Since April, we've had our setup of Roku, Over-the-Air (OTA) HDTV Antenna, and DISH, specifically the DISH America package. As the new season of "Mad Men" hit, the long standing DISH and AMC feud heated up, which originally had to do with a series of HD channels that were once owned by Cablevision and now AMC, that DISH bailed out on and dropped the channels. So, we lost AMC (we were on the DISH 200+ package before this happened) and it remains off of DISH. DISH does quite the number on the consumer when it comes to channel choices. We only wanted a few channels and those were almost all on the high-end packages. (See our prior post on the DISH and OTA stuff.) Our standalone Internet service has been provided by Comcast at over $70/mo., so Jennifer got one of these Uverse emails and after the endless barrage of promotional flyers in the mail, the numbers worked.
In year one, we're going to be paying exactly what we were paying with Comcast and DISH combined for their services, while we end up with three receivers including a DVR and nearly 400 channels vs. the "55" that we were paying for with DISH. In year two, it'll cost about $28 more per month, but that doesn't include the fact that we were spending $15-20 a month buying TV shows through Amazon on-demand that we couldn't get because DISH dumped channels that we liked, and it also doesn't include pending rate increases with DISH that are to begin in February. Besides the fact, if AMC came back to DISH, we'd have to upgrade our programming package and pay even more with them.
Now, let me get into the whole AT&T Uverse setup and review.
The AT&T Uverse product is really interesting and technically very cool. We signed up for service on Monday and had the install scheduled for Tuesday. About two hours after ordering, I received an email stating that they would be unable to install until Wednesday. That's not bad considering the delays that I had read about on so many other places about Uverse. On Tuesday afternoon, the outside prep installer was working on tuning up the lines coming to our home, which includes the telecom box on the side of the house and if you're in a residential neighborhood, you'll have a green stick that is vertically out of the ground. I talked to the technician for a few minutes and asked him whether we'd have to have a paired connection.
How it works with Uverse is that you can only be a certain distance from the Uverse hub that AT&T has installed to service a particular area. If you're beyond that, which is generally 3000 ft., you have to get a 2 pair setup. All that essentially means is that they're combining two lines to get enough strength for your signal to get Uverse. Our technician clocked our incoming speed at 135mpbs! Unfortunately, we're throttled down and won't get anything close to that, but it shows that we have a truly high speed connection coming into the house.
Our appointment was scheduled between 9 and 11 in the morning and the installer showed up at 9:30 to begin the work. We talked about various setups, connection points, cabling, etc. On our hardwired devices, he would be installing Cat5 Ethernet cables to connect the Uverse throughout the house. We opted to get two wireless receivers for television in two of the rooms. One of the really nice things is that you can move the receivers around and put them on any television within range of the wireless router. The third unit, which is the DVR that they include with your subscription is hardwired with the Cat5 cable. I also had the installer add an access point in another room so that I could connect our Ooma VOIP system directly there and it also created the hub for all of the AT&T communication devices.
Here's what you'll get in the install:
AT&T Wireless Gateway (http://www.att.com/u-verse/explore/residential-gateway.jsp)
AT&T Wireless Hub Device
AT&T Power Supply and Battery
AT&T Receivers
AT&T iNid (if necessary)
Installation of wiring: Request Cat5 instead of coaxial if existing lines aren't being used.
Package we opted for:
U-300 with HD, HBO, 3 receivers (2 wireless, 1 wired DVR)
Uverse Max Internet (12mbps)
Promotions:
$36 discount on U-300 for 12 months
Free HBO for 3 months
$10 discount on Internet for 12 months
The wireless gateway is a wireless router, plain and simple. If you have a router currently, you're going to use this instead. If you have any trouble with weak signals (this is a Wireless G Router), then you can stack another wireless router on here for another level or area of your house, which we're lucky to not have to do, but it's an easy workaround if needed. You'll see a box with the AT&T logo on the front and this is the power supply and battery backup. In case of your electricity going out, this supplies battery power to your Uverse for three hours.
Since we needed a 2 pair setup, AT&T had to install an iNID on the house. The iNID stands for Intelligent Network Interface Device and it is mounted on your house next to or above you existing telecom box from the phone company. The device has coaxial and Ethernet connection ports to hook up your home and it essentially acts as your modem, just mounted to the side of your house.
The installation is generally targeted at taking four hours long and can vary based on many scenarios. In our case, we were using fresh wiring on everything and that made the install smooth with regard to the inside of the house. Problems can arise for people with Uverse using their existing wiring and that all depends on the age and quality of what is already there.
