The staff here at the apartments I live in really pulled a fast one on me. Before I moved in, I asked them about their internet and cable services. I was told they were included in the price of rent, but “if you aren’t happy with the services, you can get your own cable / internet provider”. Sounds good to me.

As expected, the internet here is very slow. Just how slow, you ask?

Yeah, absolutely horrible! To make matters worse, that line they fed me about getting my own provider was total BS. The local cable company doesn’t even run lines to this complex. Gee, thanks.

I was so angry with the net last night that I decided to hook my phone up and see what kind of speeds I could pull down with it.

It’s a sad day when my cell phone can provide a connection that is a great deal faster than my “high-speed broadband” connection. I dream of the day I can have a fast internet connection again

Wow… that has to be one of the worst “spills” I have ever seen…

From chapter 17 of my upcoming book “Point & Laugh!”…

I moved out of my old apartment a few weeks ago. I was told I had until May 31 to turn in my key, so I left a few items there (entertainment center, a table, some lamps)… just random stuff. I was planning to sell the entertainment center to a friend so there was no need to move it to storage.

I have been back my the old place a few times this week to do some cleaning and such so I could get my deposit back. The first day, everything went well. Day two, I notice that the deadbolt lock was locked - strange because I didn’t lock it when I left the day before. I come back the next day and again, it is locked when I didn’t lock it.

Today I make another trip over there. The deadbolt is unlocked, just the way I left it, good. I go inside and find that my entertainment center is gone! Why am I not surprised?

I then head over to the student housing office and explain the situation. Everyone there acted a bit “strange” - they all huddled in a back corner and talked for a bit. Then the student housing director got my number and said she was going to try and locate it, but either way, “we will make it right”.

My thoughts - I can only think of two different scenarios that might have played out. First, there have been contractors and housing workers at the building all week working on two apartments in the building. They have seen me come and go and clearly they would have had a key to my place. Perhaps they came by and decided to help themselves to the entertainment center.

My second theory is that I was put on the “vacant” list and student housing workers simply took it away, thinking I had left it there. That doesn’t make much sense though, as nothing else was missing or cleaned.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out…

Just when it seemed that the troubles with Sprint were a thing of the past… uhm, NO! As Dane Cook would say, “This G**D*** epic battle has just begun!”

After the fiasco last weekend, I was left with a credit on my account of $53.14. Yey… uhm, NO!

I get an automated “courtesy call” from Sprint today, saying I was over my spending limit and my service may soon be disconnected. I was prompted to make a credit card payment over the phone (despite the fact I am not allowed to do that for whatever reason).

I hang up and dial *2 to check my balance and minute usage. The automated lady tells me I have a zero balance and again, a credit of $53.14. Ok, I’m really confused now.

I transfer myself to a customer service rep, who has to be the most clueless person I have ever spoken with. I tell her the situation, she places me on hold, then returns. She says yes, I have a credit of $53.14 on my account. Ok, I ask how I am over my spending limit. She says I owe them nearly $280.00 (I don’t remember the exact amount).

I’m shocked at this point, and ask how that is possible if I have a credit to my account… meaning I have overpaid. She tells me again I owe XXX amount of money. Lady, look, that doesn’t even make logical sense; think about what you are saying!

She puts me on hold once again for about five minutes, comes back and confirms this once again. I ask her to break it down because it’s impossible. She starts way back in March’s billing period, stumbling and correcting herself several times right from the start. It didn’t help matters that she spoke with a heavy foreign accent.

She quickly tried to explain her reasoning, which made no sense at all. From what I gathered, she was trying to bill me twice for March and didn’t mention my payment on April 24 - WTF. I tell her this is ridiculous, that I am hanging up, going inside (ironic my cell phone service doesn’t pick up worth a damn in my room) to check my billing and banking records and will call back shortly.

I’m pretty angry at this point, and “shortly” turns into a good hour. I printed out all of my online bill statements from February to May, cross-reference my payments with my bank statements - everything adds up correctly, and there is no way in hell I owe them nearly $280.

I head back outside and place my call. I talk to another lady who has a similar accent, but is indeed someone different. I explain the situation to her. Her reply stunned me.

“Sir, I can assure you that you have a balance of zero and you have a credit of $53.14.”

What?! I just wasted an entire hour researching this… why did the other lady tell me I owed so much money? Why did I receive a “courtesy call” saying I was over my spending limit?

She had no answer for me. Then, she has the nerve to ask me something to the effect of “have I answered all of your questions today?”. Are you serious?! My reply, “Nope, you told me something completely different from the other lady I talked to. One of you is lying and I don’t know what to believe… so, no, you haven’t helped me at all!”.

I am happy to report that my Apple iPhone vs Palm Treo 700p article managed to hit the front page of Digg.com today. The results were pretty amazing…

This is one of the “stronger” Diggs that my site has received. I was fully prepared for it, having upgraded my hosting package to a dedicated server which I was told would be able to handle future Digg’s without a problem.

