Sunday, September 05, 2021

HUMAN SNAFUS AID INTERNET GREMLINS

Thanks to my son for revealing internet gremlins were once again up to their tricks preventing me from publishing my usual weekly commentary, so that you wouldn't think I was sick or died.   His doing so bodes well that he will notify you of my demise when eventually the time comes as we bloggers have said we wish each of us could arrange for someone to do.

My internet connection was lost a few days after my last post here.  Following a reasonable amount of time with my inability to access the internet, I decided the connection was not going to resume.  Referring to my provider's monthly statement for a phone number to report problems, I mainly saw admonitions to use the internet for any issues.  In contrast, I noted a prominent large print phone number to call about where and how to pay my bill, but much less apparent was the miniscule-sized print phone number for customer service I didn't note until much later.  I first tried another number there, though there was none designated specifically for technical internet problems.

Thus, began what became a deteriorating circus of events that included a comedy of errors from what presumably must have been individuals well-meaning, sometimes misguided, maybe incompetent, efforts to resolve my internet service loss.

What information each of the numerous individuals with whom I had contact had and could, or should, have readily accessed I don't know.  What I do know is many seemed to not know the history of my problem from the facts of each of numerous previous calls I was making.   With each call, what do they record on my account besides the date, time, and "has internet" or doesn't -- assuming they do that?   I discovered what little they seemed to know if I got a real live person, occurred when they uttered enlightened "aha" type verbal reactions after it became clear in each call that I must describe the situation all again.  

My initial calls were mostly listening to recorded messages and talking to some voiced, some not, robots.  The first call warned me an unusual number of calls was being received so I would have a long-g-g wait.  After an hour I disconnected and found a different number I thought might work.  I ended that call after half an hour without talking to any real person.   I tried pressing "O" for Operator to seek a real thinking person but I reached no one.

Finally, discovering the small print customer service number, I reached a person after only a five-minute wait.  Eventually, his "aha" moment came when he decided further checking was in order after I short-circuited his usual tech routine.   He discovered "over 50% of the 23 people in your box reported problems, too"!  He observed this possibly means my lack of internet connection is probably "an outside box problem", rather than inside my house.  He volunteered I would receive credit for my time without the internet.  The earliest a technician would come to my house he said, was Friday between 1 p.m. and 5 p.m.

Later, I unexpectedly received a recorded phone call giving me a service ticket number that sounded like they must have lots more people with outages if this was my area:  "xxx hundred million, xxx hundred thousand and x hundred" was my number.  

I was content all was in order until Friday after 5 p.m. when I still had no internet, no technician had arrived, and I had received no phone notification about the status of my service.  My call to the phone company garnered a recorded message they were still working on the problem and would let me know the resolution.

Saturday, 11 a.m., I phoned again to receive another recorded message, still no internet restoration and they were not predicting a time when there would be a resolution.  (I learned days later this was untrue as the problem had been resolved Friday, but apparently not for me.)  

Periodically, every day I also checked my computer and/or modem but no internet connection.  Saturday, Sunday ran into Monday morning 1 a.m. wee hours when I started thinking about changing internet providers.  I decided to call my provider once again, reached a technician that from past experience sounded to be coming from India.  Once again, the conversation devolved to the point I knew I would have to again explain the whole story.   When I ended my convoluted tale, the tech concluded he needed to do some further checking.

Soon, the tech totally surprised me by saying the internet connection had been restored.  Since I didn't have a connection,  he said I definitely needed a new modem, though there was no mention further technical checking might be needed. The tech said he would have a new modem sent to me by UPS to arrive Wednesday. 9/1 which I would need to install myself.

I had never been notified of the internet restoration as the recorded messages said they would.  I asked when the internet connection occurred and was told 8/27 (Fri.).  I don't know if the tech came that Friday and didn't bother to make certain I was connected by checking with me, because I was home all afternoon, or what occurred.   He could have and should have provided a modem at that time if that was necessary, from my point of view.  

Frankly, my patience had long since worn thin.  I was now well beyond being annoyed,  having become angry at not being told of the internet restoration days earlier.  Now I was having to wait until Wednesday for a new modem.  At that point, I demanded a tech bring me a new modem and install it the next day (forgetting it was no longer Sunday, but 1 a.m. Monday now).  

