Spinning Yarns from the Farm

I signed up for Exede Voice after hearing how much money it will save me and how well it works in all of their ads. Now the test begins. I can't say much for the sign up process. It took too long, they had to call me back because they didn't get all of the information that they needed in the first two calls. I hate calling these places because they never get your info correct. I would much rather fill out online forms.

If you are going to port an existing number, make sure that you have your account number for that carrier. The number that I wanted to port was with AT&T, so I had to give Exede my AT&T account number and the last four digits of my SS number.

The name on my new account conformation email was not right. In order to correct any errors you must call Customer Service again to get it changed. Did I already say that I hate calling Customer Service?

When I called this time, I got someone who wasn't awake yet or at least hadn't had her coffee. She talked so softly that I had to ask her to repeat herself and she seemed to resent that. After telling her why I was calling and explaining my problem, I was told that their system wasn't running yet and that I would have to call back in 45 minutes.

*Update: Just called Customer Service for the 4th time! A man with a very thick foreign accent told me (I think?) that their system is down for upgrades and to call back later. I wonder when later might be?

*Update: After waiting a couple of days I summoned my courage and called Customer Service back. I was told that the misspelled name didn't matter! Even though the email and the paper letter that I received said to call them if any of my personal information for Caller ID and 911 services was not correct.

While on the phone with them, I was told that my number had already ported, so I could activate my service. I told her that my land line phone was still ringing in at that number and she said that it might do that until I did the activation.

So, I hooked up my equipment, got online to activate my service and wouldn't you know, it only worked until I got to the MAC address entry then it said, "Invalid Device".

I just cannot bear to call those people again. I am so very, very tired...

Dear Exede Internet,
You are suppose to be an Internet company, why can't we take care of our Internet services on the Internet?

*Update 3/26/14: Since I could not bear the thought of calling CS again, I posted my problem on the Wildblue/Exede World Forum. A helpful moderator offered her assistance. I explained my entire problem in a PM. I told her that I wanted to make sure the number was already ported because I didn't believe that it was. I also explained that the caller ID and 911 name was misspelled.

Instead of changing the name and coming back to tell me that the number was not yet ported, she activated my account. When I asked about the name she told me that she would change that information when the number ported. I am seriously dizzy from dealing with these people. I could have waited patiently for the number to port, if I had not been told that the port had already been completed.

As I wait for my land-line to stop working, indicating that the number has transferred so I can finish this process. I eagerly await my next anxiety filled communication with Exede's finest. I think the thing that grates on me the most is the fact that they all tell you how sorry they are that you are having difficulty. Then offer to help you in any way they can, while they are no help at all. Followed by asking you if there is anything else they can help you with.

Oh, did I mention that your billing for Exede Voice begins when you call to order it and not when you receive the equipment and/or get them motivated to straighten out your account? And did I mention that it is supposed to be $19.99 per month for the first 6 months and then $29.99 after that? I bet you can't guess what they charged me for the first month? That's right, $29.99! Now, can you guess what I have to do to get this straightened out? My Husband is rather strongly suggesting that I cancel it all and go with HughesNet!

*Update 3/27/14: It has been 8 days since I ordered. I am waiting for the number to port, I guess. Can't use the service until the number ports but I am already paying. I am too scared to contact anyone about being charged $29.99 for the first month instead of the $19.99 that they promised, I fear that they will charge me instead of refund me.

*Update 3/29/14: From the Exede Voice Website: "Government regulations allow your previous carrier to take up to 3 business days to release your number to us. However, most porting requests are completed within 1 business day." Well, it has been 10 days and I am still waiting. I posted on the forum about this yesterday (I refuse to call CS again!), the moderator checked on my account and said that the number transfer would be completed on April 4th. So much for Government Regulations and so much for the info provided on the Exede website.

I hope to think that the number port was requested on the 19th and not by the moderator yesterday. So I am paying for over 2 weeks of service that I can't use. The moderator also told me that she had resolved my billing problem. We will have to wait and see if that is true, I am not holding my breath! She also told me that she had requested a sooner release of my number, that she would see this through to the end and that she would keep me posted. I really don't care for pretty words and promises, I just want some action!

