I have either made a good decision or a bad one. We subscribed to the AT&T U-Verse system. The reason it is a Bon Air issue is that they have claimed that the system is available right now only in the Bon Air/Highgate Springs area and not elsewhere yet.
U-Verse is the phone company's foray into television using fiber optic cable. The sales contractor sent another young fresh face around tonight in the rain, and I thought it would be timely to write a review in the case that any of you had a knock on the door.
I started out 2009 with the Direct TV system. I could watch Hockey Night in Canada and my wife could have Soapnet. My wife was wanting a DVR system and it would have cost a lot more with Direct TV, plus Direct TV loses signals when thick clouds come through or a plane departs from or is in the landing pattern for the Bowman Field North-South runway.
So when Insight sent a sales person around in the summer with a deal where phone, internet, and a DVR cable box could all come at the same time for what turned out to be less than what we were paying for Direct TV and AT&T Internet we jumped on it.
The problems turned out to be that the DVR was only playable in the livingroom, and we could only get channels 2-99 in the bedroom. I gave up the NHL Channel and Hockey Night in Canada and started watching Louisville Metro Council meetings on the Metro Channel--I could adapt.
The Insight phone system was also good and the Internet was faster, however a fresh young face came around pushing the AT&T U-Verse system in September. They offered a better deal for phone, wireless internet and television. They offered two DVR's and the ability to record four programs at the same time.
The fresh young face said that they also said that they had the NHL Network and all local channels, plus phone and fast internet. I was sold. It did not take much for me to sign on the dotted line for the U-300 package.
Well, I discovered before the installation that the NHL Network was NOT on the U-300 package, but on the more expensive U-450 package.
Make sure you have a grounded outlet
Well, the install was not a big problem, except for it turns out that the ONLY grounded outlet in my house in my upstairs study. The main computer downstairs is now on wireless internet as the system box is sitting upstairs. This is a big deal as many houses in the Bon Air and Highgate Springs Neighborhood do not have updated wiring.
Testing out the customer service
About four days into being U-Verse customers, we lost all signal on a Sunday afternoon. I spent about 40 minutes cell phone time talking to several people in the Phillippines who spoke good English until they said the word "Kentucky." We wound up spending the night without TV, phone and Internet until the morning, but the local repair guys came and replaced the connectors immediately--problem solved.
About two weeks ago, my son dropped the U-Verse remote into his glass of milk--unintentionally of course--I am not mad. Seeing if it worked and getting a new remote was a little bit of a problem as I talked to customer service twice only to be told that I had to go to the AT&T website to buy a new remote. That was a bit of a waste of time.
Well, I have really yet to talk about the quality of the U-Verse System. I will say that the Internet has been very dependable. The phone has been fine. The TV part has been pretty good.
The U-Verse on-demand and DVR systems actually are smoother working than the corresponding Insight systems. You can FF and RR much faster and stop on a dime with U-Verse compared to Insight.
Squished talking faces on the TV News
One of the problems with the U-Verse system is that Rick Van Hoose, Vicky Dortch, David Scott and Elizabeth Woosley all look a little squished on screen. But like Direct TV, Channel 41 is Channel 41 and not Channel 9, and so on like Insight.
Potential liabilities
One of the potential liabilities in the future with U-Verse is that the system box is required for phone. As I understand it, if the power goes out, we have a 4-hour battery. After that, we will be dependent on our cell phones until power is restored.
Both the regular Insight and AT&T phone systems would stay on regardless of the electricity being out. If you do not have a cell phone, beware of this.
Responsiveness to my beef about the NHL Network
I have said twice to U-Verse that they should make the NHL Network part of the U-300 package, and I talked about the salesgirl's mistakes.
It would be worth more than having the Fox-Sports Network for Nashville and St.Louis when Thrashers and Blues games are blacked out anyway.
They did follow up with my internet-based website comments, which was good but it was disappointing that the guy tried to sell me the U-450 package to get the NHL Network, but I do not want HBO and Cinemax.
There is still hope I can be watching Don Cherry with his loud suits on Coach's Corner on Saturday nights.
The Sum of the Matter
So, if I could do this all over, would I do it again? Yes, because the DVR in both rooms and recording four shows at one time makes my wife happy, even if I do not have the Metro Channel and NHL Network.
