee as long as you have a registered card (use the app, have a card on file). 

We both have the app and a card on file, but since I have more money on my card, we agreed I'd pay for both coffees (in all honesty, I had $26 and change because I got various denomination cards for the holidays). 

My mother ordered hers first, saying she'd like to do the two dollar medium coffee. She said that I'd be paying for it as one transaction, and then I'd be paying again for my coffee as the second transaction. 

Cashier says sure, not a problem, so my mom orders her coffee with cream only. I pay the $2.13 and receipt pops out. 

It comes to me, and I say I'd also like to do the $2 medium iced coffee and the cashier says sure, no problem. I ask the same - cream only. I go to scan my card and it pops up as $3.51.

I question it, as it had said that for my mother and it went down to $2.13 after my card was scanned. The cashier looked at the computer she was at and said it did go to $2. I asked if it was for both, and she said yes. 

I pointed to my side of the screen and say "it says $3.51 still. I don't understand why it says that if I paid the two dollars?".

Cashier looks at it again, starts struggling and says "well, I don't know how to tell you this" and starts dancing around the subject. "We, um, have the new rewards system. It turns out, uh, your coffee was free. Congrats. You had a enough points, to not pay at all", 

My mother and I looked at each other and I said "seriously? I had enough points on my card to have it automatically deduct a free coffee?" and the cashier, a little antsy, says "yes. It's part of the new rewards".

I asked why the screen showed up as I paid $3.51 and she said it doesn't; it came up as free. She had my order receipt in front of her that popped out and pointed to the line item that said 0.00 (which is what you get when you use a gift card. It is the change due line). 

She went on to say "See? Zero. Free" and started taking the receipt back. I actually grabbed it and my mother's before the cashier could do anything with them. I said to her that it doesn't make sense, but if she says it's free... fine. 

So we get our coffees and leave. In the car, my mother and I were trying to figure it out. As I was driving, I didn't look closely at the receipts. I just shoved them in my pocket. I didn't bother looking at the app for my transaction history because Dunkie's has a habit of taking a couple hours to load the information. 

I didn't think any thing of it the rest of the day. When we got home, I had put the receipts on the dining room table, to be able to go over them with the rest of my receipts from the day, and forgot about them. 

Last night, I was looking them over and my mother's receipt says I paid $2.13 for the coffee and the gift card balance was a little over $24. On my receipt, it said I paid $3.51 and my balance was a little over $20. 

I told my mother that I was totally charged the full price for the coffee and my gift card balance is now down. I then opened my phone to see the transaction history on the app, and sure enough, the app says the same thing. 

My mother questions it. Says to call customer service. So I did.

The automated phone system for Dunkin' Help is programmed to make you not wait for a human being. You go through the prompts to do everything under the sun, only to get back to the main menu and go over the prompts again. I must have been pressing the same numbers for a solid 4 minutes. 

When I finally got a human, I explained what had happened. She repeated part of it to me, and asked for the card information so she can see it on her end. I gave her the member ID that is on the app and she was able to see my account. 

She informs me that she does see my two transactions, and unfortunately, she has to tell me what company policy is. 

Company policy is that when Dunkin Donuts runs these deals, it's one deal per person per day. Because I made two transactions, only one of them was able to be used on the deal. The other was full price because I already used the promotion. 

I said I didn't know there was a one time use deal, and the cashier never said that either. I had told the cashier I was going to do two transactions for the two coffees and the cashier said okay. She then telling me my coffee was free, but obviously it isn't, if I paid $3.51.

The call center repeated it's policy guidelines and that's all that can be done. I said to the person "so there's nothing you're going to do? I'm calling about using a coupon promo and that the cashier didn't stop me from ordering and explain anything, and you are just telling me about policy?"

Call center says "yes". I'm sitting there thinking "what kind of customer service is this? Usually you call with a problem, they try to work with you. They apologize. This person is already hanging up on me because they did their job".

I didn't say all that, but I did ask if it's possible to get a refund on the account, since they can obviously see my transaction history. 

I got a snarky response of "you want a refund?" from the call center, and I said "if that is possible, yes please".

They said they're not allowed to do that, but they can escalate it up to a manager. They would need to put me on hold for a minute. 

I go on hold. 

Call center comes back on to say that they've made notes in the system and have escalated it to management. I should get a call or an email in two days and since they have done their job by informing me of policy, is there anything else I need before we hang up.

I repeated "so you're not going to do anything but escalate the problem and I'm to wait to hear from someone", and they said "correct, unless you want me to cancel everything I just did". I said "no, please keep it escalated". 

Okay. 

I asked what email they had on file, and they said "I'm not allowed to give that out, but I can tell you what provider it is" and she tells me the internet provider registered. I asked "can you also give me the ticket number in case something happens?" and she did. 

It's time to hang up because there's nothing else that can be done. I got a basic answer about something that happened at one of the stores and I have never experienced this type of push off in my life. 

Sure, I've had to call customer service a few times in the past for other incidentals with companies, but this is the first time a call center rep has told me company policy and stuck to it. No apology, no nothing. She tried her hardest to get me off the phone after reading the policy in the first 2 minutes of the call. I don't think that's right. A customer is calling about a problem, even reporting that the cashier was not telling the truth about the program, and the call center's responsibility is to read a line about promotion policy and hang up.

I think it would have been different if I was told in the store that it's one per person per day and I couldn't pay twice. My mother would have definitely used her card and I would have used mine and we wouldn't have had this issue, let alone the casher see I was charged and say "just kidding; it was free. You had points" when I didn't. Last time I 'used points' in the app, I had to physically select the free item in the app. Lots of scrolling and different bar code. I did none of that while ordering and paying this time. 

Now I wait to see if I hear from the local store manager. The response will probably not be what I'm expecting, but I'm going to make damn sure they know what their employees said and did, as charging customers and telling them the coffee was free, is almost like Dunkie's is stealing in a way. You think you paid for it and are told it got zeroed out because it's on the house... well... how else do you explain you feel like you got taken advantage of? 

As much as I don't like going to this particular store, it's close to where I do a lot of my errands. Dunkin Donuts are hard to come by down here, and it seems like every one I've been in, have challenges. I think there was may be one brand new one (several years ago) that actually had a smooth transaction and friendly staff. The other stores I've been into are chaotic as employees don't know what they're doing and give out the wrong orders. I've seen reviews on websites for these stores. It's not positive. 

