shentel

Email outage affects Shenandoah County businesses  

shentel may be the worst telecommunications company in the USA. they're a perfect example of a business with a low bar--or no bar. their service is lousy. their mantra is "we are SO sorry..."

actions speak louder than words. Talk is cheap--it's easy to say that you're the best. Being the best requires commitment and hard work. Many "talk the talk"; but few "walk the walk."

rating? what good is a rating system where the minimum rating is one star? shentel isn't worthy of one star. on a "five star" system, the only rating that shentel deserves is:

food lyin'

 

one star is WAY too generous for a grocery store that sells rotten produce. this mango is just an example of the rotten produce that is sold routinely at food lion's store in strasburg va. 

cell phones

ok, I admit it--I think that cell phones are a nuisance--privacy invaders--unsolicited calls and messages from vendors, politicians, wrong numbers, etc. 

on the other hand, I freely admit that I need a cell phone to make--and receive from my wife when either she or I are "out and about"--emergency calls. I've had a tracfone for years for just this purpose. I have in excess of 1400 minutes on my tracfone--because I hardly ever use it. it's just for emergencies. 

then tracfone tells me that I need to buy a new phone--that the phone that tracfone provided is obsolete and that their service will terminate soon. a fine way to treat a paying customer for many years! 

so I get a Consumer Cellular phone and plan. during the activation process I request that my tracfone number be transferred to CC. it was supposed to happen at 4 PM. it didn't. CC then tells me that's 4 PM PT. then they tell me that it'll happen by 10 PM ET--6 hours later than what CC originally told me. it didn't happen AGAIN. if I'd known I would have told CC to forget it--to give me a new telephone number.

I don't believe that I'm the only person in the world who thinks that cell phones--and cell phone service providers--are a nuisance.

youtube/youtube tv movies

movies on youtube and youtube tv are mostly trash. I don't select any movies that are rated MA or R. Last night I selected a movie rated PG 14. It was supposed to be about a young marine and his wife. instead the movie wasn't about a young marine at all. it was Back Fork--trash. 

"chato's land"--more trash from youtube. rated PG 14. you've GOT to be kidding! this movie should be rated T for trash--unsuitable for EVERYONE.

 

goodwill

question: what is goodwill?

answer: goodwill is an asset. goodwill comes from the hard work of providing a quality product or service. goodwill is "money-in-the-bank" for owners of businesses that treat their customers and employees fairly and honestly. 

Goodwill When Buying or Selling a Business | Transworld | Transworld Business Advisors 

$$$$$ 

GE dishwasher

our less-than-four-years-old GE dishwasher stopped starting. we researched the problem online. we followed the "start" instructions to a T. no help. it would halt the start process and beep every time. it has power. nothing with the way that it was loaded with dishes that indicated a problem. it wouldn't even start when the dishwasher was empty.

we tried to locate a local repairman. no dice. (we live in a relatively small rural town.) we decided that it was probably a faulty circuit board.

we bought a new dishwasher at home depot. then we tried to find an electrician to install the outlet that home depot requires. easy said--not so easily done.

in running down the electrical outlet conundrum I had to remove the not-yet-four-years-old dishwasher from under the counter. it wobbled. I re-leveled and re-secured it. voila! problem solved.

new appliances with no or poorly written instructions. online "help" that's no help at all. I've had it with chinese appliances! 

Trend Micro Inc.

I was billed twice for subscription renewal. in the second billing TM placed an unauthorized purchase on my credit card--more than the renewal fee that I had authorized 5 days earlier--despite the fact that I removed auto-renewal from my account more than a year ago. I wasted 80 minutes on "chat" trying to get TM's mistake straightened out.

strasburg VA is stuck in the 1950s

the town posted the following on its FB page less than 24 hours before regularly scheduled trash pick up:

Town of Strasburg

15 hrs · 

Trash service for this week has been delayed until Saturday March 28th. ADS has requested that residents try to place items for pickup out at the curb Friday night if possible. Please help us spread the word! 
hotlink

• is this how towns communicate important information to their citizens?
• posted on the town's FB page less than 24 hours before regular pick up?
• does the town think that every resident of the town checks the town's pathetic FB page daily?
• c'mon people! it's 2020--NOT 1950! 
• can't you figure out a better way?
• robo call?
• email?
• cell phone message?
• something more 21st century?
• Paul Revere was more effective "spreading the word" in 1775 than the town of strasburg is in 2020. 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/ooocha/2591621630

