Lexin

I haven’t posted here about my interesting experiences with my broadband supplier.

I arranged to have my broadband upgraded to fibre. So far so good. All the bits arrived and the installer was due round on Wednesday to put it in.

He arrived on time, which was the only thing that went right. He whinged the whole time about the way that telephone service in my flat were set up, and that he’d have to move my phone socket from the corner by the door to further into the flat and that would take wire.

During his stompy look around, he (accidentally) kicked Smokey.

He just wasn’t looking where he was going, despite the fact that I’d told him I’d got a cat when he arrived. Shutting her in my bedroom wasn’t an option, the phone service comes in the flat through that room. Putting her in the spare bedroom wasn’t an option either even if I’d thought of it, there’s another phone socket in there and he did need to see it even though it’s dead.

An accident I can forgive, but he didn’t ask if he’d hurt her, and he didn’t apologise. That I’m having trouble forgiving.

He didn’t hurt her as it happens, she was just a bit surprised. She’s been a bit clingy since, but I’ve checked her over very carefully and she is all right. She’s eating and pooing and nicking my spot on the sofa just as normal.

And yes, I know I’m quite mental about my cat, but she’s the light of my life and my constant companion and I adore her to little tiny minty bits. I don’t want her hurt by oafishness, not mine and definitely not someone else’s.

He finally did install the fibre broadband, but didn’t finish the job. He said it wasn’t up to him, and I had to put in the router and link it all up.

I did all that, and it didn’t work.

So I cursed like a cursor, and tried again.

It still didn’t work.

I phoned my supplier, who are PlusNet, and the person I spoke to said it was a technical issue that wouldn’t be fixed until Monday. Cross? I was well cross by that stage. Not only did I have broadband I’d paid for but was not working, by then my hard drive had fallen off my computer while I was lying on the floor plugging in wires and it had hit me in the face. So I had bruises to add to my troubles.

I phoned PlusNet again yesterday to complain about the installer kicking my cat, and was told initially that I had to complain in writing. This is not what it says on their website, the website says you can complain on the phone or in chat or in writing.

I tried chat next, and that customer service person was excellent. She is called Hayley, and she’s a credit to the company.

Not only did she take my complaint (though the company employing the installer is Openreach) and apologised straight away on behalf of PlusNet, she asked if she could do anything else. I told her about the problem with the broadband and she fixed it. It works! Yippee!

Then I tried to complain to BT/Openreach. Their website has a form for complaints but for some reason it won’t work properly. All day yesterday I tried to get it to take my complaint and it just wouldn’t have it. It ended up that I was whinging all day on Twitter (ably helped by shezan, legionseagle and today yonmei). BT got in touch by Twitter in the end, but say that the only way of complaining to Openreach, which is a different company from them, is to use the daft form.

I did eventually get to make my complaint, but only by entering one sentence with no returns, no full stops, no commas, no capitals and no apostrophes. That’s a mad form. How are you supposed to guess its limitations? I bet there’s also a limitation on how long the complaint can be, too, but no sign that it might be there. They just don’t want complaints, that’s what it is. Plus, there are only three options for the kinds of complaints – (a) bad driving, (b) mess left in the street or (c) bad new positioning or plant work. Apparently these are the only things that can go wrong. Rudeness or cat kicking are not included.

Currently I’m hating Openreach and that engineer in particular with a large hate.

I’ve been spending the last few days catching up with my sleep, and getting to grips with a new mobile phone.

An old friend from my university days did come over yesterday and he and I went out for lunch to the local Wetherspoons, where much good food was consumed. He’s not on LJ, but he is on Facebook, so I won’t mention his name here. I did there, which gives him some minor fame.

I’ve almost finished the current pair of socks I’m knitting, but I don’t think I did a very good job. Something went horribly wrong with my counting of stitches with the first one and the second one I cocked up the heel. So they won’t be given to anyone as they’re not up to any kind of standard.

I’ve got the ‘Chicks with Sticks’ guide to knitting, which is very interesting in some ways, there are some techniques there I’d like to use, but I’ve got limited interest in the projects. I particularly struggle with felting – I don’t like how it looks. I don’t care if it’s interesting to do.

News about the phone…I’ve changed to an Android phone having decided to finally sign up for a deal. The phone itself is a Samsung Galaxy Europa, which isn’t quite as bad as the reviews on Amazon would lead one to assume. It’s just not as good as a Galaxy Ace or (obviously) one of the S series. However, it came free with the deal I’ve signed up for, which is in other ways as cheap as what I was paying for PAYG phone fees.

The irritating thing is that I had to move my number from Orange to Three. So I got a PAC. That part was no problem. Sent Three my PAC and all the rest of the details. Three took their own sweet time accepting they’d been instructed to change, and then more of their own sweet time to change the numbers over. Even now, my phone is accepting calls on the ‘proper’ (previous) number, but seems to think it has the original Three number according to its ‘phone details’ screen. Which is weird, and I mean to phone Three and ask them “wtf” tomorrow.

I’ve even tried taking the phone apart and putting it back together again, which, as I’ve found in the past, solves a lot of problems with phones. It’s a bit like a hard reboot.

As I said, in other news, I’ve been asleep a lot. I’m rather dreading the time when I have to go back to work and must stop getting up at midday.