Man! Last Friday evening we lost our internet connection during a snow/ice/rain event. I thought it was due to the storm and didn't fret much. We were busy running jobs anyway, so there wasn't much time to be concerned, but on Saturday afternoon when it all cleared up, I called my provider, and after 20 frustrating minutes of doing really STUPID things as he went down his checklist, we finally got it fixed. In the end, he wound up following the lead I had presented at the outset of the conversation and we were all fixed up. End of story.
This Friday evening, the same thing happened. I called right away thinking we could fix it with just 20 minutes of me being patient and polite, but no, this wasn't going to happen. The techie informed me that our "signal levels" were way too high and they would have to send out a person to remedy the situation. "Sir", he said, I can have a technician out to your home either Friday or Saturday, which would you prefer?" "Well", I responded "today is Friday, so if you want to send him out now, I am here for him". "Oh no Sir, you've mis-understood, I meant NEXT Friday or Saturday".
It was like getting hit in the face with a pike pole. A whole WEEK without my internet connection? NO WAY! I asked the tech if he was kidding, if we couldn't try a few things, and if he wasn't sure we might get a guy here sooner. He came back with 'no joy' on all those questions. I sucked in my belly and took it like a man. "OK, if thats the best you can do, then that's what it will have to be. Thanks for your time."
But then I started thinking about what a WEEK without my connection meant. It meant driving to the other side of town, pulling out my laptop and downloading all my mail at the fire station. I would also load up an evenings worth of web pages to read. It would mean missing a lot of those emails from folks that know when I am home, and giving them delayed responses, probably too late to be any good. It would mean losing track of how my favorite cousins surgery and recovery is going down in the Lone Star State. Basically, it would mean I would have to re-arrange my morning and evening routines until the precious techie arrived.
It took about 12 hours of waiting before I resolved to find a different solution. I called back today and lied about my problem to the computer voice in order to get to a person. I didn't beat around the bush and asked the tech to do exactly what I asked for. She did it without any discussion. It didn't fix it, but she kicked me up to the next skill level, and that tech and I managed to get things working. I canceled the tech visit appointment for next week and thanked him very much for his patience and persistence, he taught me enough to fix the problem myself next time.
This Friday evening, the same thing happened. I called right away thinking we could fix it with just 20 minutes of me being patient and polite, but no, this wasn't going to happen. The techie informed me that our "signal levels" were way too high and they would have to send out a person to remedy the situation. "Sir", he said, I can have a technician out to your home either Friday or Saturday, which would you prefer?" "Well", I responded "today is Friday, so if you want to send him out now, I am here for him". "Oh no Sir, you've mis-understood, I meant NEXT Friday or Saturday".
It was like getting hit in the face with a pike pole. A whole WEEK without my internet connection? NO WAY! I asked the tech if he was kidding, if we couldn't try a few things, and if he wasn't sure we might get a guy here sooner. He came back with 'no joy' on all those questions. I sucked in my belly and took it like a man. "OK, if thats the best you can do, then that's what it will have to be. Thanks for your time."
But then I started thinking about what a WEEK without my connection meant. It meant driving to the other side of town, pulling out my laptop and downloading all my mail at the fire station. I would also load up an evenings worth of web pages to read. It would mean missing a lot of those emails from folks that know when I am home, and giving them delayed responses, probably too late to be any good. It would mean losing track of how my favorite cousins surgery and recovery is going down in the Lone Star State. Basically, it would mean I would have to re-arrange my morning and evening routines until the precious techie arrived.
It took about 12 hours of waiting before I resolved to find a different solution. I called back today and lied about my problem to the computer voice in order to get to a person. I didn't beat around the bush and asked the tech to do exactly what I asked for. She did it without any discussion. It didn't fix it, but she kicked me up to the next skill level, and that tech and I managed to get things working. I canceled the tech visit appointment for next week and thanked him very much for his patience and persistence, he taught me enough to fix the problem myself next time.
"Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day, TEACH a man to fish and he will eat for a lifetime"
Please don't take my internet away! Life gets turned inside-out when you do that.
UU
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