Dude, where's my Internet?

Irritated? Wash it all down with a bowl of soup..

I LOVE soups. Of course, the veggie ones :) But I don't mind the occasional chicken broth factor which could hinder an otherwise veggie-freak to neglect a good Broccoli-Cheddar soup at Panera's. Lovely stuff.. smack!

But yea, that was NOT what I started out blogging today.. getting back to the 'irritated' bit. I have been without the internet at home for the last 14 days. And, looks like I survived! But thats besides the point. I've been waging this battle of sorts with AT&T. And let me tell you, they have driven me to the brink of insanity.. (the smash-your-fist-in-the-wall, damage-things, curse-like-thats-all-there-is-in-your-vocabulary, snap-at-everyone variety) First, their online stuff is such a load of crap, you HAVE to end up calling them anyways to start the process. And don't we know customer service? Yea, a big fat waiting time, with some recorded techie-droning on the other end. And finally, you do manage to set up an appointment for the folks to come out and fix it four days later. You ask specifically, does this installation require someone to stay at home? They say no, and phew, there is no need to take the day off from work. But then you see a voicemail on your cellphone.. "We needed access into the house, and hence the connection was not set up this morning". And of course, they do not work a minute after 5, they do not do this work over the weekends, and so you wait until Monday.

Catch hold of a friend to sit at home for the work to get done, while you're at work.. stuff gets done, they say the DSL should be up and running in two hours. Two hours become eight, and no sign of it yet. 110 digested daytime minutes later, they give you a commitment for a 'by-8-pm-tomorrow' connection. And another 90 daytime minutes on the phone the next day, and voila, 'We cannot find any fault, can you stay at home from 8am to 8pm tomorrow to fix it?' Dude, are you going to sign my paycheck?.. take a hike! And this is a pattern thats repetitive.. And I buy a phone only to notice that the dial tone is non-existent on the phone line he 'fixed'! Aarrrrrgghhhhh..

And thus go by Mon-Tue-Wed-Thu.. and today Friday, I am planning to rush back home for a 2-6pm slot. I swear, if I do not get the connection today, I might end up institutionalized!

Funny business all this.. Customer service. They won't transfer you to a 'supervisor', they are the only folks who cater to your area, they are the only option you have, and what ever happened to 'The customer is King' days? Are we just going to have to take all this nonsense? AND pay all the charges? What are these corporate giants upto? Do they think we cannot do anything about this stuff.. in a way, yes, we all have better things to do than drag this out to some consumer court or file a claim or whatever it is people do. But in the end, I do wonder.. how long is this going to last? All the less-than-size-7 print in (the-almost-white) grey on their websites which we fail to notice - the 'fine print'.. their 'Policy'. Sure looks like its here to stay!