Our installer ran one Cat5 up the house, through our attic, and back down in our bedroom to hardwire the DVR unit. As I mentioned before, the other two units are wireless, and the only other Cat5 install was for the Ooma device and AT&T Gateway. We've seen OK installers, good ones, decent ones, but I can say with certainty that our installer was excellent. Having wired up the house for the OTA, I can say that he did a really great job and even took the time to match up the cabling with what I had installed, so that we wouldn't have wires in entirely different places, holes in other places, etc.
The installation ended around 2:20 in the afternoon, so just shy of five hours. It would have been completed in about two and a half hours, but our inside technician was dealing with an outside technician as there were issues with the connection from the Uverse unit down the road to our house. The outside technician essentially had to find where there was a small patch and get that fixed, otherwise, we'd be running off only one of our lines, not the two pair setup, and would have a major decrease in quality of Uverse.
Once all of this was taken care of, we were off and running! We chose the 12mbps speed for the Internet and it's been testing at 12-13, so as advertised. With Comcast, we were paying for the 20mbps, but were mired time and time again around 5. So, on the internet side, we're looking good and the wireless connections are high throughout our house.
I've not gone through enough of the Uverse TV to go see all of the features right now, but I can make some observations about the service. First of all, it has the best on-screen menu system that we've ever had. The boxes are small and quiet. We had a DISH DVR that would sound like a freight train at times. AT&T has remote controls that includes backlighting and the buttons are soft and comfortable. Very impressive. As for the picture quality, the compression is less than on DISH's HD and there appears to be absolutely no difference between the wired and wireless units. So, you'll get an HD picture that is better than DISH or Comcast, but is absolutely no match for OTA. We put on "The Office" on Uverse and then switched over to our OTA transmission and to be honest, it isn't even close. From the sharpness to the vivid colors, the old fashioned over the air antenna blows any of the services out of the water. You'll also be watching true live television and the transmitted signals to the services providers are a few second behind real-time. We're still wired with OTA on these sets and intend to still use them plenty along with Roku. Now we have hundreds of television channels and will barely watch any of them, but to be at the same price point as we are now to get the channels that we actually want, that works!
There is a good number of on-demand programming and I'd say that my biggest complaint is that AT&T (just like all the others) charge an extra $10 for HD programming, which is a joke, plain and simple. This about amounts to the dealer fee that car dealers charge consumers. Just another fee with no cost associated with it, just profit.
Overall, from the ordering to install, it was a very impressive experience, which has been about the exact opposite of our past times with AT&T. I think that AT&T has everyone beat in the value for your money with their service. Currently, Uverse is available in about 30 million homes and they're not going to be expanding for the foreseeable future as AT&T tries to get as many homes in that total that they can get. I was also told that by the end of the year, there should be an expansion of up to six wireless receivers from the maximum of two that there is allowed today.
Friday, September 28, 2012
Thursday, September 27, 2012
AT&T Uverse
We're in the midst of having AT&T's Uverse service installed to replace Comcast, our remaining DISH subscription, and to accompany our OTA set-up. I'm going to do a whole write up when it's all finished up and hope that can help anyone going through the process!
Thursday, June 14, 2012
Unsafe and Dangerous Graco Car Seats
When we needed to switch from an infant car seat to a larger car seat for our son, we ended up choosing the Graco Comfortsport Model #1762268. We had the Graco infant seat for Sammy and our twin boys had the Graco car and stroller system. What's happened over the past several weeks has been maddening and an example of failure in our corporations and government.
A short while back, all of the sudden, we notice that Sammy has his chest clip harness disconnected. Like any two year old, that was all it took to start the fun of undoing the clip time after time. At first, I thought that it must have broken in some fashion, as there was no-way that a company as large as Graco, which is owned by Newell-Rubbermaid, could be possibly selling a dangerous and faulty car seat. Jennifer immediately said that it was the clip and it wasn't broken. Although I'm skeptical of most things, I just didn't buy into it not being broken in some fashion. I looked at the clip and by the look of the design, I thought that maybe it was bent in some fashion. So, we went ahead and ordered a replacement chest clip from Graco for the car seat.
I installed the replacement clip, we put him in the car, hit the road, and not long after, he took it off, just like the original clip. Clearly, the clip was not broken, it was a flawed and dangerous design. Next, I contacted Graco to let them know about this problem. While sending an email to their customer service department, I came across this gem from their own blog:
http://blog.gracobaby.com/2009/11/12/faq-what-if-my-child-figures-out-how-to-open-the-chest-clip-on-their-car-seat/
The blog was published on November 12, 2009 and it clearly shows that the company knew of the design flaw and danger of the Graco chest clip. Take a look and read what their PR has put up. The tips are just insulting to the consumer. Some of the gems include, "It takes consistency and some discipline to help them understand that the chest clip needs to stay closed." Really? You can do that with a two year old? No, in reality, once a two year old figures out that he or she can do something, they'll keep doing it and it's difficult to get them to stop. Part of that has to do with their development and level of understanding. Either someone without a child or someone with no common-sense crafted that beauty of a statement.
