SputterNet

Yesterday ended up being a day of follies. It started off with great intentions but it dwindled quickly. After a false start on a remodel of the bathroom on Monday, the tearing of tile started yesterday, though a few hours later than intended. By 11 a.m. something went wrong with the internet, such that it stopped working. Not a good thing when I was right in the middle of dealing with a bunch of emails and transfers of files for work.

Time to call ATT. Nothing like having a hard time getting a hold of them. First call results in person telling me there’s issues on the line (no shit?) and they need to send a tech out. Soonest they could arrive is this morning. In the meantime, I’m going through everything I can to reset the modem and get it running as it kept dropping the line.

Immediately needing to leave for a lunch meeting, I made another call in the car and was able to get a reduced rate from ATT for the next 6 months. That’s a good thing. Arrive at the lunch meeting to find the other person wasn’t there. Uh, ok, a phone call later finds that it was double booked and now rescheduled for last night.

Get back to the studio to spend another couple of hours on the phone with ATT to a tech in India who takes about 30 minutes attempting to confirm my account with ATT.

** NOTE TO ALL AMERICAN COMPANIES OUTSOURCING TO INDIA FOR CUSTOMER CALLS – FUCK YOU. **

I have no issue with people in India needing a job or with the people themselves. But this outsourcing bullshit – it’s got to go. You waste more of your time explaining things over and over when they can’t understand what you’re saying and visa versa. Now they won’t even patch you through to an American, which is highly fucked up.

I finally get the modem reset and working, at less than 1/6th my normal speed. At least I was kinda able to work.

Tech arrived this morning. Examined the line and said it was fine. Tested the line in the house and determined there was an issue with the wiring that could easily be solved by using a filter on the jack. Which incidentally he was kind enough to give me for free. Net is now back up to normal speed. But I will say – VERIZON get your FIOS serving ass into my neighborhood as soon as you can. I’m tired of slow shitty service and I’d like to have Fiber speeds.