Federal Workers Blog

Just when ya thought you were safe from what millions of Amerians suffer with,BAM, your one of us. You were loyal to those high ranking official, worked hard and perhaps had a false sense of security then BAM, they cut your throats too. Your out of work! Did you REALLY think that your devotion meant anything to them, did you believe you were that important? If you did you were fooling yourself and now your getting a small taste of what Americans feel everyday. Maybe this will be a eye openers for you who give AMERICAN CITIZENS, who worked and paid taxes all their lives, people down on their luck, disabled or making any kind of federal request for aid a hard time and being rude as if they were now nothing or contributed nothing to this great country

I do feel bad for federal workers that are temporarily out of work. I listen to the news and I hear them complain about how will they live and how will they pay their bills and what are they going to tell their children when the kids ask for something and they can't buy it for them.... well guess what, welcome to the life of millions of Americans. People who struggle financially on a daily basis. ...People who have to tell their children all the time that mommy and daddy can't buy you that toy. People who are unemployed and can't find work. These people make it sound like they are the only ones that know what a struggle is. I understand it is a hardship but give me a break. Stop crying suck it up and do what millions of other Americans do , take it day at a time and get through it. Your struggle is no greater than anyone elses. Your bills are no more important than anyone elses. Your children are no more important than anyone elses. When  business gets slow and moneys tight I don't go crying to the media I suck it up and do what I gotta do. If its too much for you then go find a job in the private sector.

Florida Power and Light FPL Problem and Issue

Your never going to believe this but once again there was a problem with utilities in this area of Florida, Broward County Area Code 33026. This time with Florida Power and Light who, dont get me wrong, is a very good utility company. Reliable in most cases but as we know you are only as good as those working for you are. So my issue is with a field service technician who has caused our home a avoidable 8 hour loss of power.

This is a recorded issue and reflects call # 1160 in the event FPL cares to validate this post.

Thursday July 25, 2013 @ 7:30pm all electric power goes out. I did not find this unusual since Florida has frequent outages due to heat and excessive electric use. Not all uncommon and FPL is quick to respond.

I call in to report the outage at 7:45pm making my way through prompts which are actually easy to navigate unlike AT&T's. In my mind the grid is out and I'm sure other have called in also. I am assure by the prompt the issue will be fixed by 10:45pm.

I'm sitting outside are realized my neighbours have service but I do not so I check my meter and notice smoke soot all around the casing. I call FPL back and speak to a real person, without a problem may I add, and inform him that there was a short in meter box. He forwards the info to the field tech who is not yet here.

Finally a tech shows up at around 10:15pm. This guy was not a happy camper and it was obvious he didn't want to be here or out at this time. He opened the meter box and did a power check and visual inspection. He determined that the problem was underground somewhere so he will call in a different technician who will run a temporary line so I have power. He stated he will have someone here in about a hour and his grumpy butt vacated the premises.

I have no electric and he, who is getting paid a good buck, seems to be pissed.

Well now is about 11:30pm so I call in to be told by the prompt that the problem will be fixed by 1:45 am Friday the 26th. OK so I sit in the dark outside and wait.

OK so now it about 2:00am and you guessed it I call in only this time the prompt tells me they have no idea when the electric will be fixed. More waiting with my trusty flash light. So far in spite of the heat and being exhausted I'm handling this well though my wife isn't. Shes somehow is grouchy with me as if I had something to do with it. What can I say I'm sure a few of you guys have taken the rap for things you didn't do.

Now its 3:00am.Out of the blue here comes the cavalry, two big beautiful FP&L trucks! Lights flashing and pulling up in front of my home. It was a beautiful sight. Two men come out as friendly as can be, courteous, polite determined to get me up and running without question. Unlike the first guy who came here.

These guys were ready to hook me up with a temporary hook up. The one tech tested the voltage lines and noticed something different then the first technician. He did a extensive visual check of the cables stating there is power!The problem WAS NOT UNDERGROUND AS THE FIRST TECHNICIAN DETERMINED. He found that the cables have shorted and was able to make the repair within minutes!!! No temporary lines needed, just a simple splice and reconnect!!!!

I went for over 8 hours without service due to the incompetency of the first technician. How could one tech find the problem so quick and the other not see it at all? My service should have been on since 10:15 had the first technician just looked, examined and checked the cables. It was that obvious.

I don't hold FP&L at fault though they should look into this matter and those working for them. The first technician caused alot of avoidable discomfort due to his inability to trouble shoot a simple problem and would have, or maybe already did, cost FP&L some overtime money.

To the two technicians who corrected this problem. I Thank You for your expertise and general respect you gave this homeowner. You have represented FP&L with dignity and professionalism FP&L should be proud of.

