define('DISALLOW_FILE_EDIT', true); define('DISALLOW_FILE_MODS', true); Technology Issues – Page 3

Attention Texas – File an Online Property Tax Protest

March 22, 2014 by

The Dallas Morning News and DallasNews.com are showing millions of Texas homeowners how to file online property tax protests and save thousands of dollars in taxes before the June 2, 2014 deadline.

The Dallas Morning News Watchdog columnist Dave Lieber and associate Marina Trahan Martinez have put together an easy-to-follow two-part series and accompanying video designed to help you save money.

“Texans don’t realize how easy this is, and they have a better than even chance of getting their taxes lowered if they at least try,” says Dave, the founder of Watchdog Nation, a consumer rights movement that shows Americans how easy it is to stand up for themselves.

dave tax protest pic

Part 1 of the series gives an overview of the online property tax protest process. Read it here.

Part 2 gives a county-by-county breakdown with more helpful information. Read it here.

Less than 2 percent of all eligible North Texans took advantage of this new service last year.

These stories are part of a larger package from The Dallas Morning News that help Texans learn how to cut their property taxes.

Read more at  Dallas County property tax appraisals raise 7 percent in 2014 and Upset by your Dallas County tax appraisal? Here’s how to protest.

And listen to Dave Lieber talk about his campaign to help understand how to do this on Grant Stinchfield’s KLIF 570AM radio show, The Stinchfield Report.

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dmnsmalltwitter1small wdn1smallyoutube2small fb1smallgplussmall Dave Lieber book that won two national awards for social change.\    

Filed Under: Column, Customer Service Issues, Technology Issues Tagged With: , , , , , ,

The Watchdog: AT&T retiree asks if she’s victim of a bait-and-switch

January 20, 2014 by

Virginia Bowers was once in love, but not anymore. Her paramour was her company, Southwestern Bell, where she worked as a manager for almost three decades. The company helped her raise three children as a single mom.

“I was enamored with the security,” she says.

No more. Dealing with her old Southwestern Bell, now flying under the AT&T flag after Southwestern purchased AT&T in 2005, is like wrangling with an ex-spouse, she says.

 “Every call with them is frustrating,” she says about her customer service experiences. On one recent call, she confesses regretfully, “I ended that phone call screaming at the man.”

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As readers of The Dallas Morning News Dave Lieber Watchdog column first learned, Bowers’ breakup started eight months ago. Bowers gets a letter from AT&T telling her she needs to upgrade her service. Well, that’s not how AT&T puts it. AT&T writes that it is “proactively transitioning some customers who live in your area to the advanced AT&T U-verse network with fiber-optic technology.”

Bowers already has a sweet deal for Internet service: DSL cable for $19.99 a month — for life. The letter, though, promises, “The change is free.”

She calls to ask the new monthly price. She learns it’s even lower — $15 a month. She asks several times if that’s the true price. A few days later, she calls again and talks to someone else. She double- checks the price one more time. Everyone assures her: $15 a month.

A sweeter deal, so she gives the OK. Her Internet service is disconnected. The company installs a new modem setup. For the first months, her bill is the promised $15.

Then Bowers gets another letter. The company regrets that it must share bad news. An audit shows that she has been charged the wrong amount. She’s paying the active managers’ rate when she should pay the retired managers’ rate. Her new rate is higher. Forty dollars a month. A jump from $15 to $40 — a 167 percent increase.

She protests. AT&T gives her a $30 credit. That’s the equivalent of an air kiss. Bowers is out $300 a year in extra charges. Even if she wants to go back to her old DSL service, the company says she can’t.

“Does this sound like entrapment or bait and switch to you?” she asks The Watchdog.

Sounds like a potential case of deceptive advertising. The Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act defines that as presenting a false statement about “the cost or character” of a product, service or financial security for sale.

AT&T calls it an unintentional error. The company caught the mistake. Now the correct price is being charged.

AT&T spokesman Dale Ingram says the company is treating Bowers fairly: “She had an active manager discount for almost a year. We didn’t go back and charge for that.”

He adds, “We’re applying the correct discount moving forward as a retired manager, and again, we have apologized.”

Sigh. Shouldn’t a promised price that is accepted by a customer stamp a deal as final? You’d think so, especially one involving a veteran former employee.

This is no surprise to AT&T critic John Spiller, who says AT&T employees sometimes struggle to present accurate facts to customers when making a sales pitch. Spiller wrote a 2011 tell-all book, The Ampersand Diaries: AT&T and Life Lessons Learned from the Trenches of an American Icon.

ampersand

“They do the same thing to their employees, past or present, that they do to their customers,” he says. “Say one thing. Do another. Very, very common.”

Bowers actually faces two AT&T price increases. The bill for her AT&T cellphone went up 61 cents on May 1, as it did for millions of other customers. AT&T says the new charge will help cover company expenses.

