Let me rant my frustration. I got internet hookup on Sunday. Within 3 hours, something funky was happening with my computer … random hourglasses, random freezing up of screen whenever I tried to do anything (like delete an email, etc.) I have, since then, spent (this is not a lie) over 6 hours on the phone with various representatives from my computer company as well as my cable company. I am now so frustrated that I am near tears about it. The customer service is actually awesome, I never have to wait … and we went through this whole rigmarole with re-installing this, taking off that, putting the drivers back on … yadda yadda, but now, suddenly I cannot get onto the Internet. Someone finally said: “We need to schedule a technician to come out to your house.” But … I have literally been unable to do so because of the loops of their voice mail systems. I keep running into dead ends, and being transferred to the same non-workable area, until I want to tear my hair out. I am beside myself. I am in a fury. I just want the fucking thing fixed, and I am sick of giving my service code, service tag, order number, phone number, as well as case number … and I am sick of explaining the situation over and over and over to different representatives. Seriously. I started crying this morning.
I have to keep in mind the “more bees with honey” mandate because every time I call the help desk again I want to SCREAM at whoever answers the phone, even though it’s not their fault. I have been unfailingly patient, trying to bear up under it, I tell myself “this too shall pass” but I have to be honest. I feel fucking cursed. I am pissed the fuck OFF. 3 hours of Internet hookup and everything goes to hell. This kind of shite always seems to happen to me. You want Internet service? We’re gonna put you through HELL before we give it to you!
And it is still unresolved. I cannot take a day off of work to fucking stay on the phone with these people. I don’t know what to do.
It will be resolved, but I’ll be honest, I feel frazzled, upset, and enraged. One person tells me one thing, then they transfer me to another person, I have to tell the whole story again, and then they tell me aNOTHER thing. My cable company says one thing, the help desk says another … and I feel like throwing the whole fucking thing out the window.
I just want someone to come to my house and FIX the thing – which is what I keep trying to schedule. I am no longer going to explain the situation to a guy named Mohammed in Bangladesh. I am no longer going to give my case # to some chick sitting in Ottawa. I want a person to come to my house. Is that so wrong???
To add to all of this, last night in a matter of half an hour:
— my cell phone stopped working. I turned it on, and the display came up – only the display was upside down. And since that moment I can’t get a display to show up at all.
— Randomly, my toaster stopped working. I went to make an English muffin, and I could not make the thing stay down.
— Also, I was on hold forEVER waiting to schedule a technician to come to my house, yadda yadda, literally I was on hold for 20 minutes. Then, out of NOWHERE, the lights in my main room turned off. Everything went off. My phone is not through the phone jack, but hooked up with the cable line and so suddenly – I lost the connection. I sat in pitch blackness for maybe 30 seconds, and then the lights came on again. Let me say this: This never happens. My lights do not randomly flicker. So now – in the middle of holding, 20 minutes of my life put into that experience – I lose the connection?
After the lights went out, I became convinced that some kind of poltergeist was in my midst, fucking with me. Just for laughs. Now, with my cell phone broken, I am sure that this is the case.
I feel like a lunatic. I’m really upset. Everything is breaking down. All at once. Even just writing this down makes me want to start throwing things. I have had it – but it doesn’t MATTER that I’ve had it. I have got to get this issue with my computer resolved. I have all this research I need to do, at home, stuff I want to look up, etc. My hands are tied. I’m so feckin’ mad.
I have no conclusions. Nothing else to say. Except that I am RIPSHIT right now.
I sympathize. Electric power up here is manufactured by a team of squirrels in a giant exercise wheel. When one of them has a heart attack, we have a power outage. Inevitably in the middle of something important.
Our cable company has the same deal: they ask for your information, or you type it in on the phone keypad, and then when you are inevitably transferred, they ask for it again. I’ve got a novel idea: INTEGRATE YOUR COMUPTER SYSTEMS, DIPSHITS! On top of that, they actually register the MAC address of the computer or router that’s hooked up to their network, and only that equipment can be used to log in. So, when I got a new router, I had to go through the whole registration process again. When we finally break this local cable monopoly BS in my neck of the woods, I’m bolting.
Eurrrgh. I hear you. Calling my bank is like that. Their latest brainstorm “to serve our customers better” (in the sense of “you got served,” one supposes) is to have you recite your Social Security number into the handset, nice and slow so everybody else in the cube farm has a chance to copy it down.
I refuse to play along with the systems these days. First chance I get to press “0” to talk with a human I grab it. It really doesn’t make for a better customer experience, but at least my misery has some company.
Like Ken I do the just keep hitting zero trick usually works until yesterday Directv system hung up on me because I wouldnt go through the maze like a good little rodent. I get cable tomorrow dropping DTV I hope mine works better:)
as for all your appliance problems Red “I feel your pain and welcome to my world” :)
GBfan
Ken – Yeah, I caught on pretty quick. No more automated stuff. The problem is – they kept saying, “Okay, we’ll transfer you to Hardware” … and it KEPT going into this automated dead-end.