The technician insisted he could not schedule the other tech to come Monday but would have to be Tues.  to which I finally agreed between 1 p.m. and 5 p.m. -- almost one week since I had been disconnected from the internet and four days after service had resumed -- but not to me.

Meanwhile, I had a troubled night trying to get to sleep, though I wasn't aware of fretting about this.  It was late (early morning) when I went to bed.  Just as I was finally about to fall asleep at 5 a.m. my phone rang.  I answered unbelievably to a recording from my phone company/internet provider "reminding" me I needed to be home for their service man Tuesday and the time.  What an inconsiderate time of day for such a call!

The recorded reminder call's only instruction to confirm the message was received was if I now had the internet that I should cancel the appointment by pressing the number 1 key on my phone.   There was a long period of silence, so I finally ended the call.  A few minutes later, the phone rang again -- same recording, same message, I hung up the phone as before.  Thank heavens the robot didn't call again.

Nevertheless, I didn't get to sleep so I finally just got up, decided to proceed with my morning.  While I was in the bathroom, the phone rang again.   I could hear what was becoming a very long message being recorded on my answering machine, but the words were too feint to be intelligible at that distance. 

Later, I listened to the never-ending same message recorded, repeating over, and over again on my answering machine.  The message was the same as the early morning one but with extra instructions this time, to press the pound key or to just hang up to end the call.   Surprisingly, after all those repetitive messages ended, an additional one was an actual apology for all the repeat messages.  An intelligent robot?

Tuesday arrived, but at 4 p.m. when I still hadn't heard from the scheduled tech, with only an hour to go in the 5 p.m. window of my home service time,  I decided to call my provider before their office hours closed to see if, and when the tech was coming.  Good thing I did!

The woman to whom I spoke contacted him.  Seems he texted my landline phone, got no response -- of course! -- since he overlooked landlines don't take text messages -- so he didn't come.  This company provides my landline phone service -- shouldn't the tech know?  After my rather irate elaboration that a tech person should know better than to text, and once again, describing my experience to date, the now  understanding woman transferred my call to a techie.  

The intelligent young-sounding woman technician to whom I was referred resolved my problem in no time.  I did again have to describe my experience.  She then had me check out my modem, made some adjustments on her end, and voila!  I was connected to the internet.  I didn't even need a new modem or further tech service here at home.

Perhaps the moral of this story for me is, don't contact after-hours techies.  Only report a technical problem to regular hours staff and technicians.  

My internet connection successfully restored, I decided to just wait and publish this latest epistle at my usual weekly time.  I feel better.  Thanks for "listening".

Moving on to a truly important matter in this world . . .

--- the U.S. military has departed from Afghanistan, finally ending our longest war.


24 comments:

  1. Welcome back. Afghanistan has been foremost on my mind.

    Your experience has me strongly considering choosing to use the computers at our public library rather than continuing to pay an internet provider for services. I have several friends who don't have home internet and am seriously thinking of joining them soon. They pay to use data on their cell phones instead. I had a similar experience to yours in the past month, although it only lasted a few hours. During that time, the customer service rep I spoke to on my cell phone determined that something was wrong with my modem and that she would need to send a technician. Within minutes of that determination, my internet connection was mysteriously restored and has been fine ever since. I believe you've convinced me to cancel my home internet service and pay a little more to have sufficient data on my cell phone.

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    1. Sounds like you may have a good solution to eliminating internet loss issues with your computer. I don't think that would work for me for a variety of reasons including I certainly would have to up date my cell phone, or probably get a smart phone.

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    2. On further thought, I don't think it would work for me either. If I encounter these problems with internet customer service again, I will ask to talk to a supervisor rather than spend time with a series of customer service reps who don't have the ability to help me. The quality of service has improved when I've asked to be taken to another level of service. Still internet customer service leaves much to be desired. You deserve better service than you got for your money and your time, Joared.

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  2. Automated customer service system is the most frustrating development of the modern world. You had problems accessing your internet while another friend over here had accessing service for a non functioning gas connection which took all of five days to get resolved after he had to make three personal visits to their office as well.

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    1. I guess I can be glad I didn't have to go to the office. I suppose the automation does save the companies money regardless of how customers view the quality of their service.

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  3. That sounds like such a nightmare, Joared, I had such a problem with Bell here and finally bailed out of them. They were the worst to deal with, endless loop of customer service (ha!) and then at the end usually blaming the client for not rebooting enough or ordering costly enhancements. I moved to another provider and only then did I hear the begging to return to them at better rates (!). Over my cold dead fingers.

