Verizon FIOS - Laying Fiber, Wreaking Havoc

At the most recent MC Cable Communications Advisory Committee (CCAC) meeting, we continued our discussion over Verizon's massive county-wide installation of FIOS. As I mentioned earlier, Comcast had encountered numerous problems - at our previous meeting they described 92 line cuts that they believed were due to FIOS installers. The County Cable Office was concerned enough that they sent out their own inspectors, inspectors traditionally used by the County to inspect Comcast and Starpower work.

Although the committee had listened to Comcasts allegations, we had no proof and some of us were sceptical. Two members of the committee, Kernan Chaisson and Gabe Ruiz, volunteered to visit three Verizon worksites to investigate in person together with Comcast representatives who knew of Verizon activity in the area. I'll let the report speak for itself with an excerpt of the site-specific part:

Site 1: Lescot Terrace, Olney, Maryland

Installation crews had worked in the cul-de-sac the day before. There were reports of five cuts to Comcast lines during the work. There were also a reported three cuts to non-active lines in the area.

The resident at 16636 Lescot Terrace spoke to us about his experience the day before. He felt the crews were ignoring the MissUtility markings. Besides the Comcast damage, he said the crews pulled up a survey stake on his property and were installing a junction box on his property instead of in the public easement because they were using the wrong property plats. It appeared they used the tracks in the lawn made by the owner's dog as the property line. Verizon agreed to move the box off the private property. They cut through the 'invisible fence' that he had installed for his dog and was unable to get the CableCom worker to understand he should stop damaging the line because the only person who spoke English and the resident ended up having to repair the cable himself. he expressed concern about observing the crews hitting on the gas lines with their shovels. The resident reported that within 90 minutes of calling in the problem, Comcast had repaired his damaged cable. There were obvious marks of disturbance, but more work was to be done; so it was impossible to evaluate how well the area was being restore after the Verizon work.

Site 2: Debenham and Fox Valley Drive, Rockville, MD

Crews were actively working at this site in an area running along roughly three blocks. The area showed that installations were underway with equipment, conduit, and other materiel around and many holes dug along the side of the streets. The Line of Disturbance was roughly what could be expected from a job of this nature. It appeared that many of the homeowners were away, so there was no way to determine what outages had been caused by the work. A disturbing find was a worker sitting in a hole dug for installation of a junction box. he was in the process of splicing a TV cable. Mr. Ruiz was able to find out that the line has been cut while digging the hold for the junction. The young man said they decided to lengthen and reroute the Comcast cable. Mr. McNichol checked, there had been no trouble calls (although the homeowner seemed to be away). The CableCom worker said instructions were if it was a single line (to a subscriber's house) and not a trunk line just repair it and not call the damage in. The crew supervisor validated this instruction. The crews said this is what they were instructed on other jobs while working installations for Comcast in other areas; but Comcast had not approved this for this job. This patch compromises the integrity of the line by inserting connectors and new cable and exposing the line to possible mud contamination may show up as degraded digital or broadband performance or trouble sometime in the future.

Site 3: Gold Mine Road, Brookeville, MD

This was a restore side, work had been done days before. Restoration was sloppy, at best. There were spots that had apparently been dug up and had gress seed put down with a pile of straw over the top. At this site Comcast had run 1500' of cable above ground because there had been multiple cuts in the original cable. This got the subscribe back on line quickly, and a crew would come back to bury the line properly.

Clearly what they found was astonishing. Some crews were careless, rushing, and doing dangerous things such as cutting through cable and wires and hitting gas lines. Some of the workmen didn't speak English so residents were unable to communicate with them directly. And the policies of how to handle cable cuts were all over the place, and didn't make much sense, and in any case, at odds with official policy. (According to Verizon policy, crews are to report all cable cuts.) The idea of a Verizon workman taking it upon himself to lengthen, reroute, and reconnect a Comcast line (a trunk according to Comcast) was incredible. While some of the Verizon crewmembers may know how to splice cable properly, they don't have access to Comcast's boxes for proper testing. And even if they do get splices working at the time, all of these splices are underground, a harsh environment, and if they aren't done exactly right, they can work for a while, weeks, months, and then fail. Months later, the public will have long forgotten Verizon was mucking around in the neighborhood and Comcast will be left with stains on their reputation that they don't deserve.

Jane Lawton, MC Cable Office Adminstrator, remarked that when Comcast did its upgrade (a few years ago), the County sent out inspectors to accompany crews to see work was done properly and that this was an outcome of the difference between local and state inspection. I'm not sure what she meant by that - because obviously Comcast had many flawed installations - for example, our inspectors have reported improper grounding in Comcast installs for years! Perhaps what she meant was that her office doesn't have the authority to control Verizon and what they do. Verizon remains regulated only by the state while Comcast is regulated by the local franchise authority. (Of course, both are regulated to some extent by the FCC but the FCC doesn't do inspections!)