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/

princess cruises

Princess Cruises | Jan Swartz Announces Pause of Ship Operations - YouTube 

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Caribbean_Princess_Operator_Logo_Tallinn_10_August_2015.JPG

attribution & license: Pjotr Mahhonin / CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)

customer ratings and reviews: businesses who put their fingers on the scale

why is the minimum customer rating 1 star? why aren't there 5 "thumbs down" too?
answer: because businesses pay for customer reviews.

there are other ways that businesses put their fingers on the scale:

• when owners rate their own business
• when the owners' relatives and friends rate their business
• when the owner's employees rate their employer
• when owners offer incentives to employees for good reviews

so,

• should the minimum score on a customer rating be 1 star?
• should owners or their relatives or employees be allowed to put their fingers on the scale?

answer: no--not if it's an honest rating.

https://www.picpedia.org/highway-signs/c/cheat.html

j and l green farm, edinburg, va

can an old dog learn? 
yes, but this was a painful lesson.

j and l green farm is a "mom and pop" operation in edinburg, va. https://www.jlgreenfarm.com/ they sell pasture-raised pork, chicken, turkey and beef. we've been customers for more than a year. their "store" is located on their farm. customers pay for their purchases. the electronic receipt comes later.

after we received our electronic receipt for a purchase that we made on 11/21/2019, I noticed an error.

we bought a single "meat snack pack" that contained 10 cut-up meat sticks that normally sell for $2.50/each. the invoice mistakenly says that we purchased 10 snack packs. the total for the 10 cut-up meat sticks in the snack pack was $77.50. WOW!!! when I informed the owner of the mistake, she stiffed us. 

when we made the purchase I asked the owner how much the meat stick pieces cost and she said "the same as the whole sticks". instead of charging us $25.00 for the snack pack, she charged us $77.50.

we're out $52.50. the worst part is that we were cheated by people that we trusted. 

oh well, live and learn.

strasburg va business closings

https://www.nvdaily.com/nvdaily/strasburg-works-to-lessen-impact-of-business-closings/article_d7b6bd52-477c-5206-a395-5db2ff3c029c.html

not to worry--state, county and town governments are on it.

yeah, right.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/petroleumjelliffe/400790985

Creative Commons — Attribution-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic — CC BY-ND 2.0

the good news is that strasburg got a tattoo parlor last year. 
https://www.nvdaily.com/nvdaily/strasburg-council-approves-tattoo-parlor/article_91393dd6-3eca-52a0-ac75-f8e9dd7062dc.html

looking for another internet service provider (ISP)

location: Strasburg, VA

current provider (or non-provider, as the case may be): shentel 

shentel cable tv company: expensive, lousy tv, charges customer to replace their defective equipment

the "3" button on the remote for our cable tv doesn't work. shentel is charging us $3 to replace it. 

it figures for arguably the worst cable tv company anywhere--expensive, lousy programs, etc. 

and now, charging a customer to replace their defective equipment. 

https://www.shentel.com/

WTH 

VOIPO: snail calls

you've heard of snail mail? now VOIPO, the internet phone service, has snail calls. it's called "failover". I'll let VOIPO tell you how it works:

"VOIPo
Dec 5, 2019, 10:44 AM (20 hours ago)
to me

Hello,

Okay just to clarify, the ata is the adapter, the equipment. Failover is a name of the feature, like call forwarding, call waiting. You can see that when you login to your online account, it is also under features tab.

For the failover feature you can either set it to voicemail or forward the call. When the adapter stops working, the failover activates. Example: you set your failover feature to call forward to your cell number. When your Voipo adapter stops working, it will forward the call to that number you place on the failover feature.

For the forwarding, it doesn't depend on wether your adapter is working or not. Once you enable call forward, anyone who calls your Voipo number will forward to the number you set under the call forwarding feature.

As of the moment, the call forwarding has been fixed as well just for an update.
Regards,

Clark A"


so, if VOIPO's device is down (it happens a lot), and you get an urgent phone call, not to worry. with "failover", you'll get the call eventually--a day or two or more later--when you go to make a call and realize that the VOIPO device is down AGAIN, or when someone tells you that they've been calling you for days and can't get through.

such a deal!!!

voipo: desperate ramblings

VOIPO Update 12/1:

I want to first and foremost sincerely apologize for all the issues some of you have been experiencing with your VOIPO service over the last few weeks since our migration.