In my email, I let them know that the clip had failed and that we were extremely disappointed in what had been occurring here. I received a prompt response that there was a new design and that they would be shipping it to us and that it would take 3-5 business days to arrive. They pointed out in the response that "This has more tension in the clip and maybe more difficult for your son to open." While doing more research of what appeared to be more than an isolated problem, I found a video on YouTube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58o9NvcsMRA
In this video, the user shows his two year old son taking off the chest clip with ease. Exactly as what we've dealt with. The Graco baby blog listed above had many comments with children as young as barely over a year old doing this. Just keep searching, the material keeps flowing.
Here's an excerpt from my email:
"I'm contacting you as I'm quite disappointed and concerned about the safety of the car seat that our son has in one of our vehicles. The unit in question is the ComfortSport, model 1762268 with a date of manufacture of 2010/05/18. After using this car seat since he was an infant, all of the sudden, we turn around and see that he's no longer buckled in as the chest harness is unlatched. At first, I question whether I made a mistake and simply didn't click it properly. Low and behold, over the course of the day, there he goes, taking it off one time after another. I then removed the car seat from our vehicle and ordered a replacement chest clasp from your company directly. Besides the obvious inconvenience of moving the car seat between two cars for several days, what made my wife and I incredibly disappointed and downright upset is when the replacement came. Low and behold, we get the car seat back in and he's taken it off again!
From our original premise that maybe the clasp was bent and damaged, it quickly turned into a clear fact that the design of the clasp is defective and absolutely unsafe. What if we were in an accident and he had just unlatched the clasp before impact? You know what the impact of such an event would be."
Impressively, the new clip arrived the next day along with a sheet with how to properly install it, which only takes (once again that term) common-sense.
We had taken the car seat out of the vehicle as it had become obviously unusable. We then took it out of the garage and placed it outside to get setup for the new clip. I installed it and we told Sammy to come and sit down in his car seat. Next, Jennifer asked him to try to undo it and take it off. Literally, he did it within two seconds. He put his hand down and and undid the clip. Latched it back and forth so on. I became extraordinarily upset about this. The company has a known defective and dangerous product, yet it is on the market and has been for years. Their blog shows culpability. They know of the problem, but somehow they've evaded a recall of these chest clips. The cynic in me is screaming that this is yet another example of a large corporation buying off the government, who's watchdog agency is supposed to protect the consumer. We'll get back to that in a moment.
Here's our 26 month old taking off his Graco car seat chest clip with amazing ease:
http://youtu.be/JKDxkG-RMeY
Once we had Sammy on video, I uploaded the video to YouTube, so that I could present another piece of evidence of this product's failure. Once the video was live, I took to sending an email to Graco and here's portions of that note:
"We did receive the replacement harness clip promptly and I do appreciate that, unfortunately, this "new design" is no better than the prior clip. This is absolutely unacceptable. We're still sitting here with a car seat that is completely non-functioning and unsafe." "I can't help but think about what could happen to our son if we were in an accident and he is not restrained, let alone because of a fault clip design. I've now been going on a few weeks of having to shift car seats between two cars all because of this unsafe and unusable car seat."
"I have recorded a video of our son with the brand new clip and I've made a link for you to see this video. Your enclosed directions were followed completely to make certain that the clip was properly installed."
I expect a resolution of this matter, it's completely unacceptable."
I received an email quickly from Graco inquiring as to when the car seat was manufactured and also letting me know that we would receive a credit from our purchase with their store as I demanded a refund because the original replacement clip that we purchased is known to be faulty and was exactly what we had, unbeknownst to us when we first purchased it.
After reply, a follow-up email came shortly thereafter letting me know that the product was out-of-warranty, but since we weren't happy with the product, they would allow us to send the car seat back at our expense and would then issue a refund for the MSRP of the car seat. Here's what I had to say:
"These car seats have been cited by consumers for years as having a failing chest latch. They are defective, period. This was known by Graco before we purchased this seat, it was known before this seat was actually manufactured. This isn't about satisfaction, this is about Graco selling an unsafe product, period. The so-called warranty shouldn't apply when the problem is the design to begin with. Your company can spend hours going online and searching out countless other consumers with the same problem and many have complained about getting the run around with this issue. This is the same design that was sued over (due to injury) from your acquired company, Century. It's publicly documented.
