Technical Support IDIOTS

We switched ISPs (Internet Service Providers) a few weeks ago. It is supposed to be both faster and cheaper but I have not been completely satisfied with its reliability.

So this morning when the Internet connection went down completely while I was using the computer, I restarted the router (turning off, waiting 10 secs, turning on). Then I restarted the network on the Linux server. Still no connection and I can see that the skype phone is also unable to make a connection.

So I decided to call technical support to find out what was going on. First I go through several levels of push this or that menus. Then I wait for 10 mins. In the mean time, I am stillw atching for my Internet to be back online.

I finally get a person. He tells me there is nothing wrong. I ask him for an IP address to ping. He tells me nothing is wrong. Then I realize the Skype phone still hasn't connected, so tell him it can't just be a name server problem because of that.

So the idiot decides I have to remove my hub and reconnect directly to the computer. I tell him I can't really do that because of my health. But he says unless I do that, he won't do anything. So I crawl down on the floor in total agony to swap the wires around (note here that I was up more than half the night because I hurt so much... read all of "All the Pretty Horses" [which was very good, thanks Edith!] then finally cried myself to sleep, waking up every time my leg kicked in my sleep because it hurt so much).

It works. AARGH!

So I ask him how I'm supposed to connect multiple devices when I'm not supposed to use a hub or switch (he was sure I was using a router, so I crawled down again to find where it is identified as a switch). He says I can use them but that I will always have to remove them for technical help.

He proceeds to tell me that we hadn't lost a connection at all. He can see it there. We've been connected for 92 hours without a break.

92 hours? I ask him. That's odd. I turned the equipment on at 9 this morning. We turned it off at 9 last night. So it was broken for 12 hours (he told me that equipment turned off registered as a break, as an explanation for why it would be broken 92 hours ago). So while I am trying to explain to him how there must be a problem in their registration system because my equipment was not just TURNED OFF but WITHOUT POWER (the router is connected to a strip that we turn off at night), HE HUNG UP ON ME!

I was MAD. So I called in, picked a different level in the menu, and got a nice guy to whom I explained that I wanted to lodge a complaint against the guy I talked to before if he could see in the system who it was. The guy was very nice and made sure that my equipment was now working. I told him yes, but I didn't want to get a treatment like that again. If my equipment was turned off for 12 hours, I can't have been connected for 92. He could have given me another explanation, but hanging up on me was not acceptable. I wasn't even YELLING!

So once I got off the phone, I crawled back down under the computer and swapped the wires through the switch.

Guess what? IT WORKS! There is nothing wrong with my equipment.

If I get much more of this, I am going back to TDC even if they do mess up the bills for a year and never send half of them and try to bill me for late payment.