It has been quite a week, just in time for my next blog in my second round of the A to Z Blog Challenge. Most of my friends know that we live in a rural area, and we lack some of the “amenities” of those living in the city. Our Internet service has been slower than slow, but in spite of that fact, the company has insisted for years that 0.02 to 2.1 ghrz download speed is average, and worthy of their charges for “high-speed” Internet service. They will not upgrade any equipment until there are at least 200 new homes in our area, because they can’t afford it. Who are they trying to fool?
Two weeks ago, we learned that Costco has set up kiosks in their stores for the internet company, Primas. They were offering packages of VOIP phones and Internet service with a list of added services, at a much lower monthly rate than what we have been paying. We investigated as best we could, and even though they use the same installed equipment owned by Telus, the offer guaranteed a better service, and their monthly charge was certainly cheaper than our long-term “only” service in our area. We signed on the dotted line… and then the fun began.
Telus wants us to call them to discuss our reason for leaving their "wonderful" service. That’s not going to happen; they’ve had many opportunities to improve their service. Primas booked a technician to come to our home to insure a correct installation, and he arrived several days before the modems were delivered in the mail. When Telus migrated our telephone number to Primas, it was three days after their email message was sent to us, removing themselves from any association to our account. We did manage to keep our phone number, but when we used the phone, we could hear our callers “loud and clear”, but the caller could not hear us over the static noise on the line, and the continuing disconnects during a call.
I have become on a first name basis with “customer service” this week, all with different ideas on how to resolve the problems. Promised follow-up calls were not received by us, and the only timetable that was of any value, were those of the phone company. Yikes!
Today, we expected lunch guests from out of town, so in the middle of yet another “repair session”, I requested the technician to call me back in the afternoon because of previous plans in our home. He agreed, but we never did hear from him. HOWEVER, we received a phone call from a business associate during our meal, and the transmission worked perfectly. Somebody had found the problem, we presume!!!!
You should hear the opinions expressed by my husband, a former telephone technician fifty years ago. He still insists that the service then was much more reliable and simple in the “old days”, when we used those fancy dial phones. But… this generation is ‘hooked’ on the huge variety of electronics.
The Internet has become indispensable!
Tags: Communication A To Z Challenge Phones Internet