I've been observing Verizon's work in my own neighborhood and although I've seen some of the problems that the report noted (for example, many of the workers do not speak English so I could not ask them questions), I haven't heard complaints of cable cuts or sloppy work or for that matter, any complaints from neighbors in my area. In fact, the Verizon installers (that did speak English) were more than happy to speak to me about their work and seemed quite proud of it. They happily explained what they were doing and in some cases (like in front of my house, grrr) pointed out how the Comcast cabling in the same easements was not just sloppy but violated standard practice and should be rewired or replaced completely.

Here are some pictures I took showing what the Verizon crewmembers pointed out. In the first picture, someone must've inadvertently cut the line and instead of Comcast putting in a new drop, they spliced it (shown between red arrows).

The next picture shows the backside of the pole where Comcast had installed a splitter (3.5dB loss) instead of running separate drops. The splice and splitter went to my neighbor's house. The 'good' side of the splitter went to my house.


A few other notes

A Verizon foreman said that all homes are hung with door tags with a phone number to call for problems. But when we queried some residents, they denied ever getting any such tags.

Kernan reported that digging may be automatic up to 36" deep after which it must be hand done. In the digging I observed, it's a half and half process. A backhoe makes the crude holes, the crew roughs them out further, and then drop a missile-shaped device that is aimed horizontally and automatically chews from one hole to the next. To me, the 'missile' process looked extremely crude - just aim and let go. So marking out the underground utilities to avoid them later is crucial. However, that appears to be what's going wrong - all these cuts are either due to ignoring the markings or the markings being wrong from the get go.

Of course, incorrect markings may be Comcast's fault. Comcast is obliged to mark their own wires and if they choose not to or do so poorly, of course Verizon will slice through them. Probably there's a lot of sloppiness going on - on both the parts of Comcast and Verizon. As for things underground that the residents are responsible for, such as invisible fencing, that would never be marked by MissUtility. I'm not sure what the solution is there other than to avoid laying it in easements and other places that the utilities will 'obviously' need to use.

Gabe also mentioned a term I had never heard before: Exactions. He said that the county may require developers to install conduit or trenching which is to be shared. He provided a reference to "Code 50" which I will look up at some point to find out more.

The "Mr. McNichol" referenced above is Kevin McNichol, Director of Engineering for Comcast of Montgomery County.

Bottom Line

The bottom line is in some areas of the county, installation of FIOS by Verizon is causing serious problems. Comcast and other utilities may be part of the problem as well but clearly Verizon is at fault for sure. We're not close to the negotiations but according to Comcast statements, Verizon is reimbursing Comcast for costs related to any damage, so at least they're working together at some level. However, in the meantime, customers can have their service disrupted and potentially dangerous conditions can arise. It is for these reasons, that the city of Rockville has refused Verizon access to their rights-of-way. Verizon cannot get any permits to do installs in the city of Rockville and thus, Rockville residents will not getting FIOS for the foreseeable future.

Is Rockville doing the right thing and the rest of Montgomery County doing the wrong thing? Or vice versa?

Making my Odyssey start every time

This is a brief report on a something I did several years ago but remains relevant because people keep referring to it even today. Hence this blog entry which wraps up everything and also serve as a place to which others can link.

On Odyclub.com, a forum for owners of the Honda Odyssey, many people have bemoaned the design of the electrical system which allows the battery to drain merely by leaving the cabin lights on overnight. This is made all the easier because of a dashboard switch which turns them all on and overrides all the other switches. Because of the design, it's all too easy to hit the switch intentionally (for example, to gather up your belongings before exiting the car) and then forget to turn it off as you get out. The result is that the following morning, you end up with a dead battery. I've done this four times now in two years!

Honda really didn't think this through. There are numerous timers on the car and some of them do protect the battery already. For example, the built-in Honda navigational computer has such a device. (You can see it in action by turning the key from the on position to the accessory position. After 10 minutes, a window will pop up on the NAV screen saying "turning off to protect battery" and then it will power itself off.) So the circuitry exists but in the wrong place!

Several people at Odyclub have come up with different ideas for solving the problem but the one I like best is the Priority Start (which I'll refer to as PS for now). PS is a device that monitors the car battery and can tell the difference between when the car is running and when it isn't. If the car isn't running (meaning the battery can't be recharged), then the PS lets the battery continue to be used up to the point where further use would make it impossible to restart the car.

I ordered mine over the web from batterymart.com. They had the best prices at the time.

Installation was simple. The PS uses only 3 connections and no wire cutting is involved (although I did cut a few cable ties to get enough slack in order to position the unit in front of the battery). Total installation time was 15 minutes and most of that was rereading the instructions to make sure I hadn't missed something because it seemed too simple and straightforward. Here's a pic of the result.



In the picture, the positive cable connects to the PS in front of the battery and then the PS has a cable that connects back to the positive side of the battery. There's also a tiny wire from the PS to the negative side of the battery. In the picture, it has a green label on it - which I've since removed and replaced with my own more-meaningful label.

A concern I had is that anyone else working on the car understand what the unit is and how to properly disconnect it. I made up a little laminated tag and attached it to the ground wire to explain to remove that first and not to forget to reconnect it. Here's a link to it: prioritystart.pdf It's a pdf so you can resize it to any size you like.


