techno matt » personal

SUNDAY–SUNDAY–SUNDAY!

zebtron — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 12:36:27 +0000

After a great Saturday, I was in an awesome mood Sunday and worked on a bunch of stuff!

Here are photos from an urban hike in Mountain View Cemetery.

You can see the bay in the distance on this panorama.

The grounds are pretty large and it was a great day, despite some clouds.

Entire set is here.

Here are pictures and video from the TV Mike and the Scarecrowes show at the Rickshaw Stop last Wednesday.

I also completed this painting…

Stage 2 today

Final stage

And worked on some animation.

It is pretty fun so far, but a slowish start as I’m figuring out a new program

The animation is based on a drawing that I refined as a digital work.

I’m jazzed about all the characters I have lying around already scanned.

I have a feeling I’m going to switch to an animation-specific tool at some point, but Scratch is pretty cool so far.

So… I say “Good Sunday!”

Let’s kick this week in the ass!

4th Annual Valentine’s Day Pillow Fight pics and video

zebtron — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 06:37:39 +0000

Had friends visiting from Portland and we went to this event.

Click here is the entire photo set

It was a feathery-messy-fun time!

It almost looks like snow!

On the mend

zebtron — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 03:36:53 +0000

For those of you who are not aware, I was in a kinda’ nasty bike wreck on Jan 4th.

I broke my nose, bone under my left eye, ripped up my arm and shoulder, got a concussion, and beat up my head in general.

Luckily I just got insurance a mere few DAYS before the accident.

But here is the worst photo I have as no one (thankfully) took pics when I was REALLY beat up.

Comcast customer “service”: A corporate culture of active deception?

zebtron — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 22:22:49 +0000

Issues with Comcast customer service people and truthfulness

TEXT BELOW IS EMAIL SENT TO COMCAST

Let’s start from the beginning for this account.

A little over a year ago I moved to a place in Oakland and called to get Comcast cable and broadband.
When I signed up I asked if the rate was introductory.

I was told that it WAS NOT an introductory offer/price.

Six months later my bill shot up and I called to see what was going.
I was told it WAS indeed a 6 month introductory offer.

The person I talked to when I signed up had lied to me.

I used your CHAT service to talk to a rep (see blog post copy of transcript from July here)
The rep was no help and at the end of the chat told me to call.

I talked to the retention department via phone after my wasted time in online chat and was the person tried to offer me something to make up for the lie about pricing.

The deal was that I would upgrade to HD TV and get a DVR for about the same price we were already paying.
Sounded good to me, but because I had already been burned before by lies from Comcast, I asked point blank if THIS was an introductory offer and was told that it WAS NOT.

Skip ahead another six months: I got my most recent bill and it had jumped over $20 per month.

I called and was told that the price WAS an introductory offer.

This is the second time (for this account, 3rd from Comcast overall) I have been told this SAME lie to get me to either not leave Comcast or to signup for service.

This is the 3rd time this EXACT thing has happened to me with Comcast.
The first time was with an account in Indiana.

I should have learned my lesson after the 1st, perhaps the second time a Comcast employee blatantly lied to me, but I honestly didn’t think it would happen again.

Every time I call Comcast I feel like:

1. No one actually cares about my situation.
2. They will tell me whatever they think I want to hear to get me off the phone.
3. Customer service people seem to know that they can say whatever things they want and I will have little ability to find the person who lied to me.
4. I have to talk to 3 or 4 people to get anywhere as no one on the phone seems to have the ability to actually address any issues.

Right now I just want the price I was told 6 months ago.
I really don’t know what it is with your company but you seem to have institutionalized a culture of lying and that is NOT good.

On top of this all the HD DVR we have from Comcast is just a horrible device.
WHEN it works it has the worst UI I have ever seen.
It crashed constantly, doesn’t record shows properly (my two attempts to record the season finale of Mad Men both failed), and looks like it was cludged together from very disparate software.

I have also been trying to use the new computer-based webTV streaming service and for some reason it keeps telling me I need to sign up in order to access HBO, but we pay for HBO already.

Here is my info:
Matthew A Meyer
317.288.1763

My bill needs to be adjusted so that it is $90.34 this and all subsequent months.

Regards,

Matthew Meyer