We understand how important reliable phone service is for you and our service levels have not been up to par over the last few weeks for many of you.

Once things are fully settled, I will provide some more details about all of the things that have contributed to this, but right now our focus is on fixing any remaining issues and making sure service is fully stable for all users.

We had several situations happen at once which were each pretty close to "worse case scenarios" and they all compounded to create the "perfect" storm and cause a lot of issues. In our 13 years, we've never had anything that compares to even one of these situations...let alone all at once.

We are still working to resolve outstanding issues and we're making significant progress. I feel like we are very close to having things fully resolved, but we are still working through some isolated issues.

I truly understand the impact and am personally very sorry that there have been so many issues lately. I founded VOIPO over 13 years ago and have poured my life into it. I own 100% of the company so it's truly my life's work and not just a corporation looking for profit. I am fully committed to getting all outstanding service resolved and back to normal so we can regain your trust and respect.

I appreciate your patience as we work through these issues. I feel that we're getting closer to resolution and we've made very significiant progress today. Our internal team and outside consultants are all working on resolving any oustanding issues.

We will get service back to normal. We are working on it around the clock. Again, I'm very sorry for the issues and the impact it's had. Your business is very important to us and we appreciate each and every one of you.

Thank you again for your patience. We will have things back to normal soon.

Best Regards,

Timothy Dick
Founder/CEO
VOIPO.com

Previous VOIPO Update:

I wanted to give you an update on where we stand with the datacenter migration and the recent service issues you may have been experiencing.

First, I want to apologize again for any inconvenience that the service issues have caused you.

Second, I want to let you know that the migration is now complete physically and we are resolving any remaining issues that came up from it. The physical migration was much more difficult than planned and obviously did not go as planned at all.

The good news is that now that all equipment is physically where it needs to be, we can fully focus on any lingering issues. An example of what we're working through now is identifying anything we missed during the physical migration like some features still poin$

We are working around the clock to resolve all issues. We know you rely on your VOIPO service and we are very close to having things back to normal. I expect major issues remaining will be resolved quickly and any minor lingering issues will be resolved this week$

It has been a very rough few weeks for VOIPO and we haven't lived up to the level of service I want us to provide for sure, but we are working to correct this.

Many have asked about service credits. Once things are back to normal, this is something we are going to look at doing.

Our priority is on fully restoring stability right now. Once that's done, I'll give everyone more details about how everything unfolded, why the migration went bad and most importantly what we learned from it that we can change or implement so something like this $

Again, I am truly very sorry that we've not lived up to our usual level of service lately. I appreciate your business and patience. We will get things back to normal soon.

Best Regards,

Timothy Dick

Founder/CEO

VOIPO.com

Previous VOIPO Update:

I wanted to give you an update on where we stand with the datacenter migration and the recent service issues you may have been experiencing.

First, I want to apologize again for any inconvenience that the service issues have caused you.

Second, I want to let you know that the migration is now complete physically and we are resolving any remaining issues that came up from it. The physical migration was much more difficult than planned and obviously did not go as planned at all.

The good news is that now that all equipment is physically where it needs to be, we can fully focus on any lingering issues. An example of what we're working through now is identifying anything we missed during the physical migration like some features still pointing to an old IP address in the old facility.

We are working around the clock to resolve all issues. We know you rely on your VOIPO service and we are very close to having things back to normal. I expect major issues remaining will be resolved quickly and any minor lingering issues will be resolved this week.

It has been a very rough few weeks for VOIPO and we haven't lived up to the level of service I want us to provide for sure, but we are working to correct this.

Many have asked about service credits. Once things are back to normal, this is something we are going to look at doing.

Our priority is on fully restoring stability right now. Once that's done, I'll give everyone more details about how everything unfolded, why the migration went bad and most importantly what we learned from it that we can change or implement so something like this will never happen again.

Again, I am truly very sorry that we've not lived up to our usual level of service lately. I appreciate your business and patience. We will get things back to normal soon.