But buyer beware--make sure you are getting exactly what you want.
I had to educate the fresh-face walking around tonight in the rain on a couple of things, and she said "I did not know that to three (3) of them, including that we had bought the system already.
The U-Verse sales people do not seem to be in total touch with their product lines, and they are not communicating amongst themselves.
Thanks for the review... I had read previously that U-Verse was getting very good reviews in Florida and was curious how it was going to shake out up here.
I have DISH, which has some fantastic HD DVR's, so I'm not looking to switch, but if I was, it certainly wouldn't be to Insight. It's good to have choices... keeps everyone on their toes.
Please give us an update after living with it for a month or two.
Well, I have had U-Verse for approximately one month and the service technicians are coming out this morning for the third (and final time) to replace my hardware. They spent three hours here last night and still could not restore the connection to our house. After spending two weekends with no cable, I have to say I am questioning our decision to switch. I will say though, that the repair team has been pretty available and most times we call, is out to our house the next morning. Getting through the nightmare of an automated system, however is a bit taxing, and I find that if you simply scream your answers into the phone you will be routed to a live person immediately.
So far I have been able to maintain a streak of two months now of analyzing crime patterns for the Bon Air/Highgate Springs Neighborhood.
-Some of this disclaimer stuff is repeated in the name of clarity----
For the record this area has the following boundaries:
West: Bardstown Rd
North: The Watterson Expressway (I-264) and Taylorsville Rd
East: Furman Blvd.
South: Hikes Lane.
The Bon Air/Highgate Springs area is in the 40220 and 40218 zip codes.
For the record again my information source was the Courier-Journal's database on crime by zip code (http://datacenter.courier-journal.com/community/crime). The disclaimer of using this includes technical glitches in the system where days are missing, and possible errors in the “geo-coding” process where the block number may be wrong due to the automated conversion of police information to the CJ website. So, this information may be flawed, but then thankfully, this is just a blog, and you are welcome to look for yourself, in fact . . . again I hope you do.
My process continues to be to paste the web information into a word processing file, count up the total number of reports, and then sift out the irrelevant reports. I then pasted the information into a spreadsheet and then sorted the data in a number of ways.
The sad news is that the police were a little busier in October than in September in our neighborhood with 34 calls and the 40220 section had more calls than the 40218 section. The good news is that there were no sex offender-related offenses.
In the 40220 zip code section of the neighborhood the police had 18 calls for October (compared to 12 for September). In the 40218 zip code section there were 16 police calls (compared to 19 for September). The types of crimes most occurring were:
• 11 theft by deception
• 5 possession of marijuana,
(1 possession of a pot plant, one dealing cocaine)
• 5 burglaries of various severities
• (overall 7 drug related offenses)
• 3 assaults
• 3 criminal mischief charges.
Persisting trends
The two areas that were the busiest the last time were also the busiest this time. They just changed places. I would conclude that both of these were high traffic business districts with a high intensity of rental housing.
The most active area is that Southeast section of the neighborhood. This the area comprising Stanton/Noe/Furman/Hikes Lane. I have included the incidents on Klondike Lane this time since that was specified. There were the following incidents.
• POSS OF MARIJUANA
• BURGLARY - 3RD DEGREE
• TRAF CONT SUB-1ST DEGREE-1ST OFFENSE-COCAINE
• POSS OF MARIJUANA
• ASSAULT - 4TH DEGREE (DOMESTIC VIOLENCE) NO VISIBLE INJURY
• THEFT BY DECEPTION-INCL COLD CHECKS U/$10,000
• THEFT BY UNLAWFUL TAKING/DISP-ALL OTHERS -MISD
• BURGLARY - 2ND DEGREE
It appears that there were a few drug deals going on and there were some retail-related thefts.
The 3300 block of Bardstown Rd was the second most active spot. Here is what happened there:
• HARASSING COMMUNICATIONS
• MISSING PERSONS
• POSS OF MARIJUANA (twice)
• THEFT BY UNLAWFUL TAKING - GASOLINE - U/$500 MISD
• THEFT BY UNLAWFUL TAKING - GASOLINE - U/$500 MISD
• THEFT BY UNLAWFUL TAKING/DISP-SHOPLIFTING -MISD
• THEFT OF PROPERTY LOST/MISLAID/DELIVERED BY MISTAKE MISD
It appears that at least three times something happened at the two convenience stores.
