Upgrade Bugs 2000
I have read and signed the online petition:
"DISATISFIED WEB TV CONSUMER PETITION"
hosted on the web by PetitionOnline.com, the free online petition service, at: http://www.PetitionOnline.com/BAMMO49 I personally agree with what this petition says, and I think you might agree, too. If you can spare a moment, please take a look, and consider signing yourself.
You can get the retrograde or upgrade by clicking help from your WebTV home. Under Using the Web click latest news then how to get retrograde. Of course, if your unit is like mine, when you click help all you get is a blank screen with a latest news link in the upper left corner. When you click the link it does nothing......12-13-00 It seems the help link problem has been fixed.
November 8, 2000
Just as i expected, when i accept the upgrade or update there is a rapid decrease in performance. WebTV still has a lot of work to do on the service end if they want to keep me as a customer. The only reason i am still a WebTVer is because of Dennis Reno. I agreed to stay a customer if i could get a new unit and credit for the poor service i have received since the upgrade. I have posted all of my correspondence with Dennis Reno on a seperate page. I will give WebTV a couple of months to fix the service problems but, if there is no major improvement by the first of the year i'll be gone.
November 3, 2000
My new unit arrived today. It is a new classic. Without the update or upgrade it is running a lot faster. I am going to check it out with the update and see what happens. I really don't expect too much because WebTV has just begun fixing the upgrade.
November 1, 2000
WebTV has an "update" to the summer upgrade. This is suppose to be a fix for the upgrade problems(see below). Right now it seems to be in a testing stage and WebTV wants feedback on how the update performs. You can get the update from club WebTV under WebTV news. There is also a feedback form so you can tell them if the update works for you. I am going to check it out for a day or two but, i have already experienced some of the same problems(see below) associated with the upgrade. Oh well at least they are trying.
October 28, 2000
Got a call today from WebTV (Kimberly) saying my new unit should be here by the end of next week. Hmmm, where have i heard that before.
October 26, 2000
Microsoft settles law suit with the FTC about WebTV's false and misleading ads. I have posted the article on a new page WebTV News
October 25, 2000
Well it has been close to a month since WebTV was supposed to send me my new unit. They said two weeks when i talked to them. So i called, and guess what? Yep you guessed it, there is a problem. WebTV blames it on Philips and Sony for not having enough units available. Makes you wonder how many units they really fried. Anyway i emailed the new customer service manager and much to my shock he replied. He said WebTV would credit my bill and he would have a manager contact me about the problem. Yesterday the manager called me (no, i am not lying) she (Paula) really called. She told me my account had beeen credited and she was looking into getting my unit to me asap. She said she would call or email me. As of this post i havn't heard from her. I will wait another day or so to see what happens. I really thought my last post would be one of the last on this subject. Guess i was wrong.
September 27, 2000
I finally got a new WebTV unit on the way...he says typing from under a pile of post-it notes with names, numbers and codes AND being on the phone with various WebTv personel for a total of over two hours, in between phone calls i was unplugging and plugging my unit, punching in codes and waiting for various upgrades and downgrades to load...but it wasn't easy for me.
It seems WebTv has two versions of "fried units". The main one being that your unit was totally "fried" by the upgrade, meaning you couldn't get the unit on at all or be able to log in. The people that have this problem have no trouble getting a free new unit. This is the problem WebTv finally realized and is making right. BUT, the problem i and other classic users have, that WebTv isn't so willing to recognize, is that we can't use the upgrade because of all the problems (see below) it creates for our unit and WebTv has admitted they can't fix these problems. So we are paying the same money for a downgraded version when we should have the benefits as all users. I had to keep making the point that because of their upgrade my unit will not function properly when i accept the upgrade. Finally an upgrade manager authorized me a new unit.
If your unit was "fried" by the upgrade or if you have problems when you accept the upgrade call 1-866-207-7312 If you are not sure if your unit is fried call 1-800-gowebtv.
September 25, 2000
WebTv has admitted they "fried" some units with the summer upgrade. They also said the problem can't be fixed. They are just now admitting what us WebTver's wih fried units have known for a while. WebTv will give a free replacement for fried units. Call 1-800-go-webtv if you think/know your unit was fried by the upgrade. For more on this issue net4tv.com has an article with webTv's product manager.
September 15, 2000
WebTv is experiencing major cookie problems. They can't say when it will be fixed. Don't know if this is upgrade/retrograde related or just another WebTV fart!
August 30, 2000
I am still experiencing problems with the retrograde on my classic unit. Also, others have emailed me and left posts in my WebTV forum. This includes plus users too. Most have talked with WebTV and WebTV won't or can't fix their problems. WebTV keeps offering the rebate on a new plus unit to me and them. Makes you wonder if WebTV fried some units with their "upgrade" or they are just trying to sell plus units which carry a higher servive fee or they are just morons and don't know what they are talking about. Whatever the problem some Webtvers are getting screwed. Hmmm...perhaps a lawsuit is in order?