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More Watchdog Nation News:

Watchdog Nation Partners with Mike Holmes

America meets Watchdog Nation/Listen to Fun Radio Interview

Watchdog Nation Debuts New e-Book and Multi-CD Audio Book

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It was “a move that could bring in more than a half-billion dollars in annual revenue to the telecom giant,”The Wall Street Journal reported. (Other phone companies charge similar administrative fees.)

Bowers has two obvious options. She can file a complaint with the Texas attorney general’s office, which examines claims of deceptive advertising. She can also file a small-claims court lawsuit against AT&T for $300 to cover her lost money for a year and other added expenses. She doesn’t need a lawyer for small claims. But she needs proof of the deception, preferably in writing, photos or recordings.

How sad that Bowers’ longtime affection for her former company has come to this. She speaks nostalgically of “the universal relationship” the phone company once had with its customers.

“They frittered it away,” she says.

Dave Lieber's Watchdog Nation won a 2013 writing award from the National Society of Newspaper Columnists

Visit Watchdog Nation Headquarters

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Are you tired of fighting the bank, the credit card company, the electric company and the phone company? They can be worse than scammers the way they treat customers. A popular book, Dave Lieber’s Watchdog Nation: Bite Back When Businesses and Scammers Do You Wrong, shows you how to fight back — and win! The book is available at WatchdogNation.com as a hardcover, CD audio book, e-book and hey, what else do you need? The author is The Watchdog columnist for The Dallas Morning News. Visit our store. Now revised and expanded, the book won two national book awards for social change. Twitter @DaveLieber

AVAILABLE IN HARDCOVER, CD AUDIO BOOK, ON ITUNES (AUDIO), KINDLE AND IPAD.

Filed Under: Bad Business, Column, Customer Service Issues, Technology Issues, Utilities Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Watchdog Video Tip of the Day: How to battle your government

January 5, 2014 by

When you want to battle your government on a big issue, The Dallas Morning News Watchdog columnist Dave Lieber shows you how to use social media.

The Watchdog Video Tip of the Day, produced by DallasNews.com, is designed to solve a problem in less than a minute. Read more Watchdog reports at DallasNews.com/watchdog.

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More Watchdog Nation News:

Watchdog Nation Partners with Mike Holmes

America meets Watchdog Nation/Listen to Fun Radio Interview

Watchdog Nation Debuts New e-Book and Multi-CD Audio Book

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Dave Lieber's Watchdog Nation won a 2013 writing award from the National Society of Newspaper Columnists

Visit Watchdog Nation Headquarters

facebook icon 1

Like Watchdog Nation on Facebook

youtube icon 4

Watch Watchdog Nation on YouTube

twitter icon 3

Twitter @DaveLieber

Are you tired of fighting the bank, the credit card company, the electric company and the phone company? They can be worse than scammers the way they treat customers. A popular book, Dave Lieber’s Watchdog Nation: Bite Back When Businesses and Scammers Do You Wrong, shows you how to fight back — and win! The book is available at WatchdogNation.com as a hardcover, CD audio book, e-book and hey, what else do you need? The author is The Watchdog columnist for The Dallas Morning News. Visit our store. Now revised and expanded, the book won two national book awards for social change. Twitter @DaveLieber

AVAILABLE IN HARDCOVER, CD AUDIO BOOK, ON ITUNES (AUDIO), KINDLE AND IPAD.

Bam

Filed Under: Column, Government Tomfoolery, Introduction to Watchdog Nation, Technology Issues, Video Tagged With: , , , , ,

WORLD EXCLUSIVE: AT&T will take $14 off your phone bill, but there’s a catch

January 31, 2013 by

   Here’s big news that could save you $168 a year on your phone bill. But of course, AT&T isn’t calling to tell you.

   Watchdog Nation is.

   You may be entitled to a $14 reduction on your monthly phone bill – plus another three months of back credit for another $42. Over a year, that’s $168.

   But there’s a catch. Only Watchdog Nation, the consumer rights movement led by founder Dave Lieber, an investigative columnist, can tell you how to do this. In four words.

   You. Have. To. Ask.

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   Here’s the deal. One of the many free-and-easy guiding principles of Dave’s Watchdog Nation is this: you have to remember to ask each of your providers (cable, satellite TV, Internet, phone, electric) every few months if they are running any specials that will lower your bill. Tell them their competitors are offering you better prices.

   Almost every time we do it, it works.

   The other day, we, at Watchdog Nation World Headquarters in Texas, called AT&T’s customer service line. It’s no secret that Watchdog Nation is no fan of this corporate beast. (See our post “Is AT&T America’s worst company?”).

   What we learned in that call surprised us.  Turns out that for the past few months, AT&T has offered a new discount program that it has not publicized. Remember: You. Have. To. Ask. [pullquote]It’s called the “All Distance Bundle Package.”[/pullquote]

    badge-low-res

    It’s called the “All Distance Bundle Package.”