PostScript 1

Since I installed the PS two years ago, it's saved my ass three times, allowing me to just get in and drive away in the morning. It's caused no trouble and is well worth what I paid for it.

PostScript 2

I called AAA and asked if they could make PriorityStart available with a discount to their customers. I pointed out that I had already called them 4 times for jumps. Figuring, oh, $50 a shot minimum, they could save hundreds each year by just GIVING me a PriorityStart for a free.

AAA said: "No." At the time, I figured they were idiots and maybe they just needed to hear from others.

In retrospect, AAA wants to keep their costs low but on the other hand, if people realized they would never again need a jump start, many people might reconsider buying AAA in the first place. Jump starts are the only service I've ever used AAA for. (Not needed their bail service yet!)


PostScript 3

I've continued to order other batteries from BatteryMart (camcorder, camera, computer, etc). Prices and delivery times are excellent and their breadth of batteries is amazing. I've never had to call customer service so I can't tell you about that.

What's FIOS?

A commenter recently asked: What's FIOS?

FIOS is Verizon's marketing term for "fiber to the home" (the generic term is just its abbreviation: FTTH). Verizon plans to deliver internet, video, and phone service over fiber. Why is this good? Because fiber has more capacity (way more capacity) than anything else.

Verizon plans to roll out this service over the next few years to the same areas it already offers local service. It's currently installing fiber in a number of states including my own. Where I live (Montgomery County MD), Verizon has been installing fiber for about 4 months and they've already turned it on for some customers.

FIOS is going to be a rude shock for the cable companies that have enjoyed a de facto monopoly in much of the US. Where I live, Comcast is the only provider of high-speed residential internet service, so I pay $57.95 a month. But Verizon is already advertising more speed for less money.

Here's how it lays out, ordered by price. Notice that the lowest price is way below Comcast's lowest (and most popular) level of service AND at that price FIOS is faster. Especially notable is the dramatically higher upload speed. I really like that. When I upload pictures or documents, it takes a long time because my Comcast upload is so limited. And I do it so infrequently, it's hard to justify paying $10 more for additional speed. But Verion's lowest cost offering blows Comcast's highest offering away too.

Provider	Price	Download	Upload
Verizon FIOS	$199.95	30Mbps	5Mbps
Comcast HSI	$67.95	6Mbps	768Kbps
Comcast HSI	$57.95	4Mbps	384Kbps
Verizon FIOS	$49.95	15Mbps	2Mbps
Verizon FIOS	$39.95	5Mbps	2Mbps

Comcast does offer $15 reductions if you also get video service but even factoring that in, Comcast is still more expensive (and slower). I don't have Comcast video service so I'm paying the full freight. Lopping off $18 from my monthly bill sounds great to me. And faster service at the same time? Bring it on!

What's the downside?
Although Comcast doesn't have the greatest reputation, neither does Verizon. They never rolled out DSL to many of their customers despite years of promises to do so. And I dropped my Verizon phone service two years ago because their prices were too high and continued to rise while my use of their product continued to sink. Clearly, the lack of competition didn't help. For example - how else could they get away with charging $7.50 a month for caller id? And their customer service stunk. The phones were supposed to work 24 hours a day but yet Verizon didn't answer their own phones 24 hours a day? Why not? Surely the demand was there.

But competition changes everything. Studies show that in communities with broadband alternatives, rates are significantly lower. Comcast will have to respond in some way. Technologically, it's going to be hard to increase speeds to match Verizon. It's my understanding that Comcast's infrastructure simply won't support those speeds without upgrading their cable plant. What's left? Slashing prices?

Extra benefits such as video email, free music downloads, etc, are worth little to most people. I don't use any of them. I don't even use Comcast for email service. High speed and low latency are all I want. Ok, a lot of people want email too but I think they'd be better off getting it elsewhere.

The bottom line
I'm not expecting all my neighbors to jump off Comcast and sign up with Verizon. But I expect enough will that Comcast will have to react. Competition is good. Verizon's entry in to the market will force Comcast to lower their prices and/or increase their performance. Improved customer service would be helpful, too.

Rockville MD denied FIOS

This past Wednesday (2/16/05), I attended my final official meeting as a member of the Montgomery County Maryland Cable Communications Advisory Committee. I had served for four years, outlasting only one other member. I had requested another term but was turned down by the County Executive. I was not surprised.

During my term, I was responsible for numerous recommendations to the executive and the council that they didn't want to hear. For instance, I wrote a number of statements during the Comcast-AT&T transfer process recommending changes to the proposed franchise. (Most of my recommendations were ignored.) I wish I could have enjoyed the council's dismay when Comcast raised their rates shortly after the new franchise was approved. Although Comcast had promised that the rates would not rise "due to the merger" it was an empty promise and no one should've been surprised that Comcast could find other justifications to hike the rates.

