if i'm paying you to do something, at least do it right!

Just my Luck

All my life, I've been asked "Are you EVER not smiling???" My family knows me better as the girl whos always angry and very tempermental.. and here... here is proof that yes.. there are times where I'm just downright ANGRY.. where if I was able to reach my hand thru the mode of communication.. I'd surely be convicted of murder. And honestly, for those of you who ask that question.... do you REALLY think people are just always happy??? They're just like you!

So.. here it goes....

GOsh, how I love my different service providers. I love them so much I call them every morning.. JUST to chat. HAHA... I'm not even kidding. Last month, I called my internet provider everyday.. sometimes I'd call them 2-3 times a day just for kicks. But now that school has started, I decided I shouldn't be so close and chummy with my internet provider, and it was such a one-sided relationship. I was giving all this love and affection, yet they never gave any in return. That's when I decided it was time to move on- I deserved someone bigger and better... Charter of course! Goodbye DSL that never worked.. and HELLO CABLE INTERNET! The salesman was nice (as they always are when you're buying something and helping their commission) and the hope of consistent working internet was  what sold me. Cable is MUCH better than DSL is what everyone told me. So.. ALRIGHTY then.. count me IN! DIGITAL TELEPHONE AND CABLE INTERNET!!! WHOO WHOO!!

(And for those of you who don't know.. if there is a catastrophe.. which there might possibly be one soon, and there is a power outage.. not only will your cell phone not work (and if it does, it'll probably be sooo jammed that you can't use it anyways) BUT neither will your digital telephone line. It IS a land line, but it runs on digital signals, so it's JUST like your cell. Kind of defeats the purpose of buying a land line, hm? But if the rates are about $60 for internet ONLY  or about $64 for internet and telephone.. then of COURSE I'm getting internet and telephone. I'll figure something out if there is a major catastrophe. And what's the point of having a working phone if NO ONE ELSE has a working phone~ HA! Anyhow.. so the story continues)

So, I signed up with Charter Internet and Telephone, and they are coming to connect it and then help me cancel my old telephone service. 2 days ago, (Thursday),  my telephone line gets cut. O_O I call Charter.. they tell me a bunch of hocus pocus and say I need to contact Verizon myself and tell them to reactivate my line.. because Charter can't hook up my number if the number isn't currently in service. Okay! I was just glad this person spoke English. So I called Verizon.... after responding to their automated  system for about 20 minutes and then being transferred to one department to another by the automated system, the message of "please call during our regular working hours". RIGHT~ coudln't they have put that in at the BEGINNING of the automated system?

Fine.. my fault.. so I call them back the next day. YAY! Another nice lady who speaks English.. (yes.. that IS important! If you've ever had to call for tech support more 50 times a month, you'd understand how important that is!) So she helps me and says she'll get everything take care of. :D YAY! I come home, only to find out my brother ALSO called Verizon that morning, and THEY told him they can't do anything because the "other company" has already taken the Number! O_O More Hocus Pocus.

So, today, I called Charter. I had a few things I needed to discuss with them. I decided Internet was more important, so hello Tech Support! And you guessed it, an INDIAN person. Apparently you can't be in Tech Support if you're not Indian. So, this kind lady with a SUPER soft voice tries to help me.. only to find out I'm just annoying. And it doesn't help she doesn't really understand the language, nor does she know what's going on. So I tell her about my SLOW internet.. how it takes fastest 10 seconds to load a page.. sometimes 1 minute if i'm somewhat lucky, and even 8 minutes. So anyhow.. she tries to help me by telling me 5 different sites I can do a speed test (which i've already done 5 times before calling her. When I'm getting 74 kbps download speed.. there is something wrong. I'm NOT paying $60 a month for snail mail!) So.. she has me go to different websites, and she doesn't even know what she's doing. She has me READ the entire page because she asks me "what do you see?" HAHA.. But i guess that's kinda nice.. I found that to be pretty comical.. so I'd chuckle instead of yell at her. Then I ask her how many kbps I'm SUPPOSED to get with 1Mbps.... she "finds out for me." So.. instead of putting me on "hold" she chats with the guy and girl around her.. and they try and help her with all her questions.. HAHA.. and then she tells me.. Oh yes... your number is 74%.. and that's how much speed you're supposed to be getting. HAHAHAH BUNCH OF BULL! So, I did my own research.. and for those of you who are interested.. 8 kbps (kilobits/sec)= 1 kBps (kilobytes/sec); approx 1000 kBps= 1Mbps; therefore.. I should be getting approx 8000 kbps for my 1 Mbps! RIGHT!???  and 74 is DEFINITELY NOT 8,000... Not even close. (so.. tech support people.. they're often not as smart as you think they are. Or maybe just the girls. BWAHAHAH)

