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All Charged Up Over Comcast's Quadruple Play
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By Ed Foster, Section The Gripelog
Posted on Tue Apr 01, 2008 at 12:11:01 AM PDT
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Today's announcement of CHARGES, Comcast's new home energy management system that will be combined with its TV, phone, and Internet services in a new "Quadruple Play" offering, has generated a lot of excitement. To help customers get charged up about this new service, following is a transcript from a Q&A session at Comcast's press conference.
(72 comments, 682 words in story) Full Story
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Logitech Mouse Features Get Shifty
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By Ed Foster, Section The Gripelog
Posted on Thu Mar 27, 2008 at 10:01:26 PM PDT
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Sometimes it's not clear if a vendor is deliberately promoting a feature it knows the product doesn't have, or if it just can't be bothered to change the information on its website. Such is the case with one reader who recently found the feature that led him to buy a Logitech mouse was missing.
(42 comments, 895 words in story) Full Story
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Liquidated Damages
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By Ed Foster, Section The Gripelog
Posted on Mon Mar 24, 2008 at 10:00:33 PM PDT
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What do you do when you're denied warranty service because the vendor claims your system was damaged by a mythical spill of some liquid? I often hear from people who know they didn't spill the milky substance they are being told has invalidated their warranty, but can't prove it. One reader in such a situation however recently found a way to get his warranty honored, and in the process made a point from the discussions we've had about the questionable value of extended warranties.
(21 comments, 1061 words in story) Full Story
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Autorenewal Lurks in Spyware Doctor
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By Ed Foster, Section The Gripelog
Posted on Fri Mar 21, 2008 at 12:30:00 AM PDT
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As we recently saw, automatic subscription renewals seem to have become de rigueur for antivirus software vendors. But one reader recently discovered that the practice is creeping into the anti-spyware category as well.
(165 comments, 614 words in story) Full Story
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Not a Class Act!
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By Ed Foster, Section The Gripelog
Posted on Mon Mar 17, 2008 at 11:25:25 PM PDT
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Many people have mixed feelings about class action lawsuits, seeing as how the only real winners are usually the lawyers. But is such litigation more justified against a software company that keeps putting out a buggy product? That was the question confronting one reader when he received notice of a settlement involving Sage Software's Act! 2005.
(28 comments, 1004 words in story) Full Story
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Reader Voices: Subscription Scams
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By Ed Foster, Section The Gripelog
Posted on Fri Mar 14, 2008 at 09:05:37 AM PDT
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Magazine subscriptions have always been something of a racket, but they seem to getting worse both in scope and in the depth of their sheer fraudulent nastiness. But does the blame for this sorry state of affairs belong to the magazine publishers themselves, or does it perhaps lie elsewhere?
(16 comments, 920 words in story) Full Story
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Keeping Up With Verizon's Sneakwrap Changes
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By Ed Foster, Section The Gripelog
Posted on Mon Mar 10, 2008 at 11:12:22 PM PDT
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The fact that online service providers expect you to check in periodically to see if they've made any changes to their Terms of Service (ToS) is already an old, bad joke. But if you're in the mood for a really bad joke, take a look at what's involved in really tracking those changes even if you wanted to try. Even when a vendor like Verizon at least goes through the motions of giving its customers some form of notification of its ToS changes, it's pretty un-funny how quickly the exercise turns absurd.
(30 comments, 1077 words in story) Full Story
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Intuit's Razor
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By Ed Foster, Section The Gripelog
Posted on Fri Mar 07, 2008 at 12:02:12 PM PDT
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I'm beginning to think there's a lot to be learned about the future of technology by looking more closely at how we've gotten to where we are. My story about how WordPerfect lost out to Word prompted many insights from readers, including some with inside knowledge of what happened back then. Now my recent story about some of the games Intuit plays with Quicken customers prompted some interesting observations from an old Intuit hand.
(53 comments, 802 words in story) Full Story
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Western Digital Lies About Warranty Status
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By Ed Foster, Section The Gripelog
Posted on Tue Mar 04, 2008 at 12:13:19 AM PDT
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Drive manufacturers often seem to have a bad memory when it comes to their warranty promises. That's what one reader discovered when Western Digital's website falsely labeled his drive as being out of warranty when it wasn't.
(26 comments, 483 words in story) Full Story
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