SPEAKER_0 [00:00:00]
Dramas, please.
SPEAKER_1 [00:00:13]
Yeah.
SPEAKER_0 [00:00:20]
This is life
SPEAKER_0 [00:00:22]
with a twist of lemon.
SPEAKER_0 [00:00:25]
I think,
SPEAKER_0 [00:00:26]
this lady,
SPEAKER_0 [00:00:28]
Angie,
SPEAKER_0 [00:00:29]
takes the cake for
SPEAKER_0 [00:00:32]
best comment on Facebook.
SPEAKER_1 [00:00:34]
Oh, yeah?
SPEAKER_0 [00:00:36]
Yeah.
SPEAKER_0 [00:00:37]
I I mean, I was left wondering,
SPEAKER_0 [00:00:40]
should we be discussing how John eats an ice cream sundae?
SPEAKER_1 [00:00:44]
Right. Did you know what prompted this question?
SPEAKER_1 [00:00:48]
No. I did not register at first, but you said something either in text or on the note about the spoons. Yeah. So, apparently, I mentioned something a couple episodes back. I don't even know. It's when we were talking about how I was anti microwave and stuff like that. And I said how I don't like to eat food that you need to use a spoon to eat.
SPEAKER_0 [00:01:08]
Right. I'm pretty sure that I had commentary on that. I can't imagine I didn't. Yeah.
SPEAKER_1 [00:01:14]
So
SPEAKER_1 [00:01:15]
So
SPEAKER_0 [00:01:17]
she picked up on that clearly. Right.
SPEAKER_1 [00:01:19]
So what's her question, Stan?
SPEAKER_0 [00:01:21]
I I mean, how do you eat an ice cream sundae, John?
SPEAKER_0 [00:01:25]
Inquiring minds wanna know. So
SPEAKER_1 [00:01:29]
most of the time, I do not. I prefer my ice cream in milkshake form as our listeners will know.
SPEAKER_1 [00:01:36]
Ice cream is also of a consistency
SPEAKER_1 [00:01:39]
where you can eat it with a fork.
SPEAKER_1 [00:01:42]
So, like, you know, you got a piece of cake Wait. Wait. Wait. Wait. Wait. You can eat the ice cream with the fork.
SPEAKER_0 [00:01:49]
You you mean to tell me
SPEAKER_0 [00:01:52]
that if ice cream is dished out for you, you ask for a fork, not a spoon?
SPEAKER_1 [00:01:57]
So the other thing you need to know about me is I try very hard to not be difficult.
SPEAKER_1 [00:02:04]
So you and I have gone out to eat at a couple restaurants.
SPEAKER_1 [00:02:08]
You have all these special requests,
SPEAKER_1 [00:02:12]
different things that you wanna try, specifically how you want your meal cooked, things like that. And I'm just like, I'll take a number four or something like that.
SPEAKER_1 [00:02:21]
So, no, I will not ask for a fork if the spoons are out there and the dessert with the spoon.
SPEAKER_0 [00:02:29]
Okay. Alright. But if you were left at home with a pint of ice cream and you scooped it out yourself,
SPEAKER_0 [00:02:35]
you would use a fork?
SPEAKER_1 [00:02:37]
I think I would use a spoon,
SPEAKER_1 [00:02:39]
but that is such a rare occurrence. Like, the ice cream would probably get old in the freezer before I decided that, hey. I want a bowl of ice cream.
SPEAKER_0 [00:02:49]
You're completely inconsistent. You tell me that you would use a fork to eat ice cream, but then yet if you have a pine in the house a fork to eat ice cream. I said ice cream can be eaten with a fork.
SPEAKER_0 [00:03:03]
What
SPEAKER_1 [00:03:04]
are you running for political office? You cannot eat like tomato soup with a fork.
SPEAKER_0 [00:03:10]
I think that depends upon the tomato soup. Fair. But I I will I will accept that as an answer. I still just I'm I'm trying to fathom
SPEAKER_0 [00:03:19]
how you would finish a bowl
SPEAKER_1 [00:03:21]
of ice cream with a fork. I I think you would be leaving some ice cream behind. I can't say that I've ever eaten ice cream out of a bowl with a fork that I remember.
SPEAKER_1 [00:03:31]
So take well, okay. If you've never done it, why'd you bring it up? Like, if you have a piece of birthday cake, a scoop of ice cream, you usually have a fork that you eat that all with. Right? No. No. No. No. No. No. Okay. Alright. I do. If
SPEAKER_0 [00:03:47]
you're serving ice cream with cake, you're serving it with a spoon. Interesting.
SPEAKER_0 [00:03:52]
In fact, at our house, you may get a paper plate
SPEAKER_0 [00:03:56]
with or even a paper bowl with a slice of cake and ice cream, but you're probably getting a metal spoon because gosh darn it, that's a proper tool to use when you're eating cake and ice cream. The lemon house is not always correspond to reality. You guys are a little extra when it comes to meals. But
SPEAKER_0 [00:04:14]
What? Because we use metal spoons, John?
SPEAKER_1 [00:04:16]
Well, that would just be one case. But
SPEAKER_0 [00:04:20]
Ugh.
SPEAKER_1 [00:04:21]
Anyways Well, so So, yes, I would eat an ice cream sundae with a spoon
SPEAKER_1 [00:04:27]
by default
SPEAKER_1 [00:04:28]
in a vacuum. So,
SPEAKER_0 [00:04:30]
dear listener, if you've managed to make it this long, I promise you the next time that I see John Kollmeyer,
SPEAKER_0 [00:04:36]
I will make him eat an ice cream sundae with a fork, and I will video it, and I will post it to Facebook.
SPEAKER_0 [00:04:43]
So there. Nice.
SPEAKER_0 [00:04:45]
That's my mark in the sand. Challenge accepted.
SPEAKER_1 [00:04:49]
You know what the best utensil is? Not for ice cream, probably. Although Oh, spork?
