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<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">BAM !

** too late for me ***

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<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Hey, what is wrong with Verizon? I am currently considering taking a consulting contract for their billing and customer care services...

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http://www.dslreports.com/

you can read about them here

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<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">But their union is without a contract and they are threatening to strike at any moment. In which case, kiss customer service goodbye until it is resolved. They happen to be my local phone company, which is why I mentioned it.

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As Geoshmo goes through the pain and suffering of getting PBW back up, it might be a good time to click on PayPal to express your support and thanks! Think of the fun you have because of PBW and compare that to would spend on a movie!
Merry

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PBW is still down and the withdrawl symptons continue.

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ah-yup, the crops shore are growin' high.

with-drawl symptoms.

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3 hours and counting.

(why do I have a feeling they won't get it fixed today?)

[ August 06, 2003, 19:59: Message edited by: Slynky ]

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<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Because they will not get it fixed today? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

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Yeah, the regular phone tech came out and said he has the problem narrowed down to a cable that is under ground somewhere and he has to have the people that fix the underground cables get on it. It might get done tonight yet he said, or maybe tomorrow morning. But you know how that goes. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon9.gif

Geoschmo

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<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Yeah, well, I can tell you how my monthly bill would go.... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon8.gif .

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Thanks for the update, Geo.
I'm hoping for saturday and will be pleasantly surprised if earlier. Surprising how much time I have this week, and I thought I would only spend one or two hours per week on PBW...

[ August 07, 2003, 11:44: Message edited by: Roanon ]

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I'm kind of enjoying my PBW break. It's always nice to have a little breather here and there...

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<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Sacrelidge!! 40 lashes at least! Possible beheading. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Actually I agree with you. Makes you realize that, by gum, there is more to life...

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<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I hope your phone company doesn't operate like the cable (Rogers) company we have here in Ontario. If something has to be dug up, it gets reffered to the "Burial Department" which then has 10 business days to get out and inspect the site. Not actually do any work mind you, just to go out and look. When I worked the tech support side of things we got calls from people who were without television & internet for months on end cause the "Burial Department" either hadn't gone out yet, or had but had dumped the problem onto someone else and never informed anyone about it.

My motto: expect the worst and you'll never be surprised.

I'll take my cloud of doom and leave you all now.

http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/tongue.gif

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<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Warning noted. I have already planned on raising some serious heck if things aren't fixed by tommorow. Not sure if it will help, but if nothing else somebody at the phone compnay is going to have a bad day.

Geoschmo

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<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Do you have a Residential or Commercial Account? If it's Commercial then you should expect them to kiss your feet and beg forgiveness. If it's Residential though they'll apoligize for the inconvience, and reimburse you for the minimum your entitled too, all the while sounding rather robotic and unconvincing about it.

If I can make one request though: If things go bad and you want to yell, yell at a Supervisor, and not the inital person you speak too. First Level staff tend to be treated like dirt by Management (I have first hand experience) while Management sits on their *** taking breaks and pretending to work. Ruining their afternoon will be more rewarding. Speak to the First Level person calmly and politely, and then lash out once the Supervisor gets on the line.

Oh, and take the names down of everyone you speak too, with the dates and times. Paperwork is your best friend.

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Posted by Geoschmo:
<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif This alone warms the cockles of my heart. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

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<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">It's residential. And honestly I don't really have any kind of expectations of getting a credit at this point. The problem being the fault is in the phone line. Since my voice service works fine I fully expect the phone company to blow me off if I ask for a credit. The DSL service runs over the same line, but is with a different copmpany. I am thinking they are likely to tell me since the problem is the phone line I am not entitled.

However, it's possible the DSL company might give me a credit and then turn around and take it out of the phone company themselves.

At this point I don't really care, I just want it fixed. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Oh, and don't worry about the first level phone support person. I work in customer support myself so I know how it is. Truth be told I'll probably take it like the sheep that I am and then come in here and brag to you all about ripping the guy a new one. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif Remember the impound lot scene from "Liar Liar"? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

Geoschmo

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This alone warms the cockles of my heart.

The little brown fuzzy cockles or the Blue ones with spines?

And I hope you are having fun in networks kicking my "cockles" all over the place. When your done meet me in 'Falling Icons' and we will have another go. (the game is just forming up and we have Oct time frame as our start date.)
Gozra AKA Emperor Kwai Chang AKA Goz AKA Gozzy

Geo thanks for the PBW work.
I still have the old MB and I am working on it.
Maybe we should start thinking about forming a company to protect PBW.

