Countdown to HyperiCon

First up, as a result of all the fun and great times we had with AT&T, we are now with Insight Cable. As consequence there was no need to continue with Earthlink, so my old email address is no more. My new one is steve@stevengilberts.com. At some point I promise to recount our exploits with the communications giant. What a convoluted mess. Of course we still haven't received our final bill from them, so it ain't over till the corpulent female intones. And we continue to receive junk mail for the ubiquitous Gary Stevens.

Mo*Con was a blast! Thanks again to Maurice and Sally Broaddus for being the ultimate host and hostess. We had the honor of meeting Tom Piccirilli and his wife Michelle Scalise, Wrath James White. We also reunited with our Necon pals Linda Addison and Gerard Houarner. The panels were wonderful and on Saturday night we were treated to a reading of the epic murder mystery CLOWN courtesy of Doug Warrick.

HyperiCon is a week away. Aside from running off a few additional prints I'm all packed and ready. That does not happen often. We look forward to seeing all our convention and Nashville buddies. If you are attending please stop by on Saturday to watch the art demo by me and the other artists.

My friend Mike Morris snapped some shots of me in my native habitat last week. Despite the subject they turned out great. Here are a few of the pics.




All photos © 2009 Michael R Morris

And this is my cover illustration for Gene O'Neill's upcoming anthology from Apex Publications, Taste of Tenderloin.

Putting the joy of AT&T aside for a moment, I thought I'd go to my happy place and remind folks about my two upcoming 15 minutes of fame (a whole half hour if you can believe it).

Next week of course I'm Artist Guest of Honor at Mo*Con.

And June 5th thru the 7th will find me as Artist Guest of Honor at Hypericon 5 (DeepSouthCon 47.

Adding color to this blog entry, here are two of my recent cover projects.

I was given the distinction of providing the cover for the summer issue of Space & Time Magazine. There were some very nice comments about my painting in the Editor's Blog.


And this is my illustration for the cover of Devil's Marionette by Maurice Broaddus and published by Shroud Publishing. It is a remarkably fascinating and disturbing tale.


I'll be back to regaling you about my telecommunication woes within short order. The recent turn of events have been nothing less than a journey into the bizarre.

A Terrible Thing

A Terrible Thing. ATT. Yes, this is a followup to my previous blog about the joy of being a customer of AT&T.

As I've said before, I'm sorry to use my blog as a complaint forum. I prefer to keep my posts on a positive note. But friends have pointed out that it is a good thing to let people know what is going on. Kind of a "duty to warn" situation I suppose.

If you know a copperhead snake is in the backyard you have the responsibility to warn those who might be walking there.

Actually I shouldn't malign copperhead snakes.

If you have just seen a drunk person urinate in a pool, you have a responsibility to warn the kids that are getting ready to jump in. Right? Though maybe it would depend on if they were the same kids that toilet papered your yard, but I digress.

Anyway, last Friday I received an envelope in the mail for a "Gary Stevens". The name seemed familiar. A neighbor perhaps? The address was ours though. Then I remembered something I'd heard over the phone about a month ago, "the account was opened by Gary Stevens and he must have punched in your phone number by mistake". Residential Email LLC had once again reared their ugly head.

The envelope turned out to be stuffed with items that an email spam filter would block in a second. Viagra advertisements, pyramid schemes, pleas from millionaires from Ethiopia. Unfortunately having no postal spam filter, I suppose I'll have this kind of crap to look forward too from now on. Thanks AT&T.

But this was just the beginning of a delightful weekend. On Saturday our AT&T statement arrived, and as usual it did not disappoint.

Now, the problem with the Residential Email LLC charges had actually been resolved during April after I'd threatened to report AT&T to the proper authorities. Supposedly, we even now had the elusive "Third Party Billing Block" whose existence was spoken of in hushed whispers.

Indeed the the credit for the $14.95 charge shined like a beacon of hope from the statement.

But the Past Due Charge of 35.02 shined even brighter.

Yes, in addition to the current bill we were also being charged the amount for the last statement (sans the 14.95 credit) plus a $7.10 late charge. AT&T was saying that we had not sent them our last payment.