As you can see with this case, I cited your blog from 2009 where your company clearly acknowledged the problem. There are comments as recent as the past week from other consumers with the same issues. To be honest, this is extraordinarily frustrating. So, I'm supposed to pay roughly $20-$30 to package and ship the car seat back? This wasn't about wanting a refund, this was about wanting a properly functioning, and safe car seat. I would have no problem sending the car seat back with some sort of prepaid label if the company wanted to see it in order to examine it for safety issues.
I'd assumed that your company is now producing car seats that do not use this latch set-up, but I can't seem to find any models that offer anything other than this design.
What am I to do?"
I then received another response that they would send to us in the mail a prepaid shipping label to return the car seat and we would then receive the aforementioned refund in 6-8 weeks from the corporate office. And, we would have to provide the box to ship it back in, but I guess that's better than having to also pay to ship it back.....
Down in an area that we lived for quite some time, Orange County, Florida, a lawsuit was filed, Roman vs. Graco, as the plaintiff's child was severely injured in the spinal cord during a traffic accident and guess what happened? She was two years old at the time and undid the Century car seat chest clip. Century was purchased by Graco whose parent company is Newell-Rubbermaid as mentioned above in 1998.
Here is a quick story from the Times' Business Section.
http://www.nytimes.com/1998/05/20/business/company-news-rubbermaid-s-graco-unit-to-buy-century-car-seat-line.html
These unsafe chest clips have been in use for years by Century and Graco. In reading through the reporter's brief from the case of Roman vs. Graco, you find out that the two parties settled out of court. Newell-Rubbermaid is able to avoid being legally responsible, but that doesn't speak to the truth of the product here. From the amateur research that I've done here, it appears that this set-up had a one piece harness all tied in together, so my assumption is that this one piece held all the parts of the restraint together. So, today, the product that we have the problem with is the two piece harness. Regardless, the same problem is here, the child can easily become unrestrained and could suffer fatal consequences.
The case of Roman v. Graco
http://www.justice.org/cps/rde/justice/hs.xsl/15319.htm
Here's a listing of countless child safety seat recalls:
http://www.hsrc.unc.edu/safety_info/child_passenger_safety/child_restraint_recalls_list.cfm
Interestingly, there have been no recalls of the Graco child chest clips that they have been using for several years. Just putting a little effort and time, you can find many sources on the Internet of complaints whether it's consumer forums, videos, or notices.
Here's a link with some complaints provided online to The Office of Defects Investigation, which is a part of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Not surprisingly, similar complaints are found.
http://www.aboutautomobile.com/ChildSeat/Complaint/Graco/Comfortsport/Child+Seat+Harness+Buckle
As I was alluding to earlier, we have a failure of a corporation and the government. Complaints typically are a small fraction of the problems that are actually out there and there is a pretty large sampling to be found with this same issue. How many complaints has Graco had directly that they've buried internally? How can something so unsafe, dangerous, and potentially deadly be ignored by our government? Is it because of lobbyists? Are they bought and paid for by corporations and damn the consumer?
It think that it's rather fair for us as consumers to expect that something a basic as a car seat for a child is properly safety tested. For there to be a problem known by the corporation and for them to continue to go about their business as normal is disgusting. It's not a problem with the stitching on the seat fabric, it's not the color of the seat, it's the most basic of safety issues, which Graco is failing.
This is OUTRAGEOUS. We have no statistics as to how many vehicles have been in accidents with these car seats and the injury with relation to the Graco branded car seats.
So, here we are and here's what I'm hoping to do. I don't know if a blog can change the world, but by getting the word out, I'm hoping that we can get some good exposure on this dangerous situation and usher in a change.
A short while back, all of the sudden, we notice that Sammy has his chest clip harness disconnected. Like any two year old, that was all it took to start the fun of undoing the clip time after time. At first, I thought that it must have broken in some fashion, as there was no-way that a company as large as Graco, which is owned by Newell-Rubbermaid, could be possibly selling a dangerous and faulty car seat. Jennifer immediately said that it was the clip and it wasn't broken. Although I'm skeptical of most things, I just didn't buy into it not being broken in some fashion. I looked at the clip and by the look of the design, I thought that maybe it was bent in some fashion. So, we went ahead and ordered a replacement chest clip from Graco for the car seat.