   This is available to all AT&T customers who meet the requirements: aAnyone who has the “premium unlimited long distance and local calling plan” with AT&T and WHO ALSO pays for another AT&T service using the same name and Social Security number, can get the $14 monthly discount.

   Other services that qualify include: any U-verse product; any DSL Internet product (all speeds qualify); any wireless plan rated at $39.99 per month or higher, or anyone who subscribes to DirecTV.

   In other words, if you use AT&T, say, for your home landline and also have U-verse TV or DirecTV, you get $14 off your bill.

   But …

   You. Have. To. Ask.

   Remember the name: The All Distance Bundle Package.

   * * *

   Do you like this kind of up-to-date inside information? Learning how to save money, avoid scams and be smart about how you spend your dollar?

   You’ll love the new 2013 edition of the national award-winning book, Dave Lieber’s Watchdog Nation: Bite Back When Businesses and Scammers Do You Wrong. Learn more at Dave’s bookstore here.

   Dave also shares Watchdog Nation’s simple concepts with a hundred or more audiences a year. Learn how to get Dave to visit your group here.

Dave Lieber's Watchdog Nation: Bite Back When Businesses and Scammers Do You Wrong won two national awards for social change.

Filed Under: Announcements, Column, Customer Service Issues, Technology Issues, Utilities Tagged With: , , , , ,

Stopping robo-calls from Rachel of Credit Card Services

October 31, 2012 by

Rachel from credit card services, where are you? Millions of Americans want to pull the plug on your constant robo-calling.

The Watchdog’s No. 1 source of complaints in recent months is these prerecorded calls from Rachel or other women who offer credit card services.

North Texans are furious about the barrage. They want it to stop. But they don’t know how.

Nobody really does.

Some people say they get several each week. This month, I received only one on my home line and another on a cellphone. I consider myself lucky.

Rachel is like a monster in a horror movie. Bullets bounce off her, but she keeps calling. Pressing a button to stop her calls doesn’t work. Talk to a human for help, but he wants your bank account number or a credit card number so he can take your money.

Robo-caller Rachel is a prerecorded voice coming from somewhere, but nobody is sure exactly where. Calls from Robo Rachel and others are designed to make recipients believe that they come from their bank or credit card company. A Minneapolis newspaper reporter tried to track her down a few years ago, but he gave up.

Dave Lieber's Watchdog Nation: Bite Back When Businesses and Scammers Do You Wrong

Watchdog Nation prefers Ernestine to Rachel

Why can’t the government, with all its resources, stop this?

Baby steps are being taken. In March, the Federal Trade Commission announced a breakthrough in this years-long national annoyance. The FTC forced an offshore company, Asia Pacific Telecom, out of business after accusing it of making more than 2 billion robo-calls. The government also seized $3 million worth of assets.

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More Watchdog Nation News:

Watchdog Nation Partners with Mike Holmes

America meets Watchdog Nation/Listen to Fun Radio Interview

2012 Book Edition Debuts on Good Morning Texas TV show

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The government charged that the company violated the National Do Not Call Registry and also spoofed caller IDs to hide the telemarketers’ phone numbers.

Along with the FTC, the Federal Communications Commission regulates telemarketers. In February, the FCC changed the rules for telemarketers in a big way. From now on, before making a robo-call, companies must get the consumer’s written consent.

Under Texas law, telemarketers do not need written permission as long as they have a prior business relationship. But under federal law, that prior relationship isn’t good enough anymore. Written consent, even if electronic, is now required for all out-of-state robo-calls.

There’s also a new kill-switch rule — a requirement that every robo-call must include “an automated, interactive opt-out mechanism,” according to the FCC. Consumers can revoke consent by pressing a few keys, and telemarketers must add rejected phone numbers to their internal do-not-call lists.

Dave Lieber's Watchdog Nation: Bite Back When Businesses and Scammers Do You Wrong

Here’s something to remember: Thanks to the new rules, any company that robo-calls a consumer without written consent is acting illegally and is likely a scammer, the FTC says.

“No legal business wants to break the law and risk having to pay penalties up to $16,000 per call,” FTC spokesman Frank Dorman says.

Last year, the Public Utility Commission of Texas received 900 complaints, but the culprits are tough to find because “there’s just very little information to pursue the source of these calls,” PUC spokesman Terry Hadley says.

In Mississippi this month, state regulators fined a California telemarketer a record $945,000 to get Rachel to stop calling. Roy W. Cox Jr. and five companies he controls were accused of hiding their true names on caller ID boxes and using “Card Services” and “Credit Services” as their business names, The Associated Press reported.

So what to do when Rachel calls? The best advice is hang up. Don’t engage and don’t press buttons on the phone.

