The fields went fallow on the blog for nearly a week for one
simple reason: our internet provider is terrible, and isn’t planning on
improving their behavior anytime soon. I’m
not shy about naming these poltroons; we get our crappy service from Windstream, and
in a just world the company would be brought up before a tribunal to answer for their
crimes…and once found guilty by a not-at-all-impartial judge of my own
choosing, sentenced to one of those islands where they used to quarantine
lepers, plague victims, and other unfortunates of society. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that
Windstream—at least in my neck of the woods—has been wedded to DISH, since they
both deserve one another.
The trouble started around 4:30pm last Wednesday, when I
noticed the little yellow triangle symbol superimposed over the internet
connectivity icon on my laptop. This
meant that the system was down, and though I was mildly annoyed (I was working
on a post for the Radio Spirits blog) I decided to be cool and wait to see if
the problem would be quickly worked out.
Two-and-a-half hours later, and still no internet, I phoned Windstream
with that sinking feeling in my stomach pit that they were going to make me run
what I call “the Internet Obstacle Course.”
(This is where I’m required to unplug and re-plug cables, the modem,
etc.—which I wouldn’t have a problem with except my mother insists that they be
relegated to a space behind the TV (an area where a person of my girth has
difficulty accessing) because she doesn’t like the sight of wires.
Before I called Windstream, I ran the Course ahead of time
to make sure the problem wasn’t on my end.
It wasn’t, and I had suspected as such.
So, once I’d made it past their infuriating phone tree, I explain to the
customer service representative that the system is out. She’s convinced the problem is on my end,
since no one else has complained, and lets me know she’s writing up a ticket so
a technician can fix the problem. He’ll
be there Saturday.
I’m ticked off at this, because that means we’ll be offline
for two entire days…and I won’t be able to get this post done. I phoned my editor at Radio Spirits, and she
lets me know that if I can get the piece to her Monday morning (assuming the
tech fixes the problem on Saturday) she’ll give it a quick read, make the
necessary changes, and have it back at me so I can schedule the post.
I should have known the technician wasn’t going to be at
Rancho Yesteryear Saturday. Oh, we got a
phone call from Windstream at 11:15am informing us he’d be there between 11:15
and 3pm, but I end up calling them back at 3:05 to find out that the problem is
worse than they originally estimated and that we may not be back up until
Monday morning. Monday afternoon, I’m
having to call them back to find out where the hell the guy is, and they’re
telling me it’s not going to happen until the next day. I gave the person a bit of pranging about
this, and they finally acquiesce to my demands, promising the work will be done
by five that day. When I wound up having
to call back at 5:05pm to ask why they insist on lying to me every time I
phone, we got a call on our other cell phone line…telling us the technician
will be at the house between 8am and 12 noon.
 |
| Substitute "Windstream" for "AT&T" and you'll get the idea. |
Since confession is good for the soul, I’ll come clean
here. I have a bit of a temper. But I’m even-keeled for the most part—the only
time I start approaching Hulk status is when someone can’t be straight with
me. They couldn’t be forthright and tell
me that the problem with our internet connectivity was that some idiot
installed some switches wrong, and it apparently took them all that time to
find out just exactly what that individual screwed up. My mother ran into the technician as she
headed out the door Tuesday morning as he was just pulling up. I had discovered by that time that our internet
was back, but he wanted to check on our status.
He told her the story of what happened (I believe I was asked by both my
parents not to come into contact with him for fear that something terrible might
happen) and she replied matter-of-factly, “That person needs to be fired.” The technician, looking out for his own,
tried to explain that “it’s not his fault” and Mom just dismissed him with a
wave of her hand.
That’s the sordid story of why there’s been nothing new to
read on the blog for over a week, and because I had to get caught up with some
other assignments there may not be any new material until next Monday (I wanted
to at least get a new
Crime Does Not Pay
up—I’ll try my best, but my eye appointment tomorrow may interfere with
that). If your situation is like mine in
that Windstream is your only option for internet access…I feel your pain,
brother. If you’re looking for a
provider and are considering Windstream…don’t.
Run fast, run far.