I've never had problems in New England at the chain. I've been in real sketchy neighborhoods and felt that the service was so much better. Why is it so hard to get a decent cup of coffee around here? Things you're used to, don't exist. It's the weirdest thing. 

At the end of the day, I guess I am going to start frequenting gas stations for my coffee once I get down to zero on the gift card... 

Until I hear something, stay caffeinated. 

Cheers;

Deodorant TMI

I know I've talked about challenges with deodorant before, so consider this a fair do's warning: If you can't handle some smelly TMI, turn away now and come back at a later date to see if I've uploaded something new. If you can handle conversations about armpits and things we use to relive the sweat, read on. 

I've decided that not only am I allergic to heat and humidity (fat kid problems in "the tropics"), I think I'm allergic to Cymbopogon Flexuosus Oil (lemongrass oil) and now anything with lemon in it (even if it's not in the ingredient list).

Although, it's not an "allergy" if you ask one of my doctors because my throat doesn't close. It's more of a really shitty reaction to the oil. I sometimes use "reaction" and "allergy" interchangeably. 

Why do I think I've got a bad reaction to these oils?

Because every time I tried "natural" deodorants with "essential oils" (like Arm & Hammer Essentials or Tom's of Maine (Unscented)), I've broken out within days of starting it because the ingredients include natural lemongrass oil and it gives me some sort of major armpit rash. It's ugly, it smells, it's not for the faint of heart. 

So I have to attempt to keep my pits clean and try other things while everything heals. It's a lousy lesson in maintaining good hygiene while having to go out in the world and do the adulty things. 

For as much as I like the Tom's brand, I'm learning that even the Lemon & Bergamot is giving me problems. I have been previously fine with that scent, but lately, I've broken out. It's to the point I needed to throw out the stick I was using because I couldn't make the rash go away. 

Maybe it has to do with summer still being in place down here in Florida (it's been over 90° with humidity) and I've been sweating more because of it, or it's just that I now can't handle something in that stick. I think it's hidden under "natural ingredients", the lemongrass oil. 

After the last round of flare up, I decided to try something new, since I had to throw out the Lemon & Bergamot. Whomp Whomp.

So I started trying something similar to the hello Activated Charcoal Fresh and Clean Deodorant. It's the same brand, but it's antiperspirant deodorant. It must be the same thing, or so I hope. It's working without any problems thus far, and if my pits continue to stay calm, at least then I know I have another deodorant to try. 

The other thing I can think of, is the fact there's activated charcoal in this one. I didn't have any problems when I was using the Native Deodorant | Charcoal. 

Price note: 

By using a special code on the Native site, the first order you get can be 20% off (I get 20% off my next purchase as well). Which means the one stick at $13 would be $10.40 before any taxes. Plus, it's free shipping across the continental US for any order over $10. A subscribe and save would bring it down to $11, which is a 15% discount. 

Comparatively, Amazon has it for $12.97 regularly and before tax and shipping (if you are not a Prime member, otherwise it's just tax). Prime members can save 10% off the bat if they do subscribe and save, which makes it $11.67. 

In this case, Native site for the win? Especially since they have random sales (and for build your own 3 pack)?

I have tried other Native sticks before and have been completely fine with them. The only problem I have had was the Cactus Flower and Poppy scent damn near killed me (it's a seasonal scent that went vintage so it's not available now). The scent was just too overpowering that I couldn't wear it. It's worse than gardenia smell but was almost that level of headache inducing. Even a friend of mine (hi Erica) smelled it one day at work (I brought it in because I was telling her about it), and she had to take a step back after smelling it. She started coughing because it was that powerful. Because I couldn't return it, I'm now using it as a travel deodorant, so I only have to put up with the smell when I go on vacation. 

Otherwise, no problems with any of them - Cucumber Mint, Coconut Vanilla, Charcoal, Peppermint (seasonal) and Sweet Peach and Nectar. I've been in big box retailers and smelled the candy shop ones and refuse to buy those because they smell way too flipping sweet. I'd not be able to wear them due to it being headache inducing - sugar rush versus flower power smell. 

Which is why you've got to be so careful buying things online. I promise I'm not a paid advertisement for anything. I've just learned that you never know what you're getting online, but then again, if you have a known reaction to one brand, you have to try another. If you know one brand works better, you're literally going to buy out the product line when you see it. Which is what I've done with some stuff. I try one brand when it's on sale (after reading the ingredients), and if it works, I continue to look for it and purchase it when I see it. I'm not going to keep using things that make me sick, that's for sure. 

I guess to wrap things up and let all those who walked away for the TMI part, just because you want to go Earth Friendly / natural / limit your footprint / try new products, it doesn't mean it'll work. I hate knowing some things read "castor oil" because it just puts a bad image in my head, but that's just me. I need to find a product that won't make me break out in a horrible rash and make me smell like I've been at the gym non stop for a week (and haven't showered in between). Yet, I also need to possibly ask my doctor to give me an allergy test. Then I really know what I should and shouldn't buy. It might also help with some of the gurgles in my gut too. (LOL).

Until I can find an answer... stay clean.

Cheers;

The fridge squawked this morning | We have a 10 year contract & this is the summer preview

About a month ago, I wrote how the refrigerator doesn't know Zuul yet, however it still spoke to me. The front panel lit up telling me to order a new filter and an alarm rang out. Well, this morning when I was getting water, the panel lit up telling me to replace the filter and the alarm loudly went off. Even the "REPLACE FILTER" light kept blinking. 

I guess the refrigerator knows it's words properly, but it doesn't know how to calmly request filter changing. It's going to be one of those things I do this weekend, I guess....

Hotwire sucks. Their customer service sucks. Their service sucks enough that you don't want to deal with it. 

We had an outage last night and people aren't happy. 

Let me preface it by saying this: Sure... we had some nice, calming, strong, breeze come through for most of the day, but it wasn't anything close to hurricane level. It was the type we sometimes get during the afternoon rain storms in the summer. Nothing to get up in arms about.

Okay, back to story.

About 4pm the internet and TV go out. My mother is in the middle of streaming a movie when the picture goes black. The new Vizio TV is still on, but the streaming isn't. She looks at her phone and tries to get online. Can't. 

She calls Hotwire to inquire about the sudden outage and they said they are aware of it. The problem is, this person is in Miami and they are having terrible storms (search "Miami storms April 11 2023" in whatever browser you use and you'll find videos of flooding. Guess they're getting rain?) which is causing power issues. So Hotwire can see there's an electrical problem and there is nothing they can do about it. 