So...after an hour and a half of pleasant conversation..... they're going to send me a technician on the 19th. Yes.. the 19th. Today is only the 13th.. that means.... another week of... No internet! GOsh, i can't even remember the last time i've had working internet.... something like.... August 5th.. or something. HA! So.. for those of you.. YES.. it IS possible to live without internet. So.. then I complained about paying so much a month and I'm not even getting internet service... what to do what to do.. is this something I should call billing about? Or try and reach the manager? or is this something worth taking a few days off and visiting their corporate office and toileting their building for? Hm.. what to do...

So, yada yada.. then I have her transfer me to their telephone department. YAY! A happy/ upbeat sounding guy named Philip who speaks ENGLISH! YAY!!! Nice guy.. helps me with my problem.. (apparently it was already resolved).. I can only say.. Lucky guy- didn't have to hear me rant and rave.

So.. I guess there ARE nice people who work at Charter. Ha ha.

Now that I'm done.. I feel MUCH better.. *sigh* :) alrite.. time to get cracking with my hw! I've got a discussion board due at 6:00 PM today.. except NO ONE knows where to post it.. cuz our teacher hasn't opened a section for it.. and they are not responding to our questions.. Gotta love them professors! 

And on a more positive note.. I LOVE MY KIDS AND MY AIDS! :D Nothing quite beats kicking, screaming, and running kids that bite! :) I've got my first bite bruise.. it's lovely :) As they say.. a bite mark is more official than a credential. ;)

Earthlink....Yes to internet?

I think it's "almost" safe to say.. .. "I have internet, and my internet works!" :)

So, the madess started August 5th. Fine, it started LONG before that. My intermittent internet problems started when I had Verizon, but I never really DID anything about it. I'd call tech support and have them help me trouble shoot my problem. But after being on hold for 20 mins or so, I'd get so angry and frustrated that I'd much rather just not use the internet than deal with the customer service people.

After a while, we decided it was time to fix the problem. We changed to Earthlink. August 5th, we got Earthlink. When the sun was up, the internet worked. When the sun went down at around 7:30, the internet went down. And it would stay off until about 7-8 in the morning. Oh..... it drove us NUTS!!! But since I just got the internet, I intended on keeping it. And since I was on summer break... I had NOTHING but time.. TIme, TIME, and MORE TIME! So.. my phone calls started. I started out nice... talking patiently to one Indian person after another. I started out with 1 call a day. But after being tossed around... and having them trouble shoot my computer but only to be faced with the same problem 5 mins after i hung up, I decided to call back-- escalating to about 2 calls a day. Soon I was making calls to Earthlink at 4 in the morning (because their people who handle trouble tickets work from 7-12 Eastern time). But when I called, they told me to call back in an hour because their line technicians are Pacific Standard time... and don't work until later. Bunch of hocus pocus. But yeah.. good times..... So.. after bothering them.. and bothering them.. i finally got them to agree to send a line technician out to my house.

