See "Spoke Too Soon", below. Upon returning from a two week holiday in the UK this Tuesday evening discovered DSL service had still not been restored. And in fact was even less reliable (if that were possible) than before. Try nada.
Even worse, in the interim another repairman had come by the homestead and left word that "we lived too far" from the local phone office to receive DSL. Of course we hadn't moved in the six years since we first started using the service, and neither had the phone company equipment building, so that excuse really didn't sit very well. But the repairer just shrugged and left. Nothing he could do, apparently. So nothing was done.
Began the telephone complaint process all over again early the next morning. Lady taking the first call spoke UK style English with a distinctive, sing-song Indian accent. Very difficult for an aged western English speaking consumer to understand. After a while and with much difficulty was transferred to a supervisor, "Ron" (probably just a desk name) whose accent was much less pronounced and easily more understandable. Did a fairly good job of trying to help, but was taken aback when he realized the complaint had been on-going for over two months. He arranged for a site visit. Again. Again. Again. Again. Etc.
Discovered this: It seems SBC/at&t internet repair services "closes out" all repair tickets once someone - anyone - has responded. Whether service is restored or not. THAT sure makes it helpful to manage the old workload, but doesn't really beggar the question of reliable service, does it? Strange, anti-consumer but pro-bureaucratic corporate behavior.
Long story. Short conclusion. After complaining later Wednesday to a secret contact person who over a month ago had given out her working phone number, a few hours later the net went up and simultaneously received a call from a nice technician telling us two things. He had gone into the system and temporarily increased the 'power' to our line and slowed down the feed, which should give us some type of connectivity until (and now for item 2) TWO repair persons (one a phone cable guy, the other an internet repairer guy) would arrive on Friday afternoon to work out some type of resolution. (Shortly before they arrived the power would have to be decreased and the speed increased in order to permit valid testing/analysis for the repair guys).
So for now we have had 'service'. Thankfully and gratefully. In a few hours that may change, but we shall see what happens. It has been nice. Sayonara.
Waiting . . . . .
Friday, May 05, 2006
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4 comments:
Like water wearing away rock, one drip at a time. If you're unrelenting enough, you'll get results.
Thank goodness God is more responsive to our requests.
If I refer to the "importunate widow", you'll catch the reference. I don't suppose many younger folks would get it.
Luke 18, yes. Insistent and unrelenting prayer. Thanks for the encouragement. And yes, between God and SBC/at&t I know which one I can trust. Even though the latter sent us help today in the person of two technicians, Terri and Ken, who finally (they say) fixed the problem.
"But I know whom I have believe-ed"
Cheers
I'm going to show this to my hubby. I think i told you he works for (Pacbell--SBC--AT&T)
:)
He might want to leave a comment as well. He gets pretty unnerved about the way customers are treated by his employer, as you can imagine.
How frustrating.
That was a nice welcome home from SBC/AT&T. (sarcasm intended)
I hope your trip went well, Britain is a great place to visit if you don't eat the food.
The food is my one complaint about the British. Unless you are eating at a foreign restaurant (like the many Tandoori places) the food is fried beyond recognition and the steaks are so well done it seems they came from bloodless beef that were breed for the Kentucky Darby, not the dinner table.
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