As a side note, it makes me a little nervous that I have talked to 6 different people in the last 10 days and they have all had access to my personal information.

*Update 4/4/14: My number finally ported on April 2nd, at that time I was assured by the forum moderator that everything had been taken care of. My bill had been adjusted and the 911 info had been corrected. When I got into my account today (two days later), I found that everything is the same with no changes whatsoever.

*Update 9/6/16: I am now an Exede Voice Expert after using it for over two years. But I am stuck with it because AT&T is no longer providing landline service in our area and we don't have a cell signal here. My opinion of Exede Voice is that it is totally useless. When we first started out with it, it was not too bad but I don't even answer my phone much anymore because the latency issue is unbearable. My Exede internet speed, in general, is nearly as slow as dial-up now, so this makes the phone service unusable. If you call someone they normally hang up before they can hear you say hello. It also drops calls constantly, I never have an uninterrupted call unless it is less than 5 minutes long. We don't even try to make important calls and the first thing we tell people is that we have Satellite and that our call will be dropped, just to prepare them. I hate everything about Exede at this point!

*Update 4/5/2018: This is my final update because I no longer have Exede Voice. I was offered a great new plan with Viasat (formally Exede) and in order to be able to afford it, I had to drop my Exede Voice service which is very overpriced with all of their add-ons and fees. I now have an Obihai box and VoIP with Google Voice. It works just as well as Exede Voice ever did and it is FREE! Loving my new Viasat Silver 25 Unlimited Internet Plan as well, but don't bother looking for it because it is no longer available.

Click here to see a review of Exede Satellite Internet.

I have always hated spam but compared to what others have told me about how much they receive everyday, I figured we were pretty lucky. We use MailWasher Pro located at www.firetrust.com to filter, sort and preview our mail before downloading it. This has always worked well for us.

If an email is suspicious we can view is safely in MailWasher to determine its legitimacy, then download or delete it. We used to blacklist email addresses with it as well but spam email is mostly cloaked and there is no reason to penalize an innocent mail server.

As of October 19th we were receiving about 70 spam emails per day, that was normal for us. Then we listed a mare on Craigslist, we got several serious inquiries on her or at least they seemed serious.

Some of the inquiries were just: "Is the mare still available?". When we answered them back, "Yes, she is still available.", we never heard anything from them again.

The flood gates were opened. As of today, we are receiving about 300 spam emails per day and climbing. These inquiries are nothing more than a way to get you to respond and reveal your email address. It is then put on a spam list as a current and active email address.

We thought that if we used Craigslist again, we would just list a phone number and say that we will not respond to emails but my Son listed an item on there and actually got a spam phone call. It's a dangerous world out there...

We had a wonderful thunder storm on Wednesday night that produced enough rain to keep us from being forced into a burn ban. One flash of lightening was very intense and the boom that accompanied it was deafening and too close. Our lights did not go out but my phone died.

Sometime later one of our phones rang but it wasn't the one that is hooked into our computer system, so I knew that the problem was with the phone or lines into my computer. I started plugging and unplugging and testing until I found the problem to be with my HotCall HC2000 box.

The HotCall HC2000 is a little device that rings to let you know that you have a call coming in while you are using your dialup internet connection. This box has kept me happy for many years and I am sure that it has kept our family and friends happy as well because they didn't always get a busy signal when we were online. It has lasted many years and served us well. It will be disposed of with honors.

So, off I go to look for another HotCall box with thoughts of having to order it and how long it might take to receive it in the mail. But then, I think that with all of the new technology that is out there today and the fact that I haven't researched this in a long time that there might just be a software solution other than CallWave and some of the call forwarding programs that I have tried before. They require a call forwarding from your phone service and there is a small fee that you have added on to your monthly phone bill.

Sure enough there is a little program that works wonderfully with no fees from the phone company and it actually works great. I had it downloaded and installed in no time. I am really happy with this software. It is called PhoneTray Dialup and it is located at http://www.phonetray.com/index.htm.

They have other programs too that are free that will zap telemarketers and block callers that you don't want to talk to, but the one that you want is called PhoneTray Dialup, it is the only one that allows you to receive phone calls while being online.