My mom informs the guy that:

1. We aren't in Miami. We are in Fort Myers.

2. We have power and electricity. Otherwise she'd not be on the phone, in the light of the house. There'd be absolutely nothing on, where it's just the internet and television service that went out.

3. We aren't having any storms of any sort. It's a little cloudy and windy, sure, but everything in nature is fine in this neighborhood.

The guy responds saying it's a problem around my community. Hotwire is aware of it. He name checks another community (which is about 2 miles away from my house) hoping that will get my mother off the phone. It doesn't, but obviously, since Hotwire isn't admitting it's their stuff, what are you going to do? 

Something else was said that it's a national thing, and I said to my mother I didn't think Hotwire was national, and if they are using that excuse, is it like the time Comcast cut a cable in Tampa and the state went dark? 

About a year ago, Comcast allegedly was doing something in Tampa at a big distribution center and wires were cut, making the whole state lose its Xfinity services for day or two. It wasn't the best thing to happen, but they fixed it.

So state wide outage means it's got to be fixed quick? Who knows.

Meanwhile, this doesn't look good for what the next ten years will be. My community has a decade long contract with the service provider and if services are rendered useless at a sneeze, no one can get work done (there are people here who work from home). As it happens to be, one of the parcels was set to have their monthly Zoom meeting last night, but didn't, since there was no internet. 

Oh, the irony..

Since the whole internet service deals with wireless technology, it makes things harder, as there's nothing you can really unplug and test. Service goes into the Nokia box and then streams out wirelessly to other areas of the house. If the box says there is a failure, it's not like you can see if the coax cable came loose as there isn't one. No wires except an Ethernet and power cable. 

Blurry pictures of the failed box:

I was in a rush last night so the lights on the box look like they're exploding. The red light is the failure light. 

When we finished our dinner and my mom finished making phone calls to people in the neighborhood (regarding the lack of Hotwire), I took her phone off the Wi-Fi spray and had her check the local social networks. Her Facebook and Nextdoor apps were loaded with complaints from people in the community, saying how this is so horrible and what has the master board gotten us in to? We can't deal with this for ten years, especially in the summers when we get storms. One good wind will knock us off the grid for who knows how long. 

The master board thought this would be the best way to future proof the community as many people were getting in to fiber optics. It was also the most economical. Well, it's proving difficult as the services aren't available in cloudy skies and there is no local service center you can call in to, to see if there are problems in your area. We're stuck like Chuck and now people are wondering (even more) if there's something the residents can do, to make complaints to a Better Business Bureau type of place. Sue the company or something. We got swindled by our master board and those members are probably getting a nice kick back, which is why they're turning a blind eye. 

"Everything is fine" they say. "We have no problems", they say. So when the internet goes out in the middle of your Zoom call or your kids can't finish their remote learning from school, what do you do? Surely not everyone is gaming around here... life is happening. But the board doesn't see this. They refuse to acknowledge there's a problem. 

In the end, we're going to have to deal with this and it's frustrating as all hell. You vote for people to make the best decisions for where you live, and you get kicked around and are given something useless. Wow, sounds like other things going on in this world, don't it??? 

Yes, the internet did get restored, evident by this posting. My mom said around 9:30 last night, she got a text from a neighbor asking if the TV came back on. My mom checked (she wasn't in the living room), and sure enough, the TV played. Texted neighbor back, saying it worked, and the neighbor said she didn't have hers yet. 

I guess it went on for her a little later because my mother didn't hear anything. 

This morning, her TV worked, but just as I was about to wrap this post up, she asked for help in the living room. There was a message on the screen about there being a problem with the DRM and the station couldn't be played.

Wait, what?

Doesn't "DRM" mean "Digital Rights Management" and it's about copyright protection? Which is why you can't copy a CD or DVD because it's protected media?? What does that have to do with the cable station streaming to our cable box???? What in the actual hell?! All of a sudden the news stations are copy written and you can't watch them?? 

I ended up having to unplug the TiVo box and turn it back on. Then I needed to re-connect it to the internet as that's the only way we can watch anything on that thing. Five minutes later, TV works. 

Still doesn't explain the whole DRM thing, but whatever. This piece of crap service we have is just another nail in the coffin on how tech can't save everything...

Time to get ready for work.

Cheers;

That was "fun" while it lasted...

Enter the sarcasm and eye roll here. 

Last night I went to go watch something on the History Channel app on my Roku (the 3 is currently a refurbished model). Little did I realize, the Comcast email we "get to keep" while using Hotwire, no longer allows me the option to use it to sign in to the apps to watch shows. 

Meaning, when we had a Comcast account, I was listed as the secondary user and had my own username and email. I was able to sign in to all the apps we had a "subscription" to, and watch the shows. Since we don't subscribe to Comcast anymore, I received the following message when trying to access an app:

When I tried to access Fox (to watch Family Guy), I was given a free 4 minute preview pass. 

Which meant I was logged out. Try to log back in with my Comcast email, I got the same message I got for the History Channel.

So 18 out of 48 apps I've got on my Roku need to be uninstalled. Having the free profile (thru my Gmail and not my Comcast) doesn't get me anywhere because I am not paying for the service. Which is why I can't use the Comcast email - I am not a subscriber to them anymore.

I did see an option to log in with Hotwire, but I am not a user on the account (my mother is the user). The challenge now with Hotwire and me not being linked to it, is if I were to somehow call Hotwire on her behalf for any reason, would they talk to me since I'm not listed anywhere? One of the reasons I was a secondary user on the Comcast account was for times I needed to call for something - whether it was a billing issue, an outage, or something different. If I'm not listed on Hotwire, I can't do anything. 

There is no option to have any other users added, it seems. My mother said that there's a representative from the local area at our community clubhouse every week, so I intend on going up this week to ask him about adding another user. 

You might ask "why don't you use your mother's screen name to log in to everything?" because she asked that too. It's because I'd like to know I have access to the account - if my name is also listed, again, I can contact them for questions if needed. When she heard that, she said "good luck calling them. I don't think they have a call center". 

People have already commented online saying it's hard to talk to a real person when you call Hotwire because it seems like humans don't exist for this company. Other issues were raised regarding the technology we are using. If a box breaks or something happens to a remote, where can you go to get a new one? There's no local Hotwire facility like there is a Comcast store (out by Kohl's.. which is the "closest" one). Allegedly there is a building in Naples and Estero, but it might just be a front so that the workers have a place to clock in or out of, as well as park their personal vehicle. It might not be a returns center. 