July 18, 2000
Had the retrograde 'bout a week now, aahhhh, back to just normal problems. The speed of most everything has increased. Some javascript is working again. A couple of most notable problems still exist. F-keys still don't work most of the time and have been experiencing a lot of unit shut-downs. Some i can power off, some i have to unplug the unit because none of the keys on the keyboard don't/won't do anything, not even the power button. Nice to be "normal" again.
July 12, 2000
Just got the WebTV retrograde, 'bout time. I'm going to check it out for a few days to see if everything is ok. The retrograde is only available to classic users right now as they are most effected with the summer upgrade problems. To get your retrograde, go to your WebTV home page and click help, then latest news. There will be a link to click so you can accept the retrograde.
June 7, 2000
I talked wth a WebTV Tech because my problems are so bad i can't get anywhere and when i do get to a site it takes forever to load and sometimes it doesn't load at all. Anyway the Tech acknowledged WebTV IS having a lot of problems with the "upgrade". He said they are working on it now and it should be fixed soon. It will come in the form of another upgrade. He also said they(webtv)had two units, which he called "paper weights", there that were having the upgrade problems and they were sent to Palo Alto so the problems can be duplicated and fixed.
June 20, 2000
WebTV has announced that a "retrograde" will be available for WebTV users who want it. This will let your box go back to the way it was before the "upgrade". I for one applaud WebTV for this, 'bout time they listened to their users. A new upgrade will be available soon, of course with WebTV soon doesn't always mean soon, to replace the summer "upgrade" screw-up. To get the "retrograde" call 1-800-gowebtv after June 26th and they can switch you back. I'll be first in line! For more info on this and other news go to Net4Tv
June 27, 2000
It seems WebTv can't get it's act together to offer the retrograde yet. They still havn't informed all of their CSR's as to how to do the retrograde. When WebTv said June 26th i should have asked, What year? Stay tuned for more slow customer service from WebTV.
July 3, 2000
WebTv now says "there will be a retrograde available after the July 4th holiday". I'll believe it when i get it. Do you need any more reasons to get a computer?
July 5, 2000
I talked with a tech at WebTV today, and guess what. No retrograde. Suprise Surprise!!! To use his words " the retrogade is imminent but we still don't have a confirmed date of release".
Tripod Pop-Ups
For WebTVers that have sites on Tripod, as i do, the pop-up ads don't work anymore. All you get are static banner ads even if you have checked pop-ups in your Tripod account. This is probably do to different javascript that WebTV uses since the upgrade. There are other javascript problems too. Don't know of a fix for this problem yet, but Tripoders can at least get rid of the ugly banner ad(it's an all white background) that they now have if you have checked pop-ups in your account. You can go to your account and change your ad status to static. At least the banner ad will match your page colors better.
Cookies
It seems the WebTV Cookie Monster has reared it's ugly head again. After the last "upgrade" there were a lot of cookie problems. Looks like they would learn after a while. I have had cookie problems at a lot of sites where i have had no problems before the upgrade.
WebTV Homepage
The WebTV homepage is extremely slow in loading. A lot of the time all the images/icons don't appear. Sometimes the left side of the page that changes(news, weather etc.) doesn't show or goes blank/black. The ad on the right side does the same thing. (bet the advertisers love that) Even the icons at the top of the page don't always appear, especially the community and messenger. While not seeing the ads or the lame and late WebTV news doesn't bother me, the slower loading is a real pisser.
Page Too Big
Several times a day i get an error message that says "Page too big to be shown completely". This has happened on a lot of different sites including my own site here at Tripod.
Disappearing Act
Blocks of text and some images disappear especially when you scroll. They seem to come back though. Also some backgrounds do not load.
Blank Page
I get a blank/white page when i go to some sites. Sometimes the only way i could get off the page was to go home and a couple of times i had to shut my unit down and reconnect to get it working again.
F-Keys
My F-keys don't work most of the time. "GO TO" seems to work better than the F-keys although it stalls a lot too.
Pop-Ups
I've been getting a lot of pop-up errors. They pop-up out of nowhere. Some are blank(no text), some are just full of wierd characters and alts. A few have been password pop-ups, on places where there is no password needed. My options have popped-up several times out of the blue. A lot of "publisher can't find requested page" pop-ups too.
Javascript
A ton of javascript problems. In addition to the Tripod banner problems, IRC is affected. A work around for the IRC bug can be found at Net4Tv. Several of the other problems are javascript related too. If javascript that was working isn't now it is because of the "upgrade". Also just some parts of some javascript isn't working.
Real Audio ~ Midi
Real Audio that used to work doesn't anymore. I keep getting "too busy to play" and "this is the type of information WebTV can't use" pop-ups. I also get "this is the type of information WebTV can't use" pop-ups with some midis. This has never happened to me with midis before the "upgrade".
Most of these problems seem to be cache related.
When WebTV did the "upgrade" they needed space to do it. It seems they have robbed the cache to do the "upgrade".
For more info on upgrade bugs and fixes go to Net4Tv.