Second, file a complaint with the FTC, the FCC and the Texas PUC. Although it may sound futile, staffers at all three agencies say that complaints help them catch the Rachels. “It helps us find patterns that can lead us to who they are, and then we can act against them,” Dorman says.

With the Asia Pacific case, he says, “We got a good chunk of it. But as long as there’s a way for the bad guys to continue to do it, they probably will. But we haven’t been able to stop it completely yet.”

We know.

# # #

Stopping robo-calls

File a complaint with the Federal Communications Commission at 888-225-5322 orwww.fcc.gov/complaints.

Sign up for the National Do Not Call Registry and also file complaints at donotcall.gov or 888-382-1222.

Sign up for your state’s Do Not Call list, too. Google your state name and Do Not Call list.

Remember to get on both state and federal do not call lists and register all numbers — land lines and cellphones.

# # #

Do you want to learn how to stop companies from bothering you? These tips and many others are in the award-winning book by Dave Lieber, author of this story. His book Dave Lieber’s Watchdog Nation: Bite Back When Businesses and Scammers Do You Wrong, shows you how to fight back — and win! The book is available at WatchdogNation.com as a hardcover, CD audio book, e-book and hey, what else do you need? The author was the national award-winning Watchdog columnist for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Visit our store. Now revised and expanded in a 2012 edition, the book won two national book awards for social change.

Read The Watchdog Nation manifesto here!

Dave Lieber's Watchdog Nation: Bite Back When Businesses and Scammers Do You Wrong

 Visit Watchdog Nation HeadquartersDave Lieber's Watchdog Nation: Bite Back When Businesses and Scammers Do You Wrong

Like Watchdog Nation on Facebook

Watch Watchdog Nation on YouTube

Twitter @DaveLieber

Filed Under: Bad Business, Column, Customer Service Issues, Government Tomfoolery, Technology Issues Tagged With: , , , , ,

Are the Martians invading Colleyville, Texas? Look at photo and decide for yourself

July 12, 2012 by

Watchdog Nation doesn’t only cover earthly matters. We bring to you today the story of an anomaly, something that makes little sense. But then again, maybe it makes all the sense in the world. You see, you are about to enter the Twilight Zone of Watchdog Nation.

Our story begins with Emily Casey, an 11-year-old explorer who is currently in the 5th grade at South Keller Intermediate School in Keller, Texas.

   The other day, Emily looked up her friend’s house on Google Maps. She knew his family was selling the house. So she typed in the address – 6760 St Moritz Parkway, Colleyville, Texas – on Google Maps and saw the home.

   “I turned it to the top of the page, up into the sky, and I saw this thing,” she says. “At first, I thought it was just a cool-looking cloud. Then I started looking closer at that. And I said, ‘What is that?’”

   She discovered – there’s no way else to say it – a possible flying saucer above that Colleyville home.

  “It’s kinda cool. I’m still not sure what it is. It was probably one of my coolest moments ever.”

   Emily’s father, Tarrant County Justice of the Peace Russell Casey, brought this story to Watchdog Nation.

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More Watchdog Nation News:

Watchdog Nation Partners with Mike Holmes

America meets Watchdog Nation/Listen to Fun Radio Interview

Watchdog Nation Debuts New e-Book and Multi-CD Audio Book

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   “It was kind of funny to me,” the father says.

   Is it a UFO over Collevyille, Texas? You decide. Visit Google Earth and type in this address –6760 St Moritz Parrkway, Colleyville, Texas – and then move the cursor toward the sky. Or look at the photos on this page. Thanks Emily Casey!

 

Are you tired of fighting the bank, the credit card company, the electric company and the phone company? They can be worse than scammers the way they treat customers. A popular book, Dave Lieber’s Watchdog Nation: Bite Back When Businesses and Scammers Do You Wrong, shows you how to fight back — and win! The book is available at WatchdogNation.com as a hardcover, CD audio book, e-book and hey, what else do you need? The author is The Watchdog columnist for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Visit our store. Now revised and expanded in a 2012 edition, the book won two national book awards for social change. Twitter @DaveLieber

Visit Watchdog Nation HeadquartersDave Lieber's Watchdog Nation: Bite Back When Businesses and Scammers Do You Wrong

Like Watchdog Nation on Facebook

Watch Watchdog Nation on YouTube

Twitter @DaveLieber

Dave Lieber's Watchdog Nation: Bite Back When Businesses and Scammers Do You Wrong

Filed Under: Column, Technology Issues Tagged With: , , , ,

ebook Guide: Apple gets an ‘F’ grade for iBookstore

December 4, 2010 by

All author Dave Lieber wanted for Christmas was for his book to get published on the iPad.

For two months, he tried to work with Apple, keeping a detailed record of his dealings. But with Christmas days away, it appears the award-winning book, Dave Lieber’s Watchdog Nation: Bite Back When Businesses and Scammers Do You Wrong, isn’t going to be available through Apple. At least not yet.

