Internet Problems

Last Wednesday (11/4), Lydia called me around 3 to let me know that our DSL internet was not working. She had tried everything to get it going. All the lights would work on the DSL modem, but the internet lights would blink instead of being steadily on. She was getting really frustrated, mostly due to the fact that she had a lot of homework to do. And that's the main problem... most of her stuff for college is on the internet! So, there is more proof that we can't live without it!

It still wasn't working by the time she picked me up that evening from work, but we headed straight to church, so I didn't get to look at it until we got home later that night. Sure enough, it still wasn't working! We put the kids to bed and Lydia headed off to McDonald's to take advantage of their WIFI, while I called AT&T.

So much happened during my time on the phone with their customer support... it drives me crazy just thinking about it! Needless to say, I spent an hour doing things like changing the modem password, restarting my computer several times, restarting the DSL modem, unplugging and replugging the phone cords.... nothing worked. Our "session"ended and she put me on hold to talk to a "level 2" technician.

20 minutes of waiting, I finally got to talk to "Chan" from "Cow-lih-forn-ya"... yeah sure! And I'm from the moon! Anyway, besides trying to translate what I was saying, and figuring out what he wanted, it was found out that the problem was on their end. He told me that they'd put a ticket out for a guy to come and look at the lines, etc. I asked when it would be done, he asked what time it was here and I said 10:30. He says, "Oooo, that is very late." (I knew he wasn't in California!)

He assured me that it would be fixed in the morning, sometime around 8 (so he said), and gave me the ticket number and a 1-800 to call. Almost two hours on the phone!!!!! Lydia got back at midnight, and only had a few more things to do at school the next day.

When we woke up the next morning, it was early, and of course, it still wasn't working. So off to our places we went.

I had a dentist appointment at 3, and got off early for that. It turned out that the dentist had messed up on the chart and I didn't need anything done. It was nice that now I didn't have to pay for anything, but not nice in the fact that I took of work for nothing!

Anyway.... the internet still wasn't working! ARG! So when I got home, I called. Got a lady from St. Louis, and I could actually understand her! She did some tests and said that the problem was on their side, that a router needed reset! DUH!!! I asked her how come it wasn't fixed earlier as promised, and she said that they had to confirm it, and wasn't able to until just right then! (yeah right)

I then asked how long it would take. She said it would be fixed within 24 hours? What??? I wasn't happy.. She reassured me that it's company policy that that say that, but is should be fixed sooner. I asked if they could call me when it's up and running, and she said that it was something that they always do.

I got off the phone, and wasn't happy. But what could I do? We figured that Lydia would end up having to go back to McDonald's to complete any online homework she had.

Frustrated... I sat down at my laptop to complete some of the projects I had been working on. About twenty minutes later, I noticed that the weather was on my desktop! We had internet!

So far no more problems!

UPDATE: As of the posting of this, I still haven't received a call saying that my internet is working again! ARG!

~Matt


Pun of the Post: "God must love stupid people. He made SO many....."