Lexical Light

My PlumChoice Support Log

Let's see if I can maintain this record of PlumChoice performance.

12/5/2009 PlumChoice Support - Fail

Again? 15 minutes waiting for a tech to respond on chat. It was 2:30ish am, so they weren't staffed for prime time, but it's not an isolated incident. Arghh, especially on the heels of yesterday's fiasco.

For my brain: the issue was a spy/malware screen popping up after using a Facebook relative app. I used PlumChoice's SAFELink to get a screenshot and send it to them via chat and e-mail. Nothing, except waiting on hold at chat for 15 minutes. No e-mail this morning confirming the submission. Nothing.

Thankfully the computer is still running well because I don't want to spend a couple of hours waiting for a phone call. I'll contact support later. 

Testing My Loyalty - Plum Choice Remote PC Repair

Since Nov 2005, PlumChoice techs have solved my PC problems remotely, quickly and affably. (Glowing review here.) The $25/month PC Maintenance on our 2002 PC is almost essential, given our family's computer dependence. Having PlumChoice as my personal IT service made me happy, until August 2009. That's when they started missing appointments.

Over the past few months, they have missed a handful of appointments. That doesn't sound too bad, but each of those times was an hour I had to wait by the computer for a phone call. Ugh. I understand an occasional day with staffing or technology issues, but the appointments were missed far enough apart to rule out being an off day.

Perhaps today was "one of those days." PlumChoice missed two appointments with me, at 10 am and 1 pm. Then I spent 15 minutes on hold (with really bad music...really) to see if I could get worked in. I had things to do, so I just scheduled a 5 pm call instead of waiting around for the first available tech.

A tech called for the 5pm appointment and is working on installing software for the $10/month Protect and Assist plan on our new computer. Since I have to stay close to the computer, I'm on the old computer looking up PlumChoice reviews and competitors in the event I need to switch my PC service provider. This post is link storage for what I find.

Because of the hassle involved with finding a new provider, I'll stick with PlumChoice for a bit. However, I'm concerned that the decline in customer service is symptomatic of something larger in the company - at first I chalked it up to growing pains, but I'm not sure now. Time will tell whether it's a hiccup or a choking hazard in their growth and quality. Hopefully they'll be able to right the ship and I'll again enjoy computer confidence thanks to the quality of my personal IT staff. 

Link storage for PlumChoice reviews and competitors info:

Steve's 2 Cents Post, 12/13/2005 PlumChoice at Circuit City

    Circuit City is already kaput in my town, so that's not good. There is a bit of interesting feedback in the comments.

Boston Business Journal, 4/29/2008, PlumChoice nets $2.8M in funding

    "The Billerica, Mass.based company plans to use the money to expand its reach in Web-based technical support services to homes and small businesses." Please don't sacrifice quality for quantity. Expanding your reach is only beneficial if you maintain a firm grasp on the bedrock of your initial success - providing a quality service at a sustainable price. 

Xconomy, Boston, 9/8/09, PlumChoice Plucks $14.7M

    Securing funding is good. Will I see it positively effect PlumChoice service?

iTOK, possible tech support option

    $20/month for PC Care, similar to PlumChoice's $10/month Protect & Assist. No time for complete comparison. File for future reference.

Internet Filter Recommendation: K9 Web Protection

I've been in search for a good internet filter since I switched all my other computer maintenance tasks (anti-virus, firewall, off site backup, etc.) to Plum Choice. When I used Trend Micro they had a decent filtering components, but they don't offer it separately. (It didn't always response well to "adding" sites so I don't miss it terribly.)

I bought Net Nanny 5.0  and didn't like the way it mucked up the computer. Ugh. The customer support wasn't much help either. They do have a subscription service I considered, but I wasn't ready to go there.
During my search I had heard of K9, but never installed it. Then a mom in home school co-op mentioned it last week. This weekend I installed it and it has worked well.

K9 Web Protection from Blue Coat offers free internet filtering and parental controls.

I just installed it today, but so far I'm pleased with:

*ease of installation 
*it didn't muck of the computer
*seems to work fairly well (It missed a few seemingly innocent sites that had links in them. I just added them to the blocked list.)
*easy and effective administrator override

A few things it doesn't do:
*set users at multiple security levels
*monitor different users' time on computer

Hey, it's free. If they added those few things, I'd be willing to pay. Within the next year or so I may go with Cyber Patrol's paid option because it does have a few more bells & whistles. (But if they muck up my computer, it's outta here.)

So, if you're looking for a quick, easy, cheap answer to filtering the web, check out K9 Web Protection from Blue Coat.

My Next Virtual Conference

In May I participated in an online homeschool conference. The workshops had interactive chat and could be listened to later, so it was cool and convenient. It didn't require much new techno learning on my part, just downloading some conference software and playing with iTunes.  Though it won't replace being physcially present, it's a nice chance to learn from people you may not otherwise hear.

My next virtual conference will require some techno learning. I'll need to figure out how to use 2nd Life so I can attend the BlogHer '07 conference.

What's Blogher? It started in 2005 as a conference for women bloggers and has grown to include an online gathering place for women bloggers.

Being the learning junkie I am, I would love to hang out at a BlogHer conference. However, I can't make it to Chicago, but I can still attend the conference virtually via 2nd Life.

My geeky self is quite excited about that. What's better is there is no fee to attend virtually. Woo-hoo.
It will cost me some time to learn how to participate in 2nd Life, but it will be a fun experiment.

I'm interested in the "Business of You" workshop track. It seems like a nice fit for blogging writers. Here's the description:

Business of You: This track is devoted to personal and business advancement. We will discuss speaker and media training, self-branding and promotion, mentoring, turning your blog into a book or a business, and even managing your time, your finances, your blogging policies and best practices...the business of you.

