I Like My U-verse

It's been a while since I've written a blog and since it's really cold outside, so here you go.  I thought I'd give my opinion on my U-verse service from AT&T.  I worked on U-verse repairs almost every day before I retired, but was never able to sample it as a customer.  Obviously, being a customer of a product makes anyone who works on it, even more knowledgeable.

For all you nerds out there, I'm on a thirty-two meg profile.  My maximum is fifty-six meg downstream and about eleven meg upstream.  My quality tests were perfect and I have no reason to believe they have changed.  We only have two televisions, both on a new cat5 wire.  The installer was going to make one wireless, but I talked him out of it.  That turned out to be a good decision, which I'll explain later.

I haven't had any major problems and the quality is pretty awesome.  With that said, I have experienced a complete freeze and had to reboot a set top box.  I have noticed pixilation a few times but nothing that would amount to a major issue.  Digital television has it's pros and cons just like everything else.  I'm pretty sure that I've worked on customer's lines who have experienced those same small problems and found there was nothing broken to repair.   They just loved reporting imperfection.  The Charter digital service we used at our former residence(there wasn't U-verse at that location) had the same kind of issues at times.  Again, I still thought it was okay.  The big difference between the two was the Internet speed.  In the morning Charter was smoking at twenty-eight meg per second, but at night, I was lucky to get six meg.  The good thing about U-verse Internet is that it doesn't bog down in the evenings.  It's the same speed all day long.

U-verse has a great channel line-up.  You can go online and check those lists out for yourself.  The guide is unmatched as far as I've seen.  I wrote about it many blogs ago and you can read it by clicking on this link.  Like other companies, there are too many home shopping channels.  I wish they could all be grouped together and or be blocked out entirely.  Those of you who are addicted to them know their location anyway.  A simple solution is just to create a favorites menu and use it.  I did, but I usually forget about it.

The only real problem I found was location specific.  The location of the wireless router wouldn't allow me to have service in the back of the house.  One of those things I've also had customer complaints on.  I downloaded an app on my phone which worked like a wireless meter.  I was able to walk around the house and measure the wireless signal strength.  I discovered that once I left the room where the router was, the strength dropped off quickly.  So much so, that by the time I took a tablet to the last bedroom, there was no service at all.

My solution to the problem was a simple one.  I unplugged the second set top box, which was located more in the center of the house, and plugged in a network switch.  I plugged the set top box back in and rebooted it.  It came up fine and TV service worked great.  I plugged another router into a spare port and set my tablet and a couple of other devices to connect to it.  Problem solved.  I have read that routers with a real antenna have a better range and that seemed to be the case here.  Had the installer used a wireless box here, my solution wouldn't have worked without the installation of a wire back to the U-verse router.

I do have one other complaint and it's a local one as well.  When I told one of my new neighbors that I was getting U-verse installed, he said I shouldn't do it.  He said that U-verse only gives local channels in the Birmingham, Alabama market.  During a recent tornado, people felt that the Cullman area didn't get the emergency coverage they needed.  Cullman weather is covered out of the Huntsville National Weather Service Office.  I took his warning seriously and installed a digital antenna outside so I could receive all the Huntsville channels for weather emergencies.  I've noticed already that Huntsville does tend to have better local coverage and the weather forecasts are much more accurate. We even shop more in Huntsville than Birmingham so I'm not sure how this problem could be corrected.  Maybe it's just a government requirement, I'm not sure.

I'll also mention we have U-verse telephone service as well.  It works fine, we just don't use it much.  Since we're only allowed two hundred minutes per month, everyone just uses a cell phone.  Telemarketers and wrong numbers tend to wear it out, calling at all hours anyway.  I've had to block a few and threaten a couple of others to stop calling.  The "do not call" list just doesn't work anymore.  I even had one to "spoof" my number when they called.  That is a problem with VOIP lines.  The phone rang and when I looked at the caller-id, it startled me.  I was calling myself.  That one got blocked as well.

