I have been technologically depressed, battery obsessed, internet stressed over the past few weeks. You might ask ‘why?’ but I bet you will wish you hadn’t because now I am going to tell you. Here goes my tale of woe.
There I was enjoying the world of computerism (new word, just invented) and most things technical. In Australia we have the NBN (National Broadband Network) which has been made available, free of charge, to every home - supposedly for faster speeds, as if things are not going fast enough. This replaced the old telephone cabling. Once installed then it was up to the householder to sign with a provider of their choice for a broadband and home phone plan. A number of people opted out of having a home phone but I kept mine and I signed with a different provider for my mobile. Being an old chook, living on my own, I really do need to always be able to have contact with the outside world and this way I was not putting all my eggs in one basket.
Things were going along quite nicely for me, now and then there would be an outage in the internet service but it would come good in a little while. However, one Friday afternoon some six weeks ago my service went down and didn’t come back up, not even for air.
Saturday I called the technical support number of my provider – the woman I spoke to told me to do this and do that, but nothing worked and she said she would organise for a technician to come on Monday. Good. Tech came but he was from the NBN, apparently my provider does not provide technicians for house calls. Everything was tested, definitely no fault with NBN but he fitted a new box anyway, I guess he felt he had to do something, wasn’t here just to enjoy my scintillating conversation.
This is when the ‘fun’ began – although only a warped mind would call it fun. To tell the whole sorry story would turn this into a novelette so I will try to condense it a bit. For three days in a row, during phone calls lasting up to two hours at a time, I was asked by a technician to do very involved and complicated technical manoeuvres, none of which achieved the desired result, and it ended each time with me saying I had had enough and would have to ring again the next day and try again. It is a wonder I wasn’t asked to stand on my head and clap my hands three times – come to think of it, that might have been easier to do. Oh, to be an octopus - well I needed at least one more pair of hands. I even had a young male friend here one day to help me carry out instructions but with the same non-result. To say I was stressed and frustrated is an understatement. A nervous breakdown was on the horizon. Yes, I know – I am pathetic. ‘Frustrated’ was becoming a dirty expression as it was being used with a rather rude expletive to explain how I was feeling…I definitely was not being very ladylike by then.
I emphasised the fact during one phone conversation that I was old thinking this might get me some sort of special treatment (like a visit from a technician perhaps, in my dreams!). The comment I got back was that I was doing very well and the man said he was extremely patient and started to speak very, very, slowly. I felt like saying that I might be old but I am not stupid, well not yet…not completely.
Eventually it was decided that the only thing left was for me to buy a new modem, which they would send. This would be very easy to fit. However, the promised modem did not arrive and a week had passed when I phoned them again. A fault in the system had rejected the order (of course it was a fault in the system – well something had to be blamed). No-one had realised and so if I hadn’t queried it I would still be in limbo, waiting. The fault in the system did not affect the bill for this though, I got that very promptly. Another modem was ordered and a tracking order given. As it did not appear to be moving, and had not been delivered by the due date, a further phone call showed that it was still in Sydney and not in Adelaide, had not even started the journey. Given the push to move, it was eventually delivered some days later.
In the meantime my mobile phone started playing up – the battery losing power so fast that I had it on continual charge which of course is not a good thing to do. The phone was three years old and it seems this is ancient in the world of battery technology, or apparently it is in my world of battery technology. So much for me not having all my eggs in the one basket. By now I was so fed-up with everything I bit the bullet and bought a new iPhone, series 12 – and I got one of my sons to set this up for me.
This son also came and fitted the modem for me as I refused to even take it out of the box – yes, it was easy to do (well it was for him) but there were still some technical issues to deal with as although the internet was restored, after some four weeks or so of all the messing about with no internet connection, unfortunately there was still no home phone. After trying everything possible to no avail my son (who really is very smart and does know what he is doing, so I pity those with technical problems who don’t have a clue, or have no access to getting help) phoned the provider’s support number – but after an hour of the instructions given being followed with no result, the person on the other end decided they could not fix the problem and so was going to refer this to their engineering team. Someone would contact him.
Since starting this blog I have heard from my son, he has had a missed call from the engineering team to say the phone is working now - it isn’t. They must not have tried ringing or they would have known. As I have my mobile and the internet is on, there isn’t any panic regarding my home phone. I have told my son to deal with this only when it is convenient for him to do so (he lives a distance away from here), Might be a while yet as unfortunately he now has C0VID and needs to rest and recover.
So the saga continues….