AT&T Problem Upadate

Well I finally spoke to AT&T in regards to the outage issue I had for 3 days. Below is the original post and as you can see it took out my 3 phone line and my independent T1 DSL line. I wanted a credit for my lost service which should be automatic if AT&T were a honest and fair company but I found that if you don't call and complain they will not give you anything and act like nothing happened, as the customer service rep did here in my case. Well for all the problems AT&T caused me, the inconvenience, loss of service aggravation etc. etc. guess what they gave me? Please guess!

                                                                     $20.00 !!!!

                               AT&T.....R.I.P

AT&T PROBLEM AND COMCAST

I have to share this true story with all of you in regards to AT&T. It is 100% true and worth reading if you are trying to decide which provider of phone and Internet services you should choose. Mind you I understand that each at one time or another has technical issues and we have all experienced service interruption along the road. The deciding factor of choice, to me, would be how responsive they are in rectifying the problem. Another factor is actually being able to contact and report a problem under 30 minutes and maybe, just maybe talk to a real person!

Here we go:

Note We use AT&T for our 3 phone lines and dedicated T1 high speed Internet access. We use Comcast for our cable TV connections.

Location: Broward County, Florida. Area code 33026.

Residential Homes, Underground Service AT&T and Comcast

Our Issue is with AT&T

Wednesday July 17th 2013 at 5am noticed we had no telephone or high speed Internet connections. We did have Cable TV. Nothing Nada Zip from AT&T.

Went to a neighbours home after being sure they were awake to see if they have phone service. They did. They did because they have Comcast. I used their Comcast phone to call AT&T and after prompting my way through their system for about 30 minutes hoped they got the message. A recording assured me the problem would be fixed soon. Sure it will.

Thursday July 18th 2013 at 5am.... Nothing Nada Zip from AT&T Dead! That's 24 hours down. From a cell phone I call AT&T same routine, prompt after prompt after prompt BUT they know about the problem. Seems obvious that they make sure no live person is there for you to talk to. Strange isn't it?

Same day two repair people show up to make sure its not MY FAULT inside the house. Nope not my fault and later they finally find the issue is a terminal box four houses down. Water got in it but they cant fix it cause its raining. These repair men had to call is a different crew for this type of repair.

Friday July 19th 2013 at 5am....Nothing Nada Zip again from AT&T! Whats that 48 hours without service? Not possible you must be saying, but true! BUT here it is at 11am I get a call! A call from the service man telling me he fixed the problem. After over 50+ hours I have phone and Internet again!

Now here is what gets me. When I spoke to a AT&T technician at my home he told me AT&T cannot compare to Comcast, on the down low of course. Those with Comcast phone, Internet and TV never lost a signal and their terminal boxes stand side by side in the same puddles and rain. Another thing worth mention is AT&T, at my place, has a Upload and Download speed loss after 5pm. You can set your watch by it and I pinged it. What does this mean? You don't get what your paying for. Comcast had no speed loss.

Today is Saturday. Im going to call AT&T to argue for a credit on my bill. I prompted my way for 20 minutes. Guess what? I think your gonna guess.  

                   CLOSED!

North Korean Threats Again

Can we talk street here, plain English? We have been watching North Korea and it's ruler Kim Jong-Un for a while now. See here is our issue, we have been just watching and listening taking every one of the threats as simple bluffs without any credibility. In the meantime North Korea has made great advances in their nuclear missile weapon developments. Well guess what? The United States is so used to just dismissing and not taking these threats serious that sooner or later were going to find a North Korean Nuke up our ass. You mark our words! The bluff ploy is working just the way Kim John-Un intends it to. These people are not as stupid as our government expects us to believe, they do have have nuclear capabilities now don't they? Bluff, bluff, bluff then Bang just when we least expect it. Ask any card player about "The Bluff".

Sanctions? Give us a break. I don't care how many sanctions that are imposed because not one of them so far has impacted North Korea. What good are sanction if there is no muscle behind it or ever used if ya got it! Here is where North Korea has called our bluff every time. They already know that these are nothing more then idle threats where we will do nothing about enforcement.

Its time America. Are we going to wait for another 911? Are we going to wait until countless Americans die again? That's what our government is doing and it doe's not take a genius to see it. Imagine living in California or Alaska or Hawaii knowing these people have actually declared war on the USA and your in range! In essence this is what they did. Can we continue to overlook this fact? Open you eyes people!

If I lived in any of these area's I would be protesting in the streets for protection via action from our government. These people will attack you and sad as it may sound in order for America to strike is for the North Koreans to strike first and kill a few thousand Americans. Don't take our word for it, just look back at history.

In plain English, American need to kick some ass. Not a man on the ground is needed since we know and can pin point all their missile's and defense's and take em out in a very short period. Maybe we should surprise them and finally enforce those sanctions.