COMPUTERS, THE AGONY AND THE ECSTASY

[Stanley]

Ian, I am definitely not arguing with you or criticising you. All I can do is report what happens and as David says, the site was miserably slow. I am grateful for what you do for us.
Thanks for that Kev, I have done it but no appreciable difference, still lightning fast.

[Stanley]

I think I very nearly got scammed yesterday with what they call the Makita scam. I shame to say it but I was falling for it until Firefox stepped in and slapped my wrist. These frauds are so realistic!
I forgot the Golden Rule, if it looks too good to be true, it probably is.
I admit to being human......

[Tizer]

Good news for a change...
`One of world's biggest botnets taken down, US says' LINK

[Stanley]

Thanks for that Peter! Definitely good news. I keep wondering what the affects of AI will be on both the ability to hack other computers and the investigations into the hackers. I suppose we will never know.
All an old bloke like me can do is keep his head down!

[Tripps]

I bit the bullet and gave up my land line phone yesterday. I don't use it a lot - the nuisance calls from robots were annoying me, and they will all be phased out by the end of next year anyway. Takes effect next Wednesday.

I stayed with Plusnet and my monthly payment ( now for broadband only) is reduced from £45 to £27. I've had to reluctantly commit to a two year contract though, but the price seems compettive at the moment. The service remains the same - 'fibre to cabinet' .

County Broadband and Gigaclear will be disappointed, but 'better the devil you know', and the service is relaible and fast enough for me. .

[Stanley]

I killed my land line when I went to full fibre David. I haven't missed it at all. Like you the only calls I was getting were ones I could well do without.

[Tizer]

I stayed with Plusnet....County Broadband and Gigaclear will be disappointed, but 'better the devil you know', and the service is reliable and fast enough for me. .

The salesman from Jurassic Fibre came to our door recently to `offer us a special deal' for their fast service. We got talking and I said we'd had excellent service from Plusnet for about 20 years now and hardly ever had the service go down so I wouldn't be changing. I said how the computer and software people I'd worked alongside in the past had all used Plusnet. He stopped trying to persuade me and we got talking. He had been a computer engineer before taking up a sales job and and he too rated Plusnet highly!

[Tripps]

Don't forget that Plusnet are part of BT now, and they ceased their mobile phone service recently, and dumped me without a second thought. They do have a good customer service though, which was in Sheffield, but now (and they tell you when you ring them) is in Leeds. They are aware of the backlash against Indian call centres. Loyalty to a company is probably misplaced now - think of property and vehicle insurance.

[Stanley]

"Loyalty to a company is probably misplaced now "

That is undoubtedly true. I am sure that at one time it counted for something but now it means nothing.
The only advantage I see now to what we used to call loyalty is that there is less chance of a mistake in the computer's dealings with your account if there are no changes.
(Mind you.... my experiences with British Gas over the last three years suggest that there may be a flaw in my thinking..... )

[Tizer]

`Software giant Adobe accused of 'trapping customers'' LINK
The US government has sued software giant Adobe, accusing it of violating consumer protection laws with "hidden" termination fees and a convoluted cancellation process. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) said the firm had failed to clearly disclose its terms to customers, including the year-long length of a subscription and charges that would be triggered for cancelling early. In its complaint, the agency said Adobe had refused to modify its behaviour because it would hurt the company financially. Adobe disputed the claims and said it would fight the lawsuit....

"Adobe trapped customers into year-long subscriptions through hidden early termination fees and numerous cancellation hurdles," Samuel Levine, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, said in a press announcement. "Americans are tired of companies hiding the ball during subscription signup and then putting up roadblocks when they try to cancel," Mr Levine added.

[Big Kev]

`Software giant Adobe accused of 'trapping customers'' LINK
The US government has sued software giant Adobe, accusing it of violating consumer protection laws with "hidden" termination fees and a convoluted cancellation process. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) said the firm had failed to clearly disclose its terms to customers, including the year-long length of a subscription and charges that would be triggered for cancelling early. In its complaint, the agency said Adobe had refused to modify its behaviour because it would hurt the company financially. Adobe disputed the claims and said it would fight the lawsuit....

"Adobe trapped customers into year-long subscriptions through hidden early termination fees and numerous cancellation hurdles," Samuel Levine, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, said in a press announcement. "Americans are tired of companies hiding the ball during subscription signup and then putting up roadblocks when they try to cancel," Mr Levine added.

Which is why I stayed with the last, pre-subscription, version of the Adobe Creative Suite. I thought it sounded a bit dodgy.

[Stanley]

Well done Kev! Good software and nothing beats Photo Shop but always very expensive.

[Big Kev]

It's been a busy morning
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cnk4jdwp49et

[Stanley]

Tell the truth, you quite enjoy an emergency!

[Big Kev]

Tell the truth, you quite enjoy an emergency!

It keeps me in a job

[Stanley]

[Stanley]

It's the fifth day of being without email. My last email came in on 11 September at 12:26, it was on Friday 13th that I spent six hours on the chatline with the agents. That ended with me being declared a complaint and I got a short text giving me the complaint number, CMP-747860 and a cheery message that the engineers would look at it and get back to me. That was Friday, we have got to Monday and despite Kev saying they work at weekends, I have heard nothing and am still getting rejected.
I've tried to be relaxed about it but as you all know, that's impossible. I am up early this morning because I have a thought buzzing round in my head.
When I went on to full fibre broadband Talk Talk were very tardy sending me the new router I would need for VOIP. I hadn't swapped it when the Open Reach engineer came yo install the fibre. I asked him about it and he said that the old one was working and was fine, the only reason to change it was if I wanted a landline. A bonus was that my TV wouldn't want resetting for the new router. That sounded good to me and I put the router back in its box and in the box room. The Open Reach lad seemed to be right, everything went on as normal and the TV didn't need re-setting.
That was what was buzzing round in my head and stopping me from going back to sleep. No, I haven't changed it, best not to muck about with anything until we either get the email sorted or the TalkTalk engineer (or Kev, whichever is first.)tells me to do it. However, I begin to suspect I was given bum information but don't know. The Talk Talk engineer will doubtless seize on this information as being significant.
That's where I am this morning, angry and frustrated and out of touch with the world......

[Big Kev]

I presume TalkTalk have your mobile number as a point of contact?

[Stanley]

Yes and they have agreed to use it. They sent the message confirming this on Friday via my mobile.....

[Big Kev]

I've been doing a bit of digging and found the following
A weak password or compromised email account can trigger a password reset or blocking of the mailbox to help secure customer data. You will need TalkTalk Support to set up password recovery options.
A potential reason why your access to email is blocked.

I would advise opening another 'chat' and, quoting any reference number your complaint is logged under, ask where your expected engineer call is. They should have responded by now, my complaint was escalated and resolved within the same chat.

[Stanley]

I was thinking of doing that Kev. I shall have my dinner first.

[Stanley]

I did that. He says his manager says I am down for a response on the 18th. I have made it clear I am outraged and have logged out.
I am really pissed off.

[Stanley]

I don't know what to expect now. The way they are treating me is dreadful. It will be six days without communications at Midday......
Is there anything else I can do? Should I change the router?

[Big Kev]

I don't know what to expect now. The way they are treating me is dreadful. It will be six days without communications at Midday......
Is there anything else I can do? Should I change the router?

I doubt it would make any difference as everything else works.

[Stanley]