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<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I've got that sinking feeling again. Starting to seem like you just won't have DSL any longer.

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That or IF they have to replace the line..lets see....a week min....oops its the PHONE Co..are you ther only one with the problem??? they MAY fix it

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<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Unless they moved the CO or my house when noone ws looking there is no reason for feeling that bad about it. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

They did come out this morning again, but couldn't get it working yet. They will be back...

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<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I'm not sure if someone already answered this, but it's my understanding that there are four copper wires leading from the street to your house: two are used for the phone, and the other two are used for DSL among other things. I wonder if the problem you're having is in the pair of copper wires being used for DSL. That would explain why your voice service still works but DSL doesn't over the same cable.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Well that certainly explains your valuable help and exemplary behavior on the forums regardless of the attitudes of various posters you've dealt with here http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

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<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Unless they moved the CO or my house when noone ws looking there is no reason for feeling that bad about it. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

They did come out this morning again, but couldn't get it working yet. They will be back...</font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">If they show up with heavy trenching equipment, between 5 and 10 guys, and various unidentifiable powertools, I suggest you not let them on your property...if you need justification, just tell them you watched "The Money Pit" movie and you can't take the chance http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif .

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Ha! they can do it from 3 doors down and you will not know they were there other that little dots on your lawn (used to do that sort of work along with more)

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<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I'm not sure if someone already answered this, but it's my understanding that there are four copper wires leading from the street to your house: two are used for the phone, and the other two are used for DSL among other things. I wonder if the problem you're having is in the pair of copper wires being used for DSL. That would explain why your voice service still works but DSL doesn't over the same cable.
</font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">There are two pairs of wires leading from the street to your house. Voice telephony and DSL services both run over all four wires - they are modulated not to interfere with each other. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

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Well, here we go. This situation is starting to piss me off. The phone co tech, strike that the SECOND phone co tech came out today, snuck around the neighborhood, never knocked or rang the bell, and left. Closed the ticket and didn't fix anything.

I called the phone co and raised hell and they are sending someone out tommorow. F'ing phone company. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon8.gif

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Unbelievable!

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<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Sounds like my prophetic cloud of doom is comming true http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon8.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon8.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon8.gif

Just keep writing down the names of people you talk to, especially the name of this 2nd tech who knocked off work early (god bless union labour). They have to give you either his name, or employee id number if you request it.

On the upside your claim for monetary damages just took a turn for the better. The phone company can't refuse a compensation credit (on top of your outage credit) now that one of their employee's screwed up royally. If someone stupidly tries to refuse, then keep going up the food chain. First Level reps generally are given a set amount of money that they're allowed to give on every call without having to get any kind of permission or approval from a Supervisor ($25 to $50 depending on the company). If they wanna be cheap, reiterate everything that's happended to that point. If they still wanna be cheap, talk to a Supervisor (who usually can give more money).

*ka-ching*

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Geo said:

"However, it's possible the DSL company might give me a credit and then turn around and take it out of the phone company themselves."

That's the way it's supposed to work. Your contract is with them.

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I can see the head lines now
Space Empire Players win Class action lawsuit against Phone company empire AT&T
Dateline 2082
A judge ruled today in Canton Ohio that...

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On the other hand, the Cehul people have filed a counter suit, claiming that re-activating the PBW server will ensure their complete eradication by the invading Trilarian empire.

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Hmmmm....

I am wondering if a barrage of e-mails would help.

Not necessarily dunning e-mails, but ones which ask pertinent questions such as...

"It has been a week since the problem has manifested itself. When can we expect it to be rectified?"

While most of the e-mails will be out of state, most companies do not like this kind of attention.

From experience, they also know, that the next step may be the media.

There may be other avenues to pursue as well.

My feeling is that it may be a bit early for us to become involved as Geo may not have exhausted all the means he has available to get it fixed.

Geo, let us know when you think we can be of any assistance and the form of help you wish it to be. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

[ August 08, 2003, 02:48: Message edited by: tbontob ]

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Wait... if it's a residential account and people across the country start complaining, they might sue Geo for breach of contract and put PBW out of business for good... don't they kind of dislike it when you run a major server without paying for commercial access? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...s/rolleyes.gif

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Would shrapnel consider running the server?

