Bad broadband connection proves beneficial to cats
by Michael
(London, UK)
I thought I would improve my broadband connection to a speed that was advertised as “up to 20 Mb”. This is what Virgin Media said…For people who are not technically minded 20 Mb download speed is very fast. If you get 5 Mb speeds you are doing well. As I have to work fast I felt I needed the best. I got the worst.
I took out a “bundle” of TV, phone and broadband. The installation failed. Good start. Then the phone went down for four days. Then the broadband slowed to a standstill.
Then customers services become rude and positively malicious. Perhaps I was complaining too much but what was I to do? I have seen about 5 engineers and made about 15 calls to customer services and engineers in about 14 days. I have even learned the tortuous automated phone menu that you have to go through to get to where you want to be.
In short, over the approximate two weeks that I have been with Virgin Media it has been chaos and they have made my life miserable because I need all day, every day fast access to the internet to run PoC, this site. When I can’t service the site I become miserable!
Without broadband now for 4 days, I have resorted to going to an internet cafe about three miles away by bus (I sold my car about 2 years ago as a car in London is pretty useless for me – can’t park anywhere). Desperate times bring desperate measures.
On the way to the internet cafe I walked into a computer store and saw a 3G USB dongle. You just plug it in and access the internet straight from the satellite. No cables, no phone stuff, super simple…but expensive. Desperate times so I bought one.
No luck. Followed the instructions, phoned the help center, went back to the shop, more chaos and distress.
Eventually, I discovered the problem. I had to sit in the garden to get a signal!
This is where I am now and where I have been since 4 in the morning, this morning! Fortunately, and surprisingly we are currently having a proper summer spell here in Britain. It has been hot. It didn’t rain on Wimbledon.
Right now it is 6:06 a.m., the bugs are buzzing around my ears and landing on the screen. The planes are noisily flying in above into Heathrow (I am under the flight path) and my two cats are on the grass beside me – yeah..it’s great for my cats as I am spending time outside with them in the cool of the early morning when they like to go out anyway.
My lady cat is about 3 feet away, content to sit and watch. Charlie is more active, talking to me, pestering me, playing with the computer cable and rummaging around the undergrowth. He loves it and he can’t understand why I am here!
Something good usually comes out of something bad if we are open to it. The question is can I get used to working outside for the rest of the summer?
As for Virgin Media, it’s hasta la vista baby – goodbye. You have made me miserable and messed up my life.
I should be back on decent broadband in about four days so in the meantime I pray the fragile British weather holds and so do the cats. They love it.
And as to 3G broadband, it is meant to produce a speed of about 3 Mb per second. Don’t ever believe anything anyone says on the subject of internet speed – it will always be slower….This is agony.
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