It has a 30 day free trial then after the 30 days are up you have to pay $15.95 USD to purchase it. This is a one time fee that you can use on other computers and never have to pay for again. You will receive a license number that you keep in a safe place in case you have to upgrade or download a new copy to a new computer.

It only works if you have Call Waiting through your phone company and it works really well if you have Call Waiting Caller ID because it will tell you who is calling and their phone number. You even have a choice of whether it tells you in a male voice or just in a text box. You can chose to disconnect and take the call, place the internet connection on hold and take the call, ignore the call or zap the call with a choice of recorded messages.

I do have call waiting which is required but I do not have call waiting caller ID, so all calls just come up as N/A for me. I can't believe that it took a storm for me to find a program that I like so well.

If you have a dial-up and you can't get phone calls while online, you should check this out. If you have a modem that allows it, you can even put your connection on hold and take the call, then go back online without having to redial. This works for me for about three minutes before my internet connection disconnects.

Yesterday morning's rain was wonderful, I refuse to complain about the rain after last year's drought. It's the mud that keeps giving me problems. A river washed through our barn/house, so the whole barn floor is slippery and we have puddles in the barn. Water also came through the wall into my living room while I slept yesterday morning. I kept waking up to the thunder, lightening and pouring rain, that gave me a good excuse to just keep right on sleeping.

As soon as my Husband left for work, there was a painfully loud clap of thunder that was followed by a pop that shook the house. The electricity went out, then came back on, so I rolled over and slept some more.

When it quit raining, I got up and found my wet floors and of course no phone service. This sounded a little different to me when I held the phone to my ear, it was just dead. Usually when someone steals our phone lines or service is just out, I can hear dead air but this was just dead with no sound at all. I had the feeling that it had something to do with that lightening strike.

When my DH came home for lunch with the cell phone, I called neighbors on both sides of us and they both had service. So I whined around until I got my DH to wade through the mud to break into the phone box on the outside of the barn/house and hook a phone up out there to see if the problem was inside the house. Sure enough we had service out there, so I came into the house and started the process of elimination.

I found out that my high priced phone line surge protector had done it's job and gave it's life to save my phones and computer. So I rerouted a few lines around the surge protector and was back in business. However, my computer and phones are now at risk if we should get another storm. I will purchase another one because this proves that they actually work.

We were without phones and internet service all day again yesterday. The copper thief struck again. I had to take the neighbor's other two dogs to be groomed and I passed the crime scene. There were only a couple of AT&T trucks there this time and one police car. They were all sitting around laughing and taking a break while my phone lines were lying there shredded and my contact with the outside world was disconnected.

The problem is this; I realized yesterday that they are not replacing the lines with anything new, they are replacing it with the same old copper wire. The reason that I know this is because this is the third time that this stretch of line has been stolen. The lines hang down close to the ground in this spot and it is on top of a hill in a secluded area with no trees to block their view for a couple of miles, so they can see a car coming very easily in any direction.

Now I am not that smart but I have noticed that they only steal these lines on weekends but they do switch it around from Friday to Saturday or Sunday nights. But they are basically hitting the same areas each time. We have been without service on around six different occasions since this all started.

At least this gives the AT&T repairmen something to do, so maybe they won't lose their jobs to downsizing. Job security is good thing, I guess. How's that for a positive attitude? I do know all of these guys pretty well, since we have had a lot of phone problems in the last several years. There was a time that I talked to them at least twice a week. But other than the stolen lines, they did finally track down and fix our problem after I talked to a nice man at the Utility Regulatory Commission. Maybe I should give him another call, at the very least our phone bills should be adjusted for all of these outages.

I don't know if our phone was down because of thieves again or if it was something else but we didn't have phone service when we got up yesterday. If we don't have phone service then we don't have internet service, because we live out here in this third world country with no modern conveniences like city water or high speed internet options.

Someone is stealing our old phone lines for their copper content. This is fine with me because if they continue to steal it then we will eventually get all new phone lines and maybe better service and maybe even DSL. It is pretty annoying because it is happening so often and we are without service for the whole day. They told the people who called it in that we wouldn't have service back until Monday but they did have it fixed yesterday evening. I hate not having a phone or internet but I can live with it if it is for the greater good.

