Tuesday, February 19, 2008

WARNING: This item is set to explode one day after your warranty expires...

I got into a bit of a tussle with my internet provider yesterday. We have a router that, in theory, should provide wifi. Unfortunately we have not been able to connect to said wifi ever.
Last night, I decided that I was going to take the time to figure out why. WELL, I read the manual and managed to get the wifi turned on and Jon's computer working, etc, but right away I noticed people popping up on it. It seems that it wasn't locked. The instructions were not clear as to how I could set a password. I wanted it protected just because of all of the scary stuff I've heard about identity theft and what not.

I call the provider for tech support. The lady is very nice, it seems promising.
Then it happens.

She tells me she needs to run a quick test. I say, "OK."
Then she has me click a few boxes and suddenly nothing works. No internet at all.
I tell her this and she says, "Well I see that you purchased your router back in 2004. This means the warranty is expired, and from the test I just ran it shows that it isn't working properly and has not been for some time. You can purchase or lease a router from us if you would like. Yours is broken and will no longer connect you to the internet."

I say, "WHAT????? It was not broken when I called, I've never had problems with it! I was just trying to password protect the wifi!! I was not calling because it was not working! It was working before you messed with it!!"

She says, "I'm sorry miss, there is nothing that can be done. We would be happy to lease one to you with low monthly payments."

I hung up after going round and round with her. She was like talking to a brick wall. Just telling me it was broken and I needed a new one over and over and offering to sell me a new one. I could not deal with her anymore. I knew she was full of crap and I am too much of a lady to flip out on her. I'm sure she is just doing what she was told to do by some higher up. To avoid losing my temper I told her goodbye.

I knew this HAD to be some kind of scam. I was not born yesterday and have a few years of tech support under my belt not to mention I'm in sales and can smell a hard sell coming from a million miles away.

I went through the whole manual, found out how to reset the machine back to factory settings, then I reloaded the whole damn thing on my computer. Guess what? My "broken router" is working better than ever and has wifi and everything.

Imagine that.

As for the provider, what a scam, right??? I have a feeling we might be getting a new one, sooner than later. I am not pleased with their service at all.

1 comments:

Sloop said...

I totally sympathize. Calling anyone for tech support is probably my least favorite thing about being an adult. This sort of unhelpful conversation seems to happen most of the time.

 

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