SPEAKER_1 [00:04:55]
No.
SPEAKER_1 [00:04:56]
What?
SPEAKER_1 [00:04:57]
Not a spork.
SPEAKER_0 [00:04:58]
A chip.
SPEAKER_0 [00:05:02]
I mean, you can you can definitely that's that's a good answer. That's a good answer.
SPEAKER_0 [00:05:08]
That's not the answer I was expecting. I think if you I mean, imagine taking a tortilla
SPEAKER_0 [00:05:13]
and, like, sauteing it with a little bit of butter and cinnamon, and then you could definitely do ice cream. Absolutely.
SPEAKER_0 [00:05:20]
I think they call that a choco taco.
SPEAKER_1 [00:05:24]
Fair enough.
SPEAKER_1 [00:05:25]
Guess experiment.
SPEAKER_0 [00:05:27]
So
SPEAKER_0 [00:05:28]
when I was a kid and the ice cream truck used to come by, I was all about the Choco Taco. That that was the thing that I got. I didn't get anything else, just the Choco Taco.
SPEAKER_1 [00:05:39]
Really?
SPEAKER_1 [00:05:40]
Yeah. You've come a long way, Stan.
SPEAKER_0 [00:05:43]
Dude, if if if there's a if there's an ice cream truck coming down the road right now, I would run out and buy a Choco Taco still. Do you get ice cream trucks in your neighborhood? Yeah. Yeah. Oh, absolutely. And because this is like a gold mine, this this neighborhood. There's so many kids around that, like, the density works in their favor.
SPEAKER_0 [00:06:02]
I'll tell you what, their, ice cream trucks are just as dicey
SPEAKER_1 [00:06:05]
as they were back in the day. Yep. Absolutely. We have two that will circle through our neighborhood fairly regularly.
SPEAKER_1 [00:06:12]
I have not bought anything from them, but the kids next door have gone out a couple times.
SPEAKER_0 [00:06:16]
I will tell you it is an improvement that I can swipe my credit card and use Square. Nice. Yeah. I don't know if ours are that advanced.
SPEAKER_1 [00:06:24]
One of them might be.
SPEAKER_0 [00:06:26]
Oh, maybe you should move to Indiana.
SPEAKER_1 [00:06:29]
For the ice cream trucks. Alright. Amongst amongst many other reasons, John.
SPEAKER_1 [00:06:35]
So thanks, Angie, for listening and commenting.
SPEAKER_1 [00:06:39]
She works out of the same building as I do,
SPEAKER_1 [00:06:42]
with Be Leaderly, which is kind of like,
SPEAKER_1 [00:06:46]
leadership.
SPEAKER_1 [00:06:47]
I don't I can't do the pitch, so I'm gonna botch it, but it kinda
SPEAKER_1 [00:06:51]
helps women move into leadership roles and kinda
SPEAKER_1 [00:06:55]
work their way up the corporate ladder.
SPEAKER_0 [00:06:59]
Take the lead, lift others up as you climb. That's the tagline. Nice.
SPEAKER_1 [00:07:04]
So they're cool people.
SPEAKER_0 [00:07:07]
Alright.
SPEAKER_0 [00:07:08]
So how's how's my video stream looked this week?
SPEAKER_1 [00:07:12]
You look
SPEAKER_1 [00:07:14]
clear. It looks like you got, like, special lighting going on. Are you shooting video now or something?
SPEAKER_0 [00:07:20]
No. No. It's just Give your desk lamp on and not your overhead. Oh my word. But but it's not cutting out or anything, John, because I am back to the old So far so good.
SPEAKER_1 [00:07:31]
You're back to the old router. What happened to the Sonos?
SPEAKER_1 [00:07:35]
Not Sonos. The Sonos. The Sonos is a problem. The Sonos is what happened to the Orbi.
SPEAKER_0 [00:07:42]
So this this Orbi,
SPEAKER_0 [00:07:45]
I had a great connection right next to it, right Mhmm. For my computers.
SPEAKER_0 [00:07:50]
My Sonos just would drop off, and it was driving me nuts. And I I think I what I realized is I actually use my Sonos quite a bit,
SPEAKER_0 [00:07:59]
and I could not handle not being able to use it. So
SPEAKER_0 [00:08:04]
I I tried everything. I contacted Sonos tech support,
SPEAKER_0 [00:08:08]
which
SPEAKER_0 [00:08:09]
wasn't great, but it was better than all the other tech support I've contacted in the last week.
SPEAKER_0 [00:08:15]
Gosh. You wanna talk about that? Because that that'll get me all riled up.
SPEAKER_0 [00:08:18]
I tried contacting NETGEAR tech support. They're just nonexistent. I mean, they are literally nonexistent.
SPEAKER_1 [00:08:23]
Yeah. After all of the onboarding
SPEAKER_1 [00:08:26]
the effort they put into onboarding with the Orbi, and then they have no support to back it up? Yep. That's You got it. You got it. It's it's darn near impossible to find anything on their website, and so,
SPEAKER_0 [00:08:39]
this actually holds true with a bunch of places I contacted this week. The best route, it seems,
SPEAKER_0 [00:08:45]
to
SPEAKER_0 [00:08:46]
engage in technical support seems to be via Twitter
SPEAKER_0 [00:08:51]
Absolutely. As far as I can tell. Yeah. Well, I mean, I don't know, man. Like, you're making your your support requests public and all that. I I just I'm a little I'm a little gunshot to do that. But Yep. I did get I did get help from Sonos.
SPEAKER_0 [00:09:05]
They
SPEAKER_0 [00:09:06]
it was pretty clear from the thread that I had with them that I changed support reps a couple times. They seemed to know their stuff. We got to the bottom of my issue,
SPEAKER_0 [00:09:14]
and there was nothing they could do because it was an Orbi problem. And that really gave me pause. It's like, okay. The the Orbi
SPEAKER_0 [00:09:22]
has an issue. I'm gonna be waiting for a firmware update for my Sonos. And then I started searching the Internet. I was like, everybody and their mother had an issue with Sonos and Orbi.
