Phil online

I bought my first house in Atlanta 12 years ago.  It came with a 2000 square foot carpet disaster.  I was broke and the house was all I could afford.  I couldn’t afford new carpeting for 2000 sq feet of house!  Or so I thought.

A friend told me to call Tom McAllister.  I am so glad I did.  Tom is a special sort of character peculiar to the south.  He runs a successful flooring business almost completely off his personality.  As far as I know, he doesn’t have any storefront anywhere.  And he’ll do a job almost anywhere around Atlanta.  But the service I got for the price is what makes Tom so great.

Tom sells all kinds of flooring.  What I needed was good cheap carpet.  And here’s what Tom did.  He went down to the carpet mills in Dalton and found me some seafoam green carpet that was on a seconds roll.  A seconds roll is one that has something wrong with it, like a seconds shirt is one that’s missing a button or something.  Tom told me that they might have changed the dye pack in the middle of that roll, so there’s a dark area that he has to cut around.  But he inspects every roll completely before he buys it to make sure he can use it.  And because of his installation techniques, you’ll never know it had a problem.

Oh my god, it was beautiful!  It was high-quality, too.  Tom took a lot of time explaining to me how the higher density and the twist of the fibers would make the carpet last longer.  And it did!  It held out until we sold the house last year, and it was still beautiful.

Over the years, I lost Tom’s phone number.  I had carpet installed from two other companies.  They were discounters, and the price was good.  The installation was ok.  But the quality was nowhere near what I got from Tom.

So, we sold the house.  Bought a new house.  New house, new carpet. We put new carpet in upstairs.  We used another local discounter.  It’s nice, but it’s just ordinary.

The carpet on the main floor was expensive looking stuff.  Patterned wool berber.  Here’s the problem with berber: it runs.  Catch a thread with the vacuum and you’ll pull a strip out of your floor 10 feet long.  We had three such strips in our carpet already.  It had to go.  Luckily, I found Tom’s number on an obscure realtor’s page through Google.
But I didn’t think Tom would come so far to where I live now, so I shopped around locally for a deal on carpet.  I was pretty disappointed with what I found, but I can afford more these days so I was prepared to pay around $40/yard for decent carpet that would last. And looking around gave me ideas about what I wanted.
I called Tom again.  He said the location would be no problem and wanted me to come what he had and discuss ideas.  I met him at a Home Depot near work to show him what I’d found.  There was a prominent display of their most popular carpet on the end-cap.  Tom squinted at me and said, “Phil, I wouldn’t install that crap in your house.”  Then he proceeded to “shave” the carpet with a pen knife.  After a few strokes, there were great piles of carpet fuzz everywhere.  Tom said, “You don’t want that crap in your house.  It’ll clog up your vacuum cleaner for a year!”  He showed me the carpet that he had in “seconds” — it was a brand that was also at Home Depot, but it was $58/yard installed, a bit out of my range.

He told me he was perplexed that it was a seconds roll that he had because he couldn’t find anything wrong with it.  But we figured out what it was looking over the selection at HD.  It was too dark.  I mean, it didn’t match any of the sample colors there.  It was a nice medium coffee color, but it wasn’t any of the colors that HD had on display.  Can’t sell it if it’s not standard, so it goes to seconds.

Long story short, Tom installed this carpet in my house for an ungodly small amount of money.  He made me promise not to tell anyone what a deal I got, but — well, let’s just say it was less than half of Home Depot’s price.  And I got an upgraded pad.  And I got a professional installer crew who came out and installed it two days later.

I was so pleased, I even tipped Tom a couple hundred bucks.  And then I blogged about it so I won’t lose his number again and so you can find him too.  If you need carpet in Atlanta, whether it’s the top quality stuff or just some cheap crap so you can sell your house, call Tom on his cell phone at 770-934-7707.  Tell him Phil Hord gave you his number.  He’ll treat you extra nice.

He treats everyone extra nice.

Here are some tips on dealing with Tom:

1. When he quotes a price, it includes installation and an 8# pad.  You want the 8 pound pad. Walking on the carpet in my house is like walking on a cloud!
2. If you want crap, he’ll put it in for you for cheap.  If you want the good stuff, he’ll do that too.  Just tell him up front.
3. Go find the carpet you like at your local carpet store.  Get some ideas of colors and features.  Then call Tom and see what he has.  He may even be able to match the exact style (get the style and color numbers off the display).  Chances are, though, that he’ll have something better.
4. Tom likes to talk.  Be prepared to hear some stories.  Get your ideas through to him and then arrange to meet him to see some samples.
5. Be ready to buy some carpet when you meet Tom, because he is the man you will buy it from.  No one else I’ve found comes close for service or price.  I hope he doesn’t retire before I need carpet again.

