Customer support.....

7:46 am - Friday - September 6th - LPG&RVR - 59° F, humidity 40%, wind 1 mph out of the east....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 92° F.  On this date in 2016 TLE and I were hosting a beer tasting party at Tahoe Valley Campground......I miss those days....

 One of my least favorite things is to get up before 7 am on non work days, but Thursday was one of those necessary evils.  I had my 6 week follow up appointment with Dr. Fyda at Great Basin Orthopedics in Reno at 10:45 am, and we needed to be on the road by 7:30 am.  It only takes 2.5 hours to make the 140 mile drive, but we give ourselves a large cushion in case of unforeseen circumstances (construction delays, which there were, etc.).  As you will recall I saw him 6 weeks ago regarding my right knee.  XRAYS determined I had the beginnings of OA (osteoarthritis), and some 'bone on bone' in that knee.  He recommended (and I accepted) a cortisone shot, and then physical therapy. 

I was up around 6 am in preparation for our 7:30 am departure.  We had well over 1/2 tank of fuel in the VW so more than enough to make the drive down to Reno before needing to refill the tank.  We arrived in Reno right at 10 am....45 minutes before my appointment, so we spent 30 minutes doing some of our shopping at the local Smith's, arriving at GBO just after 10:30 am.  I wasn't taken into the little room until 11:05 am, and did not see Dr. Fyda until 11:30 am.  At any rate, he was pleased with my progress since he last saw me.  Then I could not straighten my knee, and walked with a noticeable limp.  The cortisone shot I received 6 weeks earlier was a great success, and that combined with the PT allows me to straighten my knee to almost full extension, and to walk 90% pain free now, and the pain is really more discomfort than actual pain.  He was there in the little room with me less than 5 minutes, at the end of which he announced he was releasing me, and recommended I transition from weekly PT appointments to home maintenance as he felt the in person PT had gotten me as far as I was going to go.

From there we headed to a local fuel station to add 11 gallons to our tank for the 140 mile drive home, then over to Trader Joe's for a few things, then COSTCO.  We were on our way home by 1 pm,  arriving back at LPG&RVR at exactly 3:30 pm....again, 100% uneventful....just like we like it.

I haven't written about some issues we have been having with our Starlink.  For the past 2+ years it has worked flawlessly, with the lone exception of the original cable going bad.  I had purchased a spare for just this possibility, so we were without service for less than an hour while I installed the spare one.  This past Saturday while I was typing the blog it stopped working, so I thought maybe there was an issue with the cable.  I turned off the power to the modem, then reseated the cable in the 'dishy', and service returned......for about 10 minutes then it was gone.  I thought another cable had gone bad, but it's only been 9-10 months since the last failure.  Anyway, I removed the old cable, and installed the spare I keep, and got service back for about 10 minute again, before it was gone for good....doh!

Starlink does not have a phone center you can call for help.  You must go through their website and 'open a ticket', and wait for someone to get back to you.  I've heard mixed reviews about their support, but was pleasantly surprised to hear back from them within a few hours.  They decided, based on the symptoms I had reported, that they would send me a new cable free of charge, and refund the money I had paid for the now, apparently, useless replacement cable.  The new cable was shipped via FedEx Tuesday morning, and I received it Wednesday afternoon, and quickly installed it.  Order was restored, and everything was working again, but within 5 hours it quit again, and would not come back.  I opened another ticket explaining what had happened that evening, and by 10 am Thursday morning (the time we arrived in Reno) I had an email from Starlink advising they were going to send me a brand new system (dishy, modem, and cable) free of charge....no questions asked, plus credit me one months service fee for my inconvenience.  All things being equal, I'm pretty impressed with their customer support system, and you will get no complaints from me.  Fortunately, we have decent broadband coverage here at LPG&RVR, so I can use my hotspot as needed to type my blog until the new system arrives in the next week, or so.

Thanks for stopping by!