Dishonorable mention
There were two locations that had at least two incidents at different times.
The 3500 block of Brockton Lane (40220—in the northeast section of the neighborhood). There was one criminal mischief incident, and one theft incident. These are apartments that have a reputation of being a little rowdy.
The 2500 block of Fureen Drive (40218—in the southwest section of the neighborhood). There was one criminal mischief incident and one assault incident.
Two-month trends
Of the 66 crime incidents for September and October, the scores are the following:
• 21 of them were some kind of theft.
• 12 of them were burglaries.
• 11 of them were drug-related offenses (I totaled)
• 6 of them were criminal mischief calls
There were 16 miscellaneous incidents.
For September and October, The 3300 block of Bardstown Rd has had 16 reported incidents. It is by far the winner of a prize no one really wants.
The Southeast quadrant comprising Stanton, Furman, Noe and Hikes also continues to be a busy place.
It does appear that the High School has nipped whatever crime problems it had in the bud. Barney Fife would be proud.
In one of my conversations in the past few weeks, I have some ideas that I want to flush out regarding the 3300 block of Bardstown Rd. One guy I talked with said that there was a lot of gang-related loitering going on in some of the restaurants after dark. I hope to go and get a snack to see what is there. If it is gang-related, we may have a button we can push to get some action taken.
Otherwise, I plan to do this again next month and continue to expand on the trends. I am hoping that we can use this information overall to start initiatives to improve both the ambience and livability of the neighborhood.
This is a total shame, I grew up in this area and my parents never worried about us when we were out late, This was a area where there was no crime. Seems it basically started over the last 10 years and is growing. First it seemed to be on the other side of Bardstown road where the turtle creek apts are, but now seems to have moved more into the other areas.
I took a walk through the Eden Market this week to stay in touch with what is happening. The place is about the same as my last entry.
It is a very cluttered store with a lot of merchandise that no one is buying. I would patronize it more if it had things that I regularly used and needed. I get the sense that the majority of the neighborhood is the same.
They had a lot of ALDI-brand food items in the refrigerated case and in the food aisle. The last two merchants in this store resold ALDI items too. Frankly, if I want ALDI, I go to ALDI.
They still have a large supply of alarm clocks and small coffee pots that were likely left over from a hotel supplier. (I bought one a few months back).
They do have a number of frozen and dry food items that I have seen in other Asian food markets. Since I do not come that often, I cannot tell how well they are moving those products.
One other Bon Air Merchant told me that there is little observed traffic into the Eden Market and it is a mystery how it stays in business.
I hope that someone from both Brown Noltemeyer and Valumarket reads this and responds. I think that they should look at putting a Valumarket in there. Now the the daycare center has appeared to die, why not knock the wall out and make the grocery store space larger?
I still think that Valumarket should be incentivized to come and run the grocery store site. Their stores are fantastic, their product is good. They advertise, and they could likely ship fresh bakery in from their other stores. More local people would come in and patronize it.
So I throw out two questions I would like a response to . . .
I would be open to hearing as to what is needed to make it happen?
I am also interested in understanding what it takes for a successful grocery store at this time and date?
If we can understand those things, we can work to create a better Bon Air Manor that thrives.
The Kidz Campus Day Care is closed and the Nail Salon intended for Bon Air Manor is history.
One half of the spot that used to have Pets Palace is now fronted with gift wrap paper and the other has some miscellaneous furniture and equipment.
From what my source said (this is a blog mind you) the ACORN funding that the proprietor was depending on fell through. I did feel safe repeating other things without getting confirmation.
It is sad now especially with Brown Noltemeyer's investment in that property. Brown Noltemeyer really got in there and gutted the place and got rid of decades of pet smell and reconfigured the place for a day care center.
If someone else has other ambitions with the property, you have your chance.
--One freshly renovated storefront has multiple rooms for an office or agency type facility.
--One freshly renovated storefront is good to go for a retail or service type of business.
The owners of Bon Air Shopping Center might think of putting up a website to help attract potential tenants. There are not any photos of it on the net that I can find.
It is a running commentary on the news and occurances and in the Bon Air and Highgate Springs Neighborhood. It also contains philosophical discourse on what the neighborhood needs for it to be vibrant and robust.
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