Best Regards,

Timothy Dick

Founder/CEO

VOIPO.com

Ticket ID #TOT-116-30907

Author: Jenny Koenig

Time: 2019-12-03 08:02

Message:

what is your "failover call forwarding feature"? please explain clearly how this works. if we have to activate a feature that "alarms you that your adapter is offline or internet is our (out) when you receive calls automatically to your cell phone", then please explain clearly how we do that. if you're suggesting that we forward all of our voipo phone calls to our smart phone, then what's the point of having a voipo phone?


Author: Gerardo R

Time: 2019-12-03 12:12

Message: Hello, Thanks for the email The only time that we would know that you cannot receive calls it is when the time you check on your end and reported the issue to us. But automatically inform you by our system unfortunately it is not yet being develop. Maybe in the future we can have that program so it would be easier to detect and notify our customer if in case there's a trouble. However our failover call forwarding feature also alarms you that your adapter is offline or internet is our when you receive the calls automatically to your cell phone. This feature activates when the network, or device is offline. Should you need further assistance. Please let us know. Regards, Gerardo R.


Author: Jenny Koenig

Time: 2019-12-02 09:07

Message: computers perform thousands of operations in a second. it seems odd that an internet telephone service company doesn't have the ability to perform hourly the same operation as us (call the internet phone from our cell phone) to check whether or not all of its customers can receive calls.

Author: Gerardo R

Time: 2019-12-01 08:59

Message: Hello, Thanks for the email. Glad to know that it works now. Our server migration is finished already so there should have no interruptions with your service. We can't tell if there would be issues with your service unless you check it on your end as we have no ways to do that since we also rely on your internet connection. However future updates and maintenance our customer will be notify Should you need further assistance. Please let us know/ Regards, Gerardo R.


Author: Jenny Koenig

Time: 2019-11-30 12:46

Message: that seems to have fixed the problem--for now. our questions are: 1) is this a permanent fix? 2) if no, then how often will we have to reboot? 3) daily? 4) or when someone tells us that they tried to call us and couldn't get through? the point is that we don't know when the phone isn't receiving or making calls until we try to make a call or someone tells us that they tried to call us and couldn't get through.

Author: Faith A

Time: 2019-11-29 09:44

Message: Hello, Before we enable port forwarding, I have cleared your adapter's registration. Kindly unplug the adapter for a minute and plug it back in. Wait for 3-5 minutes then test. Let us know if the issue persists. Best regards, Faith A


Author: Jenny Koenig

Time: 2019-11-29 02:56

Message: we tried the "Live Chat" button. "VOIPo Live Chat is currently unavailable due to high volume." rather than us trying to contact you, why don't you call us: 540 212-7622 (voipo) or 571 208-5427 (cell). our first question to you will be: will the steps that you will be making (if we approve) mess up anything else? internet? apps? settings? etc.?


Author: Gerardo R

Time: 2019-11-29 12:02

Message: Hello, Thanks for the email We are very sorry to hear that you're experiencing issues with your service. We have reviewed your account and it looks like possible it is NAT affecting your service. If you are familiar with port forwarding, we strongly recommend forwarding UDP ports 5004-65000 to the internal IP address of the VOIPo ATA device. Disabling any unusual firewall restrictions such as SIP ALG or SPI filtering is also highly recommended. If you are unable or unfamiliar to take the steps mentioned above; a VOIPo Support Specialist is available to remotely make these adjustments for you at your convenience. Simply give us a call or open a live chat, and we'll be happy to assist you further. Please contact us by phone at: 949-829-4200 or 877-99-VOIPo (86476) You can also reach us through Live Chat: http://voipo.com/ (the live chat button is in the top right corner) We are open Monday - Friday from 6:00am - 8:00pm PST. Except Holidays Thank you for your time. Regards, Gerardo R.


Author: Jenny Koenig

Time: 2019-11-28 01:49

Message: no. whatever you did seems to have fixed the problem--again. is this a permanent fix?


Author: VOIPO Support

Time: 2019-11-28 08:03

Message: Hello, Are you still experiencing issues now?


Author: Jenny Koenig

Time: 2019-11-27 07:21

Message: can't make or receive calls--again. same as the original message for this ticket--6 days ago.