Most recently, I authored a statement regarding Comcast email that included such recommendations that customers avoid relying on @comcast.net addresses and, for that matter, using Comcast email for anything of importance. Despite my departure, the committee has vowed to proceed with the email recommendations. The committee also promised to keep watch over another of my efforts - a "Citizens Guide to Cable Service in Montgomery County" that describes the major rights and responsibilities of cable customers. The guide was unanimously approved by the committee and is now in legal review by the County.

I'm somewhat less pleased with my attempts to establish performance requirements for cable service. At a later time, I'll try and write all this up but the end result of this was the creation of an adjuticatory commission that has the power to assess penalties of up to $1000 directly against the cable companies, payable to customers. Sounds great and while groundbreaking (no other cable locality has such powers or even touches upon internet regulation), a good degree of its claws were gutted during passage of the bill.

And the final sin I committed was to prepare a letter describing how Comcast provides community support in such a way as for politicians to personally benefit. I'm not saying money ends up on their pockets. But when a politician is, for example, invited to accept a check from Comcast on behalf of that politician's favorite charity or constituents, I see that as a problem. Especially when those same politicians are the same people who approve contracts between the county and Comcast.

So as I said, the Executive was undoubtedly happy to see my term come to an end. As for the one person who outlasted me, he is the Rockville representative (I was in an at-large seat) and is appointed by the City of Rockville, so the Executive had no say in his continuing service. Carry on the good work, Kernan and everyone else in the CCAC. It's a good committee and all the members are sincerely interested in doing the right thing. I enjoyed the time I spent working with all of them.

Ok, enough horn tooting. On to the meeting.

As usual, the status of Verizon FIOS was a hot topic and I again asked if the Verizon has started the franchise ball rolling. Verizon has permits to use the rights-of-way for fiber and can offer internet service but they must obtain a franchise agreement before rolling out video (TV) service. The short answer is no - Verizon has not made any official franchise overtures. According to Jane Lawton, MC Cable Office Administrator, it is expected that such a process would take about 4 months.

Rather than go through the whole meeting in order, I'll let rip the most surprising item first. The city of Rockville has not given permission for Verizon to install FIOS in the rights-of-way. Ouch! That's right - no FIOS for Rockville, the county seat and smack in the center of the county. Will the rest of MC get FIOS? It sure looks that way - in general - but the few parts (8, I believe) that are municipalities have the power to go their separate ways, and for now, that's what Rockville is doing.

Alas, I have no more time to blog today and will provide more details tomorrow about what's going on with Rockville and Verizon.

Testing E911 in Montgomery County MD

The following incidents took place over several days so but it's simpler to read them together:

Feb 1, 2005

My VoIP provider advertises E911 as part of the service, but I've been wondering exactly what E911 means. I've read of instances of VoIP going to the wrong PSAP (Public Service Access Point), where traditional phones send their 911 calls. And I've read that some VoIP phones go to the correct PSAP but to a different phone number to which you have to say "this is an emergency" after which they will take a message and manually give it to the 911 operator.

With this in mind, I contacted my local government (MCMD) and was sent to Battalion Chief Michael Prete who encouraged me to test my phone service (SunRocket). He said that no prior arrangements were necessary and to call any time of day or night: "Just make sure that the first thing out of your mouth is 'I am testing ...'"

So I called 911, identified my reason for calling, gave my address - and the 911 operator told me:

• yes, my call went to the correct 911 center
  
• yes, my number was answered by the very same person(s) answering landline-911 calls
  
• no, my line did not identify the address

So the only difference is that I have to give my address when I dial 911.

As an aside, the 911 operator was very pleasant once I identified my purpose for the call. (Of course, she might not be so pleasant if 100 people call to test tonight.)

I friend of mine who uses SunRocket but from Prince William County, VA just told me that his E911 delivers the address and he recommended I contact SR. So I sent email to SR telling them the results of my test and asking if they could make sure my address is delivered via ALI.

30 minutes after sending my email to SunRocket, I got a call from an assistant of Joyce - one of the founders. (I had corresponded with Joyce a while back with some issues so I guess I'm on a short list.) She started out the conversation asking me how the service was and, of course, I mentioned that I had just sent email to SR about 911.

She said that SunRocket is supposed to deliver address information throughout the DC-MD-VA metro area and she would certainly notify the appropriate people to get it corrected. But that wasn't her reason for calling. She was looking for customers to speak with a reporter who was doing a story on them. Evidentally, they're not afraid to have customers speak out that have worked through problems with them.

A few hours later ... I received email from SR - they've tracked the problem (lack of address) to their provider of PSTN service - which is required to pass addresses on but evidentally wasn't doing it.

SunRocket says that their provider has opened a ticket for "further research and resolution" and that they (SR) are going to monitor it closely.

Feb 4, 2005

While fiddling around, I looked in my online outgoing call log and found that when I dialed 911, it appeared as 200-200-2003. That is, the area code was 200. I did some googling and found that area codes with equal 2nd and 3rd digits are reserved codes for purposes "where ease of remembering the number is important."

