Tuesday, November 19, 2013

The Dark Ages

My day started off innocently enough! TV on to catch the weather forecast, chasing Oliver to eat his breakfast and clean his teeth before school, Jamie was staying home as his asthma was really bad.
 
All normal enough. Then at 10:20am, the hammer fell!! The TV went off, I couldn't email, my land line phone was dead, WiFi was out - we had no internet or cable service!
 
After 30 minutes I called Xfinity. It was a recorded message, part of which gleefully advised me that I could check the status of my connection and/or repairs using my handheld device, PC or laptop!! Really? I can do that............ when I have no service? Amazing! The recorded message proceeded to tell me that there was an outage in my area, that Xfinity would work around the clock to fix the problem and they expected service to be back later in the day!! WHAT??
 
I work from home, suddenly I was dead in the water! I hate having my plans changed like that. So I went grocery shopping instead. Jamie and I came home and ate lunch.
 
12:00 noon = no service
1:00pm = no service
 
I called Xfinity again, their recorded message still advises to use my computer to check on outages, but also adds that service should be restored by 2:00pm. OK, that's not so bad, we can deal with that. I can catch up with my work later. Jamie is a little bored but I persuade him that another hour isn't long to wait.
 
2:00pm = no service
 
Xfinity's recorded message now announces that "We are not accepting calls at this time." Wonder why?"
 
I resort to cleaning, how bad is my life? Jamie is a little fed up but is playing a computer game that does not require online connectivity. When he tires of that we sit and watch a DVD together 'The Last Mimsy.' I quite like that movie, mainly because the rabbit is so cute!
 
3:00pm = no service
4:00pm = no service
 
The Xfinity not so helpful helpline now advises that the outage will be fixed by three. In which time zone I wonder!
 
5:00pm and Jamie and I head over to the school to collect Oliver who has stayed late for a group. We eventually get back at 5:25pm, and lo and behold, all services are now back on!!
 
But no office work for me, now it's time to prepare dinner, help with homework and generally get on with household and parenting duties.
 
My day without my computer was long and frustrating. And perhaps I should call Xfinity and let them know that trying to use a computer to check an outage is really not feasible!

2 comments:

Almost American said...

I don't have enough bad words to describe Xfinity's (lack of) service. Many bad experiences over the years. The latest this week - an email from them, gleefully announcing that our internet connection has been increased in speed. I go to check it, can't believe what I find. Dh does the same - our connection speed has dropped to dial-up speeds!!!

Wendy said...

Oh that's ridiculous! I can't believe how much money we pay for service here. I don't even have full cable as I can't afford it, really miss BBC America, but I do catch up with some programs on You Tube and PBS when I can.