Thursday, December 02, 2004
Murphy's Law
I had just started checking my emails last Friday morning when my Internet connection went down, and I couldn't get it back. I decided to drive out to the corner store and get a newspaper. I stopped and asked the gas contractors who had been digging on my concession road if something was going on with the phones. They sheepishly admitted that they had hit a cable, and one of them offered his cellphone to use. They were having their own problems as well as one of their pieces of equipment had broken down. Service was restored early in the afternoon.
The previous evening, I had gotten an email informing us that a fellow my husband and I knew from our kids' baseball had passed away from cancer. He volunteered to help coach even though (I don't think) he was much of a baseball player and he wasn't around much because of his work. The funeral was Friday afternoon so we both decided to go. The village church was packed and even the township mayor was there.
From the eulogy, we found out that he was a marine biologist and had gone from studying the stomach contents of birds to the stomach contents of seals to the stomach contents of whales. He was a member of the men's choir and the church treasurer although I don't know when he found time. He also renegged at euchre. He was the same age as I am. Not to be trite, but only the good die young.
I was able to check my emails and the Internet job situation (non-existent) first thing Monday morning. At lunch, I tried to get back in again but I couldn't get connected. My son and I took a walk out to the corner after lunch. The gas contractors had struck again. This time they had cut a 50-pair cable. The service came back later in the evening, but it was really noisy, and I couldn't connect to my ISP. It went completely dead shortly after that.
Tuesday morning, I reported my problem to Bell. They "guaranteed" that someone would look at the problem by 6 p.m. I also mentioned the problem to gas contractor that afternoon who talked to someone at Bell as well. They were already filling in the hole where the cable had been cut. Unfortunately, we seemed to be the only ones having a problem. When I called in after 6 to report that no one had arrived, I was told that we had missed the appointment. I was again "guaranteed" that someone would look at the problem by noon the next day.
When I called in after noon the next morning to report that no one had showed up yet, I was told by Kevin at the Bell Call Centre that they didn't promise appointments by noon only by 6 pm. He refused to let me talk to a supervisor. When he put me on hold, he cut me off. I had to call in again, but this CSR had enough sense to offer to connect me to a supervisor. I spoke to her after being on hold for ten or fifteen minutes. After some discussion, she came to realize that they had exceeded their service level for restoring service. She had no idea where the technician was that was assigned to my problem, but promised to get in touch with him.
Every time I called in, I got treated like a moron. First you have to get past Emily the voice response robot. I had to repeat my story to everyone I spoke to. I'm sure they were convinced that the problem was in my house (the cable cut was just a coincidence). When the tech finally showed up at 4, he started asking stupid questions about boxes in the house. After a quick look inside, he went up the pole where he discovered that the circuit was shorted out. In fact, it was shorted out all the way to the corner. He had to switch our circuit to a different wire pair. Service was restored at 5:30.
I'm going to ask for a rebate.
D.
The previous evening, I had gotten an email informing us that a fellow my husband and I knew from our kids' baseball had passed away from cancer. He volunteered to help coach even though (I don't think) he was much of a baseball player and he wasn't around much because of his work. The funeral was Friday afternoon so we both decided to go. The village church was packed and even the township mayor was there.
From the eulogy, we found out that he was a marine biologist and had gone from studying the stomach contents of birds to the stomach contents of seals to the stomach contents of whales. He was a member of the men's choir and the church treasurer although I don't know when he found time. He also renegged at euchre. He was the same age as I am. Not to be trite, but only the good die young.
I was able to check my emails and the Internet job situation (non-existent) first thing Monday morning. At lunch, I tried to get back in again but I couldn't get connected. My son and I took a walk out to the corner after lunch. The gas contractors had struck again. This time they had cut a 50-pair cable. The service came back later in the evening, but it was really noisy, and I couldn't connect to my ISP. It went completely dead shortly after that.
Tuesday morning, I reported my problem to Bell. They "guaranteed" that someone would look at the problem by 6 p.m. I also mentioned the problem to gas contractor that afternoon who talked to someone at Bell as well. They were already filling in the hole where the cable had been cut. Unfortunately, we seemed to be the only ones having a problem. When I called in after 6 to report that no one had arrived, I was told that we had missed the appointment. I was again "guaranteed" that someone would look at the problem by noon the next day.
When I called in after noon the next morning to report that no one had showed up yet, I was told by Kevin at the Bell Call Centre that they didn't promise appointments by noon only by 6 pm. He refused to let me talk to a supervisor. When he put me on hold, he cut me off. I had to call in again, but this CSR had enough sense to offer to connect me to a supervisor. I spoke to her after being on hold for ten or fifteen minutes. After some discussion, she came to realize that they had exceeded their service level for restoring service. She had no idea where the technician was that was assigned to my problem, but promised to get in touch with him.
Every time I called in, I got treated like a moron. First you have to get past Emily the voice response robot. I had to repeat my story to everyone I spoke to. I'm sure they were convinced that the problem was in my house (the cable cut was just a coincidence). When the tech finally showed up at 4, he started asking stupid questions about boxes in the house. After a quick look inside, he went up the pole where he discovered that the circuit was shorted out. In fact, it was shorted out all the way to the corner. He had to switch our circuit to a different wire pair. Service was restored at 5:30.
I'm going to ask for a rebate.
D.