Pity the poor remnants of Ma Bell. They can’t help but be bureaucratic after decades of over-regulation and “5 nines” of reliability requirements. But Oh My God, it’s hard to deal with them.

And this is why Cable Modems will win.

Consider these examples:

In 2001 I ported my phone number from Bellsouth service to Comcast. It was so easy I don’t remember what I had to do to make it happen. Or maybe the physical wire hookup was so difficult that I don’t remember the pain of the LNP (Local Number Portability).

In 2003 I ported my number from Comcast to Vonage. I remember exactly what I had to do. It took me less than 5 minutes.
Step 1. I clicked a button on Vonage.com telling them I wanted to switch.

Step 2. I printed out the confirmation form for them to use to pressure Comcast to let my number go.

Step 3. I signed and faxed the form.

Step 4. I waited three weeks, and my Vonage account magically got a new phone number.

So now my wife is fed up with Vonage (too much unreliability, possibly the fault of Adelphia, our new cable modem service provider). She wants an old-fashioned landline. So I switched back to Bellsouth.

I told them I wanted to port my number from Vonage, but I want to have the Bellsouth service hooed up first. I don’t trust them to port the number first and also have my new service hooked up all on the same day. (That’s how they wanted to do it.)

So I have a new line with a new phone number from BS. Oh, but does it come with long distance? No… I have to add that. I wanted to add it from some other company, but that’s not so easy. So I chose to add the BS LD (online) until I can find the time to choose a better LD company. (To their credit, I only had to click a few buttons to complete this request, and I was assured it would take no more than three days to add BSLD to my line. Whoopee!)
Later I emailed them and asked them to port my old number from Vonage. They wrote back and asked why I wanted to port my new number to Vonage. No, no, I want this old number ported FROM Vonage to Bellsouth. They wrote back and told me I had to call in to speak with someone. This I did, after several rounds of voicemail tag.
I received an email that they would finish my request within 15 days.

42 days later, I emailed them again. I was told I would have to call in to complete this request.

I called. Someone who was far too happy to speak with me spoke with me. I explained what I wanted to do. She was confused. “Do you want two lines or is the second number going to be a RingMaster(tm) line?” No, I want to lose the current number and port the old number from Vonage.

She puzzled over this for a couple of minutes. Then she explained that on the day of the switch I would be without service for a few hours at the most.

Without service?! WTF? Why will I be without service?

“Sir, you did say you want to disconnect the old number, right?” Yeah, but what if I add the Vonage number as a RingMaster(tm) number. Then I would have two numbers on the line, right? Then couldn’t I just turn off the other number and still keep my service active? “No sir, when the first line is switched off, you would still be without service for a few hours.”

Holy Shit. I can’t imagine any VOIP provider treating their service like this. I told her so, too. But there’s nothing she can do about it.

Oh, but then we spent the next 20 minutes discussing my service options (yes, I want to keep them the same; I think I spend less than $25/month on long distance service; no, I do not want unlimited long distance from BellSouth; no, I do not need a 900-number block; yes, I understand there is a long list of alternative LD providers, and no I do not want you to read them to me; no, I still do not want one of the three internal wiring maintenance plans you are offering; etc.; etc.)

And finally I was forwarded to someone in India who acted as an independent third party to verify that I am who I say I am (or at least I know my birthdate) and that I really do want to make all these changes (which are really not changes at all) and that I really do want to port this phone number from Vonage (finally!).

And then I was done. It only took about 40 minutes on the phone, and I’ll only lose service for a few hours. (And a helpful recording will inform callers what is happening.)

What a joke!

And guess what? Comcast bought Adelphia. I’m thinking about switching my phone service to Comcast again as soon as they offer it in my neighborhood.

The sooner the better.

11-13-2006: Update:  They sent me a letter in the mail.  I think it says they won’t port my number until I pay the outstanding balance of 43 cents.  I think it says that because it’s all in Spanish.  I don’t read Spanish well. This is not raising my confidence.

8 years ago I was working for a company in the computer telephony business. I was the CT/Voice-guru-designate for the company, so I got to go to conferences and see what the dreamers were dreaming of in the future. The dreams were all over their demos and promos. They didn’t work all that well, and they were expensive as hell.

The holy grail of the industry was a sort of turing test for IVR (Interactive Voice Response) systems. This is where you could call a customer support line and talk to a computer without realizing it was a computer. It would almost be as good as talking to a real human. They’ve been doing this (more…)

We moved recently and I had to subscribe to various new services in my new community, like water, power, internet and garbage service. The trash pickup (”waste hauling”) turned out to be far too difficult to arrange.

The city I’m moving to has a web page which lists all the waste haulers in town. The one I use at my old house (more…)

A man showed up at my doorstep last weekend. He had a framed photo of my house taken from a helicopter in the fall. It seems they have a company that does this. He had a map of about 100 other houses he had yet to visit.

