Rant I just need to vent a little...

So we returned from a lovely vacation in Lanzarote at 01:00 on the 24th of december. We came home to a fully decorated, x-mas prepped house and were due holiday visitations the following day. Understandably the children were quite antsy after the five hour flight and the following bus and car trip to get us back home. So, we turned on the TV and let them fall asleep to some x-mas shows. Everything seemed to be in perfect order. As we got up the next day I went to turn the TV back on to saturate our minds and the house with x-mas cheer and cartoons (as we do each year). Unfortunately, now - roughly eight hours later - none of our services was up; internet down, and thus TV was down. Since this was a weekend and a holiday, it meant I couldn't call our ISP until the following tuesday. Fine. It's annoying as ****, but it happens so what can you do?

Now, three and a half weeks later and we still haven't gotten our services back up. I've been calling our ISP more or less daily these past two weeks, and I've been chat-spamming them, registering error cases on their self-help service, but to no avail. I'm always told that they will escalate the problem, and expect it to be fixed shortly. But so far; nothing has happened. The first week I called them I was told that because of the thunderstorm during the holidays they did have a lot to handle, and a bunch of customers had lost their services. And because of this they were getting a bit delayed. Fine. I understood and accepted that, but now? Soon to be four weeks later?

Why is this taking so long? Why can no-one in customer support or technical support tell me why this is taking so long to fix? How long should I wait before I cancel our contract and look elsewhere?

Now, I have to point out that overall I'm more than satisfied with the service our ISP has provided these past six years. There has never been a problem like this before, and whenever we have lost services in the past they were back up again within two-three days. I just don't understand why this is taking so long this time.

There are other ISPs of course, but all of them demand exorbitant startup fees (we're talking roughly £500 for establishing the service, £150 as a one-time router-rental fee and £150 for TV-service startup fee. And then of course comes the running rental cost. Our current ISP didn't have any of this; they just sent us a router and let me hook it up with no startup fee attached to it.

Right now I'm sort of at a loss for what to do, but I'm thinking I'll give them a couple more days and then I'll start to shop around a bit - but there is one ISP I will not even consider - one of the main competitors of our current ISP.

 

Ouch that sucks man. I've found when they don't take you seriously then just the threat of leaving them does the trick.

 

Yes that is my ace up the sleeve I suppose. I will call or chat them later today, but I expect I will be told - once more - that they will escalate the problem and have it fixed shortly (within two to five days).

What makes this even worse is that just before x-mas I bought Deus Ex: MD - and I haven't really had the time to play it yet, but now I could. Unfortunately Steam demands an internet connection before allowing me to play it...

 

Tell them there is medical monitoring equipment that is no longer reporting and you're scared somebody might have an issue that is not picked up.

 

Finally I think I may have gotten someone competent on chat!
This one simply couldn't fathom that the problem hadn't been adressed long ago (he could see all the logs), and assured me that he would personally ensure the case was forwarded directly to an ambulatory tech-unit (seems to be a case of line-break - maybe one of the neighbours were digging ditches some time between 03:00 and 10:00 at the 24th of december). I was also promised compensation.

So, if this one is finally able to solve the problem I shall compose a sonata in his honor.

 

Hope you can compose it quick, before he gets fired for competence!