Overall, I'll have to say that U-verse is a great product.  If you qualify for the service where you live, you might give it a try.

After abandoning my Apple TV,  I purchased another video streaming product that I'll tell you about next time.  I will say that I'm extremely pleased with the quality and content.  Need a hint... starts with a "R" and ends with a "4'.

I Decided to Retire

Halloween of 2015 will always be remembered to me as the day I retired from AT&T.  It isn't scary if you've planned for thirty-seven years.  It's been a long time coming.  I remember a good friend trying to talk me into it about seven years ago, but it just wasn't time.

Since then, most of my efforts have been spent trying to transfer out of Shelby County, but I was blocked every time.  The last two years I've had requests in for almost every town in North Alabama, but there just hasn't been any job vacancies.  I could tell you the facts, but from previous blogs, the puzzle pieces could be put together.

Anyway, our remodeling project was finally taking shape, so we put our home in Alabaster on the market.  When it sold in two months, retirement was looking pretty good.  I took the remaining portion of my vacation and as of tomorrow, my retirement officially starts.

The events of the last four weeks happened pretty fast.  I'd like to tell everyone just how much I appreciate the opportunity to have been associated with them.  AT&T has a great bunch of employees who go to great lengths to keep the network up and running.  Unleashed, they would be a tremendous asset.

My career started as a Engineering Clerk, drawing jobs for construction.  From there, as a technician it went from regrading four party telephones to two party, placing service drops and cable, splicing and repairing outside cable, splicing fiber optic cables, and recently splicing fiber optic service lines for high speed Internet.  I've come a long way!

My future endeavors, of course, involve finishing our fixer-upper project.  As that winds down, probably early next year, I'll look for my next career.

In the twenty-eight page document I signed this week for separation, one page requested that I write why I was leaving the company.  It was a simple one sentence statement, "It is time".  It was time to finish the thirty-seventh chapter of AT&T and close the book.  I'm ready to start new adventures.  I've bought new running shoes and I've got my bike out of the back of the garage.  This is going to be fun!

Working Sunday, Again?!

Hi, I'm an employee of AT&T and the following is my opinion.

I'm taking my "hour-long" lunch as I write this.  It's Saturday afternoon and I've been scheduled to work the weekend, again.  The full one, Sunday too!  It seems to be deja vu every other weekend, because I'm scheduled to work every other weekend.  of course, in this case it's more of a reality than a feeling, but I do feel it!

Yes, I've complained about it.  Of course I get just as much satisfaction of talking to the wall and just about as much interest.  My supervisor says that he has "emailed" the scheduling group and their responses have been; the computer did it, it was just his turn, it will all average out in the long run, and the most recent, we're investigating it.

It boggles my mind how a multi-Billion dollar company like AT&T, can't keep a simple schedule straight.  It ALMOST makes me think that my schedule is being purposefully tampered with.  Persecution can take many forms and be almost impossible to prove in today's digital world.  I've written before how "numbers" can be manipulated without anyone knowing, in order to target an individual.

IF it were to be a form of harassment or persecution, I'd really like to know which of my characteristics I was being punished for.  Is it just that I enjoy going to church on Sunday and worshiping the Creator of the universe?  Is is possibly my stand against the LGBT mafia or the abortion rights crowd?  My beliefs aren't a secret.  The Bible is clear which side is correct and that's where I am.  For the record, I'm also against murderers and gluttons, but they don't normally evangelize others to take part in their sins.

Is it the fact that I'm non-union due to not being represented properly?  You certainly don't believe I would throw away money in such a frivolous manner.  I do apologize for being a dues paying member of CWA for nearly thirty years.  Or, is it possible they just want the "old guy" to go away?  They may think if I'm aggravated enough, I'll retire.

