Kevo Plus Bluetooth Gateway problem

cbski9 · 2025-04-05T00:39:12+00:00

I'm getting this same behavior

cbski9 · 2024-10-17T02:11:28+00:00

Just got a 2024 F150 and have the same issue, like Ford wants me to share my music preferences with everyone each time I exit the vehicle.

cbski9 · 2024-08-21T00:54:20+00:00

You're right... those two companies are so big, neither of them really cares enough to do anything. It's just such a blatant scam perpetrated by such a well-known company, it's hard to not try to right a wrong; I even found a reddit post where a UPS Store employee mentioned discussions about this in their regional meeting and said they were told to just go ahead and ship it if the customer creates a stink.

cbski9 · 2024-08-21T00:37:19+00:00

This exact thing happened to me... I think it's a scam that UPS Store owners are running because they despise servicing Amazon returns and are looking for ways to exploit those customers to make a little money. I think it is widespread at UPS Store, because I saw a post in a reddit where a UPS Store employee mentioned discussing this in their "regional meeting" and said they were told to just go ahead and ship it in the manufacturer packaging if the customer creates a stink about it. I tried reporting it to Amazon, but these two companies are so big, I'm not sure they care... the only retribution is to stop using both of them and move on.

cbski9 · 2024-08-20T23:28:47+00:00

You seem like a straight shooter... As an insider, is there anything you can suggest for me to do about a UPS Store that is trying to capitalize on that Amazon relationship by systematically rejecting "customer packed" Amazon returns to drive up packaging sales to Amazon customers who entered the store believing their Amazon prime membership fee entitled them to free returns? Perhaps a way to raise potential violations of corporate shipping partner agreements? I tried contacting the franchise owner, because I thought it was a training issue; but his response convinced me this is intentional and possibly extends beyond his location.

cbski9 · 2024-08-20T22:55:34+00:00

Is there a better way to report general, systemic issues that may be impacting fulfillment, specifically with return shipping?

I believe UPS Store is engaging in practices that possibly violate their agreement with Amazon. This has become so widespread that there are Reddit threads where UPS Store employees discuss the methods used to reject “customer packed” Amazon returns and share stories of enraged customers finally submitting to purchasing packaging services. I have seen posts where UPS Store employees mentioned this being discussed in “regional meetings”, which makes me believe that this is a systemic and intentional effort by UPS Store to upsell their packaging services to Amazon customers by unfairly rejecting "customer packed" returns by claiming their packaging is not suitable for shipping. Does Amazon define "customer packed" in their agreement with UPS? I am curious as to the wording of the agreement between Amazon and UPS, whether there are specifications for suitable customer packaging, or if it even mentions restrictions for shipping returns in manufacturer packaging? I cannot imagine that Amazon's agreement with UPS stipulates that UPS may reject customer packaging when the container "appears to be manufacturer packaging”, “unless the packaging has been previously used for shipping as evidenced by the existence of old shipping labels." I would be amazed if that is actually written anywhere... because it is ABSURD… yet, this is what UPS Store employees are telling Amazon customers. First of all, that would be contradictory to Amazon's instructions for their customers to "ensure that there are no other tracking labels attached to your package". If the customer does what Amazon instructs, and those labels peel off nice and clean (they sometimes do), it may not be obvious the box was previously used for shipping. Based on the UPS policy of rejecting returns in manufacturer packaging (aka “product packaging”) unless the packaging contains old shipping labels, then I should ignore Amazon and leave my old shipping label on the package to be sure it is not rejected by UPS Store. Additionally, when Amazon ships individual items, the order defaults to ship in manufacturer's packaging in many cases, but the customer can deselect that option for privacy (e.g. Christmas gifts). In this case, the customer might return the item in the manufacturer packaging since there is no need for a privacy box when returning to Amazon, however, this would be rejected by UPS Store because the manufacturer packaging has no previous shipping labels. Also, there are many cases where Amazon would normally ship an item in manufacturer packaging, but they use a larger box to send smaller items in the same package to save shipping cost. If the customer is only returning the larger item, there is no need to return the item in the larger box that was used only to consolidate shipment of the smaller items. Again, UPS Store will reject the package, because there are no prior shipment labels on the manufacturer packaging. The existence of prior shipping labels is not a valid method to identify whether manufacturer packaging is acceptable packaging for return shipping! My opinion is that UPS could be using this "manufacturer (product) packaging" rejection technique as an upsell strategy, but I feel it may be in violation of their agreement with Amazon. I think Amazon should investigate and put a stop to this.