What were we thinking not sending in our payment? How could we do something so vile and despicable to a company whose only thought was to provide us with safe and efficient communications services?

Or perhaps we did send the payment in on time, and there were witnesses?

Be sure to drink your Ovaltine and tune in for the next installment of my adventures with AT&T, The Strange Case of the Purloined Payment.

Dilation Exercise for May 2009

My apologies for skipping the April Dilation Exercise. What a month April was.

So this is the Dilation Exercise for May 2009.

I hope this will be a fun work out for your imagination and I encourage you to participate with comments. If you come back to the blog and can't find this post, look for it in the "Dilation Contest" category.

Please look at the picture and imagine for it a one sentence caption of dialog and a one sentence caption of narrative. Write these down and transmit the sentences to me via the comments option at the bottom of this post. Try to produce captions that compliment the image without overly defining what's going on in the picture. It helps if the captions suggest something beyond the picture plane. For examples of these captioned images and more information about this project and contest, go to Imagination Work Out and Contest.



The title of this painting is not important here. More important is what happens in your imagination when you view the image. What's going on here?

As Alan does with his contest, I will choose my favorite of the captions offered for the March '09 Dilation Exercise and declare a winner on or about the 31st of March, 2009. The winner will have the image with his or her caption and name entered into the “Dilation Exercise” album in the coppermine gallery on my web site. The winner will win an 8" x 10" matted print of the contest image. It will be necessary to have the winner's shipping address in order to deliver the print. Sorry, but the print prize will only be delivered to an address within the continental United States.

For examples of captioned images and more information about this project and contest, go to Imagination Work Out and Contest.

Mo*Con IV

March and April have been quite the whirlwind for me. In addition to my duties with my March art show I had doctor appointments (check-ups with plenty of probing and stabbing), AT&T misadventures, and assorted odd weather events. With all the confusion I failed to mention that I'll be the Artist Guest of Honor for Mo*Con IV this coming May! Hurrah!

And what is Mo*Con? I refer you to this description from the blog of horror writer extraordinaire Maurice Broaddus:

"Brought to you by the Indiana Horror Writers, Mo*Con is a friendly convention focused on conversations revolving around horror literature and spirituality (two great tastes that taste great together!). If you enjoy writing, horror, fantasy, poetry, and food, you’ll find plenty to enjoy at this convention."

For more info please go to Maurice's blog, The Pontifications of the Sinister Minister.

And you can find out more about the Indiana Horror Writers Association at IndianaHorror.org

Enhanced Services Billing, Residential Email LLC and AT&T

I was originally going to title this blog "you're sh**ting in my mouth and telling me it's a sundae" (thank you Mr. Show), but I wanted to ensure that Enhanced Services Billing Inc, Residential Email LLC and AT&T show up on Google searches. Before I go any further, I want to encourage all who read this to contact your phone service provider and ask them what the procedure is for "third party billing charges" blocking.

So what is this all about? Last week we received our monthly statement from AT&T. I always dread reading our statement because often there are rate increases of some sort. This bill did not disappoint in that department. We had a whopping increase of $14.95!

It was not actually a rate increase though. It was a charge from a company called Enhanced Services Billing for an email account from a company called Residential Email LLC. I called AT&T to question this charge and was told by the AT&T customer rep "Fernando" that it was not their problem. I would have to call the "third party" billing to dispute the charge.

So I called Enhanced Services Billing Inc. and was routed to Residential Email LLC where I talked to "Jennie". "Jennie" told me that perhaps someone in my household had set up the account. When I explained that this was not the case she changed her story and said that a person by the name of "Gary Stevens" had set up the account and mistakenly entered our phone number. She then asked me for my home address and email address so she could send an account cancellation notice.

I called AT&T back and got "Fernando" again (lucky me). I asked him how I should handle the third party charge since it had been a mistake on Residential Email LLC's part. Would AT&T send a new bill minus the amount or should we just deduct it?

I was informed that I would still be responsible for the charge. What?!!!

Yes that is what I was told by "Fernando" and at least three other AT&T representatives over the course of two days. The charges are the responsibility of the customer to dispute. And this gets even better.