The morning of the appointed time.. i receive a call from them saying "we fixed the line at the head office, so we're not sending anyone out." BOOOO more hocus pocus!!! BUt as it turns out, the problem wasn't fixed. My internet STILL wasn't working at night. (But remember, everytime my internet isn't working.. they're not working~ so.. they NEVER really know what my problem is.)

So, i make more phone calls. And they agree to send someone out again. And this time, they DO come! yay! sO, they fix my DSL line, but I still can't get online. I call, they say "there's something wrong with the signal taht's coming out." So.. after a day, they try and fix it and trouble shoot my computer again... and now..... i've had internet for 1.5 days....

1.5 days........ of good internet.... Hopefully it's here to stay. :) August 5- August 22...... 17 days of hard work...I hope it's paid off! :D

Don't attempt this if you have work... because it simply isn't possible. This should only be attempted if you've got nothing better to do than sit in front of your computer and listen to horrible elevator music for hours at a time. :) and I'm not kidding when i say HOURS. But hopefully... these 17 days have paid off... and i will now have internet for $20 a month :)

*sigh*

And now... school begins.

Earthlink, Earthlink, ...Earthlink....

Oh.. how that makes my blood boil. Just the sound of it makes me want to yank out my hair, squint my eyes, and throw my phone across the room and pray it does some serious damage. I just recently (4 days ago) changed my internet provider to Earthlink becuase my previous one was giving me a lot of unnecessary problems and headache. I switched over, thinking Earthlink DSL would be SIGNIFICANTLY better.. and what I mean is.. I'll have internet connection.. even if it IS super slow. But to my disappointment, I've had problems the 4 days I've had it. EVERY night from 7:30 PM to 5 AM the internet hardly works.... or sometimes DOESN't even work! The connection is sporadic, and connection speed awful. I've had upload speeds of 124, 115, and even 9 and 5!! YES.. and those are in kbps.. not even mbps! O_O yes.... i said "5". With those awful speeds, i HAD to call their tech support. And like many other tech support places.. they're always Indian. WHY is that? And someone has brought to my attention, they're always Indians with a THICK accent with regular names like "Bob, and John". O_O most peculiar. So, the 4 days I"ve had it, I've called their technical support a minimum of 7 times already!! 7 times! O_O

This morning at 1:20 AM ish, I called it, and the kind lady helped me fix it. We disconnected it, rebooted it, turned it on and off.. all the regular troubleshooting stuffs, and she got it to work. I thanked her, hung up and was overjoyed that my internet was working again. After 5 minutes, the internet stopped working again. I called back and they coudln't help me becuase  their "tools were down for maintenance, so please call back in 2 hours." Bunch of hocus pocus.

So, right now, it's 12:20 AM ish, and my internet isn't working so hot again. So I call that ever so familiar number which i probably know just as well as my home phone number. I call and spend 5 minutes trying to tell the computer automated system the reason why i'm calliing "i need technical support because my internet isn't working." The computer asks numerous questions.. then tells me "there's a system outage, It should be resolved in an hour. Please call back later, we will now disconnect you." And i get disconnected.

REALLY!? O_O REALLY!?O_O this is unbelievable! Makes me want to scream!

8 Days and Counting

The school year is almost over. In 8 days, I will say my goodbyes to the 5 kids I've chased for the last 6 months. We will enjoy our last game of "character" duck duck goose, blow our final Cars bubbles, and fight over Cars and Ratpatootie Leapster games for the last time. No longer will I need to slip and slide in the boys bathroom or chase escapees on the lawn. Singing and dancing animals will be at rest while zooming helicopters stay in place. No longer will I need to give wiggles, tickles, and blast-offs. My pockets can be emptied of cheezits, goldfish, and various candies. And most of all, I can once again wear the clothes that are hanging in my closet. Goodbye jeans, sneakers, and collared shirts. :)

With that said... oh I'll miss the kids. I'll miss the smiles and the hugs, the grins and the games. But most of all, I'll miss the little moments when they surprise you with what they are capable of.

YAY to summer! :D