Signs of an Uncommon Cold

Welcome to the new world. A killer cold and a failing president are combining in very special ways to make our lives more interesting. I am not entertained.

The Sign of AT&T

Here's a rundown of a customer services issue that AT&T handled in their own special way. I get a few shots in towards Earthlink but they're more of a side note. It's December 24th, 2019 and it is, the 3rd day into our exclusion from the Internet thanks to AT&T's wonderful customer service. We called in about slow service. We did the “check the modem” dance and they scheduled a tech to come on December 14th. This was the 11th. They said he or she would call first to make sure we were home. No call. No show. No follow up. On the 16th I let them know under no uncertain terms that someone needed to come by, no appointment needed. That apparently isn't an option that they have access to. No calls. No visiting AT&T repair man. Then my Internet and phone died in the early morning of December 22nd. I used our emergency cell phone to give them a call. We had a long conversation where I told them that I was ready to switch deck chairs on the Titanic and go back to Media com but I'm pretty sure that they missed the reference. It's a cultural thing. Anyway the end result was that the soonest they can get someone here is the 29th. No calls from family wishing us a Merry Christmas. No Netfix. No Utube. No e-mail. Can't track my Amazon purchases to insure that they have arrived safely. So I wait impatiently for that promised day when the AT&T technician is scheduled to come and restore my services. If they miss this appointment I won't be too upset because I'm expecting them to fail me once again. I'd go back to Media.com but they failed me previously and I was without service for nearly a month before I switched to AT&T. I had experienced AT&T's indifference to their customers needs but they were the only alternative in our area at that time. So as near as I can figure, AT&T has severed all connections between their service call centers and their technicians in the field. The call center was unable to place an open order to repair my service. They were forced to schedule me out through their appointment system. I was lead to understand that there was no alternative available to them. They were invariably polite even though I made my displeasure obvious. No person that I spoke with except one had a name I could understand after they said it and it was obvious that English was not their primary language. I had no issues understanding them though and they had no issues understanding me but this has been an issue with my wife as her hearing is not the best. I can only conclude that AT&T has contrived this cavernous hole in their customer service system by design. The remotely situated call center is one of the main ingredients. They obviously don't care about their customers unless their late with their payment so I've made arrangements with another internet provider. Earthlink gets my business this time. Maybe they'll keep me happy (or at least satisfied) for more than 3 years but I'm not counting on it. So far I'm getting the feeling that they are as distant as AT&T. I'm still waiting for a text from their affiliate to set up an installation date and it's been 2 days but you can be damn sure they got their money already. Merry Christmas indeed.

12/25/2020

Merry Christmas everyone. No changes on the home front. Still no internet or phone but that was expected. No text from the Earthlink installer but that was also expected. After all, it is Christmas Day. My brother will be coming over for dinner and he'll bring his mobile modem so that I can connect for a short while. At least I'll be able to update my family on our situation and wish them a Merry Christmas electronically. We sent cards but who knows if they made it to their destinations this busy time of year in a timely fashion. That's all for now. Time to get ready for a wonderful afternoon. Looks like Earthlink will be here the 27th to connect me once more with the world at large. Still miffed that they didn't text but that means when/if AT&T gets here the 29th, I'll be able to make a dramatic presentation of returning their equipment. Better not get my hopes up though and remember that AT&T employees are not the target of my wrath. After all 'tis the season.

12/27/2020

It's 3 PM Friday the 27th of December and Earthlink has yet to show up. Their call center called this morning to see if I got their text. Nope, no text. How about our e-mails? Hard to know because I have no internet service and we do not have a smart phone. Then they tell me that it may be an AT&T service truck that shows up for the installation because Earthlink has contracted with AT&T. Now I'm fairly sure that I'm just switching deck chairs on the Titanic. Wonderful. It's 10 PM and I still have no internet. No call. Nada. The grand kids arrived though so I've been too busy to think about it much. Now that I am thinking about it I'd have to say that I'm not angry anymore. Disappointed? Yes.