The photo was a bit expensive, but it was so cool. So I bought it. Framed. And the CD scan of the negative. (The CD had to be ordered and scanned. It arrived about 4 days later. Nice!)

Interestingly, the photo was taken about a month before I ever saw this house. It was shot in September and we first saw the house ourselves in October. I didn’t buy it until February, so it was just lucky (for him) that this guy showed up a few weeks later.

We’ve moved. We had the house at 1463 Janice Court spruced up and prepped for sale. I really enjoyed the house and the neighborhood, but it’s time to move on. Now, though, with the house all cleaned up, a new roof, new carpet, new gutters, fresh paint… it looks so adorable! It’s even nicer than when we lived in it.

I made a flyer highlighting the nearby nature trail. If you’re in the area, stop by to visit it even if you don’t need a house. It’s a nice trail. It was built by a neighbor for his wife who died recently (I think) of cancer. It’s truly a labor of love, and it shows.

The Nature Trail flyer

Maybe I should put a geocache there.

No, not the new one. The old one.

See… We lived there for ten years. It was a great house for us. It was the right size, in the right neighborhood. And it was very “lived in”, so I didn’t need to worry about (more…)

Friday: We moved. I hired a local company, Atlanta Peach Movers, to come move us. I price shopped around a little bit, and their prices seemed on par with others I found. The main reason I picked them, though, is the boxes. They had boxes for cheap, and they offered free delivery. And while I had them on the phone, I went ahead and scheduled the move. One less thing to worry about.

The crew was great! They were fast, courteous and energetic. They hauled all my stuff down my big hill of a driveway (no way to get the truck up the hill!) non-stop for 5 hours. Then we drove to the new house (an hour away) where they did it all in reverse, without the hill. They even stopped at another house with us to pick up a donated piano. (Watching them disassemble, wrap and carry a baby grand piano down the steps and onto the truck was enthralling.)

Highly recommended. Total cost: $1800 for 10 hours, 5 men and two trucks.

Moving sucks. After every move, we always take the same oath: “Never again!” It lasted 10 years this last time. But this weekend, we moved.

We’re very happy with the new house. But we’re still not done with the old one. We have a few miscellaneous things to clean out, the house needs to be cleaned and prepped for sale, and there is a ton of things that need to be fixed.

This week will be spent working on the old house to make it the home we always wanted. More posts coming about this. :-\

It’s official now. I own the Castle House. It wasn’t easy getting here, though. My buyer’s agent (highly recommended) really had to work to get this one through closing. Thanks, Buddy!

Here’s a brief rundown of some of the hurdles we ran into unexpectedly: (more…)

When we had the water turned on for the inspection, we discovered a water heater in the basement with a tiny leak. Of course, there’s no such thing as a small leak when you don’t have it going into a drain. So I shut off the water to the heater and turned off its gas supply. I added “Water heater” to our list of upcoming expenses.

But then I noticed the warranty label on the side. I called the company (Rheem) and gave them the serial number. They told me all about the heater, what year it was made (2000) and that it was probably the drain valve that was leaking. They offered to fedex me a new valve at no cost. I reminded them I don’t own this heater yet, and they said that was ok since I plan to buy it. Got the valve two days later.

And if this doesn’t fix the leak, they offered to replace the whole tank. Sweet!

Things are progressing Just Fine with the Castle House.

We had the home inspector out yesterday — for five hours! Whew! He didn’t find any deal killers, but he did find a couple of big things I didn’t see before.

• The rear deck supports are rusting at the base. Need to clean, paint and seal in cement.
• The deck needs better structural support (cross-bracing).
• There is another leak under the crawlspace. The foundation needs waterproofing.
• There are some A/C lines that need better insulation
• There are some electrical wiring problems in the breaker box
• The wood siding is part of a class action lawsuit whose settlement funds are expired

The good news: No fake stucco!
The bad news: Need a waterproofer! (And maybe new siding.)

We had a bit of a scare this week when a friend of mine pointed out that the photos looked like EIFS, or “fake stucco”, on the front of the house. We definitely don’t want that, and I did all I could to prove it wasn’t EIFS. But he wasn’t convinced until I had the home inspector over. Finally, I can say — it’s not fake stucco! It’s hard-coat (the good stuff). Whew!

I got a call back from the agent. He talked to the trustee. And she says she thinks we can get the court to accept $209,000 for the house. That’s about 30%-40% below market value. Woo hoo!

I’m waiting for the contract to arrive now so I can fax it / fedex it back (I’m on vacation).

I’m buying a house.

I found the house while driving around potential neighborhoods and checking prices. This neighborhood seemed reasonably priced. This house proved hard to research. (more…)