So it's probably just the way the underlying switching network maps 911 to the actual number of the PSAP.

Feb 8, 2005

Today, SunRocket told me that their provider has fixed the problem and asked me to try testing 911 again. I did and I'm pleased to report that:

• my call went to the correct 911 center for my address
  
• my call was answered by the very same person answering landline-911 calls
  
• my call included my address which the dispatcher could see immediately
  

Hooray!

But this should be a cautionary tale: My provider had no idea 911 service wasn't working properly until I complained. And I never would have thought to test it until I started talking to others. (Never did I test my old POTS service.) In further communication with my VoIP provider, they observed that they do not support E911 throughout the US - it's an availability issue - but it is supported in the DC-MD-VA metro area. On the other hand, some VoIP providers don't support E911 at all, no matter where you may be in the US. So you should certainly keep this in mind when choosing a VoIP provider.

New members for MCMD Cable committee/commission

1. Montomery County is looking for 2 people to serve on the Cable Compliance Commission. The CCC adjudicates ccomplaints regarding all cable services including both TV and HSI. The CC will have jurisdiction over Verizon's similar services in the future.


2. The County Executive has nominated 4 new members for the CCAC, an advisory committee for advising the county on telecomm-related matters. The new members are to be confirmed by the Council on 2/15/05. They are:
   • Grant Moy (Bethesda) - Litigation Attorney, Office of the Attorney General for the District of Columbia
   
   
   • Franz Hespenheide (Gaithersburg) - Unemployed, self-described video addict
   
   
   • James Berard (Germantown) - Communications Director for the DNC Transportation Committee
   
   
   • Jay Boyar (Silver Spring) - Dean of College Life Services, Prince George's Community College

The story would not be complete without noting that the Exec chose not to renominate me for another term. 4 other members also resigned from the committee including 1 before the end of her term. The Executive opted not to fill the remaining 5 seats on the committee. So the committee now has 14 people. Given the rate at which people drop off and the requirement for a minimum of 13 members (19 maximum), I expect there will be another call for members this summer.

I might get a Mac someday

I originally wrote this in three separate pieces but I've made it one entry to simplify understanding the whole tale.

Jan 21, 2005

Three weeks ago (12/31/04), I ordered a Mac G5 with 30" display (you only go around once in life, right?). Estimated ship date: same business day. I took the offer for free ground delivery so figured I'd give them a week. I was going to be at home the entire week so I gave them my home address for delivery. I received an email confirmation of the order.

A week went by. No Mac. So I called to find out where it was. It turns out it hadn't even been shipped. Apple was waiting to confirm the purchase by calling the billing number - which is actually at another address (and no one's there this month to answer the phone). But my credit card is tied to that other phone so that's the number I'm obligated to give so that orders are accepted by the credit card company. But that wasn't good enough for Apple. They put the order "on hold".

Me: So do I have to get someone to call from the billing phone?
Apple: No, we just needed to speak to you so we can release it now.

Huh? If I'm not calling from the billing phone, how do they know I am who I say I am? Makes no sense. But more importantly, why don't they put a note on the order page saying that they will confirm by calling the billing number? (I've never been called to confirm an order before.) I never would've expected they had to confirm in that way, especially since they already sent me a confirmation email and no subsequent email to let me know of a problem.

How long would they've held it if I didn't call? Who knows but you have to wonder why they didn't at least send me email. They sent me order confirmation messages via email so they know how to email me.

On a good note, the Apple rep agreed to ship it "expedited" at no charge to me. Fair enough.

So I go back to waiting and the following day, I get email from Apple that they have broken the order in to 3 shipments and have shipped piece 1 of 3. So I'm waiting several more days until finally I see on Fedex's web page "customer wasn't home". Huh? I was home most of the day and there's no door tag to indicate they came by. I call Fedex and the following discussion ensues:

Fedex: No problem, they'll try 3 times.
Me: I can't wait at home the whole day, can you give me a window?
Fedex: What time will you be home?
Me: I can be home any time, just not the entire day. Just give me a window.
Fedex: We need a window.
Me: I know! I thought I was making it easier for you. I have no idea what your window sizes are - my experience with other companies is that they just give me a choice of windows. So what windows do you offer and I'll pick the best.
Fedex: Just tell us what time you'll be home.
Me: Uh, how about 6AM-10AM
Fedex: Thank you.

Needless to say, I wait til 11AM and no shipment. At this point, I can't hang around home any more. I need to go back to my workplace. I come back after work; no door tag. I call Fedex again and, of course, speak to a different representative:

Fedex: We don't offer delivery windows, can't imagine why the previous rep told you that we do.
Me: So where's the package?
Fedex: It's on the truck to be delivered, that's all we can tell you.
Me: That's not good enough.
Fedex: Ok, we can start a trace.
Me: Aren't packages tracked already?
Fedex: It's an investigation. We'll get back to you within 72 hours.

So the following day, sure enough, a truck pulls up at a time I was fortuitously home. He holds the display in his hands. I thank him but also ask him where he's been.