When I took feed out to my Mille Fleur D'uccle setting hen, she got off the nest and I counted six babies and two more that were in the process of hatching. The problem is that the little tiny chicks are jumping out of the nest and they can't get back in. I had to rescue them several times yesterday by putting them back in.

It wasn't all my fault, I would have blogged yesterday but some loser cut our phone line. Not just ours but the whole neighborhood's, they stole 150 foot of it. I guess it has value somewhere. I hope that they don't get in a habit of stealing it in our part of the woods.

When we finally got our phone and internet service back yesterday evening we were in the middle of a little birthday party for two of the Grandkids. Then of course, I was too exhausted to blog and went straight to bed. Now that takes care of the excuses for not blogging on Thursday.

On Wednesday, I was busy all day making halters that I am so far behind on, I am getting tons of e-mails from people wanting to know where their halters are. My poor hands can only make a few per day without cramping up on me, I have callouses on my callouses. Sometimes I even bust blood vessels in my fingers. Spring is always crazy like this, right when I am my busiest with foaling and kidding, I get tons of halter orders and people wanting updates on their websites because they have new foals as well. I haven't even had time to put my new foals on our website yet.

I worked hard to get caught up on halters on Wednesday, then the rain started and it rained and it rained. Our house/barn is sitting at the base of a hill and we do not have any guttering on it yet because we haven't been able to save enough money, all of our savings went into our horse's bellies this winter. So, we spent most of Wednesday evening trenching and sandbagging. Actually my DH spent most of the evening trenching and sandbagging. I just stood out in the rain with an umbrella trying to figure out where the best places would be for a trench. We did have some success in rerouting the water but it seems like every time we get a downpour like this one it takes a new direction and we have to change our strategy.

Enough already, Hillary, I got your messages loud and clear. I have received three phone calls from the Hillary Clinton Campaign. Plus all of the mass mailings in my mailbox. I am surprised that she doesn't have my e-mail address. The first two calls were from live people but the one that I got today was just a recording. Hillary herself will probably be calling me on Monday or Tuesday.

The last piece of mail that I got was all about where Barack Obama really stands on guns, that just struck me funny because it didn't say anything about where Hillary stands on guns. Then the recorded message that I got today was the same message about Obama's stand on guns, paid for by Hillary Clinton for President.

I get the feeling that I am being profiled here. A little paranoia is setting in, what makes them think that I am a bitter person living in a rural place or small town who clings to guns? Now while Barack Obama may have made this statement, it is the Clinton campaign who must really believe it or they wouldn't be targeting me with this ad and this recorded phone message.

My oldest, unmarried Granddaughter is 4 years old. She is extremely smart by anyone's standards and not just by mine or her Grandfather's. She has already decided what she is going to be when she grows up; a ballerina, a doctor, a figure skater and a Mommy. This changes from time to time, so I may have left something out. She has pretty much given up the desire to be a Princess and doesn't want to just be beautiful or just be smart, she wants to be both and is accomplishing this right now.

Her Mother recently taught her how to dial both sets of Grandparents and 911 on the phone, in case of emergency. They were all at my house the other day when my telephone rang and I answered it. This little voice started talking to me, asking me who I was and then saying some other things that I couldn't quite make out. I thought that it was a wrong number and I was being nice, I asked who she was wanting to talk to and who she was.

We had talked for a couple of minutes and I kept thinking that it sounded just like my Granddaughter but she and her sisters were all playing in my bedroom and living room, it couldn't be her. Then when I ask her who she was again, she gave me the name of my other daughter-in-law, her Mother got a strange look on her face and jumped up out of her chair and went into our bedroom.

My Granddaughter was hiding on the other side of my bed, on the floor, using her Mother's cell phone. I heard her Mother's voice coming through the receiver of my phone and the little girl that I was talking to started giggling and I finally figured out what was going on.

Early the next morning my telephone rang and I answered it. It was my Granddaughter and she had lots to talk about, she is never at a loss for words. I asked if her Mother knew that she had called me and she said that her Mother was right there in the same room with her. Her Mother does sometimes let her call me but I was suspicious this time.