So it's a little tricky trying to figure out how "real" the company is, when there's not a lot of information on the Internet about it, plus some searches come up with the travel site. Word to the wise: don't name your company something similar to another business or you're not going to be found. 

I knew this moment would happen, though - not being able to log in to the apps to use them. When we were told we were switching companies, I kept asking if I'd still be able to use the apps, and every technician from Hotwire both assured and not assured me nothing changes (mainly because I don't think they knew what I was really asking). I hope the representative can give me some information about secondary users, otherwise I can say goodbye to saved lists, tracked shows, and any quick binging. 

It's bad enough I've been continually booted from the free Xfinity Wi-Fi sprays on my phone... having a Comcast email gets you nowhere if you don't have any of the services.... 

But that's another subject for another time. I need to get up and started for my day.

Cheers;

All cleaned up and somewhere to go?

 Yesterday my mother and one of our neighbor friends went up to the clubhouse to talk with the point of contact for Hotwire. 

The community is getting a representative twice a week to sit and answer any and all questions. So yesterday was the day that my mother and her friend decided to go up and get some answers, since both our units now have "everything" "we need". 

Technically, we don't have everything, given the fact our laundry room connections look like someone haphazardly slapped everything on the wall and called it art (not including our bulletin board) and we can't get the remote to work still. Our friend is having issues with her inputs, her connection to watch things (she has audio but no video), and a little list of other challenges (including problems with a Fire Stick). 

So up they went, and they were the only ones up there. They aired their grievances, got some answers (but not much), and before you know it, the representative said he'd send someone to our unit to fix the mess on the wall since she showed him the picture and he too agreed that is 100% not acceptable. 

It took 2 install supervisors and some techs to say it was ugly and inappropriate of an install, but they didn't do anything to fix it. Yet my mother goes to the clubhouse to get other answers, and someone makes a phone call to say it has to be fixed. 

Weird chain of command.

Well, 2pm a tech shows up at our house and starts fiddling away. He takes everything apart and moves it around. Says we don't need the Eero box in the laundry room as it won't be able to do it's full magic from there, since we have a tendency to close that door. The spray can't go through the wall. He thinks it should go in the guest room, which never gets closed unless people are staying over (and who's been here recently? No one). 

Except the tech said it makes more sense that the box goes into the guest room, and since we already have the phone line (from the Comcast box), it’s all the more reason to have the booster in that position. 

Which, when my mom told me this, I told her that’s why I kept questioning it. It doesn’t make sense for the booster to go in the laundry room. All the hookups we need are in the guest room, and if the original sales guy said we can put everything where ever we want, why the tech thought it was okay to put it almost in the garage, is questionable. *** She agreed because what else can she say?

So in the guest room the Eero went, and the tech reattaches the modem to the wall in the laundry room, in a much better position. Plus, he added invisible wire to the bottom floor box and ran it along the floor and up the wall, so you don't see the connections. 

He actually did a pretty good job. 

This is how it should have been, originally. Or close to it. 

I mean, if you're going to have to have a line of boxes added to what's already there, at least make it as neat looking as possible. With all the wires wound up tight, some shorter, some in other places, it really does look like the tech took pride in what he did. They are going to send one of their contractors out to patch the nail holes and repaint the spots, as everything they attach to the wall is both double sided velcro and nailed in. 

When he was finished with that, he checked all the TVs. Everything worked for the time he was here and he tried to sync the living room remote. Tried his damndest and couldn't do it. 

One of the suggestions he made was he could turn off the Bluetooth on the TiVo box and on the remote, and rig it so there would be no conflict. If he shuts that off, then you can't speak in to the remote and tell it what channel you want. 

My mother said she wants to be able to use the microphone since there's no paper guide and she can't sit there all day trying to figure out what channel the basic numbers are that she wants (if she wants ABC, it's a different number than what we had, so she'd have to scroll on the guide until she found it. With the voice remote, she can say "Channel ABC"). So he left it as it is. 

But why does it use Bluetooth? Did the XFinity remote do that? I'll have to check at some point.

The things Hotwire is choosing to supply in their technology is questionable. 

- They're using TiVo, which is over 20 years old of a product, for television watching. 

- They're using Bluetooth capable remotes (why?) which are not compatible with a lot of television sets. Or soundbars (more on that)

- They're using a Nokia gateway that is attaching to an Eero.

- They seem to have to use an Eero system to get full Wi-Fi coverage. Yet the tech told my mother she really only needs one and he doesn't understand why we have two. She told him the community got everyone two, so that's what she wants. He said we don't need it, and most of the places in the community don't either. He doesn't understand it. He also said you have to have an active phone line to plug into this Eero or it won't work properly.*

I don't know why they don't tell you anything during install, and it makes sense now since some people were saying they had to download the eero app to use everything but don't know what they're doing. But, those who have their phone jacks covered up because they don't have landlines, are screwed since you need something to connect to the Wi-Fi extender. So the techs need to go mining for wires within walls. 

What a mess.

It feels like nothing makes sense with this company. As a whole, we weren't prepared for the challenges coming out of this. It's almost like the company is 6 months old and we are the guinea pigs, rather than them being 20 years old (which explains the reliance on TiVo). One of the main board members who fought for us to use Hotwire, doesn't want to hear people's complaints. He thinks we just have to work out the glitches since it's new for us. Once everything is up and running and the community can see the wonders that can happen with Hotwire, we will all be eating our words.

Yeah, having the wireless equivalent to Dish Network is amazing. 

Having one free phone call for help and paying for any other calls is the best. 

Knowing there's no brick and mortar store to return equipment in case of failure or moving is so cool, I can't wait to see how that goes. 

If the box breaks for any reason (lightning strike, since we are in the lightning capital of the US, for example), you have to wait for a tech to come out and replace the box.... at a charge. 

Knowing if power goes out or something happens, you're out of service for days after it gets resolved - super!

Not being able to reach customer service all the time? Yippee!

There is a massive thread and various conversations on a private Facebook Page as well as the Next Door app, regarding Hotwire. Everyone has reading reviews about the company and sharing the links and their own thoughts / problems. It's not good. This isn't a safe bet. We were better with Comcast, for it being a sucky monopoly. At least they attempted to stay on the up and up with everything out there and didn't cause this much construction problems or connection issues. Comcast might be shitty in a lot of places, but they've got decades of being around and being in homes - our Comcast origin story was the use of Bell Atlantic → Continental Cable → Media One → Comcast Cable. One bought out the other until Comcast threw its weight over everyone. 

