Support on Hampton Bay ceiling fans blows!

Our Hampton Bay model 52AHR ceiling fan recently stopped responding to requests to turn the light on and off via the RF remote. The fan controls still work just fine using the remote. We can control the light using the pull chain.

After some research in the Internet, I've found that this is a common problem for this fan. So I asked Hampton Bay (actually, King of Fans - 800-749-3267) whether a replacement part is available for the proprietary UC7051R remote receiver module in the fan, which I believe has gone bad.

Their response was that they can't help me unless I have the UPC for the fan. Fair enough, so I climbed up to look for the UPC. There is no UPC. I have a model number, serial number, and other miscellaneous information -- but no UPC. What company can't cross-reference a model number or serial number with a UPC? And what good is a limited lifetime guarantee if they make you jump through hoops to get help? I smell a class action law suit here.

"Maybe the installer removed the UPC sticker from the fan?" asked the King of Fans representative. That makes no sense. Why would they do such a thing and leave the serial number / model number sticker on the fan? My question: what would happen if there were a safety recall on these fans? Would they do it by UPC or by model / serial number?

Needless to say, we won't be buying another Hampton Bay fan. Perhaps we'll get a Hunter this time.

Two Reasons Why Comcast Sucks

Right now Comcast high speed internet is my only reaonsable choice for broadband connectivity. DSL is not available in my neighborhood, and FIOS is a distant dream. As a result, I have subscribed to Comcast's since the day I moved in back in 2003. I will say that the 6 Mbps service is relatively zippy and stable. They have been slowly boosting the speed of their high speed service while keeping the price about the same. That's where my satisfaction ends...

Complaint #1: Cable (video) prices keep increasing. I still have the same standard (non-digital) cable plan as I had when I moved in three years ago. The cable rate has crept up four times in few-dollar increments from $42.30 to $52.20. How can a company justify a 23% increase over 3 years when the service they are delivering isn't patently different? Oh... right... they can justify it because they are Comcast and they don't really care about customers because they are a monopoly. Comcast is toast once Verizon's FIOS comes into this area. Comcast's new rate of $52.20 is a tough pill to swallow for what they are offering, especially in light of how little TV Kate and I actually watch.

Complaint #2: Comcast's anti-spam policy includes blocking e-mail from an entire domain if some of the e-mail coming from that domain looks spammy. They have blocked NCEMSF's incoming mail three times since late November. Each time I was able to get them to unblock it by filling out a Web-based request form. Who is Comcast to decide e-mail from what domains should be delivered? And why don't they notify the domains that they have decided to block? E-mail administrators who actually care will take the time to submit an un-block request. Fraudulent domains won't care and won't submit the request.

A day-long round trip to nowhere

Yes, it's true -- I'm currently on vacation. I should be on the ski slopes in Vermont. Instead I am back in the Philadelphia suburbs after a day spent in airports.

It all started on Monday, December 18 when Kate dropped me off at the Fort Washington train station. I connected to the R1 train to the airport with plenty of time before my flight. I breezed through airport security, and was sitting at my gate with more than 90 minutes before my scheduled departure. Who would have thought that there would be so few people traveling on a Monday morning?

My cell phone rang. The caller ID had familiar toll-free number, though I couldn't place it immediately. It was Delta Airlines' automated system telling me that my connecting flight had been pushed back about 2 hours. No big deal since I'd have more time at JFK airport to relax and read or watch a movie on my laptop.

My outbound flight from Philadelphia to JFK was delayed by about an hour. The obvious reason for the delay was the lack of a plane. Once the plane did arrive at the gate and most of the passengers deplaned, we were told that there was one additional passenger that needed special assistance coming off the plane. Neither the Philadelphia gate agents nor the wheelchair folks had a good plan for how to get a passenger down the steps of a tiny De Havilland Dash 8 to the terminal building. I can't imagine that this was the first limited passenger with mobility to fly this route. Of course, the operator of this flight, Freedom Airlines, doesn't have a stellar record recently. This was the same airline that kicked a woman off a flight in November for breastfeeding on board. Nonetheless, after 20 minutes of contemplation on the tarmac, a white station wagon appeared and the passenger, who had managed to hobble down the aircraft steps, was driven to the terminal. All the while I was thinking to myself that a stair-chair and some baggage handlers could have easily taken care of the situation in a much more expedient manner.



With the plane now empty, we were able to board en masse. The flight to from Philadelphia to JFK was uneventful. The flight attendant, Sarah, was relieved to see that all of her passengers could actually walk onto the plane. While I normally enjoy gazing out the window on flights, I couldn't see much out of the window that appeared to have oil smeared on it, so instead I slept. We arrived at gate 25 at JFK and I went in search of a video monitor to see the latest update on my Burlington flight. While we were in the air from Philadelphia, the departure time had slipped from 2:01pm to 3:46pm. Still not horrible since I would get into Burlington at around dinner, with plenty of time to meet up with my friend, Josh, who was had driven to Burlington from Philadelphia the day before for an interview for a surgical residency program at UVM.

The flight from JFK to Burlington was dependent upon an aircraft coming from Baltimore. As the afternoon wore on, the flight's departure time was pushed back several times. This was certainly not a good sign. Even worse, the flight to Burlington after mine had been cancelled.

Finding an electrical outlet in the airport terminal to plug in my laptop was tough, but I finally found one near the kiddie playground in the terminal. Seeing the kids play was amusing, but the shrieking and screaming eventually drove me from the area.

At around 3:45 I came to the realization that the vacation gods were not smiling upon me and it might be a good idea to bag the entire thing and return to Philadelphia. After pleading my case to Delta, they arranged for me to get on a 4:55 flight back to Philadelphia.

The flight back to Philadelphia was uneventful. After spending the afternoon near JFK's gate 25 I was happy to be on a plane going anywhere. As it turned out, I was lucky to have made the plans to return to Philadelphia. My flight to Burlington was eventually cancelled. I'm not sure how the airline accommodated the folks from two Burlington flights, but I'm sure there were some unhappy people.

On the drive home from the Philadelphia airport, I came to two realizations:
1) In the time I wasted in flights and airports on Monday, I could have driven to Burlington
2) It took me 8 hours to travel a total of less than 200 miles -- something that could have been done in less than half the time in a car.

This is December?

The weather today was too nice to stay inside. Despite what the calendar said, it felt more like October or November as we visited the garden railway at the Morris Arboretum. There was lots of activity on the railroad, as the dozen trains traversed the various tracks. I enjoyed the Pennsylvania Railroad steam locomotive 838, which (after some Web research) appeared to be a K2 class 4-6-2, but I couldn't tell for sure. As we were watching, an arboretum worker refilled the steam generator and off it puffed across the trestle. Even though the garden railway is modeled in G-gauge and much larger than anything I could imagine, seeing such a cool layout has certainly rekindled my desire to set up my HO model trains. But it's currently quite low on the priority list. Perhaps in our next house...