Category: Life

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Brightstar Communications in Raleigh, NC

Here’s a customer service story for you.  I just had to send this email to the CFO of Trimaco regarding an emergency service call I had to place with Brightstar Communications yesterday regarding a down fax line:

Drew,

Yesterday I contacted Brightstar Communications regarding our down fax line.  I was told to open a ticket through their on-line form which I did.  I was informed a tech would call me shortly to schedule a time for the repair.  I never received a call.  My follow up with Brightstar revealed that the ticket had been assigned to Tim Beach (Beech?).  I never received any communication from Tim Beech.  This morning I had to call and had to insist to speak with him.  It was apparently a big problem that I actually speak to the guy assigned to the call.

When I asked Tim why no contacted us to schedule a service time he went off explaining some big job they were all on at a hotel or something.  In a somewhat irritated tone, I admit, asked why someone didn’t communicate this to us because the service call was entered as an emergency.  He got irritated and hung up the phone.

I will be finding another vendor to handle this and any future problems with the phone system.  I know several with very good service records including Network South and Atcom.  I will not be conducting business with Brightstar Communications unless specifically directed to do so.  In over 13 years of phone system management and administration I have never seen such poor service or communication from a vendor and will quickly communicate this experience with everyone I know in the industry.

And I didn’t even get to wish him a happy 4th of July.  Mike Seibert, the owner of Brightstar, is listed as the Communications vendor and consultant for “The Business Clinic” in Raleigh which consists of “groups of local professional service firms experienced in offering and implementing fundamental business solutions for small and mid-size businesses.”  This is important because during the coarse of this saga Mike and his staff repeatedly implied the Trimaco was not big enough to warrent emergency service from Brightstar.  Never mind that Trimaco is several times the size of Brightstar with an annual revenue that dwarfs Mike’s.

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Back with a new look .

The conversion from Time Warner to AT&T DSL is complete.  It took a little more time than I anticipated because I didn’t realize their are no phone lines in my office where this server sits.  So the server’s on a wireless network adapter now and seems to be going strong – static IP and all.  I’m still hosting the DNS with No-IP.com because they’re paid for the remainder of the year.

The world’s focus is on the US economy now and so is mine. My rants in the coming months will focus primarily on this topic.  I won’t be watching my language because let’s face it, we’re screwed.  We’ve got job losses, banks are struggling because of loans that can’t be paid back, house values plummetting almost everywhere and gas prices that are through the roof.  Put $1000 under the mattress and get ready to ride out a depression that makes Grandpa’s look like fun.

The talk show pundits make it sound like it’s going to be alright.  The market is “correcting itself” they say.  I laugh at you sirs.  Please do your part to keep hope alive.  As soon as gas hits between $5 and $6 a gallon and the trucking strikes begin you better have food in the house because I hear there’s only 3 days worth on any grocery stores shelves at any time.  Gentelmen, start your gardens.

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Jad Mouawad and Mireya Navarro -or- 2 innacurate writers for the NY Times

These were the creators of an article that ran this morning titled: Teeth Gritted, Drivers adjust to $4 Gasoline.

Among a couple of inaccurate, opinionated comments one blatant distortion they provided was

“All this has led to a vast transfer of wealth from American drivers to domestic and foreign oil producers.”

Wrong. Or Epic Fail as it would be put on Digg. The transfer of currency to wealthy oil producers is occurring from Oil product companies world wide, not drivers in America. Specifically, Americans are paying current high prices to insure that the refineries (i.e. Exxon, BP, etc.) are going to be able to maintain their current profit levels 13 years from now. That’s right, the price of a gallon of gas today is set based upon the speculation of Energy Traders on 13 year futures. See my article a couple of days ago to learn what futures trading is.

With the media sworn to their own misleading, blanket statements it’s no wonder the population at large has no idea, zero, what makes the current price of gas so high. As long as our current prices at the pump are directly correlated to the current price of oil by these irresponsible writers people will still continue to think this is an issue of supply and demand. We are not in a situation where we need to pay this much at the pump or China’s going to take our gas to get to work.

We pay these prices so that the major oil product producers can continue to guarantee annual record profits to their investors many, many years from now. Should the international price for a barrel of oil come off it’s current record highs the excess in the price you’re paying at the pump today will be recorded as pure profit for the oil product producers, not the oil producers, years from now.

