PayPal Sucks

After having to create a new personal PayPal account, I ran another auction for some home automation equipment and used my new PayPal account as the payment account (hoping it would not be a credit card transaction). It wasn't and everything went smoothly...until later in the day I received a phone call from a PayPal support person. He was trying to check if I had indeed set up the auction and the new PayPal account. The problem is, he was a complete ass about it. He had a very antagonistic tone and kept asking if am I planning on shipping the items. He also kept asking where I'm getting the items from, practically accusing me of setting up a fake auction and PayPal account to scam someone. I asked him was this really necessary? Does he need to know where my items are from? But he was very insistent. Obviously, I'm shipping something as I had already purchased and printed out a UPS shipping label using my PayPal account. I appreciate they are trying to prevent fraud, but learn some customer service skills if you don't want to alienate more customers. He didn't even bother asking me to verify any account information to determine if I was really the owner of the eBay and PayPal accounts.

Nokia Comes Through

After not hearing an email response from Nokia support, I called their support line yesterday. I was told that since it has been in repair for over 30 days, I should expect a call from their Executive Resolution team in about an hour. I wasn't called though. This morning, about 20 hours later, I received an email asking me to call their Executive Resolution department. I was told, as a one time gesture, due to the delays with the repair of my Nokia 770, they would replace it with a brand new Nokia 800. Needless to same, I am very pleased with the outcome. After faxing a form back and forth, it should be about a week or two before I have my replacement in hand. Thank you Nokia, although I still have another 770 from the same purchase that I will always wonder when it will WSOD.

More Negative News About eBay

Trouble at eBay

I Want the HTC Touch Pro!

The QWERTY sibling to the HTC Diamond has officialy been announced. It should be in the States toward the end of the year, just in time for my cell contract to be up for renewal.

Emailing Nokia (Lack of) Support

I've sent a couple emails to Nokia support to find out what other options I have regarding my dead 770. I contacted them on the May 15th and they responded on the 15th. I also emailed them on the May 21st and we exchanged 6 emails all within hours of each other. I sent an email May 29th and they have yet to reply, so I emailed again 6 hours ago and I'm still waiting. My thread must have been flagged for ignoring. That way they can keep claiming Nokia is unaware of this white screen of death problem. I suppose if they admitted it, they would be open to class action lawsuit. If people are suing over returning crap to Fry's, this certainly would merit legal action.

On a positive note, I purchased the 770s with my American Express card so my manufacturer warranty is doubled to two years. Although, I think I'd prefer to have Nokia refund my money so I can get some Atom based UMPCs later this year.

eBay Really Does Suck

A BusinessWeek article pretty much summarizes how I feel about eBay, after recently selling stuff there for the first time in two years.

Installed a UPB Phase Coupler

I just removed my Leviton Signal Bridge and installed an HAI UPB Phase Coupler. It was a quick installation since I already had the breakers and junction box installed. I ordered it from Automated Outlet and Martin over there has always been very helpful.

I picked up a bunch of HAL labeled UPB lamp and appliance modules so I'm going to start experimenting with some UPB devices. I'm going to run a hybrid X10 & UPB environment (the UPB coupler bridges both UPB and X10), but I'm not quite sure how I'll do it yet. The TimeCommander+ only supports X10 so I have a serial UPB PIM coming. I'm not sure if I'm going to rely on existing xAP or xPL to UPB bridges, or write my own and connect it directly to starCOMUltra, since that is where most of the automation is centralized.

eBay Sucks

I've been selling some items on eBay for the first time in a couple years. I have always said in my auctions that if you are paying by PayPal and funding with a credit card, the buyer should contact me for a different PayPal account. Why? Because the only PayPal accounts that can accept credit cards are Business and Premier and if you have those accounts, they will take 2.9% out of the total for EVERY transaction. So, I maintained a personal account and a premier account for credit cards. Now, if someone doesn't know how to read and pays for my auction with a credit card, I cannot decline their payment. I HAVE to convert my account to a premier account. My guess is PayPal wants to eventually get rid of all those personal accounts so they can take 2.9% out of every transaction, even if I'm just sending cash to my friend who paid for lunch the day before. Sure I can create another personal PayPal account, but it's a pain in the ass. I'd rather sell stuff on Craigslist and get paid less for it than to get continuously nickel & dimed by eBay.

Still No Nokia 770 Update

Yesterday marked the 5th full week the repair center has had my Nokia 770, so in honor of that (after my daily ritual of seeing the repair status online remained at "Repair in Progress") I fired off an email to Nokia support:

"Is my 770 still waiting for parts or has repair actually begun? It
has been in repair for 5 weeks as of today."

I haven't heard anything from them in almost 24 hours, which is odd as their previous replies came only a few hours after my emails...

Bluetooth Proximity

I've been trying out Tony's xPL Proximty app and it's been working out pretty well. I was using a Java based blueooth app but I like Tony's app much better. With the USB bluetooth dongle in the server room, the range isn't very good, so I made a USB Cat5 extension. I cut a USB extension cable in half and terminated each end with a Cat5 keystone jack such that each wire took 2 connections in the jack. I connected the jacks with a 25 foot patch cable, plugged one end into the server and a powered USB hub into the other. Finally, I plugged the dongle in and it worked. Coverage was much better but I'm thinking of moving the dongle downstairs to be closer to the phones and that may be a little too far for this hack. There are some USB extenders I may look into later.

20% Off Coupon For Fry's Customers Who Returned Stuff

Fry's customers in California, who returned items purchased with a credit card, may be eligible to get a 20% off coupon for future Fry's purchases ( if the return process hasn't completely turned you off to shopping there :P ) Details here.

Nokia Says No "known issues with the Nokia 770 Internet Tablet"

My email exchange with Nokia support continues. Here's the latest:

"...our records do not reflect that there are any known issues with the Nokia 770 Internet Tablet. As mentioned in our previous communication, Nokia does not comment on information provided on third-party web sites."

I wonder what they have to say about this post on their own support forum.