I installed the replacement clip, we put him in the car, hit the road, and not long after, he took it off, just like the original clip. Clearly, the clip was not broken, it was a flawed and dangerous design. Next, I contacted Graco to let them know about this problem. While sending an email to their customer service department, I came across this gem from their own blog:
http://blog.gracobaby.com/2009/11/12/faq-what-if-my-child-figures-out-how-to-open-the-chest-clip-on-their-car-seat/
The blog was published on November 12, 2009 and it clearly shows that the company knew of the design flaw and danger of the Graco chest clip. Take a look and read what their PR has put up. The tips are just insulting to the consumer. Some of the gems include, "It takes consistency and some discipline to help them understand that the chest clip needs to stay closed." Really? You can do that with a two year old? No, in reality, once a two year old figures out that he or she can do something, they'll keep doing it and it's difficult to get them to stop. Part of that has to do with their development and level of understanding. Either someone without a child or someone with no common-sense crafted that beauty of a statement.
In my email, I let them know that the clip had failed and that we were extremely disappointed in what had been occurring here. I received a prompt response that there was a new design and that they would be shipping it to us and that it would take 3-5 business days to arrive. They pointed out in the response that "This has more tension in the clip and maybe more difficult for your son to open." While doing more research of what appeared to be more than an isolated problem, I found a video on YouTube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58o9NvcsMRA
In this video, the user shows his two year old son taking off the chest clip with ease. Exactly as what we've dealt with. The Graco baby blog listed above had many comments with children as young as barely over a year old doing this. Just keep searching, the material keeps flowing.
Here's an excerpt from my email:
"I'm contacting you as I'm quite disappointed and concerned about the safety of the car seat that our son has in one of our vehicles. The unit in question is the ComfortSport, model 1762268 with a date of manufacture of 2010/05/18. After using this car seat since he was an infant, all of the sudden, we turn around and see that he's no longer buckled in as the chest harness is unlatched. At first, I question whether I made a mistake and simply didn't click it properly. Low and behold, over the course of the day, there he goes, taking it off one time after another. I then removed the car seat from our vehicle and ordered a replacement chest clasp from your company directly. Besides the obvious inconvenience of moving the car seat between two cars for several days, what made my wife and I incredibly disappointed and downright upset is when the replacement came. Low and behold, we get the car seat back in and he's taken it off again!
From our original premise that maybe the clasp was bent and damaged, it quickly turned into a clear fact that the design of the clasp is defective and absolutely unsafe. What if we were in an accident and he had just unlatched the clasp before impact? You know what the impact of such an event would be."
Impressively, the new clip arrived the next day along with a sheet with how to properly install it, which only takes (once again that term) common-sense.
We had taken the car seat out of the vehicle as it had become obviously unusable. We then took it out of the garage and placed it outside to get setup for the new clip. I installed it and we told Sammy to come and sit down in his car seat. Next, Jennifer asked him to try to undo it and take it off. Literally, he did it within two seconds. He put his hand down and and undid the clip. Latched it back and forth so on. I became extraordinarily upset about this. The company has a known defective and dangerous product, yet it is on the market and has been for years. Their blog shows culpability. They know of the problem, but somehow they've evaded a recall of these chest clips. The cynic in me is screaming that this is yet another example of a large corporation buying off the government, who's watchdog agency is supposed to protect the consumer. We'll get back to that in a moment.
Here's our 26 month old taking off his Graco car seat chest clip with amazing ease:
http://youtu.be/JKDxkG-RMeY
Once we had Sammy on video, I uploaded the video to YouTube, so that I could present another piece of evidence of this product's failure. Once the video was live, I took to sending an email to Graco and here's portions of that note:
"We did receive the replacement harness clip promptly and I do appreciate that, unfortunately, this "new design" is no better than the prior clip. This is absolutely unacceptable. We're still sitting here with a car seat that is completely non-functioning and unsafe." "I can't help but think about what could happen to our son if we were in an accident and he is not restrained, let alone because of a fault clip design. I've now been going on a few weeks of having to shift car seats between two cars all because of this unsafe and unusable car seat."
"I have recorded a video of our son with the brand new clip and I've made a link for you to see this video. Your enclosed directions were followed completely to make certain that the clip was properly installed."
I expect a resolution of this matter, it's completely unacceptable."
I received an email quickly from Graco inquiring as to when the car seat was manufactured and also letting me know that we would receive a credit from our purchase with their store as I demanded a refund because the original replacement clip that we purchased is known to be faulty and was exactly what we had, unbeknownst to us when we first purchased it.
After reply, a follow-up email came shortly thereafter letting me know that the product was out-of-warranty, but since we weren't happy with the product, they would allow us to send the car seat back at our expense and would then issue a refund for the MSRP of the car seat. Here's what I had to say:
"These car seats have been cited by consumers for years as having a failing chest latch. They are defective, period. This was known by Graco before we purchased this seat, it was known before this seat was actually manufactured. This isn't about satisfaction, this is about Graco selling an unsafe product, period. The so-called warranty shouldn't apply when the problem is the design to begin with. Your company can spend hours going online and searching out countless other consumers with the same problem and many have complained about getting the run around with this issue. This is the same design that was sued over (due to injury) from your acquired company, Century. It's publicly documented.