I said it in the previous post and I’ll say it again. Know this: Oil product producers (not oil producers) are going to make money or they are going to make more money. Under their formula there is no risk of loss.

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Why can’t you search and browse through all prints of a certain size on art.com?

I think I know the answer: If this were possible then people would go buy a frame and then browse for prints of a certain size to fit that frame. Art.com must feel this will result in a loss in sales of their outrageously priced frames and custom framing services. They’re probably not making a ton on prints by themselves so they are banking on the revenue from the frames. Therefore I feel their website is designed specifically to detract from people browsing for prints of a specific size to fit an existing frame.

Art.com is a located locally to me right here in Raleigh. I do think they have dominated the on-line decorative print store fronts so I find any alternate answer hard to believe. There’s no way their site designers can’t find a way to query all the prints of a certain size for a return result. Instead they require you to specify an artist’s name or title of a print before you can narrow down the size of the prints you want to see.

I might just buy the new prints for my office elsewhere due to this intentional inconvenience.

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No Country for Old Men Sucked.

There, I said it. It’s rare that I discuss anything as trivial as movies or entertainment but this movie deserves special recognition. Not because of how overwhelmingly good it was but instead what an absolute let down it ended up being. EVERYONE hyped this movie, even my best friend Daryl. So I was damned excited to see it. I liken this movie to interrupted sex. A complete let down. And before all the superior intellects start attacking with “you just didn’t get it” let me be straight with you: I got it. Once I started studying Euclidean geometry and reading Tolstoy I think I garnered the intellect to grasp good guys, bad guy, bad guy gets away. My problem with it was that it was BORING and not entertaining. I wasn’t even tired and I almost fell asleep.

I hated the time I spent watching this film so much that I Googled “No Country for Old Men sucks” this AM and found a thread on Rube Chat where a disagreement between contributors summed up the way I felt about it perfectly.

Old Country is a film that only the pretentious like…..because it allows them to tell those that dare to disagree, that they just don’t get it, or that they lack the intellect to wrap their minds around this movies supposed greatness. Answer me this…..what was the driving force of this film? The plot was thin, and there was really no point to all of the madness. DIE HARD is a simple formula done to perfection. There is a plot, a conflict, and a resolution. Much like the film that got robbed at the Oscars…..”Juno”.

Reply:

This is one of the most rediculous assertions I have ever heard on rube chat. There is so much to learn from this movie and for somone to just write it off like you are is so disappointing. The moral of this movie is so poignant that I am sad for people like you that just miss it, for some reason. It is unfortunate.

Oh no sir, a lot of us did not miss the “poignant moral” of this movie. Like I said before, I got it and I still thought the movie was boring as hell. Smokin’ Aces gets a better entertainment grade as far as I’m concerned. If you’re someone who was touched by this movie through a revelation that evil things happen and your powerless to stop them, you simply don’t get out of your own little comfort zone enough and face reality. Hell, just watch the news, or Die Hard.

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Unsolved Triangle Murders

Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill are nationally known as the Triangle Area. The name references the Research Triangle Park that sits in the middle of these three cities. I’ve lived in the Triangle since I was 8 years old. My wife was born in Raleigh. We’ve seen a whole lot of 2 lane roads turn into 6 lane interchanges over the past 20 years. The growth has been explosive because of the nice neighborhoods, jobs and a relatively low crime rate with the exception of areas in Durham. Raleigh alone is now bigger than Minneapolis, St. Louis and Charlotte. If you add in all the surrounding suburbs the Triangle could be the national model for urban sprawl.

In the past few years the area has gotten some pretty negative national attention because of crime. There was, of course, the Duke rape scandal. Crystal Magnum and Mike Nifong be damned. But that case was sensational grandstanding by a politically motivated prosecutor. The more disturbing cases are the unsolved homicides that have occurred in the past two years. As of yesterday morning the list of unsolved murder victims includes the former Student Body President of UNC, Eve Carson. What a beautiful girl she was.