And they lied right to my face! Needless to say I was a bit more than pissed off when the server crashed instantly and remained up / down / very slow for several hours afterwards. I pay a lot of money for this dedicated server, only to watch it all slip away when it crashes. I had certainly better receive a full refund for this month’s fees… oh, and does anybody know a decent, reliable hosting company that won’t crash on me under pressure?

Ahhh the bad luck never seems to stop! I have been fooling with the local cable company for 1 1/2 weeks now trying to get digital cable and internet installed at my new apartment.

When I signed my lease, the people in the office told me that if I wasn’t happy with the free cable and internet that was provided by the apartment complex, I was free to call the local cable company and get service through them. That is exactly what I did.

Fast forward to today - the cable guy is half an hour late when he calls me and tells me that they don’t even have their cable lines running to this apartment complex. Now, why couldn’t they have told me that when I talked to them the first time! I wasted most of my day waiting for them to show up, only to learn that I wouldn’t be getting any service. Thanks.

Moving on to my second rant: Sprint. I signed a contract with Sprint a year ago. I had been a Sprint customer in the past but had since moved to a different provider. Instead of them welcoming me back with open arms, they slapped me with a $200 deposit and a ton of restrictions on my account (I can’t pay over the phone with a credit/debit card, because I don’t qualify - how lame!). Furthermore, I have only received maybe two or three bills in the mail from Sprint, despite calling several times to complain about this.

So, I am left to mail in a check every month without a bill attached, which apparently delays the processing time. It usually takes a full two weeks for them to process my payment.

I tried to make a phone call yesterday only to learn that Sprint had disconnected my service. I had went over my “spending limit” by $3 - so they disconnect me. Now, had they processed my payment in a timely fashion, this would not have happened.

So, getting back to that $200 deposit… When I signed my contract, I was told I would get my deposit back in one year. I got in touch with customer service today, and wadda ya know, the deposit refund has magically changed from one year to two years. Thanks Sprint!

Google AdSense. As a blogger, I hear about AdSense more than most people. The topics of most articles I see usually cover the wonderful side of AdSense; how to place ads, target your audience and make a ton of money. The truth behind AdSense, at least for me, does not have such a happy ending.

I installed AdSense on my hardware review site OCIA.net back in the summer of 2004 and received my first payment in the amount of $190.63 a few months later. At that time, this was the only advertising on the site and needless to say, I was thrilled with the results.

OCIA.net was more or less a hobby of mine for several years; something I enjoyed doing but never thought that it could be profitable. Now, simply by installed one set of ads, I was making money… money that I could have been making all along. It all seemed too easy… and perhaps it was. I should have capitalized on it at that very point, but I didn’t. I didn’t do anything different.

I continued with this single set of ads… the very same placement that it is at today. I have changed nothing from 2004. The result?

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure this one out. My AdSense revenue has taken a plunge directly into the toilet. It now takes me three months to accumulate how much money I used to earn in a single month despite the fact that the site receives much more traffic these days.

The change in income did not happen overnight; it was a slow and gradual process. So slow, in fact, that I really didn’t notice how bad it had become until recently. Since dropping out of school and deciding to run the site full time, I have become a lot more aware of this. Hey, you have to put food on the table right?

I blame this solely on me and my lack of effort to better target my audience and optimize the ads I use. This is partly due to the fact that I didn’t know the first thing about marketing and advertising. The other reason for my lack of success points directly to the layout of OCIA.net. The design is several years outdated and is in desperate need of an overhaul.

My next post about AdSense will no doubt cover a brighter story. Once the redesign of OCIA.net is complete, I will be singing a new tune - the tune of success!

Since moving to my new apartment a week ago, I have still needed to go back to campus a few times for various things (graduation, check the mail, get stuff from my old apartment, etc.). The new apartment is just off campus and one of the advertised perks of the property is the walking trail that leads directly to campus.

I have taken this path several times since moving here; twice today even. And already, I have noticed a pretty big problem…

Yey, ticks… and not just one, I found two on me today! I wonder how long it will be until I acquire lyme disease

I returned home last night from a very unexpected day only to find the server that hosts this blog and my tech site was down. This is not uncommon in the early morning hours as backups are being created and this sometimes takes down the sites for a few minutes.

After an hour or so, I decided to shoot an email to my hosting company, only to find their entire site was down also! There was not much else I could do at this point, so I just called it a night and hit the bed.

Things seem to be running smoothly now, and it looks like I have a lot of catching up to do!

Well I learned the hard way today that you should always take your comforter to the cleaners to get cleaned. Having just moved in and being excited that I now have access to a washer/dryer in my apartment, I decided it would be a good idea to wash my comforter. In the washing machine it goes… then when it’s time to move things to the dryer, we discovered the machine had ripped two large holes in my plush micro suede comforter. Grrr, that thing was expensive!

A trip to Wal-Mart was in order for a replacement… just what I wanted to do, spend more money