AT&T Customer Service

I have had my cell phone service with Cingular/AT&T since 2002. I have been quite happy with them in what has been a mostly pain free relationship. I chose them initially because as a UNC student I got some nice perks, like 200 free Text messages and some free Web access.

When we moved to Nashville last year, Nat and I renewed our contract with ATT by getting two Motorola Razr V3 phones. I got a black one and Nat a pink one. Mine has been working just fine. Nat's developed a software glitch back in April where the phone would not power up properly and would issue some weird screen error (think DOS prompt with lots of numbers). I called ATT and they nicely issued a replacement phone at no cost to us. The phone came in, I added the SIM card (which contains all your phone numbers, identifies the phone as yours, etc.), popped the battery in, put the battery cover on and we were off. I mailed the defective phone off and we were off.

About 2-3 months ago, Nat noticed that if her phone ran out of battery or if she merely turned the phone off, the keypad would light up when you tried to turn it back on, but the phone would not boot up. I then figured out that if you took the battery off AND the SIM card out and put them back in, the phone would boot up. Because I was lazy, I didn't call ATT to tell them the phone was misbehaving until this afternoon, and the response was not to my liking.

In short, their warranty people told me that even though the replacement phone was issued only over 3 months ago, that the one year warranty with the phone only applies to the first phone. Unluckily for me, that warranty expired July 14th of this year, or 12 days ago. As such, they told me they would not be able to issue a replacement phone. I then asked to talk to customer service, and after being transfered to the wrong "market", I was able to talk to the right person. After I bitched their service out, he talked to his supervisor and gave me 2 options:

1. Get a bottom of the line Nokia phone for $29.
2. Pay $79 for a new phone.

In other words, even though ATT issued 2 DEFECTIVE phones to us in a period of a year and 12 days, they are askign us to pay for a new phone? Really? Is this how they treat loyal customers of 6 years that have never missed a payment? Whatever happened to taking responsibility for your actions, or in this case for issuing 2 defective pieces of equipment? I am outraged that we have had 2 defective phones in a period of year and that the company that issued them expects ME to pay for it.

I cannot wait for out contract to be up next summer, because when it does, I think I will be looking somewhere else for my cell phone business.

ASV Part Deux

I had intended to post a recap of the meeting on a day-by-day basis, but I just ended up being too tired to write at the end of each day. There were so much going on, fantastic talks, good talks, bad talks, meeting new people, and catching up with old ones. The highlight of the meeting was, hands down, a talk give by MIT professor Angela Belcher. She is basically genetically engineering bacterial viruses, bacteriophages, to carry out physical processes. Her talk was mostly about how they have been able to use these phages to BUILD nanowires, which they then use to build bateries. While this may not sound too impressive, her lab has been able to build a battery, the size of a watch battery, that is able to power up an LED light by using phages. Yes, she has built a viral battery!

Besides getting lots of ideas for my own research, I was able to talk to several people about their postdoctoral experiences (good and bad) as well as catch up with old friends and collegues, while also making new friends and colleagues. It is quite amazing how small the world of viruses actually is, and how my life overlaps with so many people that have gone, or are going, through the process of building a career in science.

I will finish up by saying that my grad school mentor gave a great talk that made me feel incredibly appreciated. She presented quite a bit of my work, and Natalies, from our grad school years in her lab. Even though I am only a year removed from her lab, it felt so good to see my work in retrospect.

Thank you NRT.

And we are off...

Today marked the start of the annual American Society for Virology (ASV) meeting. This year the meeting is in beautiful Ithaca, NY. From a professional standpoint, ASV is a good gathering for virologists around the country to share their science. There are some international scientists at the meeting, but it is not the most international of meetings. There is also a lack of attendance from certain scientists that carry out research in specific areas, like the retrovirologists and Herpes folk, who have their own meetings. Even so, ASV is a fun, casual meeting.

I have not attended ASV since I was an undergrad, so it was fun going through the motions this time around as a postdoc. I have also been very excited to get the opportunity to catch up with old friends from my grad school years. As such, I am happy to say that two great people I know from my graduate years, Tim and Mehul, gave fantastic talks during the first workshop of the day. Mehul was actually hooded right before me last year, so it was great seeing that he has gotten so much accomplished in only a year.

With my talk coming up tomorrow night at 800 pm, I must say that I am feeling a bit intimidated, which is unusual for me. I saw some very good talks today from very knowledgeable people, and I just hope that I can put up a decent show tomorrow. Good night from Ithaca.

On Heated Running

For those of you that like to exercise outdoors in the summer, here is an interesting article in the NY times about running in the heat. Luckily for me, I stay indoors and playing Xbox does not require me to break a sweat so I am exempt from sweating in the summer. OK, this is not entirely true, but I always thought that I was not well heat adapted as I sweat like nobody's business when I am out in the heat, but this may just mean that I am actually well adapted to the heat. Go figure.