SPEAKER_0 [00:09:31]
Got it. And the whole time, I'm thinking to myself, like, you know, Sonos is before.
SPEAKER_0 [00:09:35]
Yeah. Yeah. Well, exactly. But but Sonos is a widely adopted product. Right? Like, a lot of people have
SPEAKER_0 [00:09:42]
Sonos' in their homes. Sonoi? How do you how do you say that plural? Probably Sonos'
SPEAKER_0 [00:09:48]
because it's a So brand awkward.
SPEAKER_0 [00:09:51]
But that gave me pause, and ultimately, I decided that the Orbi was not
SPEAKER_0 [00:09:57]
for me.
SPEAKER_0 [00:09:58]
They're
SPEAKER_0 [00:10:00]
like,
SPEAKER_0 [00:10:02]
I definitely got
SPEAKER_0 [00:10:04]
great coverage in my home.
SPEAKER_0 [00:10:07]
Right? And I got some great speeds.
SPEAKER_0 [00:10:10]
I am pretty sure that I can get what I
SPEAKER_0 [00:10:14]
was getting
SPEAKER_0 [00:10:16]
with a just a newer router. And the other thing that I I found interesting is I started looking to
SPEAKER_0 [00:10:22]
Mumimo, which I think I talked about last time.
SPEAKER_0 [00:10:26]
I had my doubts as to whether or not the devices that I have connecting actually use it. So I was like, alright. Well, I I paid for this feature. And the the Orbi just wasn't cheap. Like, my my three thing unit was over $300,
SPEAKER_0 [00:10:37]
and Right. I not gonna spend that kind of money on a router and not feel good about it. You know? Right. Absolutely. So so I went back.
SPEAKER_0 [00:10:45]
I,
SPEAKER_0 [00:10:46]
I'm I'm on the old router.
SPEAKER_0 [00:10:48]
It's not perfect, but I did I did figure out how to make it better.
SPEAKER_1 [00:10:53]
Oh, yeah? So
SPEAKER_0 [00:10:56]
so I
SPEAKER_0 [00:10:57]
I was messing around with the AT and T router. Thought, well, maybe I'll just try this and That was a terrible idea. Oh, it was. It was really bad. It was like
SPEAKER_0 [00:11:06]
these were some dark days, John.
SPEAKER_0 [00:11:09]
But they I I was using their app, their home app that allows you to manage their router,
SPEAKER_0 [00:11:15]
and I think I sent you a picture of this. They have got maybe the coolest,
SPEAKER_0 [00:11:19]
most
SPEAKER_0 [00:11:20]
applicable,
SPEAKER_0 [00:11:23]
like, AR app that I have ever experienced.
SPEAKER_1 [00:11:27]
Yeah. It was basically Pokemon GO for Wi Fi signal.
SPEAKER_0 [00:11:31]
I've never played Pokemon GO, so I'm just gonna have to take your word for it. Patrick Sturtevant is so disappointed in you right now. You
SPEAKER_0 [00:11:38]
know what? I bet you. This feels like one of those moments when Daniel Sanchez would be throwing something at the at the phone or computer or whatever.
SPEAKER_1 [00:11:46]
He probably has some great Pokemon to catch.
SPEAKER_1 [00:11:50]
Yeah.
SPEAKER_0 [00:11:51]
I bet all over all over camp. So
SPEAKER_0 [00:11:55]
the thing is it, like, it dropped these dots. They were colored dots as you walked around your house to show you your Wi Fi signal strength.
SPEAKER_0 [00:12:02]
Right? So I don't remember what it what it what it stands for, but there's like a measurement called d b m.
SPEAKER_0 [00:12:07]
And,
SPEAKER_0 [00:12:08]
there's a there's a range, like, where things are okay, and then there's not. And so
SPEAKER_0 [00:12:12]
they color coded them green, yellow, and red. And I walked through the house and just checked it out, and then I quickly concluded that the AT and T modem
SPEAKER_0 [00:12:20]
was not gonna cut it for my needs because my bedroom was a dead zone. My office was a dead zone.
SPEAKER_0 [00:12:26]
And
SPEAKER_0 [00:12:27]
basically, I got Internet in my living room. That was it. Got it. So
SPEAKER_0 [00:12:32]
that though drove me to look for a Wi Fi, like, status
SPEAKER_0 [00:12:37]
signal strength app. And I think I sent you a link to this. But basically installed it even. I installed an app. Did you did you run it? I did.
SPEAKER_1 [00:12:46]
Oh, look at you. I've got fairly good coverage.
SPEAKER_0 [00:12:49]
Your phone
SPEAKER_0 [00:12:51]
has the ability to tell the strength of your signal
SPEAKER_0 [00:12:54]
just like your laptop or whatever.
SPEAKER_0 [00:12:57]
And so that's what this app does.
SPEAKER_0 [00:12:59]
And, you know, it's like just crazy with ads. But you can use this to figure out like what's going on in your home in terms of signal strength and see where your weak spots are. And so I did that, and then I was able to make changes to the positioning of my antenna
SPEAKER_0 [00:13:17]
and check it again,
SPEAKER_0 [00:13:18]
which sounds insane. Right? Like, I'm sitting there with my router readjusting
SPEAKER_1 [00:13:23]
my antenna. Now this router sits on the top of your refrigerator. Right? So you got It the ladder.
SPEAKER_0 [00:13:29]
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, and I had to have looked like an idiot because I would be in my office, and I'd be refreshing, refreshing, then I'd run back, jump on the ladder, adjust the antenna, and then run back.
SPEAKER_0 [00:13:40]
But I I think I got a better setup. And one of the things that was interesting is I was reading about antennaing antenna positioning with your router. You know, most people, they just point those antennas straight up in the air. Mhmm. Right?
