Saturday morning I patiently walked through the steps necessary for the woman thirteen hours removed from me to diagnose the problem I was having with my AT&T DSL “service.” After an hour or so and some pointed hinting on my part she escalated the call to the second level of technical support. The second level support person suggested that AT&T has a fee based “service” to which she would be happy to refer me, since she was quite convinced that the problem was in my computer and not in my DSL service.
I didn’t have time to discuss it then. I terminated the call and went out to a meeting. Total cost at that point: two hours. Return on investment: zero.
In the afternoon I tested the circuit with two other computers, got the same result and felt confident that it wasn’t a software problem on my end. I got back on the phone and went through the same routine, albeit about fifteen minutes faster since they had a record of my earlier call and I could affirm that I had tested with three different computers. (I’m using one of those units to post from the Cargo Coffee free wifi hotspot here in Madison, so clearly this machine has works!) Finally, Hector — my afternoon second level support guy — allowed as how AT&T could roll a truck Monday morning between 8am and noon (local time, I hope). No residential service is available in the evenings or on the weekends although one would think that this is the time-frame when most users would be online and therefore likely to encounter any problems. I never have liked Ma Bell, in any of her incarnations.
Total cost: 4 hours on the phone and/or testing equipment. Return on Investment to this point: zero.
Tomorrow I will make myself available to the scheduling vagaries of the telco monopoly’s local “service” provision unit, and with maturity and grace I will deal with the technicians who are, after all, only doing their job. Any bets on whether they try to charge for the “service” call?
It’s time to nationalize US Internet transport services. These possum poopers can’t be trusted to provide service as long as they have the incentive to reduce service to increase margins. Oh, and the guy in the top hat with the monocle? Throw his ass in jail.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Doug Alder 08.19.07 at 2:13
I have for many years maintained that nationalization of the fiber assets is necessary in both the US and Canada. Only when the backbones are run by a not for profit government agency on a completely unbiased open access basis (i.e. every service provider gets charged the same rate structure regardless of their size) entity will there be any progress.
zo 08.20.07 at 6:27
Mr. Peanut? What did he do?