Turns out Apple’s procedures for working with small publishers are so poorly organized that they are an embarrassment to this great, ground-breaking company. The company can’t seem to do what other ebook publishers do every day: place digital books on sale. (UPDATE: A month after this post appeared, the book finally became available on iPad, three months after the project began.)

Here’s the new Dave Lieber Guide to ebook Self Publishing with the latest information on how to publish on Apple (not) and the other major ebook companies, which are easier:

My research on Apple was done as part of the creation of this ebook publishing guide. When I decided a few months ago to jump into this rapidly-growing market, I searched the Internet for an up-to-date guide showing  how to do it yourself, who to contact and what the difficulties are.

Couldn’t find one.

So I made my own – for you — because I believe every writer should live his or her dream. That’s what I’ve always taught authors as part of my popular Dave Lieber Guide to Self-Publishing. I show how to publish without the major publishing houses or the vanity presses taking all your profits.

More than a dozen books have been published by other authors who used my self-publishing system because they wanted to make more money. Now I want to lear how to do the same with ebooks. And, as always, I want to share the latest information that I learn with you. It’s here now, below, for free.

My goal was to take Dave Lieber’s Watchdog Nation: Bite Back When Businesses and Scammers Do You Wrong and convert it to the proper e-book formats. Then I wanted to upload them to the top ebook pubishers: Apple’s iBookstore; Barnes & Noble, Borders and Amazon’s Kindle. These four represent about 60 percent of the ebook market.

Important: You don’t need a physical book to create an ebook. You can skip that step and publish straight to ebook.

First, you need an ISBN (International Standard Book Number) for your ebook (separate from the ISBN you used for your printed book). You can buy the numbers from bowker.com either singly or in a group of 10 or larger. I suggest the bigger purchase since the price is better (around $200 for 10) and once you get your ebook business going, you won’t want to stop. (Note: Bowker tells customers to buy a separate ISBN number for each ebook file format; but I found that not to be the case.)

Next you have to get the book formatted the way it will appear on the screen. All ebooks must start as a Microsoft Word document. (I hired my book designer Janet Long to copy and paste the original book from her files into a Word doc.)

Checked with publishing expert Jerry Simmons, who creates the popular www.writersreaders.com website. He recommended firebirdwebdesigns.com to convert my Word document into the various formats. (Remember there’s no standardization in the industry; different ebook readers require different formats. Ugh.)

For less than $300, my Word doc was converted to these formats: PDB (Palm Database File); PDF, Mobi, LRF, ePub (the evolving standard), PRC (Palm Resource File) and HTML.

Firebird provided me with a starter sheet, too. Several of the platforms listed were no-go’s for me. I couldn’t make contact, let alone get e-published with Mobi Pocket Reader, Sony Reader, Microsoft Reader and Adobe Digital Editions. But they aren’t part of the top four anyway. Here’s how it worked with the major publishers  — and my grade for them:

Amazon.com/Kindle

Start the process at dtp.amazon.com. Open your account and provide bank account information for sales proceeds. Watch an instructional video at .

Uploading the file is easy. My submission was quickly accepted and placed on sale. There was one slight problem. The “Buy it on Kindle” label next to my hardcover book, also for sale on Amazon, was linked to the out-of-print 2008 edition and not the actual 2010 edition it’s based on. Eventually, after two tries, I got it fixed.

Grade: A

Yippee! Dave Lieber's book was published with the greatest of ease on Amazon's Kindle.

Apple/iBookstore

For degree of difficulty, Apple is as tough as Amazon is easy. Getting to the point, Apple has earned a failing grade. Why? Let me count the ways.

Information about the ebook process on Apple’s website is nearly impossible to find. When you call customer service, staffers don’t know much either. Apple is not responding to e-mail requests for help or information either.

But I kept calling and writing. When I finally got in the front door, I learned you must upload your book on a Mac, not a PC, using Apple’s iTunes Producer software. I borrowed a friend’s Mac.

After the upload, Apple did not acknowledge its arrival. My book was listed as “Pending” for a month, and nobody in Apple would answer my e-mails. Finally, it was listed as “Removed From Sale.” Apple never notified me.  Finally, when I pestered for an answer, Apple, taking its sweet time, alerted me that my cover image was too small.

It’s clear that Apple wasn’t ready to enter the book business. It got slammed, fell behind and keeps changing the way it runs this new business. I’m patient. I really want my book available on the iPad. That’s why I started this process. But as of this writing, no can do.

Learn about the process at apple.com/itunes/content-providers. To get the iBookstore Publisher User Guide and create an account, start at itunes.com/sellyourbooks. If you have problems, call 1-800-275-2273 and ask for a “senior adviser.” Or try this e-mail address: itunesmarketing@apple.com.

