A Forced Hiatus!

Okay, just about the time I was getting my act back together with my blogging, my friends at AT&T pulled the rug out from under me. Yeah, I have still have AOL old-fashioned dial-up internet. I lost phone service briefly last month, but was back up and running in about day. This time, however, after arguing with their computer system for a spell, I was left hanging. Allegedly the problem was not with their system but with mine.

 

This latest outage occurred last Tuesday. I reported the problem and was told someone would have to come to my home to check out my wiring. In the meantime I switched jacks, replaced phone wires, tried different phones - everything I could think to do. Still there was nothing. No dial tone at all. I suspected my friendly AT&T computer system was mistaken and that the problem was theirs.

 

Having heard nothing by the next day, I re-reported the problem. This time (I suppose because of the re-reporting) I was eventually allowed to speak to a human being. I was told that a repairman would come see me on Saturday. "What - I gotta wait the rest of the week without my service?"

 

Yes, I was told, that would be the next time a serviceman would be in my area. This irked me more than just a bit because I'm not living out in the sticks. (I suppose this is yet another example of how corporate cost-cutting really means more inefficient service for customers.)  I thought about how bad it would be if I were an elderly man living alone and, say, suffering from heart disease or something serious like that and needed emergency personnel.

 

As the week dragged by and I missed my friends here at my new blog (as well as other things, like reading online newspapers), I was beginning to think about telling AT&T to kiss my AS&S. But the repairman I deal with was so friendly and helpful (even counseling me, just like a good representative should, about how much better my life would be with their DSL service, and it would be cheaper to boot), and he found that indeed the problem was theirs and not mine, plus he placed me on a new line entirely to assure I wouldn't have another problem, I guess I will wait until I investigate other options before parting company with them. Anyway, I need a land line for my mother to make her regular pace maker checks.  

 

It was yesterday afternoon before my service was repaired and the rest of my day was fairly busy, so I didn't have a chance to get back to my blog before now. With this explanation I apologize for having neglected the comments left on my last post and will try again to get back to normal with this thing.