Tech support

I've had to call my internet service provider's tech support office from time to time because our connection has never been as stable as we'd like. They're always very nice, and sometimes they've found things to change or upgrade but problems kept coming back. Occasionally they'd wonder aloud about my router, but we never got perfectly serious about that.

Last week I got exasperated. Sure, the internet almost always works, but I just couldn't abide the "almost" business any longer. I called the ISP again to see if my neighbor's recent telephone work might have messed up our connection. But wait: I have to pause here. I say, "I called the ISP again" like it's no big deal. In fact, it really isn't a big deal at all. I call, they answer. I never have to wait, and I never have to puzzle over some sort of undecipherable foreign accent. The folks who answer work right across town and some of them even offer to speak English with me. If I called my American ISP, Verizon, I'd be on hold for 30-40 minutes and end up talking to somebody in India who wants to take me through a fixed menu of obvious steps before "escalating" my call to a competent technician.

Anyway, the guy I talked to on Friday told me that he couldn't see anything wrong from his end and he'd like to loan me a modem for a couple of weeks so I can see if a different one works better. I thanked him, but didn't do anything right away, hoping the problem would mysteriously go away again. The internet worked badly over the weekend and I resolved that I'd have to take him up on his offer but made no specific plans to do so. So he called me back on Tuesday and reminded me that he wanted to loan me a better modem. I promised to come see him today.

I didn't go to his office until late in the day, and he became exasperated. He called me at 3 p.m. to remind me that I may need a new modem and he's ready to loan me one. "OK," I said, "I'll be there in 45 minutes." When I finally arrived, my guy had gone home but his associate expected me. When I walked into his office, he greeted me in English, and tested my old modem. It worked OK so he gave it back to me and told me to wait while he went to get me a loaner. While he was out, another associate passed through the office, greeting me in English. Apparently they have good intra-office communication.

They didn't have a combined modem/router like I used before, so they brought me two separate devices and made me a special short cable to connect them neatly. As a matter of fact, they gave me the whole package; though I'm supposed to return the modem and router when I finally close my account. The new equipment made a huge difference and our internet speeds have taken a big jump. All this service comes with a data plan costing just over ten bucks a month. I won't even tell you what our slower internet costs in Boston. This is better.

[For my readers in Belarus, I'm using adsl.by and I'm on the X3 plan.]