Author: Jamil Z

Time: 2019-11-23 03:20

Message: Hello, We're happy to hear that phones have been restored for you. We are still working on finalizing the fixes. If any issues do arise please let us know. Thank you! -- Jamil Z VOIPo.com


Author: Jenny Koenig

Time: 2019-11-22 10:43

Message: 1. both call forwarding and simul ring were disabled. 2. I rebooted the voipo adapter. 3. I waited a few minutes. 4. we have a dial tone. 5. I called our cellphone. the call went through. I could hear Jenny and she could hear me. 6. Jenny called the house (voipo) phone. I could hear Jenny and Jenny could hear me. 7. EUREKA! On Fri, Nov 22, 2019 at 5:17 PM PE retired wrote: > what's "power cycle"? > > On Fri, Nov 22, 2019 at 4:56 PM Jenny Koenig > wrote: > >> >> fyi >> ---------- Forwarded message --------- >> From: VOIPo >> Date: Fri, Nov 22, 2019 at 4:43 PM >> Subject: [#TOT-116-30907]: can't hear caller. caller can't hear us >> To: >> >> >> Hello, >> >> Our dev team have rectified some parts of incoming and outgoin calls >> residual issues impacting our users. Call Forwading and Simul Ring is still >> a work in progress. Please disable both features for now. Please power >> cycle your VoIP adapter, wait a few minutes for the adapter to register >> online again, then test once more and let us know if you're still >> experiencing issues with service. >> >> Best regards, >> Wilmer J >> >> >> >> >> Ticket Details >> ------------------------------ >> Ticket ID: TOT-116-30907 >> Department: Customer Care >> Type: Issue >> Status: Pending Customer Response >> Priority: Requests Handled in Order Received >> >> Helpdesk: https://helpdesk.voipo.com >> >> >


Author: PE retired

Time: 2019-11-22 10:17

Message: what's "power cycle"? On Fri, Nov 22, 2019 at 4:56 PM Jenny Koenig wrote: > > fyi > ---------- Forwarded message --------- > From: VOIPo > Date: Fri, Nov 22, 2019 at 4:43 PM > Subject: [#TOT-116-30907]: can't hear caller. caller can't hear us > To: > > > Hello, > > Our dev team have rectified some parts of incoming and outgoin calls > residual issues impacting our users. Call Forwading and Simul Ring is still > a work in progress. Please disable both features for now. Please power > cycle your VoIP adapter, wait a few minutes for the adapter to register > online again, then test once more and let us know if you're still > experiencing issues with service. > > Best regards, > Wilmer J > > > > > Ticket Details > ------------------------------ > Ticket ID: TOT-116-30907 > Department: Customer Care > Type: Issue > Status: Pending Customer Response > Priority: Requests Handled in Order Received > > Helpdesk: https://helpdesk.voipo.com > >


Author: Wilmer J

Time: 2019-11-22 09:43

Message: Hello, Our dev team have rectified some parts of incoming and outgoin calls residual issues impacting our users. Call Forwading and Simul Ring is still a work in progress. Please disable both features for now. Please power cycle your VoIP adapter, wait a few minutes for the adapter to register online again, then test once more and let us know if you're still experiencing issues with service. Best regards, Wilmer J


Author: Jenny Koenig

Time: 2019-11-22 03:57

Message: yes. same as original message for this ticket. can't receive calls. can't make calls. when we call our cell phone, we get a busy signal. SNAFU. FUBAR.


Author: VOIPO Support

Time: 2019-11-22 08:31

Message: Hello, Are you still experiencing issues at this time?


Author: Jenny Koenig

Time: 2019-11-22 08:30

Message: Background: my wife and I are in our 70s. On 11/20 when she called me at home from her cell phone at 10:39 AM and 10:42 AM, she was driving alone to babysit our granddaughter 50 miles away. Our SOP is that she will call me at home if she has an emergency on the road. Needless to say, it was upsetting for me when her calls came in and I couldn’t hear her. Why wouldn’t I think that something bad had happened? How many other important calls aren’t getting through? We have given our home (voipo) telephone number to family, doctors, those who we do business with, etc. how long will it be before this problem gets fixed? Days? Weeks? More? In retrospect, we wish that we hadn’t given our voipo phone number out to so many people as our primary phone number. https://account.voipo.com/support shows “pending customer response” as the status for this ticket. Even though I’m retired, I don’t have the time or inclination to “follow developments and updates” on your twitter page. IMHO, the status for this ticket is “awaiting voipo response”. Let us know when the problem is fixed. In the meantime, status reports every few days will be appreciated. Some things about the “good old days” were better. We didn’t have these sorts of problems with land lines.