As you can see with this case, I cited your blog from 2009 where your company clearly acknowledged the problem. There are comments as recent as the past week from other consumers with the same issues. To be honest, this is extraordinarily frustrating. So, I'm supposed to pay roughly $20-$30 to package and ship the car seat back? This wasn't about wanting a refund, this was about wanting a properly functioning, and safe car seat. I would have no problem sending the car seat back with some sort of prepaid label if the company wanted to see it in order to examine it for safety issues.
I'd assumed that your company is now producing car seats that do not use this latch set-up, but I can't seem to find any models that offer anything other than this design.
What am I to do?"
I then received another response that they would send to us in the mail a prepaid shipping label to return the car seat and we would then receive the aforementioned refund in 6-8 weeks from the corporate office. And, we would have to provide the box to ship it back in, but I guess that's better than having to also pay to ship it back.....
Down in an area that we lived for quite some time, Orange County, Florida, a lawsuit was filed, Roman vs. Graco, as the plaintiff's child was severely injured in the spinal cord during a traffic accident and guess what happened? She was two years old at the time and undid the Century car seat chest clip. Century was purchased by Graco whose parent company is Newell-Rubbermaid as mentioned above in 1998.
Here is a quick story from the Times' Business Section.
http://www.nytimes.com/1998/05/20/business/company-news-rubbermaid-s-graco-unit-to-buy-century-car-seat-line.html
These unsafe chest clips have been in use for years by Century and Graco. In reading through the reporter's brief from the case of Roman vs. Graco, you find out that the two parties settled out of court. Newell-Rubbermaid is able to avoid being legally responsible, but that doesn't speak to the truth of the product here. From the amateur research that I've done here, it appears that this set-up had a one piece harness all tied in together, so my assumption is that this one piece held all the parts of the restraint together. So, today, the product that we have the problem with is the two piece harness. Regardless, the same problem is here, the child can easily become unrestrained and could suffer fatal consequences.
The case of Roman v. Graco
http://www.justice.org/cps/rde/justice/hs.xsl/15319.htm
Here's a listing of countless child safety seat recalls:
http://www.hsrc.unc.edu/safety_info/child_passenger_safety/child_restraint_recalls_list.cfm
Interestingly, there have been no recalls of the Graco child chest clips that they have been using for several years. Just putting a little effort and time, you can find many sources on the Internet of complaints whether it's consumer forums, videos, or notices.
Here's a link with some complaints provided online to The Office of Defects Investigation, which is a part of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Not surprisingly, similar complaints are found.
http://www.aboutautomobile.com/ChildSeat/Complaint/Graco/Comfortsport/Child+Seat+Harness+Buckle
As I was alluding to earlier, we have a failure of a corporation and the government. Complaints typically are a small fraction of the problems that are actually out there and there is a pretty large sampling to be found with this same issue. How many complaints has Graco had directly that they've buried internally? How can something so unsafe, dangerous, and potentially deadly be ignored by our government? Is it because of lobbyists? Are they bought and paid for by corporations and damn the consumer?
It think that it's rather fair for us as consumers to expect that something a basic as a car seat for a child is properly safety tested. For there to be a problem known by the corporation and for them to continue to go about their business as normal is disgusting. It's not a problem with the stitching on the seat fabric, it's not the color of the seat, it's the most basic of safety issues, which Graco is failing.
This is OUTRAGEOUS. We have no statistics as to how many vehicles have been in accidents with these car seats and the injury with relation to the Graco branded car seats.
So, here we are and here's what I'm hoping to do. I don't know if a blog can change the world, but by getting the word out, I'm hoping that we can get some good exposure on this dangerous situation and usher in a change.
Friday, June 1, 2012
Oh no, we have a leak!
There goes the idea of not spending money in June... On Wednesday, I headed down to our home gym for an afternoon workout and after finishing on the elliptical, my foot touched the carpet. I figured that one of the kids knocked over a cup of water on the floor, but I was so wrong. Instead, it turned out to be the expansion tank on the hot water heater had sprung a leak. Steam and water were all over the place.
Once Sammy got up, I took the kids over to Home Depot, got the parts that I needed to repair it and hoped that I could get the old unit off of our lousy piping. Of course, that didn't work. Our plumber came and had as bad of a time as I did in attempting to remove the expansion tank as well as not damaging the existing piping. Low and behold, it was fixed, but then we found water coming out of the patched up and terrible solder job(s) that the previous homeowner had done. So, we had to get the pipes replaced going into the hot water heater and just to cap it off, our pressurization regulator for the house was shot as well. There goes spending less, nearly five hundred and fifty dollars in repairs and we had a discounted price.