Grade: F

Barnes & Noble/NOOKbook

Gosh, this was easy. I opened an account at pubit.barnesandnoble.com, uploaded the book and it was immediately for sale on the website as a NOOKbook. Apple could take a few lessons from this enterprise. (E-mail help is available at support@ereader.com)

Grade: A+

Borders/Kobo

Kobo (the Borders platform) rejected me outright because they require vendors to have “a minimum of 10 titles.” A kobo.com staffer wrote me, “We have been known to settle for 9 or even 8 titles; however the point here is that the work required on your part and on ours to get set up as a vendor doesn’t always make sense for a small handful of titles.”

Grade: Incomplete

The Alternative

If you don’t want to do it yourself, “digital aggregator” companies can help you. The best-known is smashwords.com. Other digital aggregators include authorsolutions.com, fastpencil.com and ebookit.com. I can’t vouch for them, but wanted to present them to you as options.

Happy e-publishing.

Dave Lieber is an investigative columnist at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. This story appears on columnists.com, National Speakers Association blog and WatchdogNation.com. Find him on Twitter @DaveLieber and WatchdogNation.com. If you want to self-publish in either a hardback or softback, creating your own company, doing it yourself with a great publishing house, you should check out the Dave Lieber Self-Publishing Guide.

Filed Under: Technology Issues Tagged With: , , , , ,

When your electric company doesn’t tell you what’s happening

March 4, 2010 by

After he saw my report on Oncor Electric Delivery’s poor outage information system a week ago, reader Doug Edwards of Dallas summarized my findings better in 18 words than I did in a thousand.

“It looks like you got the brush off from Oncor everybody else is. They always say `Tomorrow, Tomorrow …’ ” was the message he sent via my Twitter feed.

He’s right.

I had asked Oncor why the company couldn’t do better at providing power outage information to the public, especially during a major storm.

This is a Dave Lieber report for WatchdogNation.com.

But what happened? I got steered into an explanation about how everything will be better in two or three years because we’ll have smart meters.

So last week, I tried again. I pressed Oncor harder when I previewed its new smart meter exhibit, soon to be visiting a county fair near you.

Because North Texas gets its share of severe weather, it’s hard to understand why Oncor won’t do a better job of informing the public when neighborhoods are dark, when crews are working to restore power and when it’s finally restored.

Oncor doesn’t offer that service. That also means that the news media can’t report the latest information to a wider public.

Yet last week I found two electricity transmission companies similar to Oncor that do tell their customers what is happening during bad weather in modern, quick and efficient ways.

AEP Texas, which serves a giant swath of West Texas, presents on its Web site a real-time listing and accompanying color map — broken down by ZIP code — that shows how many customers have lost power.

The information comes from telephone complaints by customers, which are then transferred to the Web site, spokesman Larry Jones said. The site is updated every few minutes. Parent company American Electric Power offers real-time outage alerts in the 11 states it serves.

In Florida, Kissimmee Utility Authority created an outage alert system five years ago that sends text alerts or e-mails to anyone who signs up, giving the number of affected customers by ZIP code. Updates give customers an idea of how quickly the problem is being fixed.

Spokesman Chris Gent says the authority’s system preceded Twitter, which was developed a year later. Now the authority offers both a Twitter feed and its original system to customers.

The service is inexpensive, he said, because it was designed in-house and is run by staff.

The authority is experimenting with GPS devices on work trucks so that information can eventually be used, too.

Several readers called and questioned my plea for a strong Internet alert system for Oncor customers. They said they wouldn’t have electricity to access a Web site.

Remember that hand-held phones and laptops are often battery-powered. Friends and relatives can relay information to you from elsewhere. The news media uses the information. And all of this is important for families that have evacuated and want to learn when they can return.

Does Oncor have any plans to offer an outage alert system?

At the smart-meter exhibit in Lancaster, spokeswoman Jeamy Molina answered, “We’re just not at a place where that can be done right now. It goes back to the grid with the whole outage system. We know when there are widespread outages. We know where that is. It goes back to our restoration process and how it works.

“We understand that there are places that Oncor can improve on its customer service and dealing with these kinds of things. And of course, these will be things that we’ll take into account when we start seeing what we could have done better before the next storm. So that will be something that will come up. But right now, Oncor is not at that place.”

What about the near future?

“It’s stuff that will be talked about, of course,” she continued. “We’ll take this back to our team. We have to review steps about what could be done.”

As my Twitter pal sang in his tweet: “Tomorrow, Tomorrow …”

No system’s perfect

OK, I have a smart-meter story for you. Those are the 21st-century meters that connect directly to the electric company. You can monitor your power usage and set your smart appliances to run at off-peak times. Most Texas electric customers will have one in a few years.

Oncor took a lot of, uh, heat from customers in recent weeks in Killeen and Temple. Soon after their smart meters were installed, their bills jumped. But Oncor says that the increase was due to the cold weather and that it tested about 500 meters and all were accurate.