Well, I'm not ready to declare that I'm being discriminated against, the proof just isn't there.  It looks like it, but looks can be deceiving.  It might be that the folks who send out the schedules don't ever read their emails sent from supervisors.  It could be their computer program is prone to make errors on a regular basis.  You know how funny some computers are about throwing in errors repeatedly, just for laughs.  Maybe the system was hacked by Chinese loyalists of China Bell, trying to unravel our families weekend activities, so we'll continue to be stressed and stay in turmoil.

Maybe so, who knows?  Gosh, I didn't even get into aliens from space, climate change, Hillary's email server, or the Grinch.  The possibilities are endless, but the real reason is probably very simple.  It was the Grinch, wasn't it?

Hey, I'd just like to have a few more weekends with "OFF" on the schedule.  Doesn't seem like too much to ask... 

Changes and More Changes

Hi, I’m an AT&T employee and much of what you’ll read here is my opinion.

The last year has been tough at work.  I’ve battled frustration, depression, and anxiety.  Last April, my Father-in-Law suffered stroke like symptoms during the night and was taken to the hospital in Gadsden, Alabama.  They processed him through emergency and placed him in a room, where, he coded a short time later.  Hospital staff were able to revive him and over the next couple of weeks were able to stabilize his condition.  He did two stints in the cardiac care unit before finally being dismissed to a rehab facility.  He is much better now, but that started an episode of several months traveling to Gadsden to assist my Mother-in-Law as she became his primary care giver. 

Our family helped out in any way we could and we still drive down every other week to take care of their yard work.  Judy and Stephen have born the brunt of all the mowing and raking but a couple of weekends we even called in extended family for extra hands.

All that helped me to begin thinking that my problems at work needed solving.  Life is too short to be miserable.  

Being locked in to a supervisor that I considered a bully, was ruining my normally happy disposition.  I couldn’t transfer anywhere due to undeserved personnel entries.  You can read about those in earlier blogs.  My thirty-five year anniversary was in June and the company donates $200.00 toward a meal for a celebration.  I refused to have one, since I believed it would be hypocritical for the manager to present any award at any party.  It was my decision and I’m still happy with it.

I spent July through August mulling over how I could afford to retire.  The numbers just weren’t there and I was too young anyway. The problem of what I considered harassment and bullying at work wasn’t going away, so through prayer and talking it over with my wife, we came up with a solution.  I decided 2014 would be my last year at AT&T.  We would look for a new home, a “fixer upper” in a rural area.  We would spend six months to a year remodeling, retire if the situation didn’t improve, and relocate there.

We decided our hunt would center around the Cullman, Alabama area due to it’s central location to the children, grandchildren, and Judy’s parents.  From the time we made that decision, an amazing series of events took place and we had a second home in about thirty days.  By the end of October, 2013, we were spending every weekend giving an old home life support.

The house had been owned by an elderly gentleman with medical problems.  He was unable to take good care of it for quite some time and had moved away to Memphis six months earlier.  “Fixer upper” doesn’t really tell the whole story.  I’ll do that over the next series of blogs and show you some pictures, along with some good stories of problems we’ve encountered.

Getting back to the work update, I was changed over to the “NIBS” group in February in a company reorganization. My work responsibilities changed from working on mostly “pots” (plain old telephone service) to Uverse repair with some outside plant routine work.  It was a good change except for the scheduled hours that go with it, 9AM-6PM. 

About a month later, I arrived at work, turned on my computer and got the “time for a new password” message.  I sat there a minute and thought, “I need relief”.  I typed “relief” and added a couple of special characters to it.  Not a minute later, my manager walked in and announced he was moving to a new job.  It reminded me of the Jerry Clower story, “just shoot up here amongst us, one of us got to have some relief”.  He called me on his last day to say all the entries in my personnel file were gone and that I was free to go.  I could write a whole blog from that last sentence but it would challenge my Christianity, so I’ll let it go…

Our group currently has a “relieving” supervisor.  I’ve still got a transfer request to Cullman pending, just in case an opening for a facility technician becomes available.  I now have a linkedIn account and have the idea that some company in Cullman needs an awesome employee.