Steve Maskery
Old Oak
There is no reason for anyone to have noticed, but I've not been here this week. There is a reason for that.
On Monday, our oven went pop. It was a replacement, under warranty, for its predecessor. At least this one lasted 20 months instead of 6. Ninja is not the brand I thought it was. They do have a 2 year warranty, though. But that meant two round trips to Limoges, 45mins each way, to get it swapped.
When it went pop, it tripped the electrics. When the supply was restored, our LiveBox (orange router) wouldn't boot. So I rang Orange. Now I do not rate our service from Orange. The internet is up and down like Boris Johnson's trousers and if I want to access a 4G signal, or even a 2G signal, for that matter, I have to go for a walk. It is both poor and expensive. We are paying €97 per month for fibre internet and two mobiles, one of which is, some months, never used.
But there is one very good thing about Orange, they do have an English-only Customer service line, and you don't have to wait half an hour to get through. 5 or 10 mins max.
So I called Orange. She said we would have a fix withing 48 hours. She would send a new power supply unit. Now I used to be a computer engineer, and I know that a faulty PS could do this. But I do not understand how a power outage could damage the PS in this way. So I was skeptical.
But I waited. Wednesday came and went. I rang again, and I accidentally pressed the wrong button and got through to Sales. Good mistake. She reduced our monthly bill by €13. Still, I still don't have Internet and it's still expensive. But we will also receive a LiveBox7 instead of a LiveBox6. I have no idea if that will make any significant difference with the venerable legacy IT kit that we have.
The new PSU arrived yesterday. It made no difference, as I thought.
I rang again and got through to TechSupport, somewhere in India, I guess. The guy spoke good English, so I was happy. He checked the line. The problem is with the fibre connection. He will order an engineer, earliest Friday afternoon (today). Yesterday I got a call at about 3pm. Can he come now? Unfortunately I was 40km away, so sorry, no. But he turned up at 10am today and all was good by half-past. And he spoke English, about as good as my French. We got by quite well.
However, all the above is preamble to my central point. I cannot believe how much the absence of Internet has impacted our lives all week. It's not just that I can't do my morning crossword, but no emails, no phone, no Radio4, no films or telly, no WhatsApp calls to SWMBO's sister, no accessing my bank, and no general searching for information. I have no idea how we lived when we were kids. This has disrupted my life in a way I never imagined possible.
It's now noon and I am going to sit down and do my regular morning crossword. Pleased to meet you again, friend.
S
On Monday, our oven went pop. It was a replacement, under warranty, for its predecessor. At least this one lasted 20 months instead of 6. Ninja is not the brand I thought it was. They do have a 2 year warranty, though. But that meant two round trips to Limoges, 45mins each way, to get it swapped.
When it went pop, it tripped the electrics. When the supply was restored, our LiveBox (orange router) wouldn't boot. So I rang Orange. Now I do not rate our service from Orange. The internet is up and down like Boris Johnson's trousers and if I want to access a 4G signal, or even a 2G signal, for that matter, I have to go for a walk. It is both poor and expensive. We are paying €97 per month for fibre internet and two mobiles, one of which is, some months, never used.
But there is one very good thing about Orange, they do have an English-only Customer service line, and you don't have to wait half an hour to get through. 5 or 10 mins max.
So I called Orange. She said we would have a fix withing 48 hours. She would send a new power supply unit. Now I used to be a computer engineer, and I know that a faulty PS could do this. But I do not understand how a power outage could damage the PS in this way. So I was skeptical.
But I waited. Wednesday came and went. I rang again, and I accidentally pressed the wrong button and got through to Sales. Good mistake. She reduced our monthly bill by €13. Still, I still don't have Internet and it's still expensive. But we will also receive a LiveBox7 instead of a LiveBox6. I have no idea if that will make any significant difference with the venerable legacy IT kit that we have.
The new PSU arrived yesterday. It made no difference, as I thought.
I rang again and got through to TechSupport, somewhere in India, I guess. The guy spoke good English, so I was happy. He checked the line. The problem is with the fibre connection. He will order an engineer, earliest Friday afternoon (today). Yesterday I got a call at about 3pm. Can he come now? Unfortunately I was 40km away, so sorry, no. But he turned up at 10am today and all was good by half-past. And he spoke English, about as good as my French. We got by quite well.
However, all the above is preamble to my central point. I cannot believe how much the absence of Internet has impacted our lives all week. It's not just that I can't do my morning crossword, but no emails, no phone, no Radio4, no films or telly, no WhatsApp calls to SWMBO's sister, no accessing my bank, and no general searching for information. I have no idea how we lived when we were kids. This has disrupted my life in a way I never imagined possible.
It's now noon and I am going to sit down and do my regular morning crossword. Pleased to meet you again, friend.
S
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