I aged myself. Damnit. 

But with every iteration, every decade we had something, the owner of the red C and the rainbow peacock has always tried to stay with the times and upgrade. Hotwire feels like we're going backwards. 

Anyway, the soundbar problem:

A few of our friends have a full Dolby Surround Sound set up in their houses. They've invested some nice money into making their TV rooms sound like you're in the picture with the actors. All it takes is one remote that's tied to the TV to get everything working and you've got yourself planted in the middle of an action movie of a thriller. 

Hotwire is the horror movie in this situation, in case you haven't noticed.

With this new program, they're having to use multiple remotes. Just like everyone else. If the surround sound boxes use more than one remote, well, they're using every single remote in the house. Because even the up to date 2020-2022 devices aren't syncing with the Hotwire materials. 

People are pissed. 

I don't know anything about soundbars since we don't have any, but what people tell me, they're nice. Makes me want to turn into the Maxell guy.

Yes, I just aged myself. Again.

So people who have the things that make it go to 11, don't want to get hooked up if they aren't already. They're worried, they're scared. They are all over 60, so they don't want to get started on learning 100 different remotes just to use one (especially when they got used to one). It's insane.

What's insane is I've been writing this for over an hour and I've got to get ready for work now. If I hear anything else, I'll make another post.

Until then, stay sane.

Cheers;

* I looked into it. According to What is required to setup eero? you'll "need" the following:

Already have your eeros or are just looking for what you'll need to get started? You can find all the requirements below:

What you'll need

• Supported iOS or Android device with a data connection (cellular data or WiFi)
  • iOS or Android device with Bluetooth 4.0 BLE
  • iOS requirements: 
    • Device running iOS 14 or later
  • Android requirements:
    • Device running Android 7 or later (tablets included)
• eero App from App Store (iOS) or Google Play (Android)
• An active internet connection from an Internet Service Provider (ISP)
• A modem (or a device with an upstream connection to your ISP)
• A local phone number (for activating and signing into your account

But they don't tell you any of this in the install or in any conversations with the techs. 

Yet...Can I use eero with my current ISP? (it's specific... with tech jargon)... 

eero has been tested for compatibility with most major Internet Service Providers (ISPs) in the United States, Canada, UK, EU (France, England, Germany, Italy & Spain), and Australia.

To date, no U.S. or Canadian ISP has been confirmed incompatible with eero. As long as you can connect your gateway eero to a modem or upstream device with an Ethernet cord, you should be able to set up and use eero. If you don’t currently have an ISP, please see this article.

• Examples of ISPs in the U.S. include, but are not limited to, Comcast Xfinity, AT&T, Time Warner Cable, CenturyLink, Charter, Verizon Fios, Cox, Google Fiber, RCN, Blue Ridge, and Frontier.
• Examples of ISPs in Canada include, but are not limited to, Rogers, Bell Aliant, Eastlink, Shaw, Cogeco, Bell Canada, Videotron, Telus, and TekSavvy.

To use eero, you will need to have a download speed of at least 1 Mbps – this is the minimum suggested speed for eero to function properly.

Please see below for specific configurations for certain ISPs.

Advanced configurations

Since we live in a world with a great deal of variety, some ISPs also may require particular configurations. Here are a few specifics for some common providers::

Verizon FiOS: eeros work well with Verizon FiOS Internet-only service. If you want to control your FiOS TV from within your eero network, there are some additional configuration steps you'll have to take. You can review those steps here.

AT&T’s U-verse: eeros work well with AT&T U-verse service. To set up your eero network just follow the setup instructions in the eero app. After your eero network is configured, we recommend disabling WiFi on the AT&T U-verse router. See our detailed U-verse instructions here.

DSL: Your eeros will work with DSL. If your DSL provider requires PPPoE, you should set up your eeros behind your existing router. (This configuration is called 'double NATing.' See our steps on how to do this here.) After you set up your network, you can log into your existing router and disable WiFi to prevent multiple SSIDs. If you’re not sure how to do this, please contact your ISP for assistance.

Comcast: There are a few ways to set up eero’s while using Comcast/ Xfinity. You can set up your eeros behind your existing router, in either double NAT or bridged mode (if using either of these methods, it’s recommended to disable the wifi broadcast on the Xfinity gateway, unless you are also subscribed to Xfinity’s TV service). Alternatively, you can bridge your Xfinity gateway, and only use eero for all of your devices (if you choose to do this, only the Gateway eero can be connected to the Xfinity gateway with an ethernet cable).

Google Fiber: Google Fiber requires customers to use their Network Box as the primary network router. To use your eeros in a Double NAT configuration, please refer to Google Fiber’s support page for helpful tips on connecting your personal router to the Network Box.

Webpass: Some ISPs, like Webpass, don't require their users to have a modem. In these instances, users should skip the modem instructions in the eero app and instead plug their gateway eero into the Ethernet jack on their wall.

*** People in the houses are getting their Nokia & one Eero installed in the garage because they have the Grey Fox box there. Which doesn’t help anything because Wi-Fi can’t go thru cement at full strength. Which invalidates the booster. 

Figure that one out. 

Should be renamed "Hotmess"

 We finally got our Hotwire installation done and are no longer Comcast customers. 

Which means, I can't say "Comcast sucks!!!!!!!!!!!" when we have problems. I now have to remember to say "F*ck1ng Hotwire Sucks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!";because trust me, we aren't a full week in, and I'm already like "eff this ship". 

Let me back track and start from somewhat of a beginning. 

The community I live in, has a ten year Comcast contract. The ten years are up come January 2023 and the (non paid, all volunteer, resident) master board members tried to see what was out there for newer / better service. They started this search two years ago and even paid someone to dig deeper. 

We had options (of the ones that kept popping up with the person we were paying big money for): 

- Stay with Comcast and get a new rate, plus the possibility of fiber optics.

- Go with a new to Florida company called Bluestream and get a different rate (plus fiber optics)

- Go with a company called Hotwire, and it's not the travel agency. Plus we'd get fiber optics and a different rate. 

The board decided to look into these three companies more and see what was being offered. 

Oh, I have to add, I think the first original option (for those who moved in to this place when it was brand spanking new in 2004), had CenturyLink because a few OGs we know, have CenturyLink products still. At some point, one of the master board iterations went to Comcast for a better deal. This was before my mom and I moved in. 

So the board looked into the options plus others and decided to see what else might pop up, as the contract was expiring in two years from when they started looking. 

