My cable Internet connection (and TV) failed late on Moday evening. Although TV was restored by when I came home on Tuesday from work, not the Internet connection. I phoned them and, after some messing about with rebooting the cable modem, they found there was a general fault in the area. I phoned again from work just now and they said there didn't appear to be a fault anymore, so hopefully I should find I'm OK when I get back in a couple of hours. However, I'm not so sanguine ...

EDIT: I'm also rather busy at work so might not be able to find time to access the site from there, which is, of course, where I am now.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: arnie,

YAY! Panic over! When I got home I rebooted the cable modem and computer and I've now got access again!

Wonderful! I had missed seeing this, but I am so glad you're connected again!

Isn't rebooting a great thing?

I spoke too soon.

My connection speed gradually slowed and after about an hour I lost the connection completely, and no amount of rebooting did any good. Let's hope for more luck when I get home this evening.

The engineer was supposed to call between noon and 4pm yesterday but he didn't arrive until 4.45 with a perfunctory apology for being late. Around 5.45 I got my Internet connection back!

I popped into the chat room for a short while, but the only denizens at the time were jerry and Richard, although Richard was away at the time presumably eating dinner.

About ten days ago, we entered the 21st century by getting high speed internet, telephone, and TV from Verizon. The technician spent six hours connecting everything, which worked perfectly. He complained he would have been done earlier if other workers hadn't messed up his connection at the pole, requiring him to rework some of the equipment.

That was Monday. Tuesday the phone sent all of our calls to voice mail. We didn't know it had done so. Wednesday the phone got staticky, then Thursday went out completely. We called Verizon on a cell and were told there was a major outage which would be fixed by 6AM Friday. Then it would be fixed by Saturday. Sunday, the day of repair was not known.

Monday, the internet slowed. Tuesday, the TV and the internet both died. The phone was still dead.

"Gee, that doesn't sound right," said the Verizon rep. "Let me get a serviceman out."

That afternoon, everything came back on. It was all due to a bad connection at the pole, and not some widespread outage. However, in my house there is widespread outrage.

I got some similar spiel from the engineer. Since we don't use poles, the cables are underground. He said that after the outage first happened the engineers recalibrated everyone's connection at the junction box, and left mine far too low. Blame someone else ...

It was my fault. I've no idea why, but I'll take full responsibility.

Seriously, is one better off having an old-fashioned wired telephone instead of a mobile in the event of really bad weather, attack by Klingons, solar flares, etc?

Ah, yes. We recently had a similar problem, proof, though yours was definitely worse. We have a Comcast package for our phone, TV, and Internet. I had the audacity to cancel one line of our phone system because 2 of us don't need 2 lines these days. That started it all. It wasn't 15 minutes later, and our Internet went out. We spent several days, calling and explaining, until finally we got it back up. I am certain it was for cancelling that stupid line, which really hadn't cost us that much anyway. We should have just kept it!

However, think what happens if one of your checks to them gets lost in the mail. Bang! All your systems are canceled and everything is your fault.

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think what happens if one of your checks to them gets lost in the mail. Bang! All your systems are canceled and everything is your fault.

We just had a snafu at the bank. One of our deposits to our checking account was, by the bank, mistakenly routed to our savings account. Mike had saved the receipt that showed we had intended it to go to checking, and yet the bank still made us pay a fee for a check that bounced because the money wasn't in the right account. I should go in and give them my Librarian Look and make them change it!

We now use Verizon for our cable system so I called Cox, who had supplied the cable, to cancel. First I had to endure playing "press x" until I got a human, which took ten minutes. Then the rep, who is not in RI, asked if he could speak to the accountholder.

Unfortunately, the account was opened in my mother-in-law's name ten years ago and she passed on four years ago. We never changed the name.

The rep insisted that we couldn't cancel until we provided proof of death with a death certificate, which we can't find. He wanted me to go to the city hall where it was registered and get a copy. This involved trying to verify which town hall had the information filed away since she was in a nursing home in northern RI.

I said it was very inconvenient for me to do just to cancel cable. He said I would have to continue to pay for service I no longer used until we changed the name on the account and closed it.

I said, "I won't pay the bill."

He said, "If you don't pay the bill, we'll have to shut off the service."

Well, thank you.

Many years ago in the days of DUN I used CompuServe as an ISP. That was in the days before the WWW. When I got a local ISP I kept on the CS account partly as a backup. I've not used the account for at least five years now. Out of inertia (sheer laziness actually) I never cancelled the monthly payments. A few weeks back I had my credit cards stolen, so had to cancel them, and the other day I got a rather rude letter from CS demanding their money.

I phoned them and explained and the girl (rather surprisingly) said she's write off the money and cancel the account. I asked tongue-in-cheek if there would be any refund for the five years I'd been paying without any service, and, rather flustered, she replied that they couldn't give refunds in those circumstances. Oh well, it was worth a try, I suppose.

Funny! I know we all have these stories. CW, you really shouldn't have to pay that amount since you have absolute proof. I'd change banks unless they'd do it over the phone, with an apology.

My favorite story is our account on a cell phone with AT&T. They charged us twice for a month, and I let them know and they said to just pay half the bill and they'd take care of it. Well, of course they didn't and I kept getting more and more bills for that amount, along with added fees for "late payments." I'd call to try to straighten it all up, but I'd only get promises. I also wrote letters. Nothing worked.

Then the calls started. Apparently their bill collecting department is separate from their customer service department and never the communication twain shall meet! They were threatening credit agencies and ruining my credit rating. They'd call twice a day, and the bills were mounting with their "late fees." Finally I began to play their game. Besides reporting them to the Illinois State's Attorney Office, I answered their many calls with, "Before you say anything, I want to let you know that I charge $100/hr for my services, and that's what I charge AT&T for these calls, which is $25 in quarter hour increments. Okay. Go ahead." I'd stop them in their tracks! Many would just hang up. Some would say, "You can't do that!" Others would go on talking, and then I sent them a bill!

In the end, the Attorney General's Office contacted them and they erased everything from my account and sent me an apology. Then I changed to Verizon.

Does anyone have any string?

I'm setting up my own telephone system which will work better than Verizon does now. I've got enough tin cans but I need 23 miles of string to connect to my brother's house.

After a ghastly experience with Talk Talk,, which involved my hanging on for ages, listening to the world's most awful pop music waiting-tone. In the end I gave them the sack and went back to BT. Although I get calls every week or so from some provider or another, offering to save me load of money, I tell them I will stick with BT who, although they might be more expensive, are much more efficient.

Shu and I have our two darling (but extremely energetic!) nieces in town visiting us...ages 9 & 10. They have been a delight as we've taken them all around. However, we are going every moment of the day and probably will be missing in action for the next week or so. Then things should normalize (on the weekend), but starting the 26th I'll be in South Africa for 10 days. So I'd really appreciate your taking up the slack while we're busy with our nieces and while I am in South Africa.

quote:

Originally posted by Proofreader:
Does anyone have any string?

I'm setting up my own telephone system which will work better than Verizon does now. I've got enough tin cans but I need 23 miles of string to connect to my brother's house.

Roll your own DSL: call your phone company and request a dry copper pair.