12/28/2020

It's Saturday morning on the 28th of December and I can get no satisfaction. Called Earthlink and was told that they're sorry they missed their installation appointment, Then they told me that they didn't do installs on the weekend and would call me Monday to set up another appointment time. I let them know that they were skating on thin ice in not so many words. I brought up AT&T's lack of service and compared their same lack of follow through as equally egregious. Hope they put that in their notes. Next I called AT&T to confirm my service appointment for tomorrow. Never did talk to a human and eventually got stuck in a loop where the recorded voice/robot asked if I wanted to change or cancel my appointment and I told them “No”. After repeating that step several times I hung up hoping that I hadn't just canceled my appointment. Words fail me. Time to go chop some wood. Another wonderful morning in Northern California. Finished chopping wood and was enjoying a smoke on our front porch.. It's now 3:30 PM and I just watched an AT&T service truck roll by our house. If I'd have seen him soon enough I could have run out in the street and waved him over. I sat on the porch after he passed wondering if he was turning around to fix our connection. Guess that's too much to expect. After all, our appointment is for tomorrow. After a while you just get a helpless feeling about your chances of getting to your e-mails before there are several hundred to go through. Netflix would have been nice to entertain the grand kids in the evenings while they're here. I'm wondering how long this rage engendering process will take to finally come to a conclusion. If AT&T shows up tomorrow and gets us back online I may tell Earthlink to take a flying leap and cancel their order. Since they contract with AT&T I'm hoping to get some insights from their technician tomorrow. If they even show up. If I keep AT&T it will only be until I find a viable alternative to these large, out of touch corporations. Unfortunately there are few alternatives in this economically depressed area.

12/30/2020

It's December 30th, 2019. Another day without internet. Earthlink called us this morning. Nancy went to pick up the phone, heard someone's voice as she said hello several times before they hung up. They didn't leave a message. Shortly after I called Earthlink from work and was told that the installation folks would be calling me to set up an appointment today. I expressed my doubts and let her know that they were already on thin ice with me. I'm getting very sick of hearing apologies. Now it's 5:20 PM and we still haven't heard from them. I call again from work, go through the whole process to speak to a human and hear the same B.S. I did before. Still no appointment. I'm getting to really dislike automated systems. I hope they record me yelling at their AI for giggles and yes, it's getting ridiculous. My anger has run its righteous course without result. It's time to view this as a wonderfully absurd opportunity to befuddle ones foes with kindness and witty conversation, Yep, that's the ticket. Still, it's hard to pay the bills when there's NO INTERNET. Sorry, slipped a little. Later.

12/31/2020

It's December 31st, 2019. Got an e-mail this morning and fortunately I came into work early so was able to see it. Our installation date is January 3rd next year. No call. No text. I'm not holding my breath for them to show up Friday morning but stranger things have happened. Another day hanging around with better things to do with our time. But enough of that crap. Expect to hear from me Friday, one way or another.

