22:39 pm on Wed 16th November
I had difficulties chatting this morning. I blamed Yahoo, as it had done something last night and kicked all the Mac ChitChat users out, although this had only lasted a few mins, it was enough for me to think that my frequent disconnections 12hrs later were all part of the same tsunami of Chat Hell that is a habit of Yahoo.
But, I had very little time and gave up and got on with my day. The usual hospital visits and carehomes, to check on my parents and drive the distance between..
When I got home at 6pm-ish, ready to grab a bite to eat and shoot off to tuck mum up in bed in a short while. I touched my iBook... it didn't connect. I swore.
I blamed the router. The lights were flickering, not as usual...
I turned on the PC, reluctantly...
And bugger!.. even that machine had probs. A sort of relief in that though, I would have hated the PC to connect when the Mac didn't. But also a mild sort of panic was creeping into me...
Then I did what I should have done earlier. I picked up my phone.
Nothing.. no dialing tone... nothing!!! My phone was dead...
Then I remembered the 3 BT vans I had seen just up the road this morning. BT is my phone company, the monopoly for the UK AND my ISP. I hate them!!!
So I used my mobile phone to try to get through to the free number that cost me over £3 as I was on a mobile.. grrr.. and they had ads to say I could actually report faults online too.
How can people with no phone.. use a freephone number.. or the internet????
I hate BT!!!
I gave up.. drove the 5 miles to my brother and phoned from there, for free. A recording told me that if they needed to access my house, then the repair could be done by 23rd November. A week...
Have you ever wanted to put your arm into a phone and throttle a machine?
I had asked the automated robot to SMS my mobile to keep me informed, and also for a call back as they were so busy and that would probably be 45mins wait.
I got the SMS, quite quickly, while I was driving to Mum's carehome...
"Fault investigation underway. We will update you when we have more information. If alternative online access is possible go to http://www.bt.com/service"
If I hadn't been driving at a 30mph road at the time, I would have screamed...
I CAN'T GET ONLINE!!!
So, when 'Carl' phoned my mobile about 30mins later, I had to let rip a little sarcasm about all this... at last a real person, although the poor guy sounded about 16yrs of age. At least he wasn't in a call centre in India!!!
So I spent an evening, pinball on the PC, checking permissions, tidying desktop. I deleted over 800 of useless files from the iBook. I sorted my kitchen out, I peeped into my loft, with my new ladder I had got that day, and wished I had also got a torch too. I bled my radiators. I caught up with a few jobs I had been putting off, and found that I could live without the net... just...
I sent a couple of SMS's to friends, but no reply yet, and I know that my SMS's seem to go astray.
Oh well, early night
08:12 on 17th Nov (Thur)
I got an SMS from BT
"BT Update ... We have located a fault on your line that requires our engineers to resolve. We are arranging this and will update you shortly. "
The hardest thing so far was to come downstairs, just awake, and find I still have to switch on my iBook, although I know it won't get online. Tea without watching chat is not a good idea for me. I wake up pretty grumpy on a good day, but without the net, no emails, no chat... lets just say its a good job I live alone. I could kill someone like this. (let it be a BT engineer, after he has 'repaired' my line - although I am still convinced that they left me offline during whatever they were doing yesterday morning)
17:29pm 17th Nov (still Thursday)
Having filled the day with visiting parents again, I got home at 17:20ish.
Still no sound on my phoneline.
I phoned BT on my mobile. I spoke to some poor girl, and explained that I needed my phoneline, not so much for the calls but for internet access. She told me that there was a fault and that it was due to be looked at next Wednesday 23rd November. I saw red... shaking.. addiction... cold turkey..
I said that waiting that long was just not possible. She offered to divert all my calls, I said its not the calls I was bothered about it was internet access. Anyone important has already got my mobile phone number, and the rest can go to hell.. I needed the net! She apologised and said that I was due to be sorted by 23rd Nov.. again... !!!
She obviously hadn't grasped that she was taking to a net addict, so.. I took a deep breath and asked if there was anyway to fast track this, I was after all still paying for 3 phonelines and 2 net connections across the country.. all with sodding BT. And the parrot at the other end of the phone just said something about 23rd Nov again.
She even offered to divert all my calls.. I said I wanted the internet!!!
She said that compensation could be discussed as soon as I was reconnected. When?? 23rd Nov... scream!!!
I gave up.
I need a stiff drink, yet I said I would see Mum later on... so more driving.
ok.. chocolate...
07:03am Sat 19th Nov
I am now becoming firm friends with "Good Bot" and "Dumb Bot" who come with the prog I have for playing Classic Cribbage. The 2 guys actually let me win sometimes too. They are no good at chatting but can use a smiley button OK, and we do manage a few giggles, but its not like chatting.
In case you are interested its all from this, I downloaded in the days when I was actually able to get online. (http://www.freeverse.com/ ). I also have a few solitaire games from http://www.gamehouse.com.
I have not heard a word from BT and presume that they are making me wait until the deadline of 23rd Nov, as I dared to complain. This is yet another example of Welsh time, I really can't remember ever waiting this long for a problem to be looked at in England and I am beginning to think that Welsh Time has come about because the Welsh are used to receiving crap service so they dish it out too now. A chicken and egg situation.
I have even got out my Welsh language tape and book and have tried to get beyond basic greetings, but get sort of stuck on page 6 "What is your name?" This language is incomprehensible and how they get their tongues round it and learn all these frigging rules, I will never know. For a language that has no J, K, Q, V, X, or Z you would think it would simplify things, but no, they add new letters(ch, dd, ff, ng, ll, ph, rh, th) and make extra vowels out of w and y. I am still struggling to say names of nearby villages, let alone being able to walk into a shop and have a chat. oops.. I said that word.. c h a t...
11:00am Sat 19th Nov
I saw my neighbours this morning, they have no problems with their phoneline. I said how long I was told to wait, and my neighbour said "don't give up, they will probably do it this weekend, while they are on overtime"
13:20pm Sat 19th Nov
BT engineer knocks on my door and puts a small electronic machine on my line and goes up the road to where I had seen 3 BT vans parked on Wednesday morning and reconnects me... aarrgghh!!!
I am now waiting 10 mins for a call back from the engineer to say it is switched back on.
It works!!!!!!!!!!!!!
See you all in chat again
:D