Turns out Enhanced Services Billing Inc. (hereafter known as ESBI) has a long record of fraudulent billing, and Residential Email LLC is just one of the many "companies" that use ESBI to submit fraudulent charges. Topping this off is that AT&T knows all about this. Two of their agents that I spoke with confirmed that they regularly handled complaints about ESBI and Residential Email LLC, but they along with the other agents I spoke with recited the mantra "the FCC forces us to do this".

So can we the customers that pay these companies on a monthly basis block fraudulent businesses from charging us for bogus accounts and services? Depends on who you talk with.

"Yes Mr. Gilberts, you can block third party charges from appearing on your bill. But it can only be done by filling out forms which we will mail to you. Would you like us to mail you these forms?" This is what I heard from three different reps on April 2. "Yes", I replied, " by all means send me the forms".

The following day I called to see if there was a way to find out if there are any new charges on our account for the April billing cycle. The first rep, Eric, said he would put me on hold while he checked on this, then hung up me. The second rep (you would not believe me if I told you his name) I talked with seemed to be hosting a raucous party. As the cacophony raged in the background of his apartment, the AT&T rep told me " I'm not allowed to access your billing records until the 25th of April, but I can send you forms to fill out to block third party charges". Pretty interesting response since I did not mention the situation of the previous day. Maybe one of his guests were privy to my situation. Anyway, I told the fellow a request had already been made for the forms, but asked if he could verify that they had been mailed. He told me " No they have not, but they will be mailed out first thing on Monday, April 6 and I should receive them by Thursday.

I think you can see where this is going.

Here we are on Thursday. No forms in the mail. I call AT&T to inquire about the tardy documents. After getting the usual runaround I finally talk with "Walkell". She puts me on hold for about five minutes, than informs me that they might have been mailed yesterday ( April 8th). She confirms that I did request the forms on April 2nd. And no, I will not have "Third Party Blocking" until those forms are signed, mailed back, and processed, end of story!

Now unbeknownst to "Walkell" I had alerted other AT&T (and related companies) customers to my situation. Some of these folks called AT&T to inquire about this problem and were told that by simply making the call they now had third party blocking. Now why was I not given that same assurance? Perhaps, and I know this is pure speculation, but perhaps this most noblest of phone companies did not give me the same deal because they had already fed my account to the jackals. And perhaps, and again this is speculation, they have already allowed new charges to be added to our account. Blocking applied last week would have prevented charges from being added on April 6th, a month after the first charges were applied. That would have proven to be a sticky situation for them come May when our next statement arrives with an even larger charge.

Well, sorry for this long posting. I admit it is a bit of a rant to purge my anger, a catharses for a man who tends to be quiet and unassuming. But friends I have discussed this problem with have thanked me for alerting them and advised that I pass the word along so that others can protect themselves. It is not just a simple $14.95 problem. This can damage a person's credit rating. Bad enough in a stable economy, but under the current conditions this can mean a financial disaster.

The criminals that applied the charges were just doing what you expect criminals to do. They steal. But a company that should know better not only allowed this to happen, but also made the victim of the crime contact the perpetrators himself thereby opening himself for further damage. My email is now known to them, and there are possibly recordings of me saying "yes" to various prompts and questions (a favorite tele-marketer trick). I didn't know these companies were crooked until after I had looked them up on a Google search. Because surely AT&T would not put a loyal customer in danger, now would they?

It has been a long week of worry, and I don't imagine things are going to get any better given AT&T's behavior. Have any of you ever seen Terry Gilliam's movie Brazil?

And please go over your monthly phone statements with a fine toothed comb.

"The Audactiy of Bubblegum Mechanics"

The closing for my show "The Audacity of Bubblegum Mechanics" and Joshua Vance's show "Louisville Portraits" will be this coming Friday. If you missed the opening, I hope you can make it to the closing of my 15 minutes of fame in Louisville. :-) And of course you are more than welcome to drop by the gallery during regular business hours. For more info please go to The Tim Faulkner Gallery.

Tim put together a video featuring mine and Joshua's work. If I imbedded the code correctly you should be able to view it below.