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<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Nothing we are doing is a breach of contract with my ISP. The type of service I have allows for this sort of server to be run on it. And calling PBW a "major server" is a bit of a stretch. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

Emailing the ISP isn't going to help, because the problem is the phone line. Emailing the phone company isn't going to help. It won't get me in trouble, but they aren't going to care that you guys can't reach your favorite website either. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

We looked into Shrapnel hosting the site Last year when we ended up moving it to Ohio. It wasn't a good fit with their business plan. I don't mind, I prefer it the way it is rather then having Shrapnel run it.

Just got to get the stinking phone line fixed. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

[ August 08, 2003, 04:02: Message edited by: geoschmo ]

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Geo, maybe your local phone company is the exception, but most companies do care about publicity, even monopolies or oligopolies.

Especially bad publicity.

I have managed a number of companies, big and small, and from experience, I know they care about bad publicity.

They may give non-committal replies to inquiries, but the squeeky wheel does get the grease and is given priority! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

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Atrocities is probably right in that game designers/owners will move to hosting multiplayer games and in particular games played over the internet.

However, my feeling is that it will probably be driven by the need to give consistent and dedicated service to the purchasers of their games who are demanding it.

IMO, we already have that dedication through the efforts of those who are currently involved with the day-to-day operations of the SE4 Forum and PBW.

I, for one, appreciate the time and effort they expend to ensure that PBW will operate efficiently.

But other Shrapnel games which have multiplayer capability to play over the internet may not function as well as SE4.

There may come a time when Shrapnel will decide to host all the games played over the internet (including SE4), no matter how well they may be run.

But that hasn't happened yet, and I have no problems about the personal preferences of the administrators as to the site of the server etc.

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Geo, can you say, cable? (starting to look like your only hope)

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lol, no sh*t, geo,... any eta on a dsl line?

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<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Cable is not an option. I can get cable broadband, but my local cable provider does not offer a static IP, even at a premium. I might be able to get away with running a server since the IP #'s stay pretty stable unless the modem is reset. But I'd have to have the URL repointed occasionally. And in that case I probably would be violating some sort of user aggrement.

No, Cirvol. No eta. The phone co guy is supposed to be back by the end of day, but your guess is as good as mine on whether he will actually fix it this time. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon8.gif

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Sooner or later all, and I do mean all, games will be driven by the demand for multiplayer and Shrapenl as well as other game manufactures will have to wake up and smell the coffee. Why not get an earily jump on the trend and start supporting the genra now?"

Hmm. This has been spouted since before Quake 3 game out. Hasn't happened yet.

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For MP games I have played a few and with a dial up they suck in reat time moves, you get real dead fast from someone with a good conn but MP has its good side, take this forum..if we ALL were in a game... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

[ August 09, 2003, 00:02: Message edited by: mottlee ]

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Well there is only one solution left.. We need to ake up a collection to have Geo move! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

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I could be wrong (like that's not happened!) but I think the days of DSL for Geo are over. Into the 8th day with, apparently, no one giving a crap that it isn't working. Phone company thinking, "So? What's one rented DSL line worth compared to repair?"

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<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">You're wrong. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

Of course I can't say it's going to be fixed by this time on that day, but it will be fixed.

Another phone co guy came out this afternoon. He's working the problem and said he hopes to have it done by tommorow.

We'll see. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

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<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">You're wrong. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

Of course I can't say it's going to be fixed by this time on that day, but it will be fixed.

Another phone co guy came out this afternoon. He's working the problem and said he hopes to have it done by tommorow.

We'll see. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif </font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Well, believe me, I'd like to be wrong! Their customer service is anything but acceptable.

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<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">No, we need Narf to get out his megaphone and get the Angry Mob organized.

"Next, in local news, a rampaging mob of angry computer gamers stormed a local phone company's management offices, causing massive damage and tarring and feathering several dispatchers. But first, tomorrow's weather..."

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<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Words, just words - he wouldn't have dared to say otherwise I guess http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif I do not trust these I-will-have-it-done-tomorrow guys more than, lets say, a Quicksilver programmer saying he has tested his programm...

But on the other hand, I *did* say a few days ago that I was hoping for saturday, maybe I should have faith in my own prophecies http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif