LIFE: Interupted Again

CHIAVARI, Italy – If you are wondering what happened to Auntie Pasta this week, I can tell you it is the same thing that happened the last time I wasn’t able to post – no internet service.  But this time things are different, or rather they will be different soon, like this week.

 

Sorry Vodafone, You are in the Doghouse 

I have given up on my current telephone company (Vodafone) and found another, one that hopefully is more reliable (Telecom).  It had gotten to the point of ridiculousness, with a blackout of service just about every two weeks.

Sometimes I wouldn’t have service for an hour or so, or sometimes a little longer, other times it went on for days as you who read this blog with any regularity can attest to. Sometimes it was both phone and ADSL line, sometimes just the ADSL line. This time is was both for a few hours  then phone service was somehow restored but not the ADSL line. This morning, just as I was heading for the Wi-Fi Café to post this blog, I discovered that the ADSL line has been re-activated.

When and how that bit of magic happened is a mystery to me. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that I called Vodafone to ask where to send the cancel my contract letter and the temperamental modem that has been on strike for the past week. You just never know the impact your words will have on those who are listening to them.

But like the wayward husband who has strayed one too many times, there is no going back Vodafone.  Our relationship is over.   Kaput. Finito. And no cute little doggy ads are going to make it better.

I have been a Vodafone client for a long time, I always found their customer service people to be extremely nice as well as helpful. They were nice this time too but what brought me to my knees is that when the nice customer service person couldn’t help me I was passed to a technician, a ‘first level’ technician. When he couldn’t help me, he passed me on to a ‘second level’ technician, which in Italian thinking is a more accomplished technician than a ‘level one’.

When every suggestion the ‘second level’ technician offered resulted in the same sorry result, he suggested I call a computer technician that I trusted to see if he (of course it would be a he) could resolve the problem. In other words, he threw in the towel.  Now I have to say they were all very nice, extremely nice, but they simply lack the resources to resolve the problem. So I took his advice and made a phone call.

Actually I made two of them. The first was a phone call to find out where I have to send a “notice of cancellation of contract” letter  because enough is enough, and the second call was to another telephone company requesting service.

And that is my sorry tale.  The Telecom technician is scheduled to be here Thursday morning to cut the cord with Vodafone and reconnect me with what I hope will be more reliable service and at a better price too.