SPEAKER_0 [00:13:51]
And
SPEAKER_0 [00:13:53]
pretty much all the guidance I read this was news to me. All the guidance said, at least one of those antennas should be flat. Right? Because you're you create like a a a I don't even know what you what you call it. Like, just
SPEAKER_0 [00:14:04]
you're fanning the area. Right? And so you create if you got one up and one flat, you've got a actually a wider net. And so I did that, and I wanna I got much better coverage. Now, it's it's not
SPEAKER_0 [00:14:18]
this is not the final answer in my home by any stretch. Yeah. I mean, you got a lot of space to cover and walls to go through and stuff like that. Yep. Yep. I am going to look at a couple of things. One, it like, it might just be time to upgrade my existing router. I've been looking at TP Link, which I had never used before,
SPEAKER_0 [00:14:38]
but they've got pretty great reviews pretty much across the board. And one of the things that I keep seeing advertised is signal strength. So I'm gonna look at that. That's on my radar.
SPEAKER_0 [00:14:47]
The other thing I'm gonna look at is actual Wi Fi extenders.
SPEAKER_0 [00:14:51]
Nice. And, like, just the old school ones, see if maybe I could plop one in my office, how that would help. That's one thing that's on my radar. And then last but certainly not least is,
SPEAKER_1 [00:15:02]
power line. Have you ever heard of power line extenders? Is that the one that goes through, like, the electrical outlets and stuff?
SPEAKER_0 [00:15:08]
Yeah.
SPEAKER_0 [00:15:09]
Yeah. I didn't know this
SPEAKER_1 [00:15:11]
improved at all? So that was kinda
SPEAKER_1 [00:15:13]
niche thing when I was taking networking classes,
SPEAKER_1 [00:15:16]
and performance was never really great, and it, like, took up an outlet every where you wanted one. Pretty much needed one in every room.
SPEAKER_0 [00:15:24]
Yeah. So from what I can tell, what they have now is they are basically Wi Fi extenders that
SPEAKER_0 [00:15:31]
connect
SPEAKER_0 [00:15:32]
rather than through Wi Fi through the electrical.
SPEAKER_0 [00:15:35]
Right? And
SPEAKER_0 [00:15:37]
I this makes sense, but I I just had never
SPEAKER_0 [00:15:40]
contemplated the fact that you could transmit data across electrical wires.
SPEAKER_0 [00:15:44]
They do degrade quickly
SPEAKER_0 [00:15:46]
from the, like,
SPEAKER_0 [00:15:48]
the the source point.
SPEAKER_0 [00:15:50]
But from what I understand, they have improved.
SPEAKER_0 [00:15:53]
Some of them are pretty decent. So I'm gonna give them a shot. I'm gonna try it out,
SPEAKER_1 [00:15:58]
see how it goes. Worst case scenario, they go the way that you Orbi.
SPEAKER_0 [00:16:02]
Yeah. Well and and that's unfortunately
SPEAKER_0 [00:16:06]
I'm just accepting that I might be returning a bunch of stuff.
SPEAKER_0 [00:16:11]
I'm not gonna buy something and not feel great about it. That was my Yeah. That was my conclusion with the Orbi. And, you know, I'm sure for some homes, Orbi works great. But again, at that price, like, it had to have been spot on for my situation, and it it just wasn't. Right. So
SPEAKER_0 [00:16:26]
Interesting. But I did discover
SPEAKER_0 [00:16:28]
the, the AR app, and some I'm happy for that.
SPEAKER_1 [00:16:33]
Alright.
SPEAKER_1 [00:16:34]
So
SPEAKER_1 [00:16:35]
we will follow your Wi Fi issues going forward,
SPEAKER_1 [00:16:39]
and eventually, you'll be able to get your
SPEAKER_0 [00:16:41]
a thousand megabits per second down everywhere in every corner of your house. Speaking of a thousand megabits down per second. So the Orbi had the ability to run from the wired router
SPEAKER_0 [00:16:53]
all the way into,
SPEAKER_0 [00:16:55]
the the modem and do, a speed test. Yeah. And that consistently showed only getting about 600 down. As soon as I run the speed test from the AT and T app, you know what it said, John? What did it say? A thousand. Exactly a thousand. Perfectly round.
SPEAKER_0 [00:17:13]
Nice.
SPEAKER_0 [00:17:14]
Yeah. I'm not sure what to make of that other than it seems suspicious.
SPEAKER_1 [00:17:19]
AT and T, why would you trust them?
SPEAKER_0 [00:17:23]
Because they're not Comcast.
SPEAKER_1 [00:17:27]
Alright.
SPEAKER_1 [00:17:29]
So those are your Wi Fi woes. You've had lots and lots of customer support interaction this week, and it's made you kinda grumpy.
SPEAKER_0 [00:17:38]
I
SPEAKER_0 [00:17:39]
yeah. I guess I guess they made me grumpy. Yeah. Man, I don't know what I don't know what my deal is. So let's see. I I already mentioned I talked to Sonos. I I tried talking to Netgear. They blew me off.
SPEAKER_0 [00:17:50]
I contacted Microsoft. I contacted Apple. I contacted Fidelity. I contacted Visa.
SPEAKER_0 [00:17:54]
I feel like there's somebody else in there.
SPEAKER_0 [00:17:58]
It'll come to me later. But, yeah, I've spent a lot of time on the phone waiting.
SPEAKER_0 [00:18:02]
And
SPEAKER_0 [00:18:03]
I'm realizing this is a lost art. Tech support as a whole
SPEAKER_0 [00:18:07]
is is just not
SPEAKER_0 [00:18:09]
good.
SPEAKER_0 [00:18:10]
Yep. It's really depressing.
SPEAKER_1 [00:18:13]
Did any of these platforms have a online chat tool?
SPEAKER_0 [00:18:18]
Oh my heavens. They all did, and they were all terrible. They were all terrible. Absolutely. Those are really hit or miss.