Once Sammy got up, I took the kids over to Home Depot, got the parts that I needed to repair it and hoped that I could get the old unit off of our lousy piping. Of course, that didn't work. Our plumber came and had as bad of a time as I did in attempting to remove the expansion tank as well as not damaging the existing piping. Low and behold, it was fixed, but then we found water coming out of the patched up and terrible solder job(s) that the previous homeowner had done. So, we had to get the pipes replaced going into the hot water heater and just to cap it off, our pressurization regulator for the house was shot as well. There goes spending less, nearly five hundred and fifty dollars in repairs and we had a discounted price.
Friday, April 27, 2012
It's Not Working
So, I'm on simvastatin to lower my not high, but not ideal cholesterol level according to our health plan to keep us at the best rate for insurance. I've added back in a healthy dose of psyllium and other things that I used to do in order to have a good cholesterol number and after several weeks of consistent use of the drug (I'm no fan of taking prescription drugs to begin with), I believe that I'm having way too many side-effects.
As Jennifer will tell you, I've been complaining of getting headaches, which is something I don't usually have, I've woken up with a headache and just feeling depressed lately, and most importantly, I don't feel sharp, at all. I'd best describe it as brain-fog. Things just aren't clicking right and it all completely goes hand in hand with taking simvastatin, which is the generic for Zocor. When I first tried the drug in late December, I was having muscle pain, but it was difficult to tell whether that was related to having been sick or the drug. I additionally was having the brain fog problem. I believe at this point in time that the muscle aches were truly due to being sick, but the brain fog, it's just like before and it only takes a few days to really start causing a problem.
I've read through several medical reports on the subject, reports from users, and I've found a great resource at spacedoc.com, where former NASA astronaut and Dr. Duane Graveline and the team there have endless resources dedicated to showing with evidence of the ill-effects of these drugs. It's also interesting that the doctor notes issues with CoQ10 and statins. Our physician told me that as well, that there might be a need to use CoQ10 as there is a depletion issue that then leads to many side-effects and physical problems.
I'm going back to treating this with natural methods like I used to and I hope to achieve the desired numbers for the next annual testing. What's even more frustrating is that their research along with many others show that cholesterol numbers aren't actually accurate benchmarks for heart issues and that it's all basically a bunch of garbage sold to doctors by the medical industry all in the name of profit. It's so frustrating. All I know is that I've woken up yet again feeling terrible and it goes hand in hand with the use of the medicine.
As Jennifer will tell you, I've been complaining of getting headaches, which is something I don't usually have, I've woken up with a headache and just feeling depressed lately, and most importantly, I don't feel sharp, at all. I'd best describe it as brain-fog. Things just aren't clicking right and it all completely goes hand in hand with taking simvastatin, which is the generic for Zocor. When I first tried the drug in late December, I was having muscle pain, but it was difficult to tell whether that was related to having been sick or the drug. I additionally was having the brain fog problem. I believe at this point in time that the muscle aches were truly due to being sick, but the brain fog, it's just like before and it only takes a few days to really start causing a problem.
I've read through several medical reports on the subject, reports from users, and I've found a great resource at spacedoc.com, where former NASA astronaut and Dr. Duane Graveline and the team there have endless resources dedicated to showing with evidence of the ill-effects of these drugs. It's also interesting that the doctor notes issues with CoQ10 and statins. Our physician told me that as well, that there might be a need to use CoQ10 as there is a depletion issue that then leads to many side-effects and physical problems.
I'm going back to treating this with natural methods like I used to and I hope to achieve the desired numbers for the next annual testing. What's even more frustrating is that their research along with many others show that cholesterol numbers aren't actually accurate benchmarks for heart issues and that it's all basically a bunch of garbage sold to doctors by the medical industry all in the name of profit. It's so frustrating. All I know is that I've woken up yet again feeling terrible and it goes hand in hand with the use of the medicine.
Saturday, April 21, 2012
Taking it all Back?
I feel as though I've lost my way. I've let an unhappy job situation cloud every judgment I have when it comes to health, rest, finance, and content living. Even blogging! So I've taken some control back. I've updated my resume, posted all new information at monster.com and will be passively keeping an eye on new opportunities. But until that time comes, if it does or doesn't, I've got take back control over myself and my life.
I've made a meal plan, or rather a list of meals when can made each evening. That way there will be no scrounging around looking for a meal. It'll just be picking a meal and cooking. It's a small step, but an important one for us.
Monday starts the wellness challenge at work and I will be participating. I'm excited for the tasks ahead.
