Rant: TM Net's customer service (actually TM also)

I've been sickly these past few days and yesterday I stayed at home mainly to sleep because I haven't been getting enough of dreamtime. But of course, you can't sleep the whole day and like it or not, about 11:30 a.m. my eye popped open and light flooded in.

Anyway, after taking care of "the-stuff-you-do-when-you-wake-up" and having lunch, I boot up my PC to go online for a bit.

Remember my last couple of posts - first complaining about a dead internet connection, then about James telling me it's been fixed, sort of? Well, I got to put it to test. And I can unequivocally say that the problem HAS NOT BEEN FIXED.

Sites took ages to load up - playing Utopia was a pain. Can't surf Amazon or eBay properly even. AND, the dodgy line kept dropping calls.

So, what's the problem? It's a dodgy line. When the lightning struck, it took out the phone connection that connects to my modem. So we swapped that connection with the other phone lines running in the house and it works in this crippled sort of way.

What's MY problem? We called TM Net AND TM to fix the problem and all the could do is keep telling us over the phone that on their side everything was working. We spelt it out to them that the phone line is probably fried or a port was fried, and they said "check your modem."

Come on, we just bought a new modem and a new router. I even went to the trouble of borrowing Kelvin's modem to try it out - it works in his house, not in mine.

We asked if a technician could come over and check our wiring - we don't mind paying for the technician - and they said "it's not our job." Pfeh! Then who does the wiring and connecting of phone lines to your house when you first move in? why are we paying the line rental charges for? I get it if it isn't a free service, but still, who can normal citizens turn to when faced with a problem like this?

Anyway, it's been one and a half weeks since the lightning struck and I don't reckon we'll be getting a stable internet connection soon. Our gameplan? Call TM and TM Net and harrass the customer service people till we get someone to come over and have a look at the rig.

I guess that's how customer service works with them - don't answer till you've been harassed X number of times.

Happy, happy, joy, joy!

Brother just messaged me:

Darth Razor (James Lian) - YAY! NO! says:
eh
Darth Razor (James Lian) - YAY! NO! says:
fix alread
Darth Razor (James Lian) - YAY! NO! says:
already
Darth Razor (James Lian) - YAY! NO! says:
but
davidlian thinks you should get Happy says:
how it fixed?
Darth Razor (James Lian) - YAY! NO! says:
well
Darth Razor (James Lian) - YAY! NO! says:
I did what u said
Darth Razor (James Lian) - YAY! NO! says:
but I change a bit
Darth Razor (James Lian) - YAY! NO! says:
I took the modem
Darth Razor (James Lian) - YAY! NO! says:
go to mummy's room
Darth Razor (James Lian) - YAY! NO! says:
connect the modem to the top
Darth Razor (James Lian) - YAY! NO! says:
DSL lighted
Darth Razor (James Lian) - YAY! NO! says:
but couldn't connect
Darth Razor (James Lian) - YAY! NO! says:
called TMNet
Darth Razor (James Lian) - YAY! NO! says:
did some DNS changes
Darth Razor (James Lian) - YAY! NO! says:
can connect
Darth Razor (James Lian) - YAY! NO! says:
so it means that the wall port in our family room something wrong
Darth Razor (James Lian) - YAY! NO! says:
he said that TM doesn't support this
Darth Razor (James Lian) - YAY! NO! says:
and anyway
Darth Razor (James Lian) - YAY! NO! says:
it is most unlikely that the lightning strike was the one that caused the port to have problems
Darth Razor (James Lian) - YAY! NO! says:
so
davidlian thinks you should get Happy says:
yeah i know
davidlian thinks you should get Happy says:
so how?
Darth Razor (James Lian) - YAY! NO! says:
dunno la
davidlian thinks you should get Happy says:
haha... lol
davidlian thinks you should get Happy says:
good lah
davidlian thinks you should get Happy says:
fast or not?
davidlian thinks you should get Happy says:
or still buggy?
Darth Razor (James Lian) - YAY! NO! says:
normal speed
Darth Razor (James Lian) - YAY! NO! says:
the DSL dials almost immediately
Darth Razor (James Lian) - YAY! NO! says:
means that all this while it has been our wall port's problem

It's great to have worked around our Streamyx problem. No thanks to the lazy Streamyx people who wouldn't even come and check it out for us. Sigh. What about the much less technical people with no aptitude for a workaround like this?

*Saving my long rant for another post, it deserves one*