Whatever. I’m really upset. I need the Internet at home. I need it for my work, my creative life, my research. I know eventually it will get resolved, it just enrages me that I would only have it for 3 hours before all hell broke loose.
Actually, to give the computer company its due: I NEVER waited to get a human at the help desk. I called the help desk number, and invariably – within 2 or 3 rings, I would get SOMEONE. I have spoken to, no lie, 10 people in the last 2 days. I never wait. So that’s not the issue, not at all.
It’s just that nobody seems to be able to agree on what exactly is the problem … and when they transfer me to the number to schedule the technician to come out, THAT’S when I run into the dead-end.
Even just typing this now, I feel pathetic little tears in my eyes. From frustration.
I think you need to burn some sage.
I feel like putting the sage on top of my laptop, and setting the whole damn contraption on fire.
Forget burning sage. That crap is for wusses. Smoke a doob and drink a glass of scotch.
Quoth: Randomly, my toaster stopped working. I went to make an English muffin, and I could not make the thing stay down.
I had a relationship like that once.
SERIOUSLY, that’s just awful. I had my phone out for six days – that’s SIX as in 1 2 3 4 5 6 WHOLE DAYS – earlier this year, and I was beside myself at the end. We lost phones throughout my neighborhood, never did find out why. Better luck.
Linus – my toaster’s really cool, too. I hate to part with it. It’s fat and round and black – very old-fashioned looking. I love it.
sigh.
Try using my favorite prayer. It always works for me:
“If you cannot help me this time, Jobu, then I say, F. U. Jobu! I do it myself.”
I feel for you.
Sometimes, strings of occurrences like these happen. I don’t know why. They just happen. You get to a point where you feel like ONE MORE FREAKING THING goes wrong, even something little, and your head is going to explode from the sheer pressure.
I generally take a string of crappy things happening to me as evidence that I’m trying to do too much, be too many things to too many people. That it’s time to refuse to do the next thing I’m asked to do as a favor, to find more time for myself. I consider that when the Universe brings you that close to freaking out, it’s the Universe telling you you need a personal day.
This past week, I’ve been on a kick of unintentionally breaking things. I can’t tell you how many times recently I’ve had to sweep glass up off my kitchen floor. (And I can’t go barefoot in there any more, not until I’m sure all the fragments are gone).
There’s just some bad juju in the air.
hope things get better soon.
Coupla thoughts.
1) I’m sorry you’re having a gremliny day. Violence with fire, however, is not the answer. A rocket launcher pointed at the company headquarters is the answer.
2) Have you checked your warranties? Chances are they all expired yesterday.
3) The first people you talk to on the phone don’t know anything. My buddy who does computery stuff tells the first person he gets live to get him a supervisor, saying “I’ve tried everything you know, and ten things you’ve never heard of.”
4) Try calling directly up the food chain at the computer/cable company. Not higher up tech support, but Public Affairs/Community Relations, whatever. I’ve called CEO’s offices to get satisfaction before, and things usually get solved MUCH more quickly. Usually I’m polite, and I only have to mention the Attorney General’s Office or Better Business Bureau once.
5) George, you just cracked me up for the day.
Er, I’m not sure about the bees and honey thing. An angry (but not abusive) woman can really scare the minions into getting someone with a brain on the line.
Oh, and take notes, write letters, and wait for the freebies. ;-)
I’m late to the party, but assuming that you’re running Windows on the laptop, and assuming that you plugged the cable modem directly into the laptop, you probably got possessed by evil Internet demons. A Windows PC with no firewall usually gets hijacked within the first ten minutes of being plugged into the ‘net. Spyware, malware, adware, underware (OK, I made that one up).
Anyway, have you got a local geek friend that could take a look at it? I fix problems like yours all the time for a free lunch, with no hold time on the phone!
Speaking of the Skillzy Doctrine, I have to add this – and note that I’m not subject to hijack since I’m still on an ISDN line, and slow, so I’m guessing when it comes to your situation. Nevertheless.
The new Norton Internet Security package engulfs a bunch of system resources, but if you have the RAM to run it it’s a good performer. It’s a pop-up suppressor, and ad blocker, a local firewall, a virus scanner, and – if enabled – a parental access filter. All for about $40.
Might be just the thing.
skillzy:
Bingo. Within 2 hours of getting Internet, it stopped working properly. We ended up taking Windows XP off – re-installing, re-installing all these different drivers – and after all that was done, we no longer could hook up to the INternet. Why this is is still a mystery to me. I am losing it, totally. I have lost my patience completely.
Bummer. I’d lean towards what skillzy said. The odd PC actions point to your PC being compromised and some ISPs block compromised PCs to prevent them from attacking others. You can be “connected” and your phone and TV working fine but your internet packets are being dropped immediately by their router. Their own tier 1 help desk may not be skilled enough to know or check, I’ve seen it before. If you want I can shoot you some stuff to check.