01/03/2020

Happy New Year! It's the 3rd of January. It's the day Earthlink installs their stuff at my home. At 9 AM I get a call from technical service and they tell me that my installer will be here between 8 AM and 12 PM and that it may be an AT&T technician because they contract with AT&T for service in our area. Oh, and please make sure someone at least 18 years of age is at the location if you leave. It is now 4:30 PM. I called earlier at 1 PM and spoke with someone who wanted to put me on hold while she consulted her technical department. I explained that I was paying by the minute for our back up phone and that waiting on hold wasn't working for me. She told me that she would call me back but I could tell it was forced. So here we are. No call. No text. We did get a partial text this morning that only said we had an appointment. No time. No date. It's now 4:45 PM and I'm suffering because even after all that's happened I still kind of expected them to show up. What a fool am I for thinking that they might behave differently from AT&T. I'm so discouraged that I'm not even going to call them until Monday when I'm at work. There I can read the e=mails they're sending about their failures and respond accordingly. Meanwhile it's been 13 days since our phone and internet connection failed and 24 days since I 1st called to request service. Oh, and the kitchen sink drain plugged up last night and 20 feet of snake did not alleviate the issue. Also the pipe is now leaking where the p-trap slides in. Wonderful. Plumbing is my favorite thing to do on a weekend. Later. It's still Friday but now it's 7 PM and the RotoRooter dude has come and gone. The kitchen drain has eluded the electric-powered snake. It did so by convincing the spinning snake to go through the air vent instead of down where the trouble is. The dude said something about backward tees or standard tees where they don't belong. Anyway, he ran about 60 feet of that spinning snake through the air vent where it twisted into a rather large knot of steel cable under tension. The dude hopped on our roof to untangle the thing which he had to do twice as it didn't take the 1st time. In the dark. I gather that this is what home owners insurance is for. He'll be back Monday with another dude so that they can unclog our sink. It's a 2 dude job to take the snake through the roof vent so the 1 dude told me and I believe him. By the way, he'll be getting a new snake before then as his old one bit the dust. It got kinked up and apparently that's all it takes to render them useless. That's one mean drain. Meanwhile, the guest bathroom sink is getting an unusual amount of use. All and all, we're wondering what we might have done to deserve this stuff. Is it a sign of things to come? Talk at ya Monday. Peace.

01/04/2020

It's now Saturday, January 4th and we just got a text from Earthlink telling us that our installation is scheduled for January 3rd. Took them a while but at least they actually texted me correctly. Too bad they're a day late and their installation folks didn't show up. Then there's AT&T. I called to get my 4 digit pin number, which is different than the 4 digit number that confirms my account. Without it, I have no access to my voice mail which requires a 4 digit pin number and I have no idea what my my 4 digit pin number is. The woman I spoke to put in the start date of my outage so that they can adjust the bill. Then she offered to transfer me to the line for folks who need pin numbers. I get the usual B.S. advertizing extolling the virtues of their up to date technology. After that I hear a recorded voice telling me that they only work weekdays before they hang up. Needless to say, my voice messages will have to wait until Monday. I'd call AT&T back but it would be a waste of my emergency phone minutes and time. AT&T is really starting to piss me off.

01/06/2020

It's January 6th at 12:30 PM and AT&T has missed their 3rd appointment. It's been 27 days since I 1st called for service and 16 days without service. I called AT&T at 11 AM to check on my appointment and to get transferred to the folks who can help me with my pin number which is different from my 4 digit security number. After the transfer I was told that there would be up to a 10 minute wait. I gave up after 20 minutes of being on hold. AT&T sucks. The hold music really sucked too. I just got off the phone with an AT&T service rep who lied to me and told me that a service person was still on the way. Meanwhile, Earthink has yet to contact me with a new installation appointment time. They told me when I called this morning that their service tech made notes that there was no access. We were home all day. Why no access? Is it the tree next to the pole that's giving them issues? There's clear access to the pole which is where they need access to. Even if that's not it it's time to remove that Scrub Oak. So now I have calls out to several local tree service companies. It never ends. I'll write later today once the AT&T dude shows up but my money is on another no show. AT&T is batting a thousand. It's now 4:15 PM and the Roto dudes have just left the scene. We have use of the kitchen sink again. No call from AT&T service tech. No call from AT&T service center. Could they be trying to reach me on my dead AT&T number? More than likely. No call from Earthlink either. No text telling me when their next appointment will be. Looks like I'll be at work very early tomorrow morning getting caught up.

01/07/2020

It's January 7th, I'm at work and Nancy just called me to let me know that the AT&T repair tech has finally arrived. We learned that their supply cable had grown into the tree and should have been replaced when they did their initial install 3 years ago. They replaced it. The next time she called me was from our home phone number and we were back in business. Still haven't heard from Earthlink. I'll follow up with their story on their 3rd try to install their service in 3 days time.