This is the first time since July 3rd that I’ve had internet access…now for most people that wouldn’t be a big deal, but for me it’s like taking away my TV! I spend way more time online than I do in front of a TV, so not having it has forced me to do other useless pursuits like watch way more movies on DVD than normal, watch an additional 12 episodes of Buffy off the Season 2 DVDs, and generally just do little odds and ends on my computer that I’ve been putting off (working on our wedding video, organizing my fonts, those kinds of things). It’s amazing though how many of those little things often dovetail into surfing. While doing the video I found that none of my video was producing a video image…I needed to go online, but I couldn’t. While organizing my fonts, I remembered that I keep some online, couldn’t access them.
Here’s the joy’s I’ve had with Bell since July 3rd (partially so that I can read them to the Bell Billing folks tomorrow when I ask for some free service).
Wednesday July 3rd
Phone goes out when a Bell technician is installing phones for neighbours across the street (while installing the phone, he mixed up the lines between the upstairs and downstairs phones over there as well).
Friday July 5th,
Bell technician fixes our phone service at 8:00pm, informs me that he will call Sympatico to have the DSL re-installed on the line.
Saturday July 6th, 12:00pm call Sympatico to ask about DSL service being re-installed on the line, they ask me to do a modem test, modem is not working. A second level tech is called.
Saturday July 6th, 12:30pm, second level tech calls back, tells me that the issue needs to be escalated to Networking. Will probably be fixed by Tuesday night.
Tuesday July 9th. 6:00pm. I call Sympatico about this, and he informs me that the ticket was wrong, and that it will probably take 72 hours for the Networking people to get to this problem.
Thursday July 11th, Phone call from 1 877-909-4722. We do a modem test. Modem not responding. He dispatches a tech for Friday from 5-9, asks me to be at home to receive tech.
Friday July 12th, 8:30pm. I call 1 877-909-4722 to find out the status of the technician. Am told that he should have called to inform me that he wouldn’t be coming by, because the problem was a CO problem having to do with the AP which the tech didn’t have access to. He said that someone would call Saturday to arrange things further.
Saturday 12:30pm. Called 1 877-909-4722 to find out the status of the call. Was told that the ticket wasn’t closed properly, and that the new problem wasn’t opened, phone support opened new ticket and said they’d have it fixed either Saturday, Sunday, or Monday.
Saturday July 13th, 12:45pm, phone dead. Went outside to find out if anyone is working on phone line. Didn’t see anyone in a 30 minute bicycle riding sweep of neighbourhood. Nobody found.
Saturday July 13th, 1:23pm, called 1 877-909-4722 and reported latest problem with phone being dead.
Sunday July 14th, 9:33am. Called 416 310-2355 and asked to speak to a supervisor. Spoke to Sandra at ext 1302. Told her of the troubles, told her of the frustration, told her of the patience with which I have given up to now, and told her that the problems have to be fixed by EOD today or I am going elsewhere. Was told that they are working on the phone line right now, and they would get the DSL working today. Sandra also promised to keep me in the loop with regular status updates.
Sunday 10:35am, Sandra calls to let me know that someone is coming by soon.
Sunday 11:30pm, tech comes by. Discovers the problem is at the junction box. Hooks the wires up. Tests the signal, finds out it’s very strong. Hooks the outside lines for our house back up. Comes inside, tests high speed, and finds it working perfectly. Leaves. Total time on job? 1 hour.