Sunday, October 28, 2012

Fun with Tech Support

You know it's not going to end well when even the tech support guy on the phone sounds confused by what he sees. I've spent way too much time talking to CenturyLink's tech support this week. Our Internet died on Wednesday, mid-use. Phone was fine, just no broadband. And as I was trying to narrow it down to "their problem or mine" we get a call asking if we'd gotten the new modem for the new TV service. Which, no - the TV is satellite, and we don't (didn't) need a new modem. So I called Tech Support, got transferred at least once - because we have "special" broadband and had to call a different number than the main broadband TS number - and confused at least two people. Because apparently what our account says at CL is abnormal or something. Long story short, I spent Thursday waiting for the technician ("any time between 8 and 5" but you can call to see how is workload is). He spent an hour fiddling with things, inside and outside the house, left a new modem, and we have internet again. But, the Kindle now can't get a signal farther than halfway down the upstairs hall. With the old modem, I could get a signal all the way down to the basement door (two floors down). So, on Friday, another call to Tech about the possibility of boosting the signal. And hour and a call-back later, our account may be more accurate on their end, but our only solution is to buy another WiFi router and run the signal through it. And we may not have the "special" broadband - there's some confusion over whether we have bonded, fiber, DDSL, VDSL, or who-the-hell-knows. But at least we have internet again, although the Kindle is used a lot less when I can't netsurf on it. And apparently the trigger for this whole mess is that we called two weeks ago to cancel the inside wire maintenance plan ($5.99/month).