#wireless woes

[emilybambi]

At this point it's funny that I just paid to replace my phones screen and I've already broken it twice. But really, why aren't iPhones more durable? Sometimes I miss Nokia bricks and Motorola flip phones.

[missivesfromtroy]

Ah....Net10

I have used Net10 for my phone service for about three years now. And 90% of the time, it works just fine. 

On those occasions when it doesn't work fine, their tech support is god awful. I mean, whoa. The errors they have are extra special and were I not someone who is at least passable at troubleshooting tech myself, I doubt that I'd have been able to get my service fixed the first time, let alone the third.

Today is the second time in my three year service that they've given me a ticket number and told me to call back in 24 hours. Last time, it was an obvious feint because the operator I had originally called didn't have enough training and know-how to fix the network error from their end. A problem the tech I subsequently called with the ticket number fixed in less than 5 minutes and with a certain degree of undisguised disgust for the three hours I'd spent on the phone for that problem up to that point. 

Today? Today I've spent considerably less time on the phone, though with very little actual conversation, and it has resulted in a ticket number and instructions to call back in 24 hours while the "error clears itself out of the system." No, seriously. Somehow, a day from now, the error I called about will have become self-aware and, overcome with shame, will delete itself from their system, never to be a nuisance again. And then, I will call their tech support with my magical ticket number and all will be well. Ha. Ha! I say. And ha again.

Dear Net10, I do like your service when it's working. More to the point, I like how cheap it is and that I don't need a contract. When it's not working, I hate calling your tech support, which is populated with people obviously working off a basic script, with a timer that prods them to say some "bear with me" bullshit line every few minutes, and in what is clearly only a (very noisy) call center and is not in fact an actual means of contacting someone in your employ who has a single iota of a clue what they're looking at when the system decides to go belly up. (By the way, I worry about your coding that things can go so catastrophically wonky with what is essentially regular wear-and-tear of the system.)

If this little upgrade I'm attempting is more trouble than it's worth, I will stick with what I've got, deprive you of that extra $25 a month, and ask for a refund of the $15 I've already shelled out for this stupid SIM card. Because I've gotten on this long without a smart phone, and all it's been is a bummer when I'm bored and of the mild kind of inconvenience most of us lived with only five or six years ago. Not the end of the world, believe me.

Sincerely, a customer who wishes you'd just bump me up to a better tech instead of feeding me a bullshit excuse and a ticket number.

[thesumofallmyfears]

My wireless is down...

Again, so I'm catching up on yesterdays lyric challenge, todays and tomorrows. It's something to do with my internet provider (not that they've bothered to inform us of any problems/maintenance), none of us can get online wirelessly, been sitting in the living room for a couple of hours. Better be up again by the weekend. 

[spinstitcherr]

THIS is why people don't change their passwords!

Because now my stupid laptop refuses to connect to the secure network. Because the school's website made me change my universal password, which is the password for the wireless. Only it's actually 2 (you authenticate a certificate, which uses your username AND password). 

so now I'm hanging out on the help network and checking my software updates (since the connection timeout thing is apparently a Lion problem...)