• Find us today at 9:00CDT (02:00 GMT)
• #ubuntu-us-wi on Freenode or the web client

Ubuntu Friendly is the new hardware validation and database client.  The application tests your system hardware, and sends a hardware report
back to a database that you can see at http://friendly.ubuntu.com.

If you have ever wished for a compatibility list when shopping for hardware, here’s how the Ubuntu community is building that list.

Requirements: (See the video at http://friendly.ubuntu.com/participate/ )

• Ubuntu 11.10 on a laptop (installed to HDD, not in VM)
• The ‘checkbox-cli’ or ‘checkbox-gtk’ package
• Headphones and Mic (optional)
• USB stick, USB HDD, Firewire HDD (optional) – CD-R, Audio CD (optional)

Tonight we’ll run through the tests (20 minutes or so). The goal is to help build that compatibility list AND file bugs to improve the beta. This is an easy activity to fit into your evening plan. It’s fast, easy, and you can do it while watching TV.

I am looking forward to working with Rick on future presentations in the area, whether I’m able to attend or not.  If anyone else in the LoCo is interested in presenting or has any questions, please let us know on the mailing list.

Here are a few pictures of the venue, and Rick’s setup.

First letter
First response
Phone call 1
A light at the end of the tunnel?

To:  Rhonda.Lutzke@ftr.com, Karen.Miller@ftr.com

Subject:  Please Contact Me

Greetings,

I am contacting you, Rhonda and Karen, as the Senior Vice President, National Region and Manager, Communications, respectively, specifically to outline my current experiences with Frontier Communications.  Also, please note this will be published online, while redacting my case number, address, and phone number.  My contact information is located at the bottom of the email.

Please understand my position, and why I have taken time away from my family to make sure that I am heard.  I’m having an extremely difficult time with overall service, and reliability, with my three-week-and-counting experience briefly described below.

My wife and I are house-sitting for the account holder ([name redacted]) who is currently working overseas.  I have permissions and proper credentials to make adjustments to the account if necessary.

I professionally work with many small, medium, and large businesses across the country, tribal governments, and public sector education to provide technology solutions.I am contacting you not as a business, or a corporation, but as an individual with your internet service to my home.

In coming from a fast cable internet service (> 30Mbit), I naturally wanted to see if any other service was in the area, or if the 1Mbit service could be upgraded.  After some investigation, and this geography, the only provider of internet (except satellite, or buying a tethering plan for my phone), is you.  In calling your account changes department, I was assured I could get the 3Mbit service for only $4 more per month! How excellent, triple the bandwidth!  I hurriedly accepted this offer, looking forward to this new service.My happiness, however, was short lived.  We experienced extreme lag, outages, poor speeds, and zero resolution.

I have contacted Technical Support (currently on speed-dial) almost every day for the past three weeks.  I have had time to memorize your voice prompts, the proper responses, hold music, and once even spoke with the same technician that I had talked to a few calls back.  They tried the 3Mbit service, but told me they were at 96% capacity in the CO (I understand this is Wausau, WI?), and couldn’t properly serve us.  We had a local tech visit, saying he didn’t see anything locally that would cause issues.  Phone tech support has been telling me there’s not much to do, and I seem to get passed over.  They could not provide the service the account department sold me, so they had no choice but to drop our service back to 1Mbit.  These changes and exchanges had burned up about a week and a half of calling back-and-forth.Now that I have the 1Mbit service again, I’m still receiving horrible, horrible internet service.  When it does work, we experience extreme lag, making browsing the simplest of sites often impossible.  We get multiple outages per day, rendering web browsing impossible.

Yesterday, October 5, 2011, I demanded to speak with a supervisor, manger, or engineer, who could help me resolve these issues.  I finally was forwarded to somebody who assured me they would open a case for an engineer to contact me during the next day (Today, October 6).  The gentleman also offered a modem replacement, which he said is on the way.  I specifically directed them to call my cell phone, as my wife and I may not be home during the day (we work, too).  They had called the house today, approximately 3:00pm, when nobody was home.  When calling back (after work, approximately 6:15CST) to report my outage, it was suggested I call back again sometime the next day and ask to speak with an engineer.  After finding when they start, I noted I will be calling back approximately 7:00am CST.To make a long-winded story short: I’m having an incredibly difficult time getting the service I’m paying for.  I was told, over the phone, the local CO is too overloaded, and they seem to be having a hard time supporting the existing client base.  I haven’t been able to get a solid 1Mbit or 3Mbit service, and I have been trying to constantly chase someone, ANYONE, down to help me understand some sort of resolution.  Perhaps something another technician has overlooked?  Some larger-scale issue?  I don’t feel like I should have to chase customer support down for a resolution, and I don’t feel like we have the proper support up here for a resolution.

