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New to the forum and have a couple of questions. I returned to Albuquerque a few months ago, after a six year absence.
Found a decent (for now) place to live, and fell for the Qwest scam bundling. Dealing with the people at Qwest, trying to rectify all the mistakes, being billed for items that were not disclosed to me, has all been a nightmare.
Needless to say, I am going to find another provider for phone, TV and Internet services.
Any suggestions?
My other question is about my swamp cooler. It's older but except for a slight "clanking" noise, it works fine. A friend came over yesterday and showed me how to oil it, which we did. It was much quieter, at first, but then became louder than it was before it was oiled.
Welcome to the New Mexico Forum! And welcome back to New Mexico!
I'm sure you have come to the right place to get your questions answered and to get the information you need...
I have Qwest bundling. Like it so far. Only problem we had was getting our second computer hooked up on a wireless router ... and the Qwest rep spent hours on the phone with my husband till they got it working properly. I guess different people have different experiences.
Our other option here in Santa Fe was Comcast, which I have also heard good things about, but the previous owner of our house told us he had trouble with it, so we went with Qwest. Glad we did ... so far.
First of all, that thread title is lame. Too bad you can't change it.
"Hi folks"? What about "QWest and Swamp Cooler questions"?
I guess I'm just too 80's. -- Only 6/3 doesn't hold *THAT* against me.
> Qwest scam bundling. ... Any suggestions?
Yes. Be cheap. Never bundle. Buy the minimum package that will scrape you by. If you later find you absolutely *have* to have another service, add them piecemeal. Never bundle.
They ***SELL SELL SELL*** you those packages/bundles because they make huge ***$$$ $$$ $$$*** by doing selling these. Never bundle.
> ... my swamp cooler. ... "clanking" noise, ... Would anyone know why?
Generally, it's because something is bent. The air movement mechanisms in the cooler all have circular travel and if something is not perfectly flat as it rotates, it will hit something on every revolution once the 'bend' is bad enough. It might be that the something was out-of-balance and over time caused a 'bend.'
On the one hand, it's probably going to keep working all summer. If it's really old, have it evaluated for a replacement in fhe fall when the labor and parts are cheapest.
On the other hand, if it is really loud and obnoxious, it might get sabotaged by a neighbor to make you really get in there and have it fixed.
I had to do this at an apartment where I lived for a semester in Houston. Every time the a/c compressor kicked on, it howled like someone was operating a chain saw outside my bedroom window.
After complaining for a week to the management about it, I went out at a 2 am 'wake-up-call' and snipped a bunch of wires leading to the unit. No more noise. When they fixed it, the also fixed the noise. Although I was probably an obvious culprit, no one ever said anything.
It was also the last time I ever lived on a floor underneath another floor.
> ... mortimer is our resident swamp cooler expert extraordinaire.
No I'm not. I'm an expert on theory and operation.
When it comes to turning wrenches, I call in for help, generally. I can run water lines. I can replace pumps, floats, gaskets, clean stuff out, oil the shafts. Little stuff like that.
This year, one of our control units stopped working. When we turn it on, you can hear a relay inside "operate,"
but motor - no - turny.
Maybe it's the fan motor, maybe it's not. Maybe it's the relay, maybe it's not. I'll run errands back and forth turning things on and off in the house (for the repair dude), but I'm not diving into the guts. I paid someone $75/hour to do that and tell me the repair was open-ended.
Maybe it will be $300. Maybe it will be $500. Maybe it will be more.
Since we have two huge Master Cools and live at 6,080 ft, we decided to *not* repair it this year and have both switches converted to ON/OFF switches this fall rather than use the existing (proprietary and not servicable $200) electronic boxes.
Now, if this was GregW's problem, he'd be salivating right now at the prospect of getting his hands dirty.
Elizabeth60, your experience with Qwest exactly echoed mine when I moved, and it took six months of exasperating experiences to get it all resolved. DirectTV was the biggest part of the nightmare. I unbundled, and have gotten Dish Network for tv and love it. Easy installation too.
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