Links To Help With Your Morris Broadband Problems - Maybe...

I wanted to pass these along so you folks out there can start doing your own research. The first one is to DSL Reports. This is a well-known place to get good (but a bit more technical) info. I am posting a link to a thread entitled "A+ for Morris Broadband". Seems that there are a few Mediacom employees posting anonymously there. Take that for what you will.

Click here for the link. There are plenty of other sites for you to research as well. Just search.

Here is the link to the new official Morris Broadband site, specifically the direct page to report problems. I do like their new site & hope it continues to grow to contain even better info for their customers. I hope the promises of new/better everything come to fruition soon.

At this point I'm going to throw up my hands & walk away in defeat. I have been trying to help my friends/clients for two solid weeks now & haven't been able to really do much for them. The digital phones are still really buggy & I was told by a Morris employee that the phone service was being outsourced from another company & they were working on getting it fixed but didn't really know what or when those issues would be resolved.

I'm also told that the email is being outsourced. No wonder they don't have a handle on this stuff, the ball is out of their court.

I don't know what else to do to help you troubleshoot your email issues & the Morris employess don't know either. I think it's time you seriously considered a Google or Yahoo email account. Or buy a domain from me & set up email that way.

Seems the internet speeds are a bit more stable. Looks like the Hendersonville backbone is being fed out of Asheville & peers with AT&T. Ok, whatever. I don't know when the upload speed is going to be opened up. Right now I'm getting about 470k. Grrr, just what I need. But hey, at least I've got service. Good thing I don't have a business account with a static IP.

I'm told that they are having some routing/service issues. Duh...

To my friends/clients with a sticky IP package--I'm sorry! I wish I could help you. I know you're frustrated & I feel your pain but there's really nothing else I can do. I can't reach them either & after calling for days, showing up at their office, & speaking with every employee I know, I still can't find anybody who will call you back. My suggestion is that you start writing letters & include a copy of your bill in them.

To Morris: what are you thinking? Seriously, it takes more than 2 days to train employees on a brand new software system. And why in the world are you ignoring your business clients? They are paying more per month than your home users. Why would you not return their calls? That just doesn't make sense. And yes, that's the heart of my discontent. I simply don't get the thinking process that says ignoring your highest paying clients will make the problem go away. Maybe that kind of thinking is why Morris Publishing is fighting bankruptcy?

And thanks for the job offer but no thanks. Don't you read my blog?

Morris Broadband Delivers...

Ok, I guess I'm going to have to write something about the switchover in Hendersonville from the much-maligned Mediacom to the now much-maligned Morris Broadband.

As I write it's being reported that there are still a couple of thousand people without internet, cable, digital phone service. I've had customers calling me since last week trying to figure out what to do about the situation. They're saying they're "out of business" till this is over. I know of at least 3 small business that had to send employees home because of it. It's a no-win situation for lots of other folks too.

As the date for the changeover got closer I got quieter about Morris Broadband on this blog. Why? Well, because the scope of the changeover is so large that I couldn't figure out how it was all going to go down. I worked at a small ISP for a while which means I know just enough about "provisioning" to have a healthy respect for what they were going to have to go through. I had a feeling that it was going to be a rough transition & when they changed the date of the email transition from 9-18 to 9-24 I knew then that there was going to be trouble.

Think about it, Morris Broadband is (as far as I know) the first provider owned by Morris Publishing. Not only that but Morris Publishing is going through some pretty severe financial troubles too--missing interest payments, etc. All the signs of a company in decline. Add to that the fact that they were coming in behind Mediacom--a company with lots of issues as far as the public is concerned. Don't take my word for it, just ask anyone living in Henderson county about Mediacom & chances are they will have their own story to tell & chances are it won't be a nice one. They are famous around here for being non-responsive to customers. It's also well known that their installers are sub-contractors who will work for the least pay & what does that tell you? (by the way, the consultant hired by Morris--Mike Feld said this when interviewed by the local paper: "Some of our vendors and some of our subcontractors made a lot of connectivity and configuration mistakes that didn't show up until we went live." Hmm. Not taking responsibility, sounds like business as usual...

