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Here is an update and more comments about a previous article I wrote entitled “Understanding TAPS” which was 3-pages long and set in a somewhat chronological order. The original article outlined my interests and what transpired when joining a local paranormal clique. This article is a follow-up.

TAPS Con 2008 is over and as I mentioned previously, the TAPS Con 2009 event is already taking reservations. I did not go to this event. As I mentioned previously, no planning meetings were held for the staff of TAPS Con prior to (late) June. I guess the coordinators either wanted to take full credit for their hard work (why share the spotlight?), or they felt it just wasn’t necessary to get the volunteers together early and work out the details of this major convention. From what I have heard, this lack of planning was evident at the July 19-20 event. I read comments that the hotel itself, while spectacular, historic and “grand” on the outside, was moldy and slightly appalling on the inside. Some rooms for the guests were disgusting and unkempt. Maybe the “good” rooms were taken by the more-respected VIPs of Taps Con? Another comment reflected on the event itself, claiming it was unorganized and (the staff) had no idea what was going on. What a shock.

On the Friday of the Taps Con weekend, I decided to spend some time in the #ghosthunters chat room on IRC (hosted on Starchat servers). As mentioned in the previous article, although I could access TAPS and sSpirit websites, I appeared to be banned from sSpirit’s forums - for no violation of their terms of service…just “because” they could. Friday, I discovered that I was now banned from the #ghosthunters IRC chat area. What was interesting about this? There was no prior notice. Of course, they are not required to notify anyone, but what is funny is that a guest can get in the room and use foul/adult language and they get a warning first (”Stop it or else!”). The moderators stomp their feet, so to speak, and show they are forces to be reckoned with. But, the guest is given a chance to straighten up. I, on the other hand, was banned. There was no reason given by the moderator I chatted with and the channel owner (WiccanVixen aka Nancy Planeta of sSpirit, Taps Con, Taps Family Radio, TAPS, etc., etc.) was busy finalizing the weekend’s well-organized event - Taps Con 2008. She was not on IRC to give any insight or reason. So, I had to investigate my own reason for being banned. I visited the Ghost Hunters chat website and read the Room Rules, as follows:

1. No bots or cloning.

No problem there. I actually respect that, however, the ghost hunters chat room moderators decided to place a trivia bot in the channel.

2. No Idling (Limit: 4 hour with no activity) No longer enforced.
3. No flooding, repeated sentences, sounds or pop-ups.

#2 is no longer enforced and #3, never did that anyway.

4. No advertising, unless permission is granted by a moderator.

Hmmm…This one may have gotten me (see below)

5. Room content is for guests 18 years old or older.
6. No use of excessive CAPS. It’s considered yelling and rude.
7. Do not ignore channel moderators.
8. No harassing other chatters and/or moderators.
9. Do not impersonate a TAPS member, person of fame and/or a moderator at any time.
10. No inappropriate nicks or links.
11. This is an English speaking room only.
12. This is not a dating service or pick-up chat room. Personal stats are to be kept to Private Messages.
13. Before you Private Message (PM) someone, you must get prior approval.
14. Decisions made by room moderators are final.

Still with me? I’ll explain #4 and some more on the next page. Go to page 2 to continue…

(If by "taps" you think I’m talking about a dance style, think again.) 

I’m talking about The Atlantic Paranormal Society (TAPS), based in Warwick, Rhode Island, with chapters, er, "families" across the U.S.  TAPS is recognized world-wide for their "research" into the paranormal (ghosts) as seen on the popular Sci-Fi (cable TV) series "Ghost Hunters".  TAPS was founded by Jason Hawes and Grant Wilson. 

Fans of the show, or ghost enthusiasts, call themselves a part of this organization by the formation of the TAPS Family.  TAPS Family and the "real" TAPS are supposedly separate entities (no pun intended) - TAPS is not legally responsible for any TAPS Family member.  Basically, TAPS Family sets their own hierarchy of officials, creates their own criteria for membership and handles any complaints.  They are affiliated to some extent.  However, don’t attempt to contact TAPS about TAPS Family and don’t try to connect with TAPS through the TAPS Family - only the upper echelon of TAPS Family will have access to the Hollywood-esque TAPS members.

My family and I watch the show.  I am not a fanatic, though.  I do not have dreams of walking hand-in-hand with Jason, Grant or the other stars.  The show is entertaining and intriguing.  The idea of researching the paranormal has always been of interest to me, although I remain skeptical of this possibility.  At some point, earlier this year, I decided to pursue this interest and located a group in the Tampa Bay area.

