Destined To Fail • Hacker News Board

Re: Destined To Fail

#41

Post by lukev » Mon, Jul 23, 2012, 2:39 PM UTC

Wait. He first "hacks" the order form to make the "supply my own modem" checkbox available, and then complains that "Time Warner should have known, based on the options selected during my purchase, that I would supply my own modem and asked me personally to supply the MAC address and relevant information".

Can't have it both ways, man. Time Warner can be blamed for many things, but expecting them to seamlessly support an option they had disabled intentionally is a bit much. You're lucky they let you do it at all.

Re: Destined To Fail

#42

Post by stevenkovar » Mon, Jul 23, 2012, 2:40 PM UTC

lukev wrote: post #41

Wait. He first "hacks" the order form to make the "supply my own modem" checkbox available, and then complains that "Time Warner should have known, based on the options selected during my purchase, that I would supply my own modem and asked me personally to supply the MAC address and relevant information". Can't have it both ways, man. Time Warner can be blamed for many things, but expecting them to seamlessly suppor…

The URL string suggested it was an A/B test, similar to what we use at AppSumo. The option was available when you went back to the options page, but disappeared after a script/some data loaded. For what it's worth, that particular insight was from "Bill."

Re: Destined To Fail

#43

Post by johnchristopher » Mon, Jul 23, 2012, 2:43 PM UTC

johnchristopher wrote: post #20

> The only way I could remove the monthly modem rental fee in my order online was to view the code on Time Warner’s site and edit a hidden part of the HTML for the appropriate checkbox to be visible. I’ve never had to ‘hack’ an order form before. I guess the "appropriate checkbox" was greyed out (no way I believe people are looking at the html in case there would be an hidden checkbox), then the author used firebug o…

What are the reasons for my comment being downvoted ?

Re: Destined To Fail

#44

Post by nkohari » Mon, Jul 23, 2012, 2:45 PM UTC

piffey wrote: post #10

Two hours to hook up your cable connection? Oh the torture -- better blog about it.

You have missed the point. Read the article again.

Re: Destined To Fail

#45

Post by moron » Mon, Jul 23, 2012, 2:52 PM UTC

njharman wrote: post #7

But he and time Warner didn't fail. He sucessfully installed your whatever and TW is getting your money.

Yeah, I'm not seeing TW's downside here. They're a monopoly, they don't have to care about tiny details like customer satisfaction or doing things correctly.

Re: Destined To Fail

#46

Post by stevenkovar » Mon, Jul 23, 2012, 2:54 PM UTC

Yoms wrote: post #38

stevenkovar wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Noted! I'll adjust the contrast.

Great article. Another suggestion if you don't mind... the floating Steven Kovar block makes it difficult to zoom in and read in a mobile browser, as it floats on top of the text.

Thanks for pointing that out as well. I'll work in a solution to that.

Re: Destined To Fail

#47

Post by rdl » Mon, Jul 23, 2012, 3:06 PM UTC

I've never met a technician (outside the government) who didn't have his own tools. This is probably why.

Re: Destined To Fail

#48

Post by gwillen » Mon, Jul 23, 2012, 3:10 PM UTC

grumpycanuck wrote: post #29

TheSOB88 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm pretty sure it's a useless question. You can use debit cards as credit cards and vice versa.

Nice American-centric view there. Up here in Canada we can use 'debit' to pay using our bank account with a separate card from our credit cards.

No, it's exactly the same down here in the US. Parent poster is just clueless.

Re: Destined To Fail

#49

Post by unwiredben » Mon, Jul 23, 2012, 3:11 PM UTC

nirvana wrote: post #23

Of all the government created monopolies, the cable monopolies are some of the worst. If cable companies had to compete to keep business, they'd offer better service and treat their employees better. Southwest airlines is a good example of a company that has to keep costs low, but does this in part by treating their employees very well. Notice that they charge ever higher and higher fees, in part because the municipa…

Actually, not true in all of Austin. Much of the city is also wired for Grande Communications cable, and so far, I've found them to be much more responsive and with better tools than the TW people I'd used in the past.

Re: Destined To Fail

#50

Post by presidentender » Mon, Jul 23, 2012, 3:14 PM UTC

haakon wrote: post #11

This is completely off-topic, but what is the deal with grey font colours on light backgrounds these days? It pointlessly makes it harder to read. I shouldn't have to open Firebug to change it to black before I start reading.

A friend of mine wanted his wordpress site's design updated, so I did so. He specifically requested the background be made grey, lowering the contrast from the default white, although he left the text black. He asserts that this makes it easier for him to read, which I find surprising considering that he's in his 50s.