Speed up to last year and they started looking again. 

While the main options of companies were still around, the board polled the audience (they sent a survey out to the residents on what they'd want).

Questions / wants include:

- TV

- Internet

- Telephone

- Nothing.

Lots of people do different things in this community, and where it's 4 parcels in one package (3 groups of houses, 1 group of condos), everyone's needs are not the same. Especially after the pandemic hit and people were home more (kids, workers, etcetera), they realized what they had either worked or didn't work for them. 

With each new option of service provider, each came with different tiers depending on what you want over all from the company, to then offer to the community, even from a price stand point, before you offer TV, Internet and Phone. 

Comcast still offered cable (coax wire) plus they are starting to do fiber optics. There are three different tiers with them for wiring options and each come with (yet another) ten year contract. Depending on what you choose, one is more or less than the other in pricing. With the fiber, they'd have to do a lot of digging on / in the ground to lay the new wires because they can't use their old copper cables.

Bluestream is all fiber optics. They would have to dig no matter what. I saw this company do their work first hand, as they went into the place I last worked at. It was a mess - all the trenches built and how they had to string wires on and in the buildings. There was some challenges with it, and it was frustrating for the people. However, the ten year contract my community would get, would have price tiers as well. 

Hotwire is strictly fiber optics but they attach to the old coax copper cables within the community. They would only need to do minimal trenching to get their own wires through the community since they can attach to what each residence already has.  Although they have different paying tiers, they were the overall cheapest. 

People chose wisely for what they wanted, with the survey. Everyone chose accordingly, and less than 1% over all chose Hotwire. 

In the end, the board this year decided to go with the less favorable and very little online presence, Hotwire. 

I have to add here, that I'm taking some liberty in paraphrasing a lot of what the companies have to offer. I remember the options being Comcast, Bluestream and Hotwire and everyone offering different opportunities of packages, and the board didn't want to take advice of the people who would make the best of what they were getting. 

The process of Hotwire started. Lots of town hall meetings, lots of questions. Very little solid answers. We were starting to get sold on a company that would have no real answers or fixes for what would transpire once installation began.

As they started rolling out the wiring and people started getting connected, yes, there were plenty of meetings. But, in all the meetings not all the questions could be answered. People were playing the finger pointing game, and with a representative from the company attempting to answer questions and make comments of their own, we were given convoluted stories. 

The first group of people to get TV and internet were the guinea pigs. Some of the homes were told their televisions were not compatible with the Hotwire system, and the household needed updated TVs. Part of the reasoning was Hotwire relies on Smart TV sets and not everyone had them. Plus, everything is wireless that the company provides. Which means whatever you have for devices, needs to have Wi-Fi access to work. 

Shit.

More people got hooked up and had other problems. The social media apps (Facebook, Nextdoor) were slammed with negative comments. The board screwed the people because they didn't want to deal with Comcast anymore. 

When we got our sales consultation, I happened to have been home. My mother and I sat, in our house, with the sales guy, asking loads of questions. 

- Can we still use our streaming boxes (Roku, Apple TV)? 

Yes

- Do we get a Hotwire email address?

No

- What do we do about our Comcast email address?

You get to keep it because your board has made a deal with Hotwire and Comcast to allow you to keep the email, so long as you sign in to it at least once every three months

- Can I use the Comcast email on my Roku apps? I have things like FX, TLC and other subscription apps on it, that need the Comcast verification to work

As long as you keep the Comcast email active, things will work. But you don't need to use those anymore because you can log into the box we provide you.

- Can we still use the hockey puck (the one ye shall not name because she will wake up)?

Yes. 

- Can we still use the DVD player and have it hooked to the cable box so we can record shows or movies to DVD?

Yes

- Will our printers work on this new network, as they run on the 2.4 band?

Yes

- You say it's one price for whatever the speed is. Can you guarantee that? (come to find out, we were paying $99 a month to Comcast for "Superfast speed" - 800mbps and only getting 200).

Yes, even though you don't technically get what is contracted. Everything takes up certain amounts of speed, so you're going to get as close to the contracted speed as possible. 

- Will there be pixelation on the television when we are watching live programming?

No. Because that deals with internal cable wiring and Hotwire doesn't deal with that.

- Can we keep our current phone number?

Yes.

The questions went on, and he kept explaining more and more. 

Including the fact that everything is wireless. Which means they put their own special fiber box in our house, then from there, hook up a modem and two Wi-Fi extenders. We can have the extenders anywhere we want, but we don't want them together. It should be in each end of the house, so we get a better overall coverage. 

I think that was it for devices. Plans range from the basic tier, which is what the community "pays" for (500 speed). Next tier is the 1GB speed (with a set price for 2 years as an intro rate and then years 3-10 are five bucks more a year). Final Tier is something else with another price point. I forget what it all was, but I know it wasn't more than a gig of speed. You just got better television options. 

After talking it over, and the sales guy explaining that with everything running in the house, you really need the 1gig service. For the price we'd pay, plus the television stations we'd get, the middle of the road gig service is plenty fast. Add the phone service, and we'd pay less than 80 bucks after tax, a month. Versus over $150 a month with Comcast and we don't get great service right now. 

So we accepted that plan. Asked more questions, signed the contract, created an install date. 

Couple weeks later, more town hall meetings, more people griping (but not to the board), we have our install on Tuesday. 

What should have been only a few hours, turned out to be just over 6. 

I should have taken the day off, but I didn't. So my mom was texting me updates as the chaos was happening. 

First, one of the install techs she requested, didn't show up. She was told this guy was amazing, because some of her friends had him as their installer. He explained things, shifted things, made sure things worked. 

Well, he had orders for next door, not us. Considering he walked in our house nor realizing he was in the wrong unit, and took a look around. Said everything he sees is wrong - phone lines, placement of the fiber box, his paperwork. Come to find out, another group of installers were on his toes, coming in our driveway. They were coming to us. He was at the wrong house. 

So off he goes next door and in comes the other people to do the work. Which starts to kick the ball down the hill. 

The new group didn't have all the equipment they needed, so someone had to go somewhere and get it. Half hour later, they have what they need, but need to have access to another electrical box. They need to move a free standing cabinet. My mother says no, as moving it where they want blocks access to the electrical box. They said they are out of invisible wire and moving it behind the cabinet is the best option. My mother insisted they make it work as it is. 

Well, they made it work, and it looks like a shit storm of a mess.