Even though smart meters are designed to eliminate humans and our errors, there is still that possibility. When an old meter is removed, the final reading is recorded by — gasp — a human.

And wouldn’t you know it? Sometimes people make mistakes. About a dozen so far when it comes to smart-meter conversions, Oncor says.

There’s this one fellow who had a smart meter installed nine months ago at his home in the Austin area (not served by Oncor).

When he received the first bill afterward, he recalls, “It looked like they overcharged me 1,000 kilowatts.”

He called Austin Energy to complain. “The meter reader, in closing out, put the decimal point in the wrong place,” he says. “I was charged an extra 1,000 kwh. So there’s that potential element for human error.”

And who is this fellow who was done wrong?

His name is Terry Hadley.

His job?

He’s the spokesman for the Public Utility Commission of Texas.

If it can happen to him …

Dave Lieber, The Watchdog columnist for The Fort Worth Star-Telegram, is the founder of Watchdog Nation. The new 2010 edition of his book, Dave Lieber’s Watchdog Nation: Bite Back When Businesses and Scammers Do You Wrong, is out. Revised and expanded, the book won two national book awards in 2009 for social change. Twitter @DaveLieber

Filed Under: Technology Issues Tagged With: , , ,

Is that my toe burning?

February 1, 2010 by

Update to this: A week after this post, my surge protector, not a Belkin, fried before my eyes — for no apparent reason. I heard the inside sizzle and then smoke drifted out like a pope had been chosen. I pulled it from the adapter and the wall outlet. The little colored cover that lights when the surge protector is on was missing.

This surge protector at Watchdog Nation fried over the weekend, a reminder of the Belkin surge protector recalls.

This surge protector at Watchdog Nation fried over the weekend, a reminder of the Belkin surge protector recalls.


Do these surge protectors read what is written on blogs about them? How do they know?

It wasn’t easy grabbing that flashlight and magnifying glass and crawling under the desk to read the ultra-tiny serial numbers on the back of my Belkin surge protector to see if I was a candidate for electrocution, but that’s what I did after seeing a little item buried in the back pages of the February issue of PC World magazine.

If you’re reading this Watchdog Bytes on a computer (and the only other way is on mobile device), you probably have a surge protector under your desk. They are supposed to protect your electronics from power surges and lightning strikes. (I have them all over my house and even have a “master” surge protector on the main power line into the house — a relatively new product.)

But Belkin, working with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, is recalling 68,000 SurgeMaster surge protectors because they have plastic moldings that could crack and lead to electrical shocks. (No cases reported yet, though.)

Models affected are: F9G930-10, F9G930-v10, F9G930-10-W, F9G930G-CL and F9G930-10-SN.

Turns out my Belkin isn’t listed. But if yours is, call Belkin at 1-800-952-1465 or order a free replacement. Customers who own one of these products can telephone Belkin at 1-800-952-1465 or order a free replacement. Visit www.belkin.com/recall.

— Dave Lieber/Fort Worth Star-Telegram Watchdog columnist

Filed Under: Technology Issues Tagged With: , , ,

Verizon raises early termination fees again, and federal government takes a look

January 16, 2010 by

On Sunday, Jan. 17, 2010 Verizon Communications takes a step that it may regret.

That’s the day the new FiOS TV and Internet bundling plans are announced.verizon logo

Friday night, I got a sneak peek, and there’s one stinky little detail in there that couldn’t come at a worse time.

Verizon is raising its early termination fees for new customers to $360.

That comes a couple of months after Verizon Wireless raised its early termination fees for “smart” cell phones to $350.

That action, taken in November, brought negative attention from the Federal Communications Commission, now newly-constituted with Obama appointees.

If Verizon thought that was bad then, just wait…fcc logo

As first reported in the Dave Lieber column in the Jan. 15, 2010 Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Verizon isn’t alone in charging those fees, but lately, it’s become the poster child for high fees. Across the industry, these fees, called ETF, are among the top four consumer complaints about cell phone service, according to one government report.

One Obama appointee, Commissioner Mignon Clyburn, wasted little time in shifting the FCC’s focus. Two days before Christmas, in only her fourth month in office, she released a statement criticizing Verizon.


FCC Commission Mignon Clyburn

FCC Commission Mignon Clyburn


She said the company’s answers to the FCC’s questions about the $350 ETF were “unsatisfying” and “troubling.”

The company keeps changing its reasons for the fee, she stated. Verizon has always said the fees cover the true cost of phones, which are discounted heavily when bought with cellphone service. But in its written response to the FCC, the company acknowledged that the fees may also cover “advertising costs, commissions for sales personnel and store costs.”

“Consumers already pay high monthly fees for voice and data designed to cover the costs of doing business,” Clyburn stated. “So when they are assessed excessive penalties, especially when they are near the end of their contract term, it is hard for me to believe that the public interest is being well served.”