Author: Jamil Z

Time: 2019-11-21 01:56

Message: Hello, Voipo is currently experiencing some calling issues related to the final phase of the server migration that took place over the weekend. Our development team is aware of the issue and is working diligently to restore services. You can follow developments and updates at our Twitter page: https://twitter.com/voipo (You do not need an account to view the twitter page) Best Regards, -- Jamil Z VOIPo.com


Author: Jenny Koenig

Time: 2019-11-21 01:09

Message: This morning (11/20/2019) my wife called our voipo phone (540 212-7622) twice from her cell phone at 10:39 AM and 10:42 AM. She did not hear me and I did not hear her. After the second call I verified that the phone had a dial tone. Later today at 2:05 PM, our daughter called--same thing. For all intents and purposes, 540 212-7622 is useless. We can’t hear the caller and the caller can’t hear us.

voipo

voipo is an internet phone service. voipo "talks the talk". 

https://www.voipo.com/voip2.php 

we've had more than our share of problems with voipo. this is the latest:

do you think that telling a customer that they can "follow developments and updates" on their twitter page is an appropriate reply to "For all intents and purposes, (our internet phone) is useless."?

neither do we.

we rate voipo VERY low on customer service. voipo "talks the talk", but they don't "walk the walk".

image by Peter Kirkeskov Rasmussen

Don't Talk the Talk! Walk the Walk! | Found this in the arch… | Flickr

labeled for noncommercial reuse

trend micro

yesterday, November 12, 2019, we got an email from trend micro. 

"On or around August 29, 2019, Trend Micro became aware...it was not until October 29, 2019 that we were able to definitively conclude that a Trend Micro employee used fraudulent means to gain access to a customer support data base that contained names, email addresses, Trend Micro support ticket numbers, and in some instances telephone numbers." 

don't you just love companies that talk-the-talk but don't walk-the-walk? personally, I'd like to be part of a class action lawsuit that puts Trend Micro out of business. !@#$%^&*! 🤬

Trend Micro rogue employee exposes customer data - BBC News 

lennox heat pump and mountain valley home comfort

problem: the "fan only" mode in our less-than-two-year-old lennox heat pump stopped working. 

the fan works in the heat and cool modes.

mountain valley home comfort (https://mvhc.net) says that we need a new fan motor. what? the fan works in the heat and cool modes. we ask MVHC questions: 

• our question: why does the fan motor need to be replaced when it works in the heat and cool modes?
• MVHC's answer: "your motor is working, but not working properly".
• our reply: "your motor is working, but not working properly" doesn't answer our question. the problem seems to us more like a signal or wiring problem than a motor problem. please have a technical person knowledgeable of the workings of the heat pump, including control, contact us with an answer to our question.
• MVHC's answer: "you're right, there may be a signal or wiring problem. the motors come with a module attached to their base that is the "communications/wiring" part of the motor. there is a chance that's where the problem is. I will have the technician call you..."
• our reply/questions: is the control for the fan motor part of the fan motor itself, or are they two separate parts? if they're not separate parts, then why not? it seems to us that they should be.
• MVHC did not answer these two questions. also, the promised call from a MVHC technician never came.

MVHC insisted that the fan motor needs to be replaced. we were told earlier by the MVHC service call technician that diagnosed the problem in our home that the fan motor costs somewhere in the vicinity of $1700 (part only). 

$1700 for a fan motor that doesn't last 2 years!?! does this sound fishy to you? yes? us too.

kid holding his nose from bad odor, isolated on white | Flickr

public domain

I'm not an HVAC expert--FAR from it. needless to say, I want the people that I'm paying to be HVAC experts to know more about HVAC than I do. with MVHC, I wonder if that's the case.

virginia dmv real ID ruse

so, 

"Virginians now have the option to upgrade to a REAL ID compliant driver’s license or identification card, or stick with DMV’s standard credential."   Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles 

so, that's what my wife and I do. we take all of our paperwork to the dmv. we get our real ID licenses back in the mail. great!

then, we go to use them. we book an alaska cruise on princess cruise lines.

we can't use them. it seems that virginia dmv isn't going to activate them until october 2020.

WTH!!!!