SPEAKER_0 [00:18:25]
I've I'll be honest with you. I have yet to have a hit, John. I have not I have not had a chatbot yet that has helped me out.
SPEAKER_1 [00:18:33]
You have do badly for you. So this isn't a chatbot. It's an actual live person.
SPEAKER_1 [00:18:39]
But if you want to
SPEAKER_0 [00:18:41]
Yeah. Okay.
SPEAKER_1 [00:18:42]
I
SPEAKER_1 [00:18:43]
mean, but, like, GoDaddy does that, and it's terrible. Flywheel,
SPEAKER_1 [00:18:47]
where our website is hosted, has amazing tech support both through email,
SPEAKER_1 [00:18:52]
through,
SPEAKER_1 [00:18:53]
the chat tool. I've never talked to him on the phone, but we have, like, an account rep that I could probably get on the phone. So
SPEAKER_0 [00:19:01]
So the
SPEAKER_0 [00:19:03]
I I have used a number of these.
SPEAKER_0 [00:19:06]
I I thought you were referring to the chatbot because that's all the new rage. Right? So most of these actually start you off on the chatbot. And if the chatbot fails miserably,
SPEAKER_0 [00:19:14]
it will escalate you to a human on the other side of it. Now within using these chatbots well,
SPEAKER_1 [00:19:21]
it will basically tell you which human it should send you to.
SPEAKER_0 [00:19:25]
I've never really seen that be the case. Yeah. That so here's here's the thing. I was my my query with Microsoft
SPEAKER_0 [00:19:32]
was about a feature
SPEAKER_0 [00:19:34]
in outlook.com
SPEAKER_0 [00:19:35]
when you have an Office three sixty five subscription. So the query I would type is, like, I want to discuss
SPEAKER_0 [00:19:42]
the
SPEAKER_0 [00:19:43]
personalized
SPEAKER_0 [00:19:44]
email address feature
SPEAKER_0 [00:19:46]
in outlook.com
SPEAKER_0 [00:19:47]
for an Office three sixty five home subscription.
SPEAKER_0 [00:19:49]
To me, that's that's pretty precise. Pretty yep.
SPEAKER_0 [00:19:52]
I'm using their lingo, the personalized email address. That's the name of the feature. Right? Oh, you wanna set up a three sixty five address?
SPEAKER_0 [00:19:58]
Here's how you set up a live account. No. Here's here's what happened every time, John. We'll get you in touch with someone at Office three sixty five billing.
SPEAKER_0 [00:20:07]
Wait. What?
SPEAKER_0 [00:20:08]
So then I'd get somebody up on billing, and I would, you know, explain
SPEAKER_0 [00:20:13]
what I was going through. And they said, well, we don't do technical support through online chat.
SPEAKER_0 [00:20:17]
And I'd be like, Come again? So they give me a phone number, and then I'd call, and I'd wait,
SPEAKER_0 [00:20:23]
and I'd wait, and I'd wait. And then I get somebody, and then I would explain my issue.
SPEAKER_0 [00:20:28]
They would not
SPEAKER_0 [00:20:30]
understand the question, so they would escalate me. And I would wait and I would wait and I would wait.
SPEAKER_0 [00:20:35]
And finally, eventually, what happened like, I I would do this while I was working on stuff, right, at my computer.
SPEAKER_0 [00:20:42]
And the first time I had a meeting, I'd just hang up. So if I had an hour search Yeah. Time
SPEAKER_0 [00:20:47]
Yeah. I I I just had the Microsoft
SPEAKER_0 [00:20:49]
waiting music going. It was it was awful. It was really not good. So then I proceeded to troll Microsoft on Twitter, and they helped me out promptly, actually. Nice. Lesson learned there.
SPEAKER_0 [00:21:01]
Fidelity was actually an oddly similar situation. Although at one point, they told me to call Apple, then they told me to call Visa, then they told me to call their fraud line,
SPEAKER_0 [00:21:09]
and the fraud line told me to call Visa.
SPEAKER_0 [00:21:11]
Visa's like, you know, you need to call the credit card. Credit card's like, well, if you already call Visa, call Apple. I call Apple. Apple's like, well, we don't have any access to your bank information.
SPEAKER_0 [00:21:20]
So I just I it was I kept getting bounced around.
SPEAKER_0 [00:21:22]
I'm at my wit's end. That that issue is still not resolved. So if by some freak miracle, someone at Fidelity
SPEAKER_0 [00:21:28]
listens to our podcast,
SPEAKER_0 [00:21:30]
I want to love your products.
SPEAKER_1 [00:21:33]
But I jumped. Making it really hard.
SPEAKER_1 [00:21:38]
Nice. So Apple,
SPEAKER_1 [00:21:40]
if you
SPEAKER_1 [00:21:41]
talk to them on the phone,
SPEAKER_1 [00:21:43]
they'll basically call you back at a specific time. Right?
SPEAKER_0 [00:21:46]
They have that feature. Actually, couple of these places have that feature.
SPEAKER_0 [00:21:51]
Apple is the one place where someone talked to me
SPEAKER_0 [00:21:57]
eloquently,
SPEAKER_0 [00:21:57]
efficiently.
SPEAKER_0 [00:21:59]
They didn't waste my time,
SPEAKER_0 [00:22:01]
and they actually made me feel good about the fact that they couldn't help me. Nice.
SPEAKER_0 [00:22:05]
That's a skill. I may be I may be jaded. Right?
SPEAKER_0 [00:22:08]
But it was Especially after spending a lot of time on these poor phone calls. Yeah. Yeah. But they they knew exactly what I was referring to. They understood what was going on, and they were able to explain to me why they weren't able to help me.
SPEAKER_0 [00:22:22]
And that I don't know. It Apple was actually a good experience.
SPEAKER_0 [00:22:26]
You know, when I got the response from Microsoft on Twitter, that was helpful. It just took almost three hours or something like that to get there. You know? It was it was just not good.