Delivery dude: They gave me too much too deliver in one day. They're always doing that.

What the heck is going on? I thought Fedex's motto was ... oh never mind. It's not even Fedex doing the delivery - they contracted it out to someone else. The truck was not a fedex truck. I don't remember what the truck said but it could as well have said Joe's Pizza on it. It was a dumpy little thing with a faded name of some kind.

Needless to say, I videotaped myself breaking the seal and opening the display box. Just in case the thing was mishandled, I wasn't going to pay for it. But it was fine. Whew.

So I go back to periodically checking Fedex's website for the 2nd of 3 shipments. I see that the Apple Care box is next to arrive. However, knowing that I'm not going to be there, I realize it's stupid for them to try to deliver it to my home. I call up Fedex:

Fedex: No problem, we'll retry 3 times and then we'll hold it at our warehouse.
Me: Why come out to my house 3 times when we both know I'm not going to be there.
Fedex: We can't leave it at the door - our agreement with Apple requires that someone must sign for it.
Me: Ok, how about changing the destination address to a nearby Fedex office. Your warehouse is a two hour drive from me.
Fedex: We can't change the destination after it's been shipped, sorry.
Me: Why not?
Fedex: It's our policy. We can however change the destination for later shipments.
Me: So I'll have to wait for the current item to be shipped to my house 3x unsuccessfully and then you'll send it back to the West Coast?
Fedex: Actually, we'll send it back to Apple and they will have to ship it again.
Me: Can we at least change the shipping address for the next package in the order?
Fedex: You'll have to call Apple to do that.
Me: I can't just tell you?
Fedex: No.
Me: Why not?
Fedex: That's what our agreement with Apple says.

Further argument was futile (although I did try).

So I call Apple. I give them a new address - a Fedex station near my house that the Fedex guy specifically told me can hold packages. Next I ask Apple what we can do about the bouncing Apple Care package. After ten minutes of discussion, Apple finally says this:

Apple: It's just AppleCare, you don't really need it immediately anyway.
Me: I realize that but I would like to receive it eventually and because of the way it was shipped, it's going to have to go back to the West Coast and you're going to have to ship it again. Not only am I saving you effort and Fedex effort, but I'd like to avoid having to make extra visits to Fedex myself.
Apple: Oh, you don't even need the AppleCare box. There's nothing in it anyway except some literature and maybe a CD that you don't really need.
Me: Huh? So why ship it in the first place?
Apple: Some people like getting it that way, like if you gave it as a gift, you'd have something to wrap.
Me: Do you realize how much time and money is being wasted to ship this non-gift?

So I really could care less about the package bouncing back and forth from coast to coast but if I can avoid me having to drive to the Fedex office, that seems reasonable. But after waiting a few more days, suddenly the Fedex tracking website changes from "in Sacramento" to "no such package". I call Fedex.

Fedex: We haven't lost it. It's just there appears to be a shipping problem.
Me: Huh? So where is it?
Fedex: I'll start a trace. We'll get back to you in 72 hours.

As more days go by, I periodically check the Apple website only to see the computer itself (part 3 of 3) has not yet been shipped. I call Apple:

Apple: Your computer is on hold.
Me: Why? And why didn't you contact me if there's a problem.
Apple: It seems the new address you gave us is not acceptable. You gave us a Fedex address but we're not allowed to ship to a Fedex address. We need to ship to a person.
Me: No problem, just put my name on it and mark it "hold for pickup."
Apple: We can't do that.
Me: Why not?
Apple: Because we have no way of knowing if the person who comes to the Fedex station to pick it up is really you.
Me: How is that different than Fedex attempting delivery 3x and then holding it for pick up?
Apple: Because then you'll come back to Fedex with a door tag.
Me: First of all, Fedex doesn't seem to be leaving door tags. Secondly, that hardly seems a good way to prove I am the recipient since anyone could get the door tag from my front door.
Apple: We consider it more secure.
Me: Well, it obviously isn't. Here's an idea. Ship it to Fedex and mark it "hold for recipient, demand passport as proof." You can't get much better ID than that, right?
Apple: Our policy is to request the door tag.

Finally I gave in, but still hoping to make things easier ...

Me: Since it's going to end up at the Fedex office anyway, let's just make sure it goes to a more convenient one ok? The one it will be held at is hours from my house.
Apple: Sorry, we can't ship it to a Fedex office.
Me: I'm not asking you to ship it to a Fedex office, I'm just asking that you designate the one it's ultimately held at.
Apple: That would be shipping to a Fedex office and we cannot do that.
Me: But it's going through Fedex in the first place. Don't you trust them?
Apple: That's our policy.
Me: Please transfer me to someone above you.

I ended up speaking to a manager who repeated these same basic answers.

Me: Please transfer me to someone above you.
Apple: There's no one above me.