If you're interested in attending virtually, go here for more info. Let me know if you'll be there.

How to Delete a Flash Document from Print Que

Disney's interactive site has all kinds of propaganda cool things for the kids to print, including Father's Day and Mother's Day cards with Disney actors on them. Overall, not a bad thing. Until my printer doesn't work because one of the documents is stuck in the que and won't print. (Come to think of it, the same problem comes up sometime with Disney's Little Mermaid Print Kit.)

The print glitch happened this morning and I really needed to print my bank statement so I could reconcile the account. Argh. I tried using the Windows troubleshooting thing. I restarted the printer and the computer. The document would not leave.

A quick google of "can't delete flash document from print que" lead me to some tech forum where a someone recommend checking the "use offline" option and then deleting the document. It worked! Woo-hoo! 

BTW, to find the "use offline" option Start >Control Panel > Printers/Faxes > Click the Correct Printer > Right Click > Click "use printer offline". Then you can delete your document. Don't forget to put your printer back online after you delete the document.

There's your Lexical computer tip for the day.

A Simple Bit of Bliss

"Having fun isn't hard, when you've got a libarary card." - Arthur Read & friends

The library and the YMCA are two the things I enjoy most about my lttle suburb Even better is that they are both easily accesed from my house and about 2 miles from each other, w/the library being en route to the Y. I dropped the kids off at the Y for a few hours. (A sweet part of our membership.) Emily has basketball practice in the middle of our 4 hours, so I have to go back soon. Hanging out at the libary beats driving home and back to the Y. So, here I am.

Since I haven't posted much this week I figured this would be a great time to learn exactly how to utilize the grown up computers at the library and get a post in at the same time. (BTW, my first from our beloved local library.) 

I love libraries. The books. The quiet. The information. The computers. I really could hang out here a while. It's fun just to sit and look around. Look at the girl using the cool hole puncher with the erognomic handle. I wonder what precious documents she's hole punching? There's the express check machine they just moved from downstairs. I'll miss having two of them there. I wonder what those black cases are on the bookshelves over there. They look like laptop cases. I think I'll have to ask about them. It's interesting to hang out in the grown up part of the library. It was just the other day when I learned where the grown up magazines are. Still haven't made it over there read them, but at least I know where they are. Wow. I see the magazine back issues from my computer station. Arhritis Today. Austin Monthly. Organic Gardening. I really could stay here all day. (With breaks for food and beverage of course.) Yes, I'm a party waiting to happen.

Moments like this are a bit of bliss for me. The kids are involved in something good. Time, gas and money are optimized. I'm using technology at the library. It's all good. I'm quite thankful. I need to do this more often.

PC-cillan Foils Internet Scum

Last week I installed Trend Mico's PC-Cillin Internet Security on both home computers. So far, I've been pleased with it. (I was using the free Clam-Win, but it wouldn't always remove the viruses it found.) Today it did something cool I've never seen before.

While doing a Google search, I skipped to one of the last pages in the search. The entry seemed legit enought, but when I clicked it PC-Cillin blocked it, saying it was adware/joke program/cookies. It also displayed the real site address, which had obvious indicators to stay away. Hooray for PC-Cillin!

Help for Your Computer

Disclaimer: I just signed up to be an affiliate of Plum Choice and do get compensated if you use my link or reference my affiliate code when you use them. Though this post contains some other good info, I didn't want you to get to the end of it and think it was just a sales pitch. That would bug me. That's why I put this at the top of the post. I'm  not a salesperson by nature, but I do get a kick out of telling people about products that have worked for me. If you decide to use them, please reference my affiliate code 3f97b5ef.

Back in January our main computer got hacked into. That was my wake-up call to the issue of computer security and maintenance.

Thankfully, strong handsome husband's best friend is an IT guy, such a good friend that he spent several hours resucisitating our computer. (He's also such a good friend that he has no problem giving us a hard time about how much it would have cost us otherwise!)

Since January I've learned more about computer security & maintenance through trial & error,listening to & reading Kim Komando. I've also learned (thanks to my sports radio) about Plum Choice.

Plum Choice offers online computer support. This doesn't mean you talk w/an out-sourced off shore techinician. It means someone accesses your computer, while you're on the phone w/them, and fixes your problem. (It's strange & cool to watch someone mess w/you're computer from the outside.)  I've used them 2 or 3 times on my old computer that runs Win98. They work quickly to diagnosis and fix your problem, which is a good thing because it's $25/15 minutes. That sounds like a lot, but it was worth it.  If money were not an issue, I'd used them monthly to maintain both of my computers. BTW, I just saw that they offer a monthly service plan for $25/month.

Ideally, we'd never have to worry about mailcious people messing up our computer, but we do. We also have to maintain our computer because of it's complexity. This is one resource we can use to do both of those things.

In addition to the service subsciption plans and pay per minute support, they offer set-up services for your PC, wirless network, and MP3 players. They also offer a one time PC tune up.

I equate their service with other service professionals like plumbers, electricians, and mechanics. Yes, some people can do it themselves after investing time, money, and frustration. We have a friend who is a great handy man because he's done stuff like that for so long. But not everybody has that experience.

Other people would rather pay someone, for whatever reason, to solve the problem. For them it's worth the money to have a professional fix it. The always-changing nature of computer use adds another dimension to the learning curve of being a computer handyman.

If you need help with your computer, call Plum Choice and tell them Lexie sent you. (They'll say, "Who?" You'll say, "You know, affiliate 3f97b53f."  They'll reply, "Oh, yes. She's a lovely girl." Okay, maybe not, but they will hook me up w/a bit o'computer support, though.)

Click for Remote PC Repair! It's fast, easy & secure! Registration is FREE!