Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Frustration Abounds!

I don't know if I can blame it on sun-spot activity (which is now the highest since 2005) or a bad router, but our computers have been on-line only a bit in the last 4 days. We get on-line and either 2 seconds or 20 minutes later, we lose the ability to connect. It is frustrating as hell. 

I spent 30 minutes on the phone this morning with our cable company tech support. The "first tier" helper was very nice and easy to understand, but she couldn't help me.  The "second tier" person (assigned to the National Help Desk, as they call it) was from Outer Mongolia or Timbuktu or maybe Saturn, and I didn't speak her language. She had a colorless personality, no sense of humor and no ability to vary her speech tones, so everything she said sounded alike - none of which I could decipher. It was very apparent that she was speaking from a script and all she knew how to do was repeat the script - not helpful at all. 

She blamed the trouble on our router, and considering it is about six years old, I decided to buy a new one. So off I went to run errands and when I got back, our computers were running perfectly well with the old router. GAH! Now I will have to return it. GAH, again! Why don't they hire (and keep) people who can solve problems?!

18 comments:

LL Cool Joe said...

I had that recently too, but I have to say it's useful having a spare router around because they do seem to suddenly die!

OldLady Of The Hills said...

I find calling any computer-support very very frustrating---Actually, it's not just computer support---it could be Cable, and/or ten other places---We have outsourced so much of our work force to other country's....The language barrier alone is VERY VERY Frustrating, so...I Understand Your Pain, my dear....!

Kay Dennison said...

Because people with brains are in short supoly

Lynn said...

My new desktop computer has been difficult to start up sometimes - I push the start button, it makes a little noise and it cuts off. I usually could get it going after several tries.

So I called Dell and got a nice young man in India (I think) who promptly sold me some diagnostic software for $117 (called System Mechanic. (He installed it remotely.) I hung up scratching my head. So somehow I ended up paying more for something that should have worked correctly in the first place. (His explanation was all the "junk" files I had accumulated. I just read email and blog on this computer.)

Evil Twin's Wife said...

Computer issues are such a PITA. We bought a new router months ago, and it's fine (knock on wood), but I need to program the new codes into my wireless printer. Guess who has been putting that off??? LOL.

Pat said...

Some days I have to switch off 2 or 3 times to get things working on line.
It's the stupid messages explaining it that are irritating.

Nancy said...

Someone told me about the interview when that young woman was hired as tech support.It went something like this:

Interviewer:
"In order to be hired here you must use these three words in a sentence."
GREEN...PINK...YELLOW

Applicant:
"Telephone go "GREEN GREEN GREEN" I "PINK" it up and say "YELLOW".

The interviewer screamed' "You're hired. Now your first call is a Mrs. Kenju."

Celia said...

So sorry, mine usually turns out to be the cable company. We do have cable hung on lines and any energetic weather produces an amazing assortment of PC ailments on my end. It usually comes back up and I am none the wiser as to what happened.

Ginnie said...

I just keep my fingers crossed ... it's all beyond me !

Grannymar said...

When my computer/router acts up, I give up and go for a walk! Most times being ignored makes the offender work!

Arkansas Patti said...

The other morning I could not connect to Microsoft with either computer. It cleared up by mid day. I am blaming the solar rays.
So glad you are OK now.

sage said...

Glad things are running again, but router problems can be a pain!

Gilly said...

Our computer "experts" are all in India - and I find it terribly hard to understand them. I don't like to appear racist, but I do wish they would teach their advisers to speak slowly and with clearer English.

Incidentally, when we find it hard to go online or very slow, I turn the router off, wait a few seconds, then turn it on again. Usually - Bingo!

Granny Annie said...

Same problems happening here. Had to reset my router the other day after it suddenly quit for no reason. All was well after that but computer was still going very slow. I'm pretty sure it is all out of our control as well as the control of tech support and we're just going to have to wait this one out.

By the way, I knew computer contact could transfer real viruses because Ron and I both caught your awful bug and if this headache doesn't go away soon I'm going to explode!

Darlene said...

If you happen to stop by my blog you will find that I am having a different kind of computer problem. Computers are like men; you can't live with them and can't throw them out the window.

JeanMac said...

Oh, I feel for you - been there!

sonia a. mascaro said...

Yes, computer problem is always bad! As I live in country, a pc running ok is very important to me.

Have a nice weekend!

Anonymous said...

Darlene--Asked with tongue in cheek, "What makes you think we cannot throw them out the window?"
Cop Car