Of course we don’t have any details in the way this case is being handled by law enforcement. We just need to hope it’s managed better than other area homicides involving women have been. Such as the case of Michelle Young, a pregnant 29 year-old mother murdered in front of her 2 year-old daughter who was found crying beside the body in November of 2006. The Wake County Sheriffs Department focused a lot of attention on her husband Jason, who was “out of town on business” and called his sister several times to go get a fax from his house. She went and found her sisters body. Apparently the Sheriff hasn’t been able to bring a case against Jason Young. He’s roaming free, likely guilty of killing his wife.

And if that wasn’t disturbing enough there is the case of another pregnant mother Jenna Neilson, 22, who was delivering USA today newspapers when she was attacked and stabbed to death on June 14, 2007. her body was found behind a local convenience store. USA Today ran a national ad for information in the case. There was a composite of a person of interest circulated by the Raleigh Police Department. Most people thought the composite looked like a woman but it was labeled “Hispanic Male”. That’s it. That’s all they’ve got as far as the public knows.

Sure there have been other murders in the area as well as killers who’ve been caught. But having followed the details of local homicide cases closely I can tell you most were solved through dumb luck. They caught confessed serial killer Samual James Cooper after he robbed a bank, ran from the cops and hid inside a Domino’s Pizza. This apprehension was 5 previously unsolved homicides past due. The deaths of beautiful and pregnant women seem to be the most difficult for Triangle area law enforcement. They have no leads, can’t pin cases, solidify evidence or make arrests. In these cases the bad guys are winning.

I’m aware this is reality and not an episode of CSI but progress needs to be made. People are getting scared. The perception is quickly emerging that you can be gunned down, beaten or stabbed to death in a suburban neighborhood and there’s a high probability that the killer’s going to get away with it because the police can’t build a case. I’m not advocating a drag net that sweeps up innocent people to parade them in front of the media. I am asking for better police work. The investigating agencies should call in the Feds if they need help and combine the resources of multiple agencies. It’s time an arrest is made in one of these cases surrounding these murdered wives, mothers and daughters.

The hardest thing for me to digest when writing this article is, based on this track record, the parents of Eve Carson have no reason to believe there will be a killer arrested in the death of their daughter. Some random thug may have beaten the Chapel Hill law enforcement community. At this point every agency and officer involved in these homicides has their reputation on the line.

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Is Raleigh going to run out of water?

Probably so.  At this point we’d need two back to back Hurricane’s to save us.  Last night the city held a public forum on the topic.  The media reported people expressing their concerns about conservation, future water sources… blah,blah, blah.  Did anyone bother to ask about or elaborate on the contingency plan for when the taps run dry?

The discussion around our house has been “where are we going”? I’ve already got plans in action to send the wife and kids to Virginia if necessary.   I’m glad I’m working on it because it doesn’t sound like the city planners are.  Or at the very least they’re not letting the public in on the plan.

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Back to the court house…

So far I’ve got no report that my license has been suspended or that a warrant has been issued for my arrest for a failure to appear.  The Wake County Clerk of Courts office told me that I would have to fill out a form to appear in “VL Court” on a Monday or Thursday.   I have no idea what that is.  At the same time I received an email from the Clerks office which specified that I can go to court room 1A any day between 2:00 and 3:30PM to dispose of the case.  I think I will try that recommendation first.

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This is what I pay taxes for? More fines, fees and inconvenience?

Okay, in this post I’m going to disclose a mistake I made, the ramifications and most importantly the extreme annoyance that is the NCDMV and Wake County Courts.

In October I was pulled over for an expired vehicle registration. I didn’t realize it had expired. I got a ticket requiring me to appear in court on Nov. 17th. Within the week I had my valid registration via the Internet. I completely forgot about the court date and did not appear. Within two days I went to the Wake County court house and filled out a motion for continuance as instructed by the clerk of courts office. I was given a new court date of Dec. 20th.

On the morning of Dec. 20th I told Amy “I have to go to disposition court today” where the standard procedure is you show the District Attorney a copy of the valid registration and he in basically says “thanks, dismissed, go home”. Well the 20th was a busy day at work. As a result I completely forgot to go down to the court house again. So on January 2nd, when the courts opened back up after the holidays, I went down and filed another motion for another court date. Yes, it is my fault that I missed both dates and I was trying to make it right. So I filled out the paper work and handed it to the clerk.

