Communications cursed

As of 6:35 this morning, we have a fully functioning communications system in our home.  It's been so long, I can't even tell you.

We made the move Friday to digital phone and internet and kicked AT&T to the curb after years of lousy service, no service, and long waits for repairs that didn't last.  I can't say how free it feels to have a working telephone and internet connection.  What a concept!

But I'm getting ahead of myself.  We've had trouble for years with our land line and our internet (DSL through our phone line) because we live in an old neighborhood with lots of trees and consequently lots of squirrels.  In squirrel world, phone lines are a delicacy so we suffered from frequent outages and breaks, especially when it rained, was foggy, or the day broke with a heavy dew.  When moisture would get to our lines, we would hear lots of static, usually not be able to call out, and people calling us would get a busy signal.  Our internet would also go down completely.  Because we don't get or make lots of calls from our house, our first clue that things weren't working was usually when I noticed our internet was out.

A few years ago, we had lots of trouble.  We would lose service and wouldn't have any until the lines dried out again.  I realized the only solution was to make a nuisance of myself and made it a point to call each time it happened, but often by the time AT&T would look into it, the lines would be dried out and working.  During particularly rainy periods someone would be sent out to patch the lines and the patch would work for a little while and then a new hole would open up.  Eventually they had to own the issue and did some major line work.  We had service that was consistent for a couple of years and then this year it began again.  Moisture meant problems and my patience with the whole process thinned.

What we found this time around was that AT&T was even less enthusiastic about service, and once our connection went down it did not come up when the lines dried out.  We would be out for days.  I spent hours in coffee shops trying to catch up work and check emails on my iPad.  When I would call AT&T from my cell, I would be placed in a hold queue that lasted longer than the charge on my phone, and much longer than my ability to remain calm.  When my sister-in-law was dying, I needed to be in contact with my brother.  Unfortunately she passed at a time when my home phone was out (it was over a week that time) and I had to contact relatives via my iffy cell phone (we recently changed providers due to no service...a whole other story) and via email while sitting in Starbucks.  I told AT&T it was a critical time and I needed my phone and internet service and the "trained to be understanding" person on the phone said she would see if she could escalate my ticket. I never heard back and they did not show up any earlier than promised so I guess a dying family member did not qualify for urgency.  In fact, the reconnect date was moved back four additional days so AT&T could discover what I could have told them:  a squirrel chewed the line.

When we went down for the fourth time in less than two months and I could do nothing but submit a robo-ticket, I had to pull the plug.  (Note:  AT&T's helpful suggestion offered frequently while I was on hold told me I could submit my ticket online by visiting "AT&T.com/repair".  If only.)  The defining moment happened when I sat on my deck, calling from my iffy cell, after being on hold again for 30 minutes, and I reached someone who must have heard the angst in my tone.  She could see my previous repair tickets, I told her that I couldn't possibly wait over another long weekend with no phone or internet for them to repair a problem that I can diagnose.  She said she would visit with her supervisor and I would receive a call back.  I remained outside so my iffy cell could pick up the call and while I was putting things away in my shed my cell phone, sitting on our patio table, rang.  It went to voice mail before I could get to it but the message stunned me.  It was a robo-call stating that my request for an escalated ticket was denied.  They would not be out until the next week.

I told R we needed to get in the car and drive to the nearest wi-fi spot so I could switch services to the digital carrier that already provided our cable.  I had a bundle selected and saved in a shopping cart and all I needed to do was hit submit.  Off we went and I did what I should have done years ago but I kept hoping AT&T would make it right.  I set an installation date and never looked back.

That week, after my phone was repaired but before my new carrier was in place, I got a call from a very personable AT&T representative (did they know I was planning to switch?)  Her job title must be something like "Customer Support Specialist for Extremely Pissed Off Customers" and she began by apologizing for my trouble.  She said she would like to stop by and see me and give me her card so I could contact her whenever I had problems.  I told her that would be wasting both our time as I was dropping her company and moving on.  She asked if there was anything they could do to change my mind, and I told her I gave them multiple opportunities to provide service and they continually failed me.  She apologized again, asked again if there was anything they could do, and I said it was too little, too late.  It was a dignified breakup that was long overdue.  I did not shed a tear and I'm pretty sure they didn't either.  The squirrels were no longer their problem.

Soooooooo....my new provider and I have already developed a relationship such that I am now overly familiar with their canned hold music.  That's right, I'm communications cursed.  First off, my bundle was saved and submitted but it somehow lost many of the pieces that should have been included.  Since I did it at a coffee house, I couldn't print my confirmation page.  I did, fortunately, take a picture of it with my phone so I had a confirmation number but nothing else.  Their system changed my email address from the one I entered to one with their domain name, an address I have never had.  That's where my confirmation email was sent, with the details of my package.  Could they resend it to my real email address?  Um, no.  Can I have the package I submitted?  Not available any longer.  Can we get something close?  Yes, for another $40 per month.  No wait, $50 per month.  Can we build an alacarte package that will work for both of us?  We'll try.  After 45 minutes on the phone (I had to switch to the only tethered phone in the house, our basement phone, because the battery was dying on the mobile units) we settled on a package that was pretty close in price but with no cable upgrade.  I could live with that.  What about my scheduled installation date?  No longer available.  Of course not.

So we moved the installation back to last Friday, a day I had scheduled to be on vacation from work.  Good thing.  A very nice young man showed up and we discovered quickly the lines couldn't run into our house the same way they had earlier.  This meant my desktop computer would not be connected unless I get a wireless card installed so it can pull a signal from the modem/router downstairs.  Okay, I'll cross that bridge.  He also discovered our old cable lines from the outside box into our house needed replacing, and he showed me where he wanted to run them.  Two new holes in the side of my house -- why not.  He drilled the first hole and then I heard, "WE HAVE A PROBLEM!" and I came running.  He was trying to stem the spray of water from the pipe he hit with his big 'ole drill.  I ran back and forth between the basement (where the water was dripping and spraying) and the closet, (where he was holding his hand over the hole).  It was almost funny, really.  We finally figured out it wasn't a water pipe but was probably an old plumbing vent pipe that looked as if it was no longer used but probably had rainwater or some type of water collecting at the very bottom in and old stretch of lead pipe that was actually crimped and folded over on itself as a means to close it off.  Just above the lead pipe was a connection to galvanized but it was not clear why the pipe hadn't been capped on the galvanized end with the foot or so length of lead left in place.  We couldn't tell if the pipe was still being used but at any rate, the water drained out and his supervisor scheduled a visit from a plumber to fix it on Monday.  After apologizing profusely, he finished the phone and internet cable installation, tested them both, and I was tickled with the service on both.

Until yesterday night.  Friends came for dinner and asked why I wasn't answering my phone.  I told them it didn't ring.  They had tried to call all day and couldn't get me and we tried again with our cell phones.  The caller heard ringing but nothing at my house.  SIGH.....  We could call out and had a good dial tone, but no one could call us.

This morning I called our new provider at 6:00 a.m. and after some diagnostics, they got the phone to work.  I'm planning on testing it periodically to make sure, but I'm hopeful.  I was pleased with the customer service and quick response, early in the morning on a weekend.  We're a little worried because R was waiting to hear back from a job interview and he was supposed to get a call....yesterday....

Final note:  We had a robo-call last week on our answering machine from AT&T asking us to call and provide answers to a survey about their service.  I wrote down the number, grabbed a cup of tea, and settled in to offer up my considerable opinion.  I dialed, it rang, and then AT&T's final words to me were,  "This number is unavailable for service.  Please check your number or dial again."