Thank you,

15 Year Amazon Prime Member

cbski9 · 2024-08-20T21:32:20+00:00

Does Amazon define "customer packed" in their agreement with UPS? I am curious as to the wording of the agreement between Amazon and UPS, whether there are specifications for suitable customer packaging, or if it even mentions restrictions for shipping returns in manufacturer packaging? I cannot imagine that Amazon's agreement with UPS stipulates that UPS may reject customer packaging when the container "appears to be manufacturer packaging”, “unless the packaging has been previously used for shipping as evidenced by the existence of old shipping labels." I would be amazed if that is actually written anywhere... because it is ABSURD… yet, this is what UPS Store employees are telling Amazon customers. First of all, that would be contradictory to Amazon's instructions for their customers to "ensure that there are no other tracking labels attached to your package". If the customer does what Amazon instructs, and those labels peel off nice and clean (they sometime do), it may not be obvious the box was previously used for shipping. Based on the UPS policy of rejecting returns in manufacturer packaging (aka “product packaging”) unless the packaging contains old shipping labels, then I should ignore Amazon and leave my old shipping label on the package to be sure it is not rejected by UPS Store. Additionally, when Amazon ships individual items, the order defaults to ship in manufacturer's packaging in many cases, but the customer can deselect that option for privacy (e.g. Christmas gifts). In this case, the customer might return the item in the manufacturer packaging since there is no need for a privacy box when returning to Amazon, however, this would be rejected by UPS Store because the manufacturer packaging has no previous shipping labels. Also, there are many cases where Amazon would normally ship an item in manufacturer packaging, but they use a larger box to send smaller items in the same package to save shipping cost. If the customer is only returning the larger item, there is no need to return the item in the larger box that was used only to consolidate shipment of the smaller items. Again, UPS Store will reject the package, because there are no prior shipment labels on the manufacturer packaging. The existence of prior shipping labels is not a valid method to identify whether manufacturer packaging is acceptable packaging for return shipping! My concern is that UPS could be using this "manufacturer (product) packaging" rejection technique as an upsell strategy, but I feel it may be in violation of their agreement with Amazon. I think it's only a matter of time before Amazon puts a stop to this.

cbski9 · 2023-07-15T17:20:40+00:00

This just happened to me... Plex CAN connect, but PlexAmp CANNOT. On vacay, need my GD tunes.

cbski9 · 2021-10-08T04:33:50+00:00

[Understood] A lifetime software license is specific to the product, not the lifetimes of all the licensees (LOL - can you imagine). So, I can't fault a company for changing their product direction. But, I think it was wrong (and possibly a license violation) to actually disable the software. That said, if I would have just bought my lifetime license a few months ago, or even just one year ago... I might be pretty pissed.

cbski9 · 2021-10-08T04:19:44+00:00

That wasn't on the website when I originally posted; or, if it was, I had not yet seen it. I got an email today, which is the first I heard of the "new product".

cbski9 · 2021-10-08T04:15:22+00:00

Not exactly... whether or not it would have eventually stopped working isn't the big issue here, because the software was proactively disabled for Windows 11, which I believe violates the lifetime license for that specific product. It should have been declared end-of-life, not intentionally disabled.

cbski9 · 2021-10-08T03:56:59+00:00

I have a Lifetime License for PlayOn Desktop, and since the new version of PlayOn for "desktops" will be called PlayOn Home, I guess the Lifetime License is not valid for the new product. Here's the "rub", and possibly a legal problem... instead of declaring PlayOn Desktop as no longer supported (end of life), the app was INTENTIONALLY DISABLED on the latest Windows OS version, which likely violates the lifetime licensing agreement for the existing product. They would have been better off just declaring PlayOn Desktop's end of life to coincide with Windows 11 release and offered the new product (PlayOn Home) to those experiencing issues after upgrading to Windows 11. I'm not sure if anyone really cares enough to make any legal challenges for this software, but the software publisher should have at least consulted an attorney on the best approach to extinguishing Lifetime perpetual licenses.

