Angry with No Internet

I had a plan to play with the Google Blogger API last night in order to write an application that would allow me to upload code samples to this blog more easily than at present, but as I got home my internet connection was down yet again.

I won't name the company in question, but I connect to the internet at home through a well known supplier here in the UK, but just recently the levels of service I've been receiving have been shocking. I'm having to reboot the cable modem on a daily basis whereas before a few weeks ago I rarely, if ever, had to do this.

And it appeared that last night was going to be the same. Switched on the laptop, watched AVG try (and fail) to update itself, followed by the GMail Notifier's exclamation mark proclaiming it couldn't establish a connection. So off I trudged, yet again, to unplug the cable modem. Wait two minutes. Switch cable modem back on. Off I trudged back to my laptop.

Still no connection.

Sigh. Unplug cable modem again. Wait 10 minutes this time. Switch back on. And nothing.

So I phone their customer services number, only to be told I must pay a 10p connection fee, and then it would be a 25p a minute phone call... How can any company think it's a good idea to charge premium rates for requesting help? This is worse than the company who demand payment to fix bugs in their software! It wouldn't be so bad except this company is notorious for leaving you on hold for at least 20-30 minutes.

Gritting my teeth I resorted to emailing them... but can I find an email address to send to? No. I looked back through the recent bills for one, but there's nothing there.

I pulled out the emergency DKU-2 cable I have and connected my Nokia 6230i to my laptop. Nokia PC Suite allows you to connect to the internet over your mobile phone, so I connected and went to the offending company's website. The only thing I could find was a General Enquiries email form--and I'm pretty sure that won't be monitored out of office hours.

So, no service, no free help on the phone, and seemingly no way of requesting help through email.

I think it's about time I switched suppliers.