She told me that her sisters were still asleep and at times her voice would get very soft, like she didn't want someone to hear her. Finally after about 15 minutes of listening to her fill me in about all of the exciting things going on in her tiny world. She suddenly said goodbye and quit talking. I asked her why she was saying goodbye and she whispered that she didn't have to say goodbye right now but that she might have to say goodbye at anytime. So, I ask her again if her Mother knew that she was on the phone and she again said. yes.

Then I could hear their dogs and her Mommy letting the dogs out and I heard her Mom ask who she was talking to. Then her Mom was on the Phone asking how long she had been talking to me. I told her about 17 minutes, she was relieved that she hadn't called me at 6:00 in the morning. She also told me that she had been hiding under the dining room table the whole time and that she had taken the phone off of it's charger on the kitchen counter.

This is my 13th post, I seem to be reaching my goal of keeping a journal.

If you have read my previous posts, you know that I have an ongoing problem with AT & T. They called today to tell me that the repairman would be here on Saturday the 5th at some vague time. I reported problems on my phone line on the 28th of December and was assured that my phone would be fixed by the 5th, not on the 5th. Well the repairman showed up today and said that he didn't think that he fixed the problem but might have. Then advised me to get cellular phones and just ditch the land line, since we have so much trouble with it and they can't locate the problem.

He also said that I could get my internet connection through my cell phone since we have a good signal here, I went to the website and couldn't find any information about a wireless internet connection. Maybe the same people that built the web site for GoDaddy built the AT & T site.

After taking care of renewing a domain name, I thought that I might vent some steam here. I have around 28 domain names registered with GoDaddy.com and every time I have to go to that website I get so angry and I always threaten to transfer my names somewhere else!

I know that they make pretty good money and brag about what a quality company that they are and how many customers that they have, so why can't they afford to build a better website?

We live in an area that has no high speed internet connection options, so unless we want to shell out the money for satellite dish service, we are pretty much stuck with dial-up. We get by, sometimes painfully, but there are a few websites that are without excuse.

I can go to many big websites without getting upset, sites like Amazon and eBay are not a problem at all, but GoDaddy, PayPal and the United States Postal Service websites are just impossible.

GoDaddy.com is without question the worst, they take the first place ribbon for being the all time slowest website out there. I hate going there and avoid it at all costs. I guess I need to do some shopping and find another registrar, to save myself from a total melt down.

Why is that site so slow? It takes forever to pull any information from their databases and having to wade through all of the stupid advertising is just ridiculous. Don't they make enough money selling their services? Putting so much advertising on the site makes the whole shopping experience confusing. I really don't understand how they do any business at all with all of the confusion on each page.

If their site is any indication of the speed of their servers, I don't think that I would want to host a website there.

Enough of that, now let's talk about AT & T, the phone company. Since we do only have access to the internet by dial-up and pay each month for phone service, wouldn't you think that we should have a right to a working phone line? My continuing fear is that we would have some kind of emergency and have to depend on our home phone to dial 911.

The static in our line is so bad that you can't keep a internet connection and the disconnects while you are talking on the phone are very annoying. We have just had to adapt by starting each phone conversation with "Now we might get disconnected because we live in a third world country and the phone service isn't very good here." We understood about "dropped calls" before cell phones were even invented.

I will have to admit though, that things are getting much better than they used to be. We used to have to spend weekends and Holidays with no phone service at all, that hasn't happened in a long time.

We have had to call in for repairs so many times that we get a little irritable with the stupid things that we are told each time. Our neighbors are having the same problems and the phone company has even blamed the electric company. Then finally, the last time that a repairman was out, he sat in my house and told me that they just don't know what is causing it, and I do appreciate that kind of honesty. I just wish they would give us a break on our phone bill.

We called repair last Friday the 28th and were told that, "Yes, they could hear the static", then they said that they would have it repaired by January 5th, the next day they called back to find out for sure that we still needed repair and to assure me that they would have it repaired by January 5th, I said something to the affect that that was a long time to go without an internet connection and with a phone that you can barely use, she quickly snapped back that she had said BY January 5th and not ON January 5th, that made me feel much better. In the mean time she wanted to know how I felt about the service that they had provided today.

All in all I will have to say that, AT & T employees are much more intelligent than those people who work in Hospital Billing but that really isn't saying much because the only people that rank lower than Hospital billing employees are Spammers.