SPEAKER_1 [00:22:36]
The way of the future, Stan.
SPEAKER_0 [00:22:39]
I tell you, John, every so often, the little cabin in the woods that's off the grid looks really appealing.
SPEAKER_1 [00:22:46]
So, you know, when your car starts making that weird noise and you take the mechanic to figure it out
SPEAKER_1 [00:22:53]
Yeah.
SPEAKER_1 [00:22:54]
Eventually,
SPEAKER_1 [00:22:55]
you'll have to consult Twitter and try to explain the weird noise.
SPEAKER_0 [00:22:59]
Oh, I hope it never comes to that.
SPEAKER_0 [00:23:02]
Although, at the rate at which, you know, mechanics are are kinda
SPEAKER_0 [00:23:06]
hitting,
SPEAKER_0 [00:23:09]
I I might learn how to do my own repair work, man. Yep.
SPEAKER_0 [00:23:12]
I don't remember what the last thing we had the car in for was.
SPEAKER_1 [00:23:16]
You had the van in for something.
SPEAKER_0 [00:23:18]
Yeah. I guess it was brakes.
SPEAKER_0 [00:23:20]
But,
SPEAKER_0 [00:23:22]
yeah, it's just it was really
SPEAKER_0 [00:23:24]
expensive.
SPEAKER_0 [00:23:25]
Just the labor rate. Right? The parts are like nothing.
SPEAKER_0 [00:23:28]
In fact, my my dinner at Wendy's tonight cost more than the parts that on my last visit to the the Honda dealership, but labor was $350
SPEAKER_0 [00:23:37]
an hour. Wow.
SPEAKER_0 [00:23:38]
Yeah.
SPEAKER_1 [00:23:40]
It's almost a Stan Lemon rate. Hey. I don't know about that.
SPEAKER_1 [00:23:47]
Well,
SPEAKER_1 [00:23:48]
I hope that your issues are resolved.
SPEAKER_1 [00:23:51]
I can't help you.
SPEAKER_0 [00:23:52]
I haven't had any trouble my I'm just gonna give up. Like
SPEAKER_1 [00:23:56]
That's right. You're gonna buy gold, aren't you?
SPEAKER_0 [00:23:58]
Yeah. That's I think that was the joke I made on Twitter. I'm giving up on Fidelity. I'm buying gold and Bitcoin.
SPEAKER_1 [00:24:06]
Well, Aaron Finger can help you out there. Yeah. Yeah. He probably
SPEAKER_0 [00:24:10]
has all kinds of pro tips. Although, I don't know that he does Bitcoin so much as like all of the other cryptocurrencies.
SPEAKER_0 [00:24:16]
Got it. He's passionate about it though. I'll tell you what that is, man. It it's enjoyable to watch him get excited about it.
SPEAKER_1 [00:24:24]
Everybody needs a hobby.
SPEAKER_0 [00:24:26]
That they do, John. That they do. This this leads me to something that's been on our episode ideas list for a while, is just personal banking.
SPEAKER_0 [00:24:34]
So Oh, yeah. All the time I've spent here fiddling around with Fidelity
SPEAKER_0 [00:24:39]
is in part because I think personal banking is broken.
SPEAKER_0 [00:24:43]
And I'm I'm just realizing more and more that banking as a whole is broken. Like, it's just a universal truth.
SPEAKER_0 [00:24:51]
It's it's really depressing.
SPEAKER_1 [00:24:53]
So this initially made it to the episode ideas list because you saw a poster or something in a bank that was ridiculous.
SPEAKER_1 [00:25:01]
Like, here, take out more debt to get out of debt or something like that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I was I was actually in a PNC.
SPEAKER_0 [00:25:07]
So this is timely because I just closed my PNC checking account.
SPEAKER_0 [00:25:11]
I I was waiting in in line at PNC to do a deposit,
SPEAKER_0 [00:25:15]
and it's like it's like being at the Indy five hundred when you're in a p and c. Right? And and another branch is like this. Like, this isn't unique to p and c, but there are advertisements galore. And the one that got me was,
SPEAKER_0 [00:25:27]
can't pay your credit card. Why don't you try a home equity line of credit?
SPEAKER_0 [00:25:32]
Right.
SPEAKER_0 [00:25:33]
Right? So so, basically, you have a bit of debt, and they're recommending that you take out another piece of debt in order to pay for the debt that you can't pay for. Now for those playing at home,
SPEAKER_1 [00:25:44]
that is a bad idea.
SPEAKER_0 [00:25:47]
It's a really bad idea.
SPEAKER_0 [00:25:50]
Now,
SPEAKER_0 [00:25:51]
more than likely, the home equity line of credit has a lower interest rate, and that's like the crux of the advertisement.
SPEAKER_0 [00:25:56]
But, you know, you're basically dumping gasoline on a fire. Right? Yep. And and
SPEAKER_0 [00:26:01]
I just it it bothered me because
SPEAKER_0 [00:26:04]
this is the way that those branches make money. Right? It's selling these these debt
SPEAKER_0 [00:26:10]
driven products,
SPEAKER_0 [00:26:12]
and I like, it's just it's just not great. It's not great at all.
SPEAKER_0 [00:26:16]
And I I don't know another way in which that
SPEAKER_0 [00:26:20]
type of retail space can succeed.
SPEAKER_1 [00:26:23]
Right? Right.
SPEAKER_0 [00:26:24]
So I don't know. Like, the
SPEAKER_0 [00:26:27]
on top of that, the whole reason that I wanna closing my PNC checking account this week is because
SPEAKER_0 [00:26:33]
once I decided to do direct deposit to my Fidelity cash management account,
SPEAKER_0 [00:26:39]
I started incurring fees at a rapid pace
SPEAKER_0 [00:26:42]
on the PNC front because I wasn't doing direct deposit,
SPEAKER_0 [00:26:45]
and that was impacting my daily average.
