I'm Back + Survey Results

Here we are in Autumn.  Where has the year gone?  It is getting very chilly in the evenings now and the same in the mornings. Today is cool and windy with hazy sunshine.

I am back, as you can see, after losing my internet connection on Sunday.  One minute there, next minute gone. Endless  telephone calls as you can imagine, first to BT and then to AOL.  I do not want to go into too much detail about AOL but to say they were originally unhelpful is an understatement.  I will make it as brief as I can.  We knew it was a fault with our ASDL line coming into the house because Dean took our router home and tried it there and it worked fine.  But no signal was detected when he brought it back here. 

AOL told it was our fax machine, our sky connection etc. although we pointed out over and over again that we do not have any of those.  Then it was our wiring - err no. Eventually after three hours on the telephone we were told it could be a fault with the ASDL and they would need to do a line check.  Left hanging for a long while.  Then we were told a line check had been done and nothing was found to be wrong.  We requested that they raise a fault with BT (that is the procedure BT tell you that you have to follow with your ISP provider).  They were not happy with that and tried to fob us off with other things.  In the end Dean demanded that they raise a fault with BT and the technician said at last he would do that followed by..............."I am afraid it is too late now, we have to do that during the day, you will have to ring back tomorrow!"  When we started the phone call it was during the day.

So, yesterday morning I phoned again.  Luckily I had less trouble getting through to level 2 technical.  The man there was more helpful.  I explained the position, everything that had been done, including testing the router at another property, plugging it into the main junction box etc and that the internet connection was simply not there. 

I explained that the previous evening a line check had been done by AOL and although they said they could find nothing they had agreed to raise a fault with BT.  I was told there was absolutely nothing on their computer about that!  Then I was asked for my mobile number.  I pointed out we did not have a mobile.  I was told then a line check could not have been done the evening before because they cannot do it if you are actually talking to them on the phone to which the internet is connected.  You need to ring off, they do the line check and call you back.  So the previous evening we had  been told a blatant untruth.

The gentleman I spoke to yesterday said he would do a line check, I was told to hang up, not to use the phone in the meantime and he would ring me back in fifteen minutes.  He did and said he could not get an internet connection on this line either.  He then said he would raise a fault immediately. I breathed a sigh of relief. I then asked how long this was going to take.  He told me  another five or six days, that I would have to wait that long, try to get online again and if it did not work to ring AOL back and go through it all again.

Oh no sunshine, not good enough. You and they have never heard Jeannette in full spate!  I listed to him all the trouble I have had with them in the past including charging me for premium broadband when I am on silver and a catalogue of other things.  Told him that I would simply stop payment at the bank and if I had broken a contract they could sue me.  I was not prepared to sit here for six more days paying for a service I was not getting.

Whether it was my raised voice, my list of complaints or my threat to stop payment I do not know.  However, he said to leave it with him.  Lo and behold my internet connection was restored yesterday.

At my time of life I am not prepared to put up with bullshit from anyone.  So now we are going to have a huge phone bill due to AOL because they will not listen to what you are telling them, make you go repeatedly through the same checks and then tell you untruths.

To be honest I do not know how much longer I will stay with them.

Anyway, the internet is working (fingers crossed) and that is the main thing.  Now, onto the results of the survey.  I was going to copy and paste but the data is a little too large.

Sixty-six of you voted and here are the findings:-

Do You Believe In Ghosts?

41 said yes
13 said no
12 said they were not sure.

Have You Ever Seen Or Heard A Ghost?

24 said yes
36 said no
6 said they were not sure.

Would You Spend The Night In A Reputedly Haunted House?

28 said no
24 said yes
14 said - are you kidding?

Would You Spend The Night Alone In A Waxwork Museum?

35 said no
21 said yes
10 said they had already started running

Would You Walk Through A Cemetery At Night?

39 said yes, it would not bother them
21 said no way
6 said they were hiding under the blankets at the thought.

Do You Believe in UFO's

25 said yes
25 said undecided
16 said no

Do You Believe In Alien Abduction?

51 said no
11 said yes
4 said - those little grey men have already grabbed me! (Come on you four, own up, we would all like to know who you are lol)

Do You Believe In The Paranormal?

44 said yes
13 said not sure
9 said no, there is a reasonable explanation for everything.

Are You Superstitious?

33 said yes
28 said no, not at all
5 said - I am holding a four-leaf clover right now.

Thanks to you all for taking part.

Mike has finished painting the lounge.  Of course, that has shown up the hallway.  You all know how one job leads to another.  So he will be starting that today.

Anyway, I have been fiddling around on here and I am not even dressed yet (hangs head in shame)

Have a good day dear friends and readers

P.S. I shall not be moving my profile to Bebo and have told them so.  Thanks to Guido for alerting us to this.  They are moving all our AIM profiles to Bebo as of the 15th September but mine has already vanished. Has your profile disappeared?  Many have it seems. I have no intention of joining a networking site and being bombared with requests from people wanting me to be their friend.   My friends are here on journals.  So I shall remain without a profile.  IMPORTANT.  If you do not want your profile on Bebo then you have to OPT OUT.  If you do nothing, your profile will be transferred automatically and you will have no say in the matter.

Tags: blogplugs, technical, asdl, router, aol, survey, results, weather