AIN'T TECHNOLOGY GRAND!
Posted by mountaintopquilting on Wednesday, January 21st, 2009
I never thought I would say this, but being without internet is worse than being without chocolate!
Finishing up with the work of the day for Friday, I logged off about 3:00 AM Saturday deciding to call it a night. I had spent the last few hours entering new product in the on-line store and the newsletter was finished and ready to send out. My list was made as to where to pick up and begin again ... it was a good day's work.
Surprise! Surprise! Surprise when I logged on about 9:00 Saturday morning. No internet service. I waited for a little bit before calling my provider thinking that it might come back on. Silly me! AND, to make matters worse, the soonest a technician could be out was Tuesday morning!
"Unacceptable! Impossible! That can't be. I have an internet business to run."
"Sorry, M'am. That's the best we can do." I wheedle, whine, cajole, and complain gaining nothing. I consider going into a local hotspot and doing my work there, but how inconvient. At least I have my blackberry and can keep up on my email. My internet comes on occassionally for 20 minutes here, 30 minutes there, but with no consistency. I fume and stomp taking my withdrawal frustrations out on anyone who comes near.
I spent Monday out with the girls for lunch, making calls on local quilt shops, delivering/picking up quilts and shopping to distract myself looking forward to Tuesday morning when my internet will be back online. When I get home Monday afternoon I have a phone message. My Tuesday appointment has been cancelled. There was a "node outage" and I should be back online as soon as it is repaired. Oh goody. Turn on the computer quick and see if we have internet.
I wait thinking to give them time to finish any last minute details of the repairs, but finally at 11:00 PM I call to request a status update.
"Sorry, M'am, but I can't help you with any information, You're offline and I can't get to any of your information. You'll have to have a technician out and the soonest we can schedule someone in your area is Thursday afternoon."
Need I tell you my reaction. Let's just say it wasn't pretty. After going to the provider's storefront and speaking directly to a desk person, I was able to get a technician out and internet service restored. I have written to the "powers that be" regarding my unsolicited customer service follow-up survey. And I learned a couple of things that bear checking into ...
Surge protectors do us no good. Our electronics is so senitive and when a power surge comes through it is so fast no surge protector could catch it in time. (From a TV repairman with a huge backlog of TV's in his shop from our recent steady strong wind storm that toppled trees, blew off roofs and destroyed signs)
And when you need to call your provider regarding a connection issue, listen politely to the "phone guy" and when you get a chance, just ask to speak to a technician. They are really the only ones who have a good idea as to what might be the problem. From my technician who finally go me up and running again.
Bless the man and give him some more home-made chocolate chip cookies!
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