SPEAKER_0 [00:26:48]
And it came on harsh and fast.
SPEAKER_0 [00:26:51]
And again, too, like,
SPEAKER_0 [00:26:52]
you know, the
SPEAKER_0 [00:26:55]
traditional banks are doing that left and right. The the Fidelity cash management I have isn't doing that. The Discover savings account I have doesn't do that. And so True.
SPEAKER_0 [00:27:05]
I think I think there's an evolution happening beyond retail banking
SPEAKER_0 [00:27:10]
that
SPEAKER_0 [00:27:11]
is friendlier to the consumer,
SPEAKER_0 [00:27:14]
but also just, like it just makes it so clear how broken this stuff is. Yep.
SPEAKER_1 [00:27:20]
How are you gonna fix this, Stan? It's a great business idea.
SPEAKER_0 [00:27:25]
They always fix it.
SPEAKER_0 [00:27:27]
I'm gonna fix it by not using the retail banks. That's kinda what I've the conclusion I've come to. So I've been trying to consolidate things into Fidelity. And I I was bashing Fidelity earlier,
SPEAKER_0 [00:27:37]
but it's really just their credit card product that has driven me crazy.
SPEAKER_0 [00:27:42]
And their credit card product is something they outsource and rebrand. Right? So they're it's they they basically white labeled,
SPEAKER_0 [00:27:48]
something from Elan
SPEAKER_0 [00:27:50]
Elan, e l a n, Financial Services.
SPEAKER_0 [00:27:53]
And my heavens, if you see anything with Elan Financial Services, label
SPEAKER_0 [00:27:58]
on run the other way. Go the opposite direction.
SPEAKER_0 [00:28:01]
It's just not it's not worth it. One of the numbers I called was the fraud detection line. I waited forty five minutes on the fraud detection line. That's not a good sign. No.
SPEAKER_1 [00:28:10]
You didn't used to work for them, did you?
SPEAKER_0 [00:28:13]
No. No. No. No. I
SPEAKER_0 [00:28:17]
don't know. I we talked a little bit this week about the Apple credit card. I'm looking forward to that. Ma'am.
SPEAKER_0 [00:28:24]
I that that has a lot of appeal.
SPEAKER_1 [00:28:26]
Is this gonna make you pull the trigger?
SPEAKER_1 [00:28:28]
Initially, we thought that Patrick Sertivant would be the only one of our group of friends that pulled the trigger right away. After this week, I'll apply for one instantly. As soon as it's available, I'll apply. Yeah. Nice.
SPEAKER_0 [00:28:40]
It's it's not going to be the moat so here here's the thing.
SPEAKER_0 [00:28:44]
We're gonna dig back into my Fidelity issue. So,
SPEAKER_0 [00:28:48]
my problem was my credit card, after using it for exactly one month, got flagged for fraud and charges started getting declined. They did not let me know.
SPEAKER_0 [00:28:57]
In fact, when I called them up, they said I should get the notice next week
SPEAKER_0 [00:29:00]
that my Wow. My card yeah. And I was like, well, that happened two weeks ago.
SPEAKER_1 [00:29:04]
Like,
SPEAKER_1 [00:29:05]
me a text instantly.
SPEAKER_0 [00:29:07]
Any really anything. Smoke signals at this point would have been an improvement. Carrier pigeon. Whatever. But
SPEAKER_0 [00:29:13]
when they
SPEAKER_0 [00:29:15]
locked it down,
SPEAKER_0 [00:29:17]
I it got removed from Apple Pay. And when I asked them to unlock it, it it basically has been in a state where I can never add it back to Apple Pay. And I use Apple Pay, John. I like Apple Pay. Yep.
SPEAKER_0 [00:29:30]
I have not been able to use it now with my primary credit card, and it is really getting to me.
SPEAKER_1 [00:29:36]
Understandable.
SPEAKER_1 [00:29:37]
And they still didn't solve your issue.
SPEAKER_0 [00:29:39]
Nope. Nope. But that's the killer feature, right, for the
SPEAKER_0 [00:29:43]
Right. The Apple credit card is that you'll
SPEAKER_0 [00:29:46]
well, I think you can get 2% back if you use it on
SPEAKER_0 [00:29:50]
the or if you use Apple Pay with that account. Now the the Fidelity card that I was using is 2% back across the board. That's why it was so appealing. You know, just more pointage.
SPEAKER_0 [00:29:59]
It was a pain to apply for because I've got a a credit freeze
SPEAKER_0 [00:30:03]
on all of my like, you know, with each of the bureaus, and that's also just a nightmarish experience. So I had to lift that to apply for this credit card, which which then, like I I start to get a little bit of PTSD at the idea of applying for the Apple credit card.
SPEAKER_1 [00:30:20]
You have an interesting set of problems, Stan.
SPEAKER_0 [00:30:23]
Yeah. Well,
SPEAKER_0 [00:30:24]
I don't know, John.
SPEAKER_1 [00:30:27]
It got really dark in your house. Nobody
SPEAKER_1 [00:30:30]
else home.
SPEAKER_0 [00:30:31]
The sun's setting. Yeah. Well, there's there's no lights on downstairs,
SPEAKER_0 [00:30:34]
and I'm not gonna get up and turn them on. Nice.
SPEAKER_0 [00:30:38]
Someday we should record the video
SPEAKER_0 [00:30:40]
for our, for our recording and post that and see what people think.
SPEAKER_1 [00:30:44]
It seems like it would be boring.
SPEAKER_0 [00:30:47]
Probably. Probably. But they could see what you're referring to with the light changing.
SPEAKER_1 [00:30:51]
The only reason we do this is so that we don't talk over each other, and sometimes it works. You've got it.
SPEAKER_0 [00:30:57]
Alright. Last bit. I installed Catalina
SPEAKER_0 [00:31:01]
against my better judgment,
SPEAKER_0 [00:31:04]
and
SPEAKER_0 [00:31:05]
it's nice. I I like it. I like the improvements.