    Glad you're up in fighting form again.

    XO
    WWW

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    1. Your experience certainly must have been miserable. I’m still considering changing providers but a change for me involves a total relocation of the line into my house, an undesirable less functional, for me, site for my modem. Total cost would be slightly more but I could have faster speeds available, though I rarely have an occasion that might be needed.

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  4. Oh my what a nightmare. First off a big thank you to your son for letting us know about your service so we didn't have to ponder what was happening.
    Secondly, boy am I glad I live in a rural area. Had the same thing happen to me, called Jim (yes we know him by his first name) he checked his end and said he would send a service man right out. About an hour later, he showed up. changed out my modem and I was back in business. Now we can have times when the Internet goes down but a quick call to Jim lets us know if it is them or me. I wish you had similar service. It is wonderful.

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    1. Jim sounds like a most desirable service provider, so you're lucky. I’ve not had such an extended outage with this company before. In fact, when they took over from Verizon they got busy and must have fixed some things. I’ve rarely had a problem and any were quickly resolved so, hopefully, this won’t happen again.

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  5. Glad to hear you finally got your internet connection restored after so much hassle. British Telecom is very reliable and we hardly ever have any internet problems. If only I could get rid of all the adverts and general rubbish I have to wade through when the internet is running.

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    1. Glad you don’t have net loss like this. I hadn't either for a few years and hope not again.

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  6. What an ordeal! This is what passes as Customer Service, or what is now termed Customer Care, in our world. Ridiculous.

    In my city, we don't even have a choice of providers. Believe me; they act as if they know it.

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    1. I would have to switch to a cable company but if I did I don't want TV since my antenna is best for me.

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  7. I think that they hire people who very little tech skills and are cheap and once in a while you run into someone who is savvy and polite...jackpot!

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  8. Gosh, I remember having this sort of struggle often with our old server. Now days, we just take the modem in and bring home another one. Welcome back.

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    1. Turns out a new modem wouldn't have resolved the problem since she had to adjust or change something in my “box” at a site elsewhere.

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  9. I had to giggle at your son's letter to your readers about the internet interruption. So cute. Yes, he will let us know about your demise. Don't know if David can do the same for me. Anyway, it is good that your service has been restored. Blessings!

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    1. Glad you enjoyed my son’s note. I didn't know what he would write but glad he had a touch of humor for my situation. Perhaps David will get the basics down should the need arise. Stay safe over there!

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  10. Your son's note is precious. I am quite sure he is the kind of person I would enjoy knowing. As for internet problems and the lack of success in obtaining help, I think it is a universal truth that you should not expect help from the very people who should be at the forefront in providing help. Blogger is a case in point. There have been so many glitches of late, to say nothing of useful features removed, but to try to get help, or even a straight answer to a simple question, is nigh on impossible. Maybe we all need to engage your son. He might get it done.

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    1. Kind comments about my son to which I enthusiastically agree, but then I might be prejudiced. Obtaining effective customer service can be challenging to say the least.

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  11. Dear Joared, this saga that you've described seems to be part and parcel of living now in an age of technology that's applied to almost every aspect of our life. I find dealing with techs on the phone exhausting. Frustrating. They leave me feeling incompetent and old and as if, like Henny Penny, the sky is falling.

    I had a somewhat similar experience 12 years ago when I moved from Minnesota to Missouri. Weeks went by of having phone techs come to my home and talk to me on the phone, etc., etc. At the end of the saga, a tech on the phone refused to believe what I was saying. I asked if he was implying that I was lying and he said that my story just couldn't be true. I hung up and did all that was necessary to get that phone company out of my life and to try another. All went well. Peace.

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    1. That would be insulting to be thought of as lying when you were merely reporting what you observed happening. Glad changing your provider worked out well.

      We seem to be ongoing guinea pigs testing out systems that may not have been thoroughly vetted before releasing for sale to the public in many instances. Also, with the constant change/considered upgrading there seems to be little opportunity to work out the worms in a system before something new or different is added. The price we pay for what is considered progress I guess.

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    2. Dear Joared, yes, I think you’ve put your finger on it. Especially for me, when it comes to Microsoft for Mac computers. Peace.

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