I probably should asked to be transferred to Apple Corporate at that point, but instead:

Me: So what do we do then?
Apple: Can't we ship it to a neighbor or your workplace?
Me: So you trust my neighbors more than Fedex who is responsible for delivering it? Even if I could find a neighbor who was here during the day - all day, can you even give me a delivery date?
Apple: No, not at this time. We have to ship it first. All dates are estimates.
Me: How could I possibly ask a neighbor since I can't even tell them what day they would have to guarantee they'd be home?
Apple: How about we ship it to your workplace?
Me: Out of the question. My workplace receiving dept would open the box, search through it for security reasons, slap a property tag on it, etc. It's a personal purchase and I don't want them handling it.

Finally, in dispair, I give in and agree to give them their 3 tries at shipping it to my house in the hopes that the stars would be aligned and I'd be there when they attempted delivery. Sounds stupid but I didn't know what else to do.

The Apple manager also confirms that the Apple Care box has been lost and he will see that another is shipped.

So I ask the guy whether he can now give me a better estimate of when the computer will ship.

Apple: It looks like it was originally delayed because they didn't have the graphics board you requested. But assuming the computer has been built by now, it should be shipped tomorrow.
Me: I'd be willing to overlook all the other incorrect assumptions that were made so far and agree with you on this except that I just don't know why you assume the system has been built by now.
Apple: Because they've had plenty of time to build it by now.
Me: According to the Apple store web site, AS OF TODAY if I configure a system with that particular graphics card, it indicates a 3-5 week ship date. So it sounds like they have a problem getting that card. In fact, I ordered that board specifically because the web site BACK THEN said it could ship immediately. And the web site specifically cautioned buyers that the more expensive card would cause delays and to avoid ordering it, so I did. I ordered the cheaper card as it recommended. And the web site STILL says that in the card descriptions. But the estimate the store generates for the expensive card is now 2-4 days, much less than the cheaper card!

Apple: Yes, I can see that myself. I guess the factory has a supply problem.
Me: So in other words, we really shouldn't count on it shipping tomorrow.
Apple: Well, it might.
Me: And it might not. Can you call the factory and find out if it's been built or what the status of the order is?
Apple: No, I can't do that. But I can send them a note to give your order priority.
Me: That's great, but it won't do much good if they don't have the card.
Apple: Your system might haven't been built by now.
Me: I really don't want to take the risk that I'll be waiting another 3-5 weeks. The more expensive card is only $100 more. Let's change the order to that. Would that speed things up?
Apple: It might. It might not. I have no way of knowing. Maybe your system has been built and maybe switching to the other card would just slow things down.
Me: I have no confidence that the system's been built, I'll pay the $100 extra because as I understand it, that would limit the build time to 2-4 days at worst.
Apple: Ok, I can take care of that.

Me: While I've been waiting, I occurred to me to check out memory prices and I found places that sell RAM cheaper. I know Apple has a price matching policy so could you match prices on the RAM. That would offset the extra expense on the graphics card.
Apple: I can't do that. To use our price matching policy, you have to deal with Sales. And you'll have to resubmit the order.

So he could increase the price but not decrease it!

Me: I'm not sure it's worth the aggravation.
Apple: It's up to you.

Finally, I said never mind. I just wanted to get off the phone and take some aspirin.

But the following day, I decided I'd resubmit the order and get the price break on the memory. After all, I was paying $100 to Apple because of their own inability to manage their part inventory properly and their inability to check the status of an order, not because I needed the higher performance.

So I call to cancel the order. Then I had to call again to resubmit the order. Getting a live human on the phone turned out to be difficult, the Apple phone tree transfer me 6 times until I got in a loop until I selected an option that I hadn't tried and frankly didn't apply. But it worked. I got a human salesperson.

Me: I'd like a lower price on the memory, per your price matching policy.
Apple: Our price matching policy doesn't cover memory.
Me: Arghhh!

So I had closed the order at the suggestion of the previous Apple rep (a manager) for nothing.

Me: Can you uncancel the order I just cancelled?
Apple: No but perhaps customer support can.

Back in to the maze that is the Apple phone tree. After fruitless attempts, no one was able to uncancel the order. So I re-placed the original order - this time with minimal memory.

I ordered memory from someone else. They sent me a confirmation email. They didn't call the billing phone. The memory arrived two days later (UPS left it on my doorstep). One third the price Apple charged.

The following day I get home and there's a box waiting - the Apple Care box. So after all that, Fedex didn't even bother to get a signature. For all I know, they didn't even bother to ring my door. It wasn't left on my doorstep. It was sitting in the driveway!

I really don't understand what's going on with Fedex but I will NOT ship with them in the future. Something is definitely wrong with that company. Apple too.

So I've got a pile of stuff at home: display, memory, apple care, and printer (they threw in a printer which will be free after rebate). But all powered off. I just need the computer.

By the way, Apple really needs to change their answering message - which I've almost got memorized I've heard it so many times. ("Due to holiday volume, we are experiencing longer than normal hold times, we appreciate your patience, please stay on the line..." It's been more than a month since Christmas. I have trouble believing that excuse isn't entirely bogus.