SPEAKER_0 [00:31:09]
There are a few things I haven't been able to test the full gamut of, like the new reminders app.
SPEAKER_0 [00:31:14]
I I haven't upgraded my lists because I'm not gonna update my phone. Right. It's funny. My I'm more willing to take the risk with my laptop than I am my phone. What's that tell you?
SPEAKER_0 [00:31:24]
Backblaze totally broke.
SPEAKER_1 [00:31:26]
Backup return to a backup on your computer?
SPEAKER_0 [00:31:29]
When you update an operating system, you are you're crossing the the Rubicon, buddy. The Rubicon?
SPEAKER_0 [00:31:36]
Yeah.
SPEAKER_0 [00:31:38]
So which is funny because it one of one of my other tech support woes was just letting Backblaze know, hey.
SPEAKER_0 [00:31:44]
Your product does not work with Catalina,
SPEAKER_0 [00:31:48]
and
SPEAKER_0 [00:31:49]
they were they were classic.
SPEAKER_0 [00:31:50]
You should downgrade your operating system. I'm like, do you not That's wonderful. Yeah. Exactly.
SPEAKER_0 [00:31:56]
They were they were brazen, and their tone was
SPEAKER_0 [00:31:59]
not great. And so I called them on it. Mhmm. And I was like, your tone stinks, and I'm a long term customer of yours. And you were talking about dropping them too, weren't you?
SPEAKER_0 [00:32:09]
Yeah. I mean, I I knew the line at this last time around
SPEAKER_0 [00:32:13]
because the way that I'm structured digitally, I'm not I'm not really sure I'm gaining much from having it because I'm all in on the iCloud. Right? Like,
SPEAKER_0 [00:32:23]
there's nothing
SPEAKER_0 [00:32:24]
that I have that's not on iCloud at this point. And
SPEAKER_0 [00:32:29]
so
SPEAKER_0 [00:32:29]
I will tell you after this experience, I will I will probably just say forget it and not
SPEAKER_0 [00:32:34]
renew. Whatever.
SPEAKER_0 [00:32:36]
I've got it till April, I think. So I'm only two two months in.
SPEAKER_0 [00:32:41]
Nice.
SPEAKER_0 [00:32:43]
But
SPEAKER_0 [00:32:44]
yeah. I don't know. I,
SPEAKER_0 [00:32:46]
Catalina definitely has some bugs. I've I've noticed some issues with Safari. So I don't recommend it for the the faint of heart, but I I dig it. And
SPEAKER_0 [00:32:55]
the they added
SPEAKER_0 [00:32:56]
and this this is, like, something I was waiting for. They added a feature
SPEAKER_0 [00:33:01]
to automatically switch to dark mode after a certain time of day.
SPEAKER_0 [00:33:05]
Wow.
SPEAKER_0 [00:33:06]
I love that. I'm all about that.
SPEAKER_1 [00:33:11]
Nice.
SPEAKER_1 [00:33:13]
So there you go. That sounds like a happy note to end on today.
SPEAKER_0 [00:33:19]
Alright, John. We gotta figure out something profound for next week. What you wanna talk about resumes? We
SPEAKER_1 [00:33:24]
could talk about resumes.
SPEAKER_1 [00:33:29]
I don't know. Listeners, if you have any ideas that you wanna hear us talk about, whether we know anything about it or not,
SPEAKER_1 [00:33:35]
go ahead and leave the suggestion
SPEAKER_1 [00:33:37]
on our Facebook page or use contact form on our website,
SPEAKER_1 [00:33:41]
SPEAKER_0 [00:33:44]
So as I as I look at the calendar, will next the next episode be,
SPEAKER_0 [00:33:48]
it won't be on the fourth, will it? It'll be close to the fourth.
SPEAKER_1 [00:33:52]
It will be on the fourth unless we decide to on the fourth. Move it around, which we can because we're free.
SPEAKER_0 [00:33:59]
We are free, but I think we should do a little patriotic special. Do What you think, John? Special?
SPEAKER_1 [00:34:03]
We can talk about politics?
SPEAKER_0 [00:34:05]
No. No. No. No. We're not gonna do that. Let's let's
SPEAKER_0 [00:34:09]
let's talk about this this country that we love. And here's the thing. The next episode,
SPEAKER_0 [00:34:14]
by the way in which we've numbered them, will be episode 52,
SPEAKER_0 [00:34:19]
which will have rounded out what I'm going to affectionately call season one.
SPEAKER_1 [00:34:24]
Alright.
SPEAKER_0 [00:34:25]
Season one.
SPEAKER_0 [00:34:27]
Season one. So that means that we will be starting
SPEAKER_0 [00:34:30]
the second season two weeks from the release of this episode. We gotta figure out something special to do.
SPEAKER_1 [00:34:36]
We do.
SPEAKER_1 [00:34:37]
This calls for milkshakes.
SPEAKER_0 [00:34:40]
Oh, there we go. And we should do
SPEAKER_0 [00:34:42]
we should do a alright. Alright. Let's let's plan this out. Let's do a meat rubs review. Let's do a milkshake review.
SPEAKER_0 [00:34:49]
We probably should throw a little bit of Marvel and some Macs in there as well.
SPEAKER_1 [00:34:53]
Just for our good buddy, pastor George Borchardt.
SPEAKER_0 [00:34:56]
There you go.
SPEAKER_0 [00:34:57]
Alright, John. Until until next week, my friend, when we
SPEAKER_0 [00:35:01]
celebrate the founding of our great nation. Independence Day. Alright.
SPEAKER_0 [00:35:06]
And and a really great movie.
SPEAKER_0 [00:35:08]
Yes.
SPEAKER_0 [00:35:09]
See
SPEAKER_1 [00:35:11]
you later, John. Talk to you later.