…and my apologies (to those of you who are still ‘with me’) – this has almost turned into a novelette after all.
There I was enjoying the world of computerism (new word, just invented) and most things technical. In Australia we have the NBN (National Broadband Network) which has been made available, free of charge, to every home - supposedly for faster speeds, as if things are not going fast enough. This replaced the old telephone cabling. Once installed then it was up to the householder to sign with a provider of their choice for a broadband and home phone plan. A number of people opted out of having a home phone but I kept mine and I signed with a different provider for my mobile. Being an old chook, living on my own, I really do need to always be able to have contact with the outside world and this way I was not putting all my eggs in one basket.
Things were going along quite nicely for me, now and then there would be an outage in the internet service but it would come good in a little while. However, one Friday afternoon some six weeks ago my service went down and didn’t come back up, not even for air.
Saturday I called the technical support number of my provider – the woman I spoke to told me to do this and do that, but nothing worked and she said she would organise for a technician to come on Monday. Good. Tech came but he was from the NBN, apparently my provider does not provide technicians for house calls. Everything was tested, definitely no fault with NBN but he fitted a new box anyway, I guess he felt he had to do something, wasn’t here just to enjoy my scintillating conversation.
This is when the ‘fun’ began – although only a warped mind would call it fun. To tell the whole sorry story would turn this into a novelette so I will try to condense it a bit. For three days in a row, during phone calls lasting up to two hours at a time, I was asked by a technician to do very involved and complicated technical manoeuvres, none of which achieved the desired result, and it ended each time with me saying I had had enough and would have to ring again the next day and try again. It is a wonder I wasn’t asked to stand on my head and clap my hands three times – come to think of it, that might have been easier to do. Oh, to be an octopus - well I needed at least one more pair of hands. I even had a young male friend here one day to help me carry out instructions but with the same non-result. To say I was stressed and frustrated is an understatement. A nervous breakdown was on the horizon. Yes, I know – I am pathetic. ‘Frustrated’ was becoming a dirty expression as it was being used with a rather rude expletive to explain how I was feeling…I definitely was not being very ladylike by then.
I emphasised the fact during one phone conversation that I was old thinking this might get me some sort of special treatment (like a visit from a technician perhaps, in my dreams!). The comment I got back was that I was doing very well and the man said he was extremely patient and started to speak very, very, slowly. I felt like saying that I might be old but I am not stupid, well not yet…not completely.
Eventually it was decided that the only thing left was for me to buy a new modem, which they would send. This would be very easy to fit. However, the promised modem did not arrive and a week had passed when I phoned them again. A fault in the system had rejected the order (of course it was a fault in the system – well something had to be blamed). No-one had realised and so if I hadn’t queried it I would still be in limbo, waiting. The fault in the system did not affect the bill for this though, I got that very promptly. Another modem was ordered and a tracking order given. As it did not appear to be moving, and had not been delivered by the due date, a further phone call showed that it was still in Sydney and not in Adelaide, had not even started the journey. Given the push to move, it was eventually delivered some days later.
In the meantime my mobile phone started playing up – the battery losing power so fast that I had it on continual charge which of course is not a good thing to do. The phone was three years old and it seems this is ancient in the world of battery technology, or apparently it is in my world of battery technology. So much for me not having all my eggs in the one basket. By now I was so fed-up with everything I bit the bullet and bought a new iPhone, series 12 – and I got one of my sons to set this up for me.
This son also came and fitted the modem for me as I refused to even take it out of the box – yes, it was easy to do (well it was for him) but there were still some technical issues to deal with as although the internet was restored, after some four weeks or so of all the messing about with no internet connection, unfortunately there was still no home phone. After trying everything possible to no avail my son (who really is very smart and does know what he is doing, so I pity those with technical problems who don’t have a clue, or have no access to getting help) phoned the provider’s support number – but after an hour of the instructions given being followed with no result, the person on the other end decided they could not fix the problem and so was going to refer this to their engineering team. Someone would contact him.
Since starting this blog I have heard from my son, he has had a missed call from the engineering team to say the phone is working now - it isn’t. They must not have tried ringing or they would have known. As I have my mobile and the internet is on, there isn’t any panic regarding my home phone. I have told my son to deal with this only when it is convenient for him to do so (he lives a distance away from here), Might be a while yet as unfortunately he now has C0VID and needs to rest and recover.
So the saga continues….
…and my apologies (to those of you who are still ‘with me’) – this has almost turned into a novelette after all.