In March, 2008, I contacted Real P.R.O.O.F. with an interest in becoming an investigator.  Real P.R.O.O.F. does not claim affiliation with TAPS, which is fine by me.  I later Emailed Real P.R.O.O.F. a photo I took of a church in Asheville, North Carolina.  The photo is interesting.  It was eventually posted on their website.  Responses to my interest in joining Real P.R.O.O.F. were slow and I eventually looked for another group.  I found sSpirit Florida.  This group is a TAPS Family member.  Not only that, but the founders of sSpirit are also in the "upper echelon" of TAPS Family, TAPS Family Radio and the Ghost Hunters chat room on IRC. I may be missing other high-ranking titles, but these are the known ones.

sSpirit’s website included a "Join Us" form and not long after submitting my information, a telephone interview was scheduled.  I spoke with Nancy, one of the founders of the group, who was also busy with preparations for the 2008 TAPS Con being held in Clearwater.  By March 23, the newly-formed "team" was scheduled to meet for the first time on April 12th, at the location of TAPS Con - the Belleview Biltmore Resort in Clearwater.  TAPS Con is a big event in the paranormal TV world, with seminars, ghost hunts of the hotel and special appearances by celebrities.  As we were told during the meeting in April, the "team" would be a part of TAPS Con, as volunteers to help during the convention.  After the meeting, we were taken to the 4th and 5th floors of the Biltmore to do an impromptu ghost hunt. I recorded digital audio and took over 100 photos of the darkness.

(there are more pages, select page 2 below)

My previous article relates to the comparison of two GPS devices:  Tomtom GO 720 and Garmin Nuvi 750.  If you read that story, you realize I returned the Tomtom unit and paid the difference for the more expensive Garmin. What I didn’t explain was the fact that these items were purchased at a local Best Buy retail store -AND- on top of the difference, there was a 15% restocking fee applied!  I was unable to fully comment on this detail during the comparison article because I sent a comment to Best Buy’s "Customer Service" department regarding the 15% fee. If you read the comparison article, you should note that the Tomtom had experienced several moments of locking up.  An apparent "feature" found common in these units - as I read on several Tomtom user forums.  This lock-up requires a hard reset, a type of reboot.  Whether sitting still in your home testing this unit or driving 70 mph on the interstate, locking up should not be necessity.  The 720, to me, appeared defective or "buggy".  Then, couple that to the consistent lack of accuracy in routing, the unit was not the right choice for what a GPS was meant for - accurate navigation! At this point, I became a 100% dissatisfied customer.  So, I took the issue up with Best Buy. Luckily, the new Best Buy is about a mile from here.  Not-so-luckily, their customer service isn’t about you, the customer.  Otherwise, I would not have been charged the 15% "restocking" fee. I saved all of the packing material, boxes, and papers that came with the Tomtom.  I put all of it back in the boxes and put that back in the original bag with my receipt.  After doing more research for a replacement, I was convinced I was going to purchase the Garmin and pay the difference in price.  I read the back of the receipt which explains the return policy.  Yes, it does mention the 15% fee "unless the item is defective".  As with any other establishment or corporation, *most* customer service representatives can waive fees.  Apparently, even after describing the issues I had with the Tomtom, Best Buy is not any other establishment or corporation. This fee added $67.49 to my new purchase. During my research, I found similar GPS units at Circuit City for the same price.  However, Circuit City offered 10% off their price.  Had I realized Best Buy didn’t value me as a customer, and had I noticed the 15% fee, I could have reduced that impact to 5% by purchasing the Garmin at Circuit City.  What?  I’ll explain!  Best Buy was already charging me 15% ($67.49) even for a refund - which I should have done.  I should have then gone to Circuit City and purchased the Garmin at their price then they would take 10% off - roughly $59.  Instead, I purchased it at full price, minus the difference of the Tomtom, plus the 15% at Best Buy.  So, by staying at Best Buy, I was out $67.49.  If I had taken the refund and purchased the Garmin/replacement at Circuit City, I would only be out, roughly, $8.  See?? At home, it was time to start the paper trail with Best Buy.  I knew I could explain myself through Email and someone on the other end would understand.  This was sent to Best Buy on November 6, 2007 (Tuesday):

Friday, I purchased a Tomtom GO 720 GPS from the new Best Buy in Wesley Chapel, FL.   During the time I had this device, it locked up (froze) more than 10 times and required a hard reset.  Besides that, on two routes, it navigated me across dirt roads, one road was so bad I had to drive on the grass to get around it.  The GO 720 had a lot of features but I needed reliability and accurate navigation.  I put everything in the box to return to Best Buy.  Yesterday, I returned the unit and picked out a Garmin Nuvi 750.  The 750 costs more and is less "flashy". After entering a few routes that failed on the Tomtom, the Garmin proved more accurate.

