LaurenandLloyd.com

where our wasted time becomes your wasted time

internet

They were entirely reasonable

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A few months ago, after Time Warner Cable (through some arcane rite) became Spectrum, I noticed the amount on my credit card statement was $74.99. That number didn’t seem right, so I looked at the paper bill. I don’t know why they send a paper bill, but it has come in handy. The month before it was $59.99. That amount still seemed high to me, but it’s more or less in line with what people pay for internet.

I called them up. I was all ready to give them a piece of my mind and threaten to go to some other company. Luckily, we happen to have another company that I can switch to. Pretty soon we will have two other companies, but they started in the south and are working their way north instead of starting at my house and working their way outward from here as I suggested.

When they asked why I called, I said that, “My bill is too high.” The guy I talked to, who happened to be out of Lincoln, said that he would take a look. A bit later he said that he could see that I used to be paying $59.99 per month and he would see what he could do. A little bit after that he got back on the line and said that he could lower the rate back to $59.99 and double our internet speed. I said that that would be fine.

Fast forward to yesterday. I notice a Spectrum bill in the mail (as well as yet another offer to bundle things together); I think they spend half of the money I send them on mailing things back to me. Just to keep them honest, I open the bill. They have raised my rate from $59.99 to $64.99. I’m a little bit miffed, but I know what to do.

I called and said, “My bill is too high.” The nice lady on the other end said that she would see what she could do. A minute later she came back on the line and said that she had lowered my rate to $44.99 and, without me saying anything, said that she had made sure that it would be at least a year before that rate could be raised. I thanked her and wished her a good day.

I don’t know if I’m an isolated case, or if they just raise prices every so often to see if people notice. If you notice, they make it a better deal than before. If you don’t notice, you keep paying more. Seems like a reasonable way to run a company –as long as you can sleep at night.

No world wide web

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The internet was (actually still is) down at Lincoln Lutheran for most of the day today. I told Windstream of our woes around 10:30 and bothered them every hour for an update on what they had found. Finally, at about 3:00, the 7th guy I talked to said that they had been, “really busy” and no one had actually even looked at my problem yet. Thanks Windstream.

Being without internet is more of a thing than it was even two years ago. Our teachers and students use it for getting assignments, working on them and turning them in. I spent most of the day in conversations like this:

everyone at school: When is the wi-fi going to be working?
me: The wi-fi is working.
everyone at school: Did it just come back?
me: No, it’s been working all day.
everyone at school: huh?

At this point I generally just walk off. Usually –here I’m just assuming– they figure out the difference between the wi-fi and the Internet. But if they don’t, I don’t really care at this point.

Eventually Jim from Windstream came by (I told the last Windstream guy I talked to to change our business hours to 8:00am to 8:00pm, because today was Awards Night, and I would be here anyway.) He couldn’t figure out why they had dispatched him without first doing some off-site diagnostics. I theorized with him that it was done mostly in an attempt to slow down the rate at which I was calling them.

Jim was nice, and seemed to know what he was doing, but a series of unfortunate coincidences (including, but not limited to a tornado warning) kept him from actually fixing the problem. He did, however, diagnose the problem.  There was evidently a light that won’t light on one side*. He took it back to his workshop to fix it up there and bring it back here. He’s actually going to try to bring it back tonight.

I’ve arranged a secret knock between Jim and our custodian Todd, so Todd can, at least theoretically, let Jim in. Jim says that best case scenario is that our internet might be back up in about two hours. Worst case scenario is, in his words, “a while”.

 

 

 

*It is actually quite surprising how accurate a description of the problem this turns out to be. The SFP that converts the light in the fiber optic cable from light to electrical impulses is receiving light correctly, but is failing to turn the corresponding electrical impulses back to light for the return trip.