In the first picture, because we chose to have a house phone, they are using a small phone wire to connect from the old Greyfox box (which is all the coax stuff for Comcast) and plugged it into the Nokia modem. So from left: an empty surge protector (ours, that they refused to use), some other electrical box we don't know what it is, the Greyfox Comcast box, Hotwire's Nokia modem, one of 2 Eero mesh extenders. 

In the second picture, you see the whole wall. To the right of the picture, it's cut off, but it's the free standing cabinet they wanted to move to block the big grey electrical box (the panel of the buttons you press to turn off or on everything in the house if it flips). Don't mind our bulletin board, as this is the laundry room. But if you look on the bottom of the picture - in the middle of the bulletin board and big electrical panel, you'll see a white wire running down the wall and plugged into a small box. That's their fiber optic box. 

Which could have gone anywhere, because talking to neighbor friends, no one's room looks like ours. Everything is not as crowded and things are hidden. 

My mom is super mad, because it looks ugly. With the Comcast surfboard or XFi box, it was 1 simple box in our guest room, on an armoire. Nice and neat. With the Hotwire boxes, it's too many things together in one space where it's already overcrowded. This isn't a NYC subway car. This is a laundry room. 

But what is she to do? They stapled, velcro'd, zip tied and whatever else shy of Gorilla glued everything to the wall. 

It came down to going to each room to unhook old boxes and put in new. 

- Guest room: Subtraction of the XFi box and little freebie cable box.

- My room: Subtraction of freebie box, added the Hotwire box. 

- Living room: Subtraction of the Comcast cable box, added the Hotwire box plus an Eero. They unhooked the RCA wires from the Comcast box that connected the cable to the Sony DVDR player (remember I asked about being able to record shows to DVD and they said yes?)

- My mom's room: Subtraction of the Comcast box, added the Hotwire box. 

Internet running, everything on the network we are used to, even has our password. So all devices that sign on to the network, works on the network. So far, all printers are a go. Even the hockey puck works with the smart plug we have for the hall lamp. 

TVs are set up in each room attached to the Hotwire box. But there's a problem. The living room TV doesn't jive with the Hotwire remote. 

Why? Because it's a 48 inch Sanyo and it's on the "do not buy" list for Hotwire. 

Why? Because Hotwire, by the way, is using TiVo. And TiVo doesn't play well with certain brands of electrical devices, including televisions. We should have been told this from the master board.

Wait. Scroll back a bit. 

Hotwire uses TiVo as their cable box??????????

Isn't TiVo over 20 years old and out of style??

Yes to Hotwire using TiVo and no, apparently it's not out of style. Also, we didn't get an approved anything from anyone about what we need for our house. Not even the sales guy said anything.

So my mom has to use the Sanyo remote to power the TV off and on as well as use the volume. But for the cable itself, she uses the TiVo remote. Not what she wanted to do, since her TV in her bedroom is on one remote and my bedroom is on one remote. 

Which, by the way, Vizio is not an approved TiVo television, according to the techs. Yet, it's working fine... even though I'm not using that box for any sort of watching.

Now the ball is kicked further down the hill, quicker. 

Telephone: Everything is hooked up. You can hear a dial tone. All set. 

My mother asks if it's the same star codes she's used to, to check voicemail. Guy says sure, whatever you want. Doesn't give her any information on how to change the voicemail PIN, the greeting, nothing. 

She tries to log in to the telephone information to change things, and can't. She ends up using the phone base answering machine to create a message. Which defeats the purpose of the Hotwire voicemail system since that's the one activated, not the AT&T phone system we have (it's just the cordless phones, not the actual service). 

Plus, every time someone calls, it rings twice and goes to voice mail. Can it be fixed? Guy struggles. He doesn't know. 

Also, will the caller identification show up on the screen when someone calls? No, Hotwire doesn't have that technology.

So we don't get a "someone [at] hotwire [dot] com" email address as part of the email / internet service and we don't get on screen called ID for phone service because this company isn't up to date yet with all these offerings. 

Which is why they're using a 20 year old cable brand for providing television service. 

Which is also why our living room entertainment center is a little clustery.

So they apparently like dirty lines everywhere and keep things looking like a mess, since that whole shelf feels like technology threw up and there's no one around to clean it. 

Yes, we have a VCR and DVD player still. 

I wanted to be able to hook the DVD player into the cable box so we'd be able to not only watch regular DVDs if we wanted, but if there was a tv series or a movie we wanted to record, we could do that as well. But we can't, since this TiVo box only has 1 HDMI output, and that goes to the TV. There are no other connections to use the DVD player. 

I don't know if this exists, but I was actually looking for some sort of hub where you can plug in RCA cables and HDMI cables and be able to see everything under one input and not have to use a switcher. If that is actually a thing, I'd look in to buying it, just in the chance we want to record something. 

VCR is different because I can hook the RCA cables from the VCR to the second input of the DVD player with no problem. I've done that before. It's just a matter of wanting to record TV stuff. 

Which we haven't done in a few months, but that's beside the point. 

Anyway, with this installation, you're supposed to get a tutorial on everything. People keep saying they've not gotten any help or any lesson. 

My mom didn't either. 

When these techs were finally done, the left everything crazy and my mother super chunking upset. By the time I got home and looked over everything, yeah, it's a mess. 

When I turned on my (HP Pavilion g6) laptop, the cable boxes started going fruity. TV shows kept pausing. 

This angered my mother even more since she already had a long day of dealing with problems, now every time a computer was on, the television shows would go wonky.

So she called Hotwire to complain that the television kept pausing. 

Someone was going to come out the next day to fix it, as well as trouble shoot the phone since it still wasn't working. We were missing calls and we couldn't check messages. 

Wednesday I actually had off, since I had a doctor appointment. I went to my appointment, my mother and I did some errands, and we waited for the new techs to come.

Well, what we thought would be easy fixes, the techs (who have decades of IT experience together), couldn't figure out why all the televisions were going to pause and stop mode. The phone issue was out of his hands, since we should have gotten a temporary passcode from someone else in Hotwire, and since we kept insisting we got nothing from no one, he had to call up the ladder and get us a temporary PIN. 

The whole time the guy was here, he was fighting us tooth and nail. It started with him looking at the Hotwire boxes and how they were hooked up, and he said he would never have installed everything like that, but everyone is different, and it's too late now to fix it all. 

Looking at the living room, same thing. 

He's not sorry, but he does have to say these are third party installation people and they are not Hotwire people. They are contractors that are supposed to just be in and out and not do anything else.