I was expecting to pay the difference between the two units but the Cust. Svc. rep. included the 15% restocking fee - $67.49.  I realize this fee is listed on the reverse of the receipt, but under the circumstances - the Tomtom was purchased for accurate navigation, which it did not provide, and required hard resets at odd times - I feel this should have been waived. 

This additional charge educated me:  Either don’t return something to Best Buy that you’re having problems with, or return it and purchase the replacement from another retailer.  Circuit City has a promotion for 10% off merchandise…I would have easily recovered most of the restocking fee by going to Circuit City for the replacement purchase.  Actually, Circuit City might place more value on my business.

Circuit City is another retail giant similar to Best Buy.  I have never required their customer service, so I cannot comment on how they treat customers. Best Buy responded to my inquiry/complaint on November 8, 2007 (not a bad turn around time):

Thank you for contacting Best Buy about restocking fees. I’m Amanda with Consumer Relations.

I understand your frustration about being charged a restocking fee for returning the TomTom GPS unit. We take allegations of customer disappointment seriously. We value receiving your comments so we may use this feedback to improve the shopping and service experience for all our customers.

Thank you for sharing your comments with Best Buy. Please do not hesitate to contact us with additional questions or concerns.

Best Wishes from Best Buy,

Amanda and the Consumer Relations Team

What?  You’re kidding, right?  Suddenly, my complaint was turned into a survey.  Sort of like I was merely informing them that they have a restocking fee, "oh! thanks for letting us know about that!". Obviously, with that response, they value me as a customer.  Maybe I expected too much from "customer service".  Their response basically says, "we don’t care if you take your business elsewhere". Best Buy just opened in our town and I really wanted to support the new growth and local businesses.  But, this experience shows where Best Buy’s interest is…and for this approaching holiday season, I will take my interests elsewhere.

I have to type fast. Real fast. Actually, as I’m typing, I’m wondering if I will be connected long enough to publish this on the site, or will it sit in “draft mode” until the next “hey, we’re online again!” moment?

We live in a “Bright House”. Bright House is our cable/internet provider in the Tampa Bay area. Roadrunner is the actual cable source. Roadrunner is broadband and fast…when it’s ON. It requires a cable modem which connects to a junction box along with the TV cable, er, cables. This cable goes outside where a surface-mounted green box sits. The cable then connects to a mainline. The mainline travels for several miles, through several homes, shopping centers, a child’s aquarium, to an even bigger line that travels to a small island in the northeast…Amity Island borders the Atlantic Ocean. This larger line was used to kill a shark in the movie “Jaws”.

Well, somewhere in this path of communication, there’s a problem. This is according to the “helpful” support person at our local Bright House office.

What’s happening is, at random times, lasting from several minutes to several hours, days, our internet connection goes down (offline). Regular TV cable is not affected (yet) since it doesn’t require such a high amount of data traffic. Roadrunner (internet) is very particular to line interference - whether caused by a line breakage, radio interference, or a large shark exploding while biting down on the cable. (you have to see the movie)

But that’s not the bad part. Try calling Bright House. Good luck getting a human. I’ll wait.

Still waiting.

Not yet? I’ll continue while you keep speaking to voice prompts and not getting a live human. After a lengthy series of voice commands, you (may) finally get a live human being. Yes, it is possible, but you must be patient. Customer service, if you can call it that, seems to go through the same script everytime.

“Is your modem on?”

“You think?”

“Are the lights blinking?”

“Some are, some aren’t. I already thought I hinted that the modem is ON.”

Anyway, during the next call, you simply want to find out if HBO is airing the Soprano’s.

“Is your modem on?”

“Never mind, I’ll look at the dang guide!”

Some time ago, we reported the inability to access the internet. Bright House could not see our modem from there end. I could have told them that - I couldn’t get to the Bright House site either. They will send someone out - 4-days later. We run businesses on the internet as well as a very valuable, humorous, and insightful website which are you reading this from.

What’s funny about this is that, while our internet is offline, Bright House support sends us an Email….like we would even GET it.

“For an extra fee per month (I forget what it was), you can upgrade to our business class and someone will be out within 24-hours.”

“No thank you, it isn’t worth THAT much.”

“Ok, is your modem on?”