This time instead of giving me a new court date the clerk said “You’ll be mailed a new court date within 2 weeks”. Okay, whatever. It will probably be moved out of disposition court to district where I’ll have to pay fines and all kinds of court costs. Not cool but that’s the price to pay for missing two set dates.

Tonight I got home and as usual I went to check the mail. I had a letter with a return address from the Wake County Clerk of Courts. I opened to find out my new court date. Instead what I got was a piece of paper that said only “Case Number 07CR### – Motion Denied. No new court date”. – That’s it. Absolutely nothing else.

So a little while ago I went to the Wake County Clerk of Courts website to see if I could tell what this means. The only information they have is this:

“If you have missed your court date by more than twenty (20) days, a late fee of $50.00 will be added to the fine and court costs. Additionally, the Division of Motor Vehicles will start the process to suspend your driver’s license.

If your personal court appearance was required and you failed to appear on your court date, the court will issue an Order for Arrest. You may also be required to post a bond to insure your appearance in court at a later date.

You may get more information regarding missed court dates by visiting the Clerk’s Office Criminal Division, located on the 1st floor of the Wake County Courthouse. Please see Directions for our location and directions.”

So let me see if I’ve got this right. Instead of assigning another court date they have decided that my license should be suspended, I should be arrested for a failure to appear (because the sheriff’s department has nothing better to do, like find criminals), post bond, appear at a later date in another court, pay fines and court costs and then fight with DMV to get my drivers license re-instated? All for a registration that was expired for 43 days total.

Tomorrow morning I’m going back to the Clerks office as early as possible to see what I have to do. Am I a wanted fugitive who needs to turn myself in before they arrest me at home or work? Why did they wait until exactly 20 days after the court date to “deny” my request for another court date? I’m not certain I’ll get any straight answers to these questions from the clerks office. They’re just low paid state employees who don’t care about anyone or their jobs. It’s all a system to them. My next post will be a follow up on what I learn tomorrow.

As far as I’m concerned this type of thing is nothing more than another revenue generator engineered by the County and State (DOT). This kind of annoyance, in combination with property tax re-evaluations right at a time when property values are decreasing, really bad schools and school boards are just some of the reasons why a move to Amherst county Virginia is looking more and more like a reality. I rarely, if ever, experienced or heard of this kind of garbage while living up there. It seems like in Wake County and NC the theme of each day is fines, fees and taxes in a cycle. Which wouldn’t sting quite as much if the municipal systems in the area didn’t suck beyond comprehension. For example, since Wendell now buys it’s water from Raleigh I pay about 20% more for water than anyone inside Raleigh and don’t get the garbage collection those in the city limits do.

In closing I would like to wish the Raleigh City Council good luck with their pretty new convention center, planned auditorium and one million dollar high class restaurant, suitably called “The Mint”, as we head straight into a recession. Pretty smart people you folks in Raleigh elected. They have very shiny silver spoons and real high opinions of themselves. I’m just glad I can’t vote in Raleigh city elections so I can’t be blamed for their self serving decisions. Anyone thinking of relocating to the Raleigh area, do yourself a big favor and don’t. Even the newly renovated, 8.9 million dollar, Fayetteville Street Mall is a huge flop just like your children’s educations will be. It’s hard to concentrate on academics in a trailer. Ya, no lie, a trailer. That’s what our new schools are and the Wake County school board is proud of this “innovative” solution to accommodate growth.

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The Castleton Group saga continues.

The more I learn about Suzanne Clifton the more irritated I am. Through research on her companies, The Excutive Staffing Group and The Castleton Group, I’ve discovered that she was also named one of Enterprising Women Magazine’s “2007 Enterprising Women of the Year”. Of course we can’t blame the magazine for such a mistake, but we can blame Clifton for feeding everyone many spoonful’s of BS by pretending everything was OK with her company while under investigation by the NC Insurance Commission.

Effectively, without notice, Clifton accepted this award while facing corporate insolvency and went on to insist to her clients everything was just fine right until the end. Have no doubt that her actions and inactions (in the form of disclosure) touched many who work in the Raleigh, NC area and I am beginning to hear from those affected personally. Suzanne skipped town out of embarrassment and may not come back (if we’re lucky).