And right now we are trying to tie up the loose ends with our antenna project. It is all kinds of crazy! Missing channels and a thousand trips to the attic. But thankfully not for me. ;-)
Here's to more writing and just letting it go.
Jennifer
I've made a meal plan, or rather a list of meals when can made each evening. That way there will be no scrounging around looking for a meal. It'll just be picking a meal and cooking. It's a small step, but an important one for us.
Monday starts the wellness challenge at work and I will be participating. I'm excited for the tasks ahead.
And right now we are trying to tie up the loose ends with our antenna project. It is all kinds of crazy! Missing channels and a thousand trips to the attic. But thankfully not for me. ;-)
Here's to more writing and just letting it go.
Jennifer
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
It All Adds Up
We've wrestled with the idea of downgrading our DISH service for quite some time, but $10 here or there basically led us to lose the channels that we actually watched. Month after month, it's $105 for us to basically watch five channels plus the locals out of over two-hundred that we could be watching. When we decide to do something, we do it. End of story. Period. So, here's where we are now: a majorly downgraded DISH service, a Channel Master aerial antenna, and streaming through Roku, iPad, XBOX 360, and whatever other gadget we have in our house with Hula Plus and Netflix, which we will be dropping.
The big question is where does this get you? Saving a lot of money is where. Our out-of-pocket monthly expense is going to be $8.99 for Hulu Plus and $50.00 for DISH. Our DISH service was $105.50 per month, so we're saving $55.50 for the service plus indirect costs. With DISH, our bedroom constantly had the churn of the VIP612 DVR, which not only made constant noise, but is also an energy hog that consumes more energy than a refrigerator each month! By removing the DVR receiver and a second, we're saving around $6.00 per month in electricity. When you do the numbers, we're saving $52.51 overall each month. Not too shabby! On top of the savings, we're going back to watching a bit more high quality television as our DVR became almost shameful with the junk that was being recorded.
Getting our house wired with coaxial cables has been a mess because the original installer made a complete mess and has so many splitters, it's a surprise that certain rooms even get a signal. The house wasn't built with coaxial cable running throughout and was retrofitted later on. The Channel Master antenna cost us $59.99, various cables and parts about $40.00, and the Roku was $99.99. We'd been planning on getting a Roku, so I guess you don't look at it so much as a cost here, as it was going to be bought anyhow.
We downgraded from the America's Top 200 package on DISH to the DISH America (HD programming only) package. We have the 222 dual room receiver, so even though we're paying for TV on one set, we actually get a second television that gets DISH programming with the ability to watch different channels. (The signal can be split to another TV that would get a mirror image of one of those.) The only negative is that it's a standard definition feed, but we are getting more than fifty over the air HD & digital signals as well. We could lower the DISH cost even more by getting rid of HBO ($16/mo.) or DISH all together, but I think this works. We get programming, but have halved our monthly cost.
This evening will be more time spent getting everything set-up properly throughout the house. I've grown quite accustomed to our attic and cables. :)
E
The big question is where does this get you? Saving a lot of money is where. Our out-of-pocket monthly expense is going to be $8.99 for Hulu Plus and $50.00 for DISH. Our DISH service was $105.50 per month, so we're saving $55.50 for the service plus indirect costs. With DISH, our bedroom constantly had the churn of the VIP612 DVR, which not only made constant noise, but is also an energy hog that consumes more energy than a refrigerator each month! By removing the DVR receiver and a second, we're saving around $6.00 per month in electricity. When you do the numbers, we're saving $52.51 overall each month. Not too shabby! On top of the savings, we're going back to watching a bit more high quality television as our DVR became almost shameful with the junk that was being recorded.
Getting our house wired with coaxial cables has been a mess because the original installer made a complete mess and has so many splitters, it's a surprise that certain rooms even get a signal. The house wasn't built with coaxial cable running throughout and was retrofitted later on. The Channel Master antenna cost us $59.99, various cables and parts about $40.00, and the Roku was $99.99. We'd been planning on getting a Roku, so I guess you don't look at it so much as a cost here, as it was going to be bought anyhow.
We downgraded from the America's Top 200 package on DISH to the DISH America (HD programming only) package. We have the 222 dual room receiver, so even though we're paying for TV on one set, we actually get a second television that gets DISH programming with the ability to watch different channels. (The signal can be split to another TV that would get a mirror image of one of those.) The only negative is that it's a standard definition feed, but we are getting more than fifty over the air HD & digital signals as well. We could lower the DISH cost even more by getting rid of HBO ($16/mo.) or DISH all together, but I think this works. We get programming, but have halved our monthly cost.
This evening will be more time spent getting everything set-up properly throughout the house. I've grown quite accustomed to our attic and cables. :)
E
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