ARRGGHH! The Bright House guru came over and checked the line. He seemed to know his job and was friendly. After checking the inside, he checked the junction box and the green alien box in front of the house. There was some insulation stripped from the coax cable which leads to the house. A few minutes later…fixed! We’re back online, after 4-days of hit-or-miss — mostly miss!

We were online for a couple days until our access went down again. Another call. Another customer service representative. The short version? There appears to be interference in this neighborhood which is causing our outage. We were not told this before. Is anyone checking on this interference? The response was similar to “this is Bright House. We’re not working on interference issues.” Then the light went on, “however, I see that you have another service call scheduled for the 18th to fix a splitter.” A what? We were never told this. Another 4-days without access. Much to our surprise, our modem came to life 2-days ago. Maybe they fixed us while we were sleeping?

Today is the 18th of June. At approximately 6:20PM, a plain van shows up and another guru is at the door to fix the problem. Severe thunderstorms are in the area. He goes to work. He immediately found a problem left by the previous guru. A coax connector. This guy was just upgraded to genius. With that fixed, he moved to the box in the back of the house and found another potential problem. Adding strength to his genius title. He then verified our cable box diagnostics were good, and checked the internet. Without boring you with THAT detail, he was upgraded to super-genius. We’re back online…living in a Bright House.

I understand that things will go wrong. Wires and connectors corrode or just plain wear out eventually. But, Bright House’s phone support lack of interest in our issues is appalling. Of course, when you really have no other choices for cable or internet access, you can afford to be uninterested in your customers. By the way, before you jump on the DirecTV or Dish bandwagon, I’ve been there. It’s raining heavily now and my cable TV is still clear. With DirecTV, when a cloud was overhead, or a jet flew between me and outer space, the picture went out “lost satellite signal”. Bright House is seeing one other competitor in their market - DSL and Verizon’s fiber optic service (FiOS).

I haven’t looked into Verizon’s FiOS offering yet, but if I hear “is your modem on?” again, you can bet my next call will be to Verizon!

Well, this is news to me. Today, we decided to eat fast-food. Whataburger (the BEST) is still a bit too far - closest one is in Zephyrhills. So, after a short vote, we selected Burger King, Wesley Chapel, State Road 54 and Bruce B. Downs.

Normally, the service is not good here. Normally, you wait in line. A line at this Burger King means one or more cars ahead of you. If there is one car ahead of you, expect a lengthy wait. Today was no different. Four cars in front of us. It was going to be AWHILE. The remote menu is no help since it is positioned to only be viewed by the vehicle immediately behind the vehicle placing the order.

One thing going for this Burger King is that you don’t get the stupid answering machine when you get to the order speaker thing. Some BK’s, as soon as you pull up, a voice comes on “Welcome to Burger King, would you like to try our extra extra value meal sure to fatten you up? Order when ready!”… then you say “Yes, I’d like a Whop-” and you hear “hold on a minute”. They’re not ready for you. At this point, you repeat to yourself, “One at a time. One at a time.”

So, our number is up. We’re now at the order thing/menu. “1 Angus burger, 2 whop-” interrupted… “Sorry, we’re out of the angus beef”. Whu? “Ok, make that 3 whoppers, 1 BK fish sand-” interrupted… “Sorry, we are out of the BK fish sandwiches”. Huh?

“So, what DO you have?”

“I’ll tell you what we don’t have.” And, the list is given.

“Ok, make that 4 whoppers”.

???

“Pull around to the first window”. Great, they can do 4 whoppers!

Apparently, according to the drive-thru window service professional, the drivers for Burger King are on STRIKE. I’ve never heard of this, but since I do drive a lot, now that I think of it, I haven’t seen Burger King trucks/trailers on the road either. What gives? What’s the strike all about?

Is there something to it? I haven’t seen this in the news. And, a GOOGLE search hasn’t turned up anything other than from last year when drivers in Los Angeles posed a strike at the port, backed by Teamsters.

Side note: I’ve had mixed feelings about Burger King for about a year. The food is usually decent, but the service is lacking. Not just in Wesley Chapel, either. Ybor City has had the worst. Of course, the Ybor City location is not in a very good location either. The staff there just… act like they would rather be elsewhere than behind a counter with you on the other side. I understand that these employees are not making high wages. But, they did come to work and agreed to the pay when they started, right? I’m not expecting 5-star restaurant treatment at Burger King or other fast-food restaurants, but I also don’t appreciate feeling unwelcome either. The Ybor City fast food establishment excels in the unwelcome department.