Put it all together & you have the potential for disaster. A company trying to learn on the job in a community already trained to not like them...

Then again, they did have months to make this transition happen right? Should I give them a break or not?

My biggest problem has been the way they handled the transition before all of this happened. Sure, they notified the public before transition happened, but did they handle the public's expectations? No. Did they let anyone know that there could be a disruption in service that could affect their business? No. They basically implied that everything would be fine, as long as the public made the email changeover correctly. No "plan B", no warnings that service could be disrupted for a while, no information on what exactly was going to take place, not even a dial-up number so people could still check email. Now they are in the soup so to speak & all their apologizing & promising is not going to matter to the public. They haven't even gotten started yet & they've already blown it by conducting business the way it's always been conducted.

I know it's a "keep your fingers crossed" situation whenever you are dealing with hardware/software & believe me I sympathize. But the public doesnt care, & should they? After all, don't they have the right to expect the service they pay for?

My home only lost connectivity for about a day, so I'm not mad. I was inconvenienced though--getting up early to do some work & not being able to, but that's not suffering, it's just a little aggravating. Would I be so calm if I was without phone, email, TV for days? Probably not.

OK, Morris--the burden is on you to make this right. (you put it there) Let's see you handle this. Good luck, I'm glad I'm not working there right now.

And by the way public, don't just yell at the folks on the phone. That really doesn't help you know. They're not the techs who made the bad decisions, they just know what they've been told. Write a letter (since you can't email right now). Let them know why you're mad. Here's the address:

William S. Morris III
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Morris Communications Company
725 Broad Street
Augusta, Georgia 30901

What's your opinion?

Good Job Morris Communications or MediaCom or Whoever You Are

I don't know who decided to change the website: MediaCom or Morris Communications but I was happy to be able to easily access the local office info, including physical address, hours, & a support phone number.

Just type your zip code into the "local zip" search box for customized info.

Today Is The Day For Morris Communications

Morris Publishing Group, LLC announced earlier this month that they had obtained an extension on their 9.7 million dollar interest payment on its Senior Subordinated Notes. The original payment was due Feb. 1st. The payment is due today.

For those of you unfamiliar with them, Morris Communications bought Mediacom's WNC holdings last February.

So, what does this mean to us here in Hendersonville? Who knows?

Mediacom is now Morris Communications

Well, Mediacom is out of here. Morris Communications bought mediacom's WNC holdings last February & are promising better service, more local hires, better customer relations, you name it & they're going to do a better job of it.

Of course as far as I can tell they've never actually owned a cable service before but hey, why should that stop them? Well, the whole bankruptcy thing with the Morris Publishing division is a bit of a bummer but why worry about a little $9.7 million payment till it's due again? (April 24th). After all, they got one extension, getting another one should be no big deal. By the way, the $9.7 mil is just the interest payment. The total debt is reported to be $278 million. But why worry?

Truth is, I really do hope they do well here, because what's the alternative? I have too many trees in my yard to use satellite...

Here's the local number: 828 697-1371

Mediacom...grr!

Having worked with the public for many years, I try my best to give folks a break when it comes to most customer-related things, but honestly, I can't remember the last time I had a good conversation with Mediacom about anything & we've been their customers since 1998! They are so big that there's not a chance of reaching a person who knows me & our conversation is always reduced down to what they've been trained to say. That it rarely actually helps the situation is a different point altogether.

Today I called to see if they would help us analyze the bill since it seems to have gone up in the last month with no explanation, & they wouldn't even talk with me at all. Seems the FCC has a new regulation & the account holder (Randy) is the only one they'll speak with. When I asked them if they had any record of conversations I've had with them she told me that the only name in their notes they saw was for me.

I offered to give them our account number, our pin number or pretty much anything else they asked for to no avail. They have no way for me to log in to our account online & add an authorized user either.

Oh well, Randy gets to deal with it.