Which means they were kind of right to leave wires the way they did for the living room. When asked about the DVD player, he said that I need to keep the Comcast box and figure out how to use it if I expect to tape shows, or even use the DVD player part. It's not Hotwire's job to touch anyone's devices because they are on the hook in case things break.

Which I understand that part, as we used to say that at my last jobs with the AV things. You bring your own device and it doesn't jive, we can't be responsible if it breaks or anything.

However, this being a television / internet / phone company that comes in to provide a service, you should be able to reconnect things or at the very least inform the client that their devices aren't going to work with what you've got. 

With regards to the TV remote not working, he rolled out a laundry list of approved television sets you can buy at Walmart or Target, and all the ones he's mentioning work with TiVo. Everything else, good luck, Chuck. You're on you're own. 

If anything, buy an approved TV and put it in that hole in the entertainment center. My mother says no, she's not buying a new TV just to use one remote. The entertainment center was built for the wall, and what TV we had purchased when we moved here. She's not running to buy another 48 inch tv. 

The guy said that the other option is to buy a TV mount, get an approved television and mount it in the hole, so you can pull out the television, swivel it, etc. He has had plenty of customers who did that, and have had no problems. She asked him if he's paying for it because she's not. He said no way. She asked if Hotwire will, and he said definitely not. So she said why should she? This TV is fine; it's worked with the Comcast equipment, it works with everything else. It's just not working with TiVo. He said if she wants one remote, this is the other option.

Fahgetit. 

I asked about the Roku and using the Comcast email address. Since you need a valid cable subscription and a valid cable provider's email address to verify the subscription, what do we do about the apps I've downloaded to my device? 

He asked me why I would use my Roku now, since everything we do will be on the TiVo. I don't need to watch FX or Discovery or anything else on my Roku. Just go to the Google Play store and download the app. Log in on TiVo.

Yes, TiVo runs on Android and you do have the option to log in with a Google Account, but you have to rely on the Google Play store for everything.

I told him I've already got these accounts made and downloaded. I don't need to be using multiple devices since their service won't let me connect to the thing I already have. 

He wasn't hearing any of that. Remember, he was fighting us tooth and nail and being a ripe f*cker for every question we had. 

I also said that with all these cable companies doling out refurbished equipment, how do I know if I log into Apple TV+ on the TiVo, something won't happen to that box, especially since everything is wireless and you don't know what a storm would do it it? Hotwire could wipe the system but do I know if it's truly wiped?

Because, side note, when we got the XFi box, it still had someone's devices logged into it. I had logged into the admin panel when I went to split the bands, and saw all these devices that never belonged to anyone in my house. 

So the guy got pissy and said that he doesn't trust these Hotwire boxes himself, as he uses his own streaming device. However, what's to say my Apple TV won't crap out? If it does and I throw it away, someone could pick my trash and find it. They could wipe it and sell it or do what they want with it. My ID is still on it because I'm logged in. So my comment is irrelevant. 

I'm telling you, this dude was a dick. 

Anyway, the cable kept pausing and they didn't know what was happening. Two techs were flabbergasted. One thought there was a Bluetooth problem, where something was hindering the connection from the remote to the TV to the box. The other thought was the Comcast remote (which we needed to use to power + volume the TV) was having a problem with the TiVo remote or box. Some sort of cross stream problems. 

Either way, they tried troubleshooting everything, and it was still pausing and having problems. 

They'd have to call the engineers and come back another day. 

They got what they could working, and just reiterated we are stuck with using two remotes for the television since TiVo doesn't play with Sanyo. They will see what they can do about getting higher ups here to fix the pause problem. 

Even though I kept asking if it was an internal setting within the TiVo box. I got "death upon you" glances from the techs, because they knew what they were talking about and I didn't. Even though they had no idea why the screen paused. They refused to check settings, except one.

The HDMI CEC was disabled on the box. It should be enabled. That's how everything talks to each other and why the remotes work. Yet, the option is disabled on my Vizio and everything works perfectly with the remotes. The option is disabled in my mother's room and it all works. Theory should carry over to the Sanyo.

But it didn't. And I kept asking if it was another setting. They didn't want to check.

So they left. 

Thursday no one comes. My mother calls one of the people on the master board who wanted Hotwire. She complained immensely to him. Told him the list of people who were having problems as well, and he said he has heard nothing from anyone about problems, but he will try to make it right. 

He makes a call and the point of contact we have for our community calls her and says he's sending someone over right now. 

Someone comes, they can't figure it out. There is still problems. 

Everyone who has been in our house has seriously hated what the laundry room looks like and finds it unacceptable, but we can't fix it now. The TV is still weird but no one knows what to do. 

Just deal with it.

So what do I do when I get home?

I do a search on the internet. 

Things get wonky.

The power of things I've found plus the power of these devices being Android based... I found the problem within the settings. 

My web browser was trying to connect to the TVs and the TVs were trying to connect to my browser. Chrome was trying to cast / mirror to each other. 

So what did I do?

Searched the TiVo Android app settings. 

Found where the System app settings were hiding.

Disabled Chromecast or whatever the mirroring thing is called under there.

TV has not paused since. 

Unless we press pause ourselves.

I fixed it my damn self and didn't need some arrogant piece of crap tech person harass me about everything.

If only I can fix the remote now!

I can has a new job? Please?

This post has taken me all day to write because I kept having to walk away. I'm sure I missed things, but if I need to update it, I'll create a new post. 

I'm sure I'll have plenty more cases where I'll say how bad Hotwire sucks, as new things are popping up for other people.

Oh, just like how when Hotwire emails you, if you aren't using Gmail, all correspondence goes to your trash. Yahoo, Hotmail, whatever mail... if it's not Google mail, you're not seeing your bills or other information. Figure that one out!! 

Stay sane...

Cheers;

See also (aka the tech in place)

•  Amazon eero 6 mesh Wi-Fi system
• (Nokia ONT modem doesn't exist on Amazon)
• (Hotwire Fision box not on Amazon)
• The thing you don't speak it's name, for fear of waking it up: Amazon Echo Dot. We have the 2nd generation.
• Amazon Smart Plug (as of this post, Amazon is having a "qualifying event" under the Smart Plug: "Get a free Echo Dot (3rd gen) + Amazon Smart Plug with qualifying holiday trees". Looks like you need to check this page out to get everything)
• AT&T CL83507 DECT 6.0 5-Handset Cordless Phone for Home with Dual Keypad Base, Answering Machine, Call Blocking, Caller ID Announcer, Intercom and Long Range