I don’t have a business class account, so I am under the impression that a residential-class account is not important.  If I were to open a business class account, for any reason, I would be extremely hesitant to open one with Frontier or recommend one to any clients, knowing the issues I’m having.

For further reference, the ticket number I was given is: [ticket number redacted].

What is my next step to ensure my issue is being properly resolved?  Also, importantly, for anyone else in the area that may be having these issues?Thank you for your time, and I am looking forward to your response.

–
- Anthony Hook

[address redacted]

[phone redacted]

I received an update exactly 15 minutes later, and here’s what it said.  I’ve redacted names and contact numbers, but I’ve kept details on who was CC’d visible.

From:  Lutzke, Rhonda Rhonda.Lutzke@ftr.com

To:  Anthony Hook <anthony.hook3@gmail.com>

CC:  ”Miller, Karen” <Karen.Miller@ftr.com>,
“Curtis, Ryan” <Ryan.Curtis@ftr.com>,
“Vanooyen, John R.” <john.vanooyen@ncnetwork.net>,
“Abbott, Jim W.” <jim.abbott@ncnetwork.net>,
“Johnson, Christine” <Christine.Johnson@ftr.com>

Good Evening Mr. Hook,

I apologize for your HSI speed trouble and the unacceptable amount of time you are spending on trying to find a resolution.  I will ask [name] ([number]), General Manager for Northern Wisconsin, and [name] ([number]), Technical Manager located in Antigo, to assist you with your service in order to find a better resolution.  I have also copied our VP of Engineering to determine what can be done for Hazelhurst area long term as we are working on our budget and network plans for 2012.

Please allow us a few days to review the situation, discuss our possible solutions, and respond back to you with potential resolution and timing.  Thank you for letting me know of your trouble and we will contact you tomorrow with an update.

Sincerely,

Rhonda

Rhonda M. Lutzke

Senior Vice President, National Region

Frontier Communications

100 Communications Drive

Sun Prairie, WI  53590

rhonda.lutzke@ftr.com

608-837-1616

715-781-3434

I can help you!

I’ve been on the phone with Frontier for 01:26:37 (HH:MM:SS) this morning, cutting into my work day.  Here’s a summary, including direct quotes.”

The level 1 tech support person has been “chatting” (read: Instant Messaging) with an engineer regarding my issues for the vast majority of the time.  The engineer, “found an issue with the DSLAM,” and I was under the impression he was taking care of it.  After about another half hour of waiting, “He’s putting this job in a tech’s hands, he’s going to try to make sure it gets done today.”

They need to make sure that they told me about their “Frontier Security service” they offer. [sigh]

“DSLAM’s are in different places, something has to be physically changed,” they need someone physically on-premises to verify it’s working.  I explicitly, as before, told them to make a note to call an hour before they arrive so that I can be there.  I should expect a call between 12:00pm CST and 4:00pm CST.

New ticket number: [redacted], since they managed to close my original ticket.

All this for the 1Mbit service.  I await their call.

I’ve since received two phone calls, including direct callback numbers for people in the local area, with updates to my service. Congestion was happening on two different pieces of hardware, and they are moving me to not-congested equipment. I will actually be able to use a 3Mbit service, they are providing some sort of credit to my account, and sending a technician out to verify connectivity.

The second gentleman thanked me for writing the above letter, and told me, “You have way more patience than I would have as a regular consumer.”

I hope this is a good example for them to get some things straightened out so this type of nonsense doesn’t happen to anyone else.

Rick Schwai from our own Ubuntu Wisconsin Local Community had an interview with WXPR regarding his upcoming presentation, “Introduction To Ubuntu.”  Above is the sound clip from WXPR, where Rick got a little more than a minute of airtime giving a brief introduction to Ubuntu, giving listeners taste of what they can see on October 3rd.  If you’re in the area and find this interesting, we hope to see you there.  I’ll be there, with a nice stack of Ubuntu 10.04 LTS CDs to hand out to anyone who attends.

Stop on by:

When: Mon, 03 Oct. 2011 18:30 – 19:30 CDT

Where: Rhinelander District Library

Why: Introduction to Ubuntu

Let me know if you have any questions, and we hope to see you there!

IRC event in #ubuntu-brainstorm and #ubuntu-us-wi conducted by the Ubuntu Wisconsin LoCo Team.

Sept 3, 2011 1700-2000 UTC (that’s 1200-1500 CDT)

Lean how the various teams and upstream projects interact by triaging Brainstorm ideas.

Meet new people who want to improve Ubuntu, too!

No experience necessary, no coding skills necessary – all training provided. Mentoring provided.

Details

When: Sat, 03 Sept. 2011 17:00 – 20:00 UTC

IRC Channel: #ubuntu-brainstorm, #ubuntu-us-wi

Event Contact: Ian Weisser

Organizing Team(s): Ubuntu Wisconsin LoCo Team

Global Event: Ubuntu Global Jam