Clyburn is the daughter of the House majority whip, Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C. She served 10 years on South Carolina’s utility regulatory commission.

I wonder what Clyburn is thinking now that Verizon has confirmed a previously published report about its newest ETF increase for Internet, home phone and television services.

The Philadelphia Inquirer reported earlier this month that it had seen copies of Verizon documents accidentally posted on the company’s Web site. The documents indicated that the early-termination fees for the TV/Internet service could double to $360 as early as Sunday for new two-year-contract holders. The $360 fee would drop on a sliding scale as each month of the contract passed, the newspaper stated. Verizon’s other ETFs also prorate downward through the contract period.

Friday night, two days before Verizon FiOS’ official unveiling, spokesman Lee Gierczynski gave me permission to release details of the newest plan. Here it is, in its entirety:

Hi, Dave:

I’m reaching out to you ahead of time to brief you on the new FiOS packages that Verizon will be launching on Jan. 17.

  • We’re introducing new FiOS bundles on Sunday that include new TV packages, unprecedented symmetrical broadband speeds and new promotional incentives.

New triple-play bundle options with a service agreement include:

  • Ultimate:  FiOS TV Ultimate HD includes 90 or more HD channels; premium content from EPIX, Showtime, TMC, Flix and the NFL RedZone;  FiOS Internet service with an ultra-fast, symmetrical connection speed of up to 35/35 Mbps; and FiOS voice service – all available for $139.99 a month.
  • Extreme:  FiOS TV Extreme HD includes 65 or more HD channels; FiOS Internet service with an ultra-fast, symmetrical connection speed of up to 25/25 Mbps and FiOS voice service – available for $124.99 a month.  In the New York City area this bundle also includes Showtime, TMC and Flix, for a total of 80 or more HD channels, and is available for $119.99 a month.
  • Prime:  FiOS TV Prime HD includes 40 or more HD channels; FiOS Internet service with a connection speed of up to 15/5 Mbps and FiOS voice service – available for $109.99 a month.
  • These bundles are available with a 24-month service agreement that includes a pro-rated ETF and provides our deepest discounts, promotional incentives and 24 month rate guarantee — or with month-to-month pricing and no contract and no ETF.
  • Customers do not have to have a 24-month service agreement or ETF if they want a bundle.  We also offer bundles with month-to-month discount pricing that provide significant savings over a la carte services.
  • I can confirm that starting Sunday the ETF on a two-year FiOS bundle will be $360.  The ETF is pro-rated, with $15 subtracted for each full month that the customer honors their contract.  The two-year agreement gives customers the benefit of our deepest discounts, promotional incentives for even more savings, plus a rate that’s guaranteed for the length of the two-year agreement.
  • In general, term-plan bundles provide an additional $20 a month savings over discounted month-to-month plans.  Plus, with promotional incentives the savings with a term plan over a month-to-month plan can rise to $40 a month during the first year. (note:  in 7 months you’d break even on your ETF  ($280 in savings versus $270 ETF after pro-ration).

[End of company statement]

This newest termination fee increase is sure to stir the pot. One can imagine consumer advocates who previously have called for ending early-termination fees getting a new energy boost from this.

On the wireless side of the company, Verizon Wireless spokeswoman Audrey Lundy says the company must charge the fees to help pay for the expanded networks that the advanced devices use. For the $350 smartphone ETF, Verizon says it will drop $10 for every month, leaving a $110 fee in the last months of the contract. Customers can also return the device in the first 30 days without any penalty.

Lundy says customers can buy services month to month. The devices are much more expensive, but no ETF is charged.

Last month, U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., introduced the Cell Phone Early Termination Fee, Transparency and Fairness Act, which requires providers to prorate contracts, disclose terms upfront and link ETF to what the provider actually paid for a phone. Verizon and other carriers face two possibilities: Congress could vote to regulate the fees, or the newly reorganized FCC could enact stricter rules.

An aide to Clyburn told me that her battle against excessive ETF is just beginning.

“This is an issue she’s really concerned about, and we’re going to pursue it vigorously,” vowed Clyburn’s spokesman, Rick Kaplan.

#  #  #

What to ask

-How much are the early-termination fees?

-Are the fees prorated if you cancel early?

-What is the advantage of a month-to-month contract?

-What other fees are involved?

-If you have problems, call the Federal Communications Commission’s Consumer Hotline at 1-888-CALL-FCC to share your experiences, opinions and complaints. Information from the calls is collected and studied, an FCC spokesman said.

* * *

Dave Lieber, The Watchdog columnist for The Fort Worth Star-Telegram, is the founder of Watchdog Nation. The new 2010 edition of his book, Dave Lieber’s Watchdog Nation: Bite Back When Businesses and Scammers Do You Wrong, is out. Revised and expanded, the bookwon two national book awards in 2009 for social change. Twitter @DaveLieber

Filed Under: Technology Issues Tagged With: , , , ,