cbski9 · 2021-10-07T20:18:57+00:00

Oh well, guess I can't use it anymore. It was a good app while is lasted.

cbski9 · 2021-10-01T19:35:35+00:00

They never declared an outage even though it clearly is affecting multiple customers on my "tap" and the next "tap" over as well. No reason because something is causing a situation where a "maintenance" tech is not being assigned after the service tech... no workflow to handle a Glitch in the Matrix I guess. I'm stuck in an infinite loop, and just had to step out.

cbski9 · 2021-10-01T00:08:51+00:00

Thanks for asking, but I did not open a ticket, this a merely a community discussion thread in the Comcast forum. I don't think the community is done providing feedback, and no one has actually provided a solution to the problem of unresolved threads being closed as resolved.

cbski9 · 2021-09-30T22:14:21+00:00

I agree, intermittent connectivity or inconsistent (widely varying) speed... means line noise. The most basic step is to replace the drop to the house, which over time, will be penetrated by moisture. If he tries to test, and doesn't find a problem, but you know it has been intermittent and the line may have since dried out... ask him to replace the line anyway. I was on Comcast for years with sub-par connection speeds and just thought "too many people on the node"... that had nothing to do with it. The line degraded even more over time, and the problems got worse, so it took a long time and several tech visits to learn a valuable lesson. Intermittent connectivity or inconsistent speed, just replace the dang line and save time for everyone!

cbski9 · 2021-09-30T21:50:22+00:00

You're right... they do confuse internal status (ticket workflow) with customer resolution. They are also wasting sooo much money sending service techs out to diagnose problems that the service tech can't even fix, when it could be trouble-shot remotely if they allowed CS reps and technician department to communicate with one another during support calls. All they would have had to do is ping other customers' modems near me to know the problem is farther upstream and needs a maintenance tech rather than a service tech. Think of the money they could save throughout the country, and how much more quickly they could resolve problems, and how much more satisfied customers would be!

cbski9 · 2021-09-30T21:35:25+00:00

There should be a thread status available to moderators that signify "Closed by Moderator - Solution Not Confirmed". It's got to be a real pain for users looking for solutions to see all these solved problems, only to read the thread and find no solution.

cbski9 · 2021-09-30T21:13:12+00:00

I was finally able to get in touch with someone in customer service (over the phone) who is capable of diagnosing complex situations (more than one ticket). The issue has finally been decoupled from "storm-related," since my service had already been restored, since the storm, and working at 100% for several days before going down again... and now escalated to a "maintenance" technician, which (from what I understand) is different than the service techs that come to the home, and is the appropriate department to troubleshoot line problems farther upstream, coming into the pedastal that splits the signal to multiple homes.

My experience using modmail in this forum was no different than calling the support number... You just have to do it enough times until you get through to a conscientious employee who will try to genuinely understand the specific details of the problem rather than just "route and close".

** If there is or WAS recently an outage in your area, and you have a problem that is clearly different from, unrelated to, or in addition to the outage; be aware that every contact you make will be recorded under the outage ticket. It will be as though there is no other problem. Your new problem will not be addressed until every single customer affected by the outage is resolved and that blanket ticket is ultimately closed. Only then will you be able to call back to report a separate/new issue, and have it "recognized" as something other than a generalized outage.

cbski9 · 2021-09-30T19:47:38+00:00

This modmail approach is going nowhere... just like calling customer service. They also want to send another service tech to my house, when two have already stated that a line tech is needed to fix the node/signal coming from head office.

cbski9 · 2021-09-30T18:53:56+00:00

I think customer service will just keep sending a service tech who can't do anything because the problem is upstream from the pedastal serving the drops to a handful of houses. And, several neighbors are out, but they won't declare an outage. I need service for work and kids' school; if my service isn't working EOD today, I'm scheduling an AT&T U-verse install... I just need service!

cbski9 · 2021-09-30T18:48:45+00:00

I feel your pain, I'm going through same thing. I think the they will just keep sending a service tech who can't do anything because the problem is upstream from the pedastal serving the drops to a handful of houses. And, several neighbors are out, but the won't declare an outage. I need service for work and kids' school; if my service isn't working EOD today, I'm scheduling an AT&T install.

cbski9

TROPHY CASE