Welcome to chat.The session has been accepted.{Gary G.} Hello, Daniel. Welcome to j2 Global online support. I am Gary, your Online Live Support Representative. How are you doing today?  {Daniel Siegel} I am very unhappy with eFax.  {Gary G.} How may I assist you?  {Daniel Siegel} I suppose that, in light of your tech support department’s complete inability to assist me, my best option (the only one?) is to cancel my account.  {Gary G.} I am sorry to hear that you wish to cancel. Please provide me your Fax number as well as the PIN for verification.  {Daniel Siegel} 610-471-0570  {Daniel Siegel} I just hung up with your tech support person - Nathan - who suddenly could not hear me when I asked to be elevated to level 2 tech support. Your support is beyond terrible.  {Gary G.} Please provide me with the PIN for verification.  {Daniel Siegel} XXXX  {Gary G.} Thank you for providing your information. Please give me a moment while I go through your records. In the meantime, please type the number corresponding to your reason for cancellation:1) Moving to another provider2) Bought a Fax machine3) Business or role changed4) Short term project completed5) Financial reasons6) Problems with Faxing or Billing7) Dissatisfied with Quality of service Too Costly  {Daniel Siegel} I want to receive a copy of the transcript of this session.And why do your support people all use phony names? I’ve now met Lloyd, Nathan and Patrick from India? 7 - YOUR SERVICE NOW STINKS! AND THE LACK OF TECH SUPPORT IS ABOMINABLE! And no one seems to care.  {Gary G.} I sincerely apologize for the inconvenience caused to you.  {Daniel Siegel} Where are you based?  {Gary G.} May I know the exact issue you are facing so that I may help you with the same?  {Gary G.} We are headquartered at Los Angeles, California.  {Daniel Siegel} I cannot receive faxes from local phone numbers, the same problem I have had since Monday. I spoke with Level 2 support (finally!!!) on Tuesday, but it did not resolve the problem, and no one has responded to my email.  {Daniel Siegel} No, where are YOU located?  {Gary G.} We are headquartered at Los Angeles, California.  {Daniel Siegel} That is not responsive. Thus, I presume you are in India too.  {Gary G.} Daniel, as per our records you have already been charged monthly fee for this month. As you have plenty of days left for your billing cycle to get over, I suggest you to make use of our service atleast for the period you have paid for and make use of our service for sometime more so that you can receive and send any pending faxes that needs to be done and thereafter you can also inform your friends that you are closing the number.  {Gary G.} If however, you still feel that you do not have any use for our services by the end of your current billing cycle, then you can always contact us back anytime.  {Gary G.} If you wish I will also send you a test fax.{Daniel Siegel} I can’t receive LOCAL faxes. Your attempt won’t help.{Daniel Siegel} Hello? 

{Gary G.} Is the sender of your fax a eFax user?

{Daniel Siegel} And I just called back to your tech support, and guess what, his name is Stuart! {Daniel Siegel} Faxes have been sent from my office’s fax, from my home, from another office ten miles away, and from my computer. None goes through, but faxes work from outside the area.  {Gary G.} If your eFax number is working but a certain caller is unable to reach it, this may indicate a problem with the caller’s local or long-distance phone carrier. Ask the caller to try to complete the call using a different phone carrier (for example, a 10-10-xxx long-distance service).  {Gary G.} If the call can be completed over the alternate carrier, the caller’s usual carrier is mostly likely experiencing a problem. We would not be able to troubleshoot the issue from that point, since the phone carrier can only act on trouble reports from its own customers (in this case, your caller). However, we have provided the form letter below for your caller to use in reporting the problem to his/her carrier. With this information, the carrier should be able to solve the problem. 

{Daniel Siegel} I have called the local carrier - Verizon - and they say it is not their problem. I emailed this to tech support yesterday, and no one replied! 

{Daniel Siegel} I have called the local carrier - Verizon - and they say it is not their problem. I emailed this to tech support yesterday, and no one replied! 

{Daniel Siegel} Also, Stuart just informed me that his name didn’t matter. I explained that I thought it was decietful to use a false name. I find this whole process totally distasteful and will place the entire transcript of this “chat” with eFax on my blog as soon as we conclude. 

{Gary G.} If you wish I will send you a test fax. 

{Daniel Siegel} It won’t help. 

{Gary G.} I suggest you to contact our Customer Support over the phone at 1-323-817-3205 (Available 24*7), as they will be able to assist you better with your issue.  {Gary G.} Please do not select any option or extension when you call. Please wait for our Customer Service representative to attend your call. They would be able to assist you further.  {Gary G.} If you wish I will keep your account active. 

{Daniel Siegel} In other words, you’re blowing me off, too. 

Thankfully, I was transferred to Level Two support from India and spoke with someone named Drew, who I believe really was named Drew. He was helpful at least.

Today, I tested the fax service again. I tried to send faxes from my office fax machine, my computer and from home. None went through. I called tech support again, and they continue to insist that the service is working and, presumably, it’s just a coincidence that nobody can send me a fax except “Lloyd” from India. I even showed him the three faxes from yesterday and he insisted that even though the cover page said 11 pages were sent (and there was an error page attached to each page) that the senders really only tried to send 1 page.