Apple finally sent me a message saying the computer's been shipped. As I write this, Fedex currently says it's in Indianapolis. I can only imagine what it's doing there. It is still marked expedited on my shipping confirmation but I guess that doesn't mean "overnight". My fingers are crossed anyway. I might actually get a system someday.


Update - Jan 23, 2005

My system has now moved from somewhere in Indianapolis to somewhere in Virginia. The Fedex website lists it for "2Day Delivery" even though 2 days would've been up yesterday. So I called Fedex to find out why it wasn't here yesterday and Fedex explained that 2Day doesn't include Saturdays and Sundays. Evidentally Apple didn't specify Saturday delivery would've been ok. I can't believe that since, after all those conversations, Apple obviously knew it was going to my house. Indeed, I waited around all day yesterday (Saturday) thinking it would be delivered after seeing that the Virginia Fedex clocked it in at 5:59AM. And there it sits. Fedex rushed it across the entire US only to have it now sit in a warehouse for 2 days.

Update 2 - Jan 25, 2005

In my last conversation with Fedex, they said they would attempt delivery Monday.

Me: Can you estimate what time of day they'll come?
Fedex: It should arrive before 4:30pm.
Me: Can you estimate it a little more precisely, so I don't have to wait here all day?
Fedex: Call back after 10AM on Monday and we'll give you a better idea of when it will come.
Me: Ok, thanks!

So on Monday, I wait at the house until 10AM just in case, then I call Fedex:

Me: Can you estimate what time of day they'll come?
Fedex: It should arrive before 4:30pm.
Me: Can you estimate it a little more precisely so I don't have to wait here all day?
Fedex: No.

Gosh, thanks!

Fedex: If you like, just leave a note on your door asking them to leave it at the door step.
Me: Huh? But the previous Fedex rep said that couldn't be done. This is a package from Apple.
Fedex: I can't tell without looking at the box itself. Go ahead and leave a note on your door.

This contradicts what the earlier reps told me - that it was an Apple policy not to leave things at the door. And yet the AppleCare box was left without a signature so I suspect the boxes themselves don't say anything like that.

Me: Ok but can I have the station hold it if it comes back?
Fedex: Sure, I'll make a note to do that.

This also contradicts what an earlier Fedex rep said but I'm certainly not to argue against a policy I like, so ...

Me: And at what station will it be held?

The Fedex rep proceeds to give the station just a few miles away, the same station I was desperately trying to get them to transfer the other packages to but that they refused. And the same station that Apple refused to ship to outright.

So later that day, I get home and see - nothing. In fact, there's a thin layer of snow on the ground so I can tell no one's even been to the house.

I go inside, bring up the fedex tracking info and it says "Could not deliver due to circumstances beyond our control." Huh? The snow isn't THAT deep - it's just a thin layer. And I got USMail. So what's the problem? I call Fedex.

Fedex: I can't tell you what the problem was. We don't have that information. But it says here that you asked to leave the package at the station.
Me: Yes, so?
Fedex: Maybe that's why it wasn't delivered.
Me: That makes no sense. I specifically said to leave it at the station only if delivery failed.
Fedex: I can't tell you any more than that.
Me: Is it at the station now?
Fedex: Yes, you can pick it up now.
Me: Thanks.

So I drive over to the Fedex station. I go inside and speak to a rep at the counter:

Fedex: What's the tracking number?
Me: Damn, in my rush I forgot to bring it.
Fedex: No problem, what's your address.
Me: (I give him my address)
Fedex: Sorry, it's not in our computer.
Fedex: What's your name?
Me: (I give him my name)
Fedex: Nope, not there either.
Fedex: Let's call HQ and they should have the info.

So he hands me the phone and I speak to another Fedex rep and we go through the whole thing again where she asks me my name and phone number.

Fedex: It's not in our computer.
Me: And the shipper is "Apple".
Fedex: Nope, not in our computer either.
Me: So you can't track a package by name or address?
Fedex: Yes we can but your package is not in our computer.
Fedex: Anyway, even if you were in our computer, we wouldn't give you the package without you giving us the tracking number.

What?! So what have we been doing for the last 15 minutes trying to figure out the tracking number if they're going to make me give them the tracking number first?

So I hang up in disgust, figuring I'll have to come back tomorrow because it's now after closing and they've already locked the doors outside.

At this point, the guy behind the Fedex counter - who has been listening, but just to my side of the conversation - asks me:

Fedex: How big is it?
Me: (I outline the rough size)
Fedex: Ok, wait while I go in the back and look for it.

5 minutes later he returns with a big box with G5 emblazoned on it along with my name and address. He checks my drivers license and that's it. He hands it to me. Good think he doesn't appear to know that he's not to give me a package without a tracking number. Or was that just so much BS?

Me: Does it seem strange that it wasn't in the computer?
Fedex: No, it happens pretty often.

Bottom line: Numerous Fedex and Apple reps have contradicted each other many times. The Fedex tracking system is full of holes. The Apple ordering and inventory system is full of problems. And both Apple and Fedex policies are so nonsensical that some of the staff ignore the policies making things up as they go along. Total time from order to delivery: 25 days.