Never moving again

[hase]

I thought moving from one small village into another, even smaller, village might not be a big deal. Boy, was I wrong.

I used to browse the net leisurely every day, but haven't done this in a long time. Well, up until this morning. For some reason my internet connection is stable, rock solid. It survived even my MacBooks attempt at getting my Emails.

 

However, I learned two things:

1. If you want to have a decent - or any - net connection, don't leave the larger cities.

2. Never argue with your telco. Never insist on them looking into some particular problem you identified. It is like a spinal reflex, some kind of instant denial of a) the problem's existence at all or a mere customer being able to spot something of relevance. The latter simply CANNOT HAPPEN, therefore the problem has to be somewhere else. It took me two weeks to discover that.

 

Now the only thing left I have to do is getting the heating up and running - its freezing outside, so it might be not a bad idea.

 

Hope to stay connected this time..

[Steve E]

...

However, I learned two things:

1. If you want to have a decent - or any - net connection, don't leave the larger cities.

2. Never argue with your telco. Never insist on them looking into some particular problem you identified. It is like a spinal reflex, some kind of instant denial of a) the problem's existence at all or a mere customer being able to spot something of relevance. The latter simply CANNOT HAPPEN, therefore the problem has to be somewhere else. It took me two weeks to discover that.

...

I sympathize, commiserate and ... other words with the same meaning. For two years I've been trying to get a WiFi port from my cable/internet/telephone provider. It just happened last week with a little help from my friends. To paraphrase the old proverb, "It takes a village to raise a ruckus."

 

Hang in there.

- Thoth.

[marguerite]

I bet we all have tales of woe in this regard. I remember the time the phone company switched wires—mine with my neighbors'—except these were new neighbors, so we got not their calls (which would have alerted us to what was happening) but calls to the people who had owned their number before, a community center of some sort.... After 48 hours of , someone finally called looking for the new neighbors and we were able to start tracking down the problem. The phone co., meanwhile, maintained steadfastly that nothing was wrong or could be wrong, and if it was wrong, it wasn't the company's fault. Only when the technician finally wandered in after about four days did he admit what his buddies had done.

 

But it's not only phone companies. There was also the time when I, in a never-to-be-repeated fit of civic mindedness, called the electricity company to let them know that the fancy device that was supposed to limit my appliances to off-peak consumption no longer worked. They sent someone out, who promptly "fixed" the problem so that the only time I could run my dryer was in peak hours (about two hours a day). So I called back and explained that this was not the solution I wanted. The tech returned and "fixed" the problem by restoring its initial state. Since then I have learned to keep my mouth shut.

 

Steve, congrats on the positive review. The more people who know about Storyist, the better, IMHO.

 

And Hase, good luck adjusting to the move—and may the gremlins leave your radiators alone.

Best,

Marguerite

[Steve]

I'm sure everyone has their favorite utility story. This is mine: About six months after I signed up for autopay with ATT, I noticed I was getting late charges on my bill. Turns out they had scheduled the autopay to occur the day AFTER the bill was due, and their system was happily piling on the late charges. I called them, pointed out the error, and suggested that they should instead pay ME a late fee. No sense of humor, the billing folks.

 

-Steve