Now, they are claiming that they are doing “troubleshooting” but the rep refuses to answer the request to speak to a supervisor, refuses to answer any of my questions and is clearly exasperated with my very obvious frustration. The bottom line — if eFax won’t work for you, they won’t care and won’t do anything outside of what the manual tells the automatons to say/do.  And, adding insult to injury, my now 30 minute call isn’t to a toll free number.

 More soon. But, please God, it won’t be by fax. And, of course, this is why I strongly request that everyone stop using faxes and scan and email instead.

 And, by the way, why does the Configure Scan installation dialogue seem to always appear days, weeks, months, and seemingly years after you install one of their products. Even the installation files seem to repeat themselves.

Postal rates are going up. I received a letter from Hasler inviting me to order what I needed to prepare for the new rates. Lo and behold, the cost of this software update is $85.00, or more than I saved per month when I switched meters. Pitney Bowes isn’t cheap, but the company never charged for rate increase updates; all I did was download some free software updates.

Of course, I called Lena when I discovered this. She was in a meeting (she has implored me to call her whenever I had a problem or question, but she hasn’t returned my call- or she hasn’t left any messages for me at my office. So I called Hasler. They of course said they hadn’t received my emailed complaint in December but offered to provide this software update for free. But future ones would cost ????. In other words, I’m off the hook until the next rate increase.

At least with Pitney Bowes, I paid a lot upfront. I’d rather do things that way than find out later that I will be nickeled and dimed to death. My contract with Hasler is up for renewal in September. I’m going to fax this post to Lena so that they know I won’t be renewing. I’d much prefer know what I’m getting into up front, rather than being surprised.

New Lyrics to Beatles Song - “Yesterday”

Yesterday,
All those backups seemed a waste of pay.
Now my database has gone away.
Oh I believe in yesterday.

Suddenly,
There’s not half the files there used to be.
And there’s a milestone hanging over me.
The system crashed, so suddenly.

I pushed something wrong,
What it was, I could not say.
Now all my data’s gone,
And I long for yesterday-ay-ay-ay.

Yesterday,
the need for back-ups seemed so far away.
I knew my data was all here to stay,
Now I believe in yesterday.

Having never seen this before, I called Tech Support. The rep hadn’t seen it either. He put me on hold and found out a couple of the other reps had heard of this. What did it mean? That the database had crashed and I needed to restore it from a backup. And, of course, the firm didn’t think there was a backup! Fortunately, I found a copy of the database file, and all was well. Of course, I strongly recommended that the firm backup the data — and when I return for more training, we’ll use my training databases.

Before I boarded the plane, I turned on my Kindle, Amazon’s really neat (but expensive)  book reader, audiobook reader, music player, etc. It gave me a black screen and was dead. I removed the battery and reinstalled — still the black screen. Then I realized the Kindle had a reset spot — all I needed was a paper clip. Just try asking for a paper clip at an airport. The workers look at you with astonishment. They don’t have them. My God, I got the impression that they thought I would try to stab the flight crew with a paper clip (now there’s a picture)!

So I boarded the flight, booted up my laptop and worked for about 90 minutes until the battery went to sleep (I didn’t have an airline power adapter — I bought one in LA for the return flight). At that point, all I had was a dead Kindle. No books, no magazines, no nothing. It was not the most fun three hours I had ever spent.

We arrived in LA and I called Kindle support. Amazon has dedicated support for the device. They were very nice and, once I procured a paper clip, verified that the screen (which was still black) was broken even though the device was still receiving a signal from Amazon. They ordered a replacement and assured me I would go to the head of the queue and receive the new one in about a week.

Of course, in the meantime I purchased a book and a puzzle magazine (plus the iGo airline power adapter — at the Rodeo Drive Radio Shack, no less) and had plenty to do on the flight home. The replacement Kindle did come about a week later, as promised.

What did I learn? Don’t rely exclusively on technology for airline entertainment. Also, Amazon’s Kindle support was excellent, even if they could not replace the Kindle overnight. And lastly, when you travel, bring a book AND a paper clip.

First, if you’ve had prior dealings with someone and they weren’t positive, don’t have more. An attorney came to me for some technological services. I had been involved in a case with him a few years ago; his client was reprehensible, but so were some of his actions. He convinced me at our meeting that what happened then was an isolated incident. My gut said no, but I still took the job. Guess what? My gut was correct, and he acted no differently with me now compared with his conduct years ago. I have terminated our relationship — quickly.

Second, follow your instincts, not the clients. Another client came to me for technology consulting. This person was adamant about the person’s tech skills, and I made training recommendations based upon that representation, rather than my experience. When the person didn’t learn everything as quickly as my underestimate, I became a villain. Bottom line — if you know something should take X hours, and a client insists that he or she can do it in less, continue to estimate based upon what has been historically correct, not what the clent says. If you complete the project or training early, great. You’ll be thrilled and so will the client. On the other, if you don’t meet the expectations you set based on the client’s representation, you lose, and you lose a client. And if the client is particularly vocal, you lose even more.

We’ve also extended the early bird registration deadline. Space is limited. I hope you can attend.