Computers

My oh my how dependent we have become on computers these days. I had gotten up early on Wednesday to hit an exercise class. As I was sipping on my morning cup of coffee I turned on the pute in efforts to log on the internet. I kept getting a dialog box telling me that my search engine could not find the web page that normally pops up. Hmm....I kept trying and trying and finally gave up thinking that there was some outage somewhere and that my internet services would boot back up once I returned home from my class. Boy was I ever wrong.

When I returned home I once again tried to fire my computer up. No dice. Ugh! So I call my internet provider calling about not being able to log on. The representative tells me that there is a reported outage and that crews are working on the problem and I should have some services once the work is complete. Ah, relief. At least I knew it wasn't a virus that had shut me down. I was given a call back to let me know that the 'outage' had been fixed and that I should soon be able to connect. That was about 11:30am. I tried to once again boot up about 45 minutes later but to no avail. Now I was getting peeved not to mention impatient. So to make a long story short, I once again called about no services. I unplugged and replugged the modem, turned off the computer, checked my control panel but still no connection. The representative tried to reboot my modem from her end of the line but still.....no fire. I called two more times that day each with a different operator. FOUR TIMES I CALLED!!!!! I was so peeved. The last call (which was after 7pm) finally resulted in a work order being placed. Why this could not have been done on the second call is beyond me. So the last operator I spoke with was going to send someone out the following afternoon. However, I was scheduled to work that day and would not be home at all, so he set the appointment up for Friday morning. So while at work yesterday I hear my phone ring 3 times around lunchtime all around withing a minute or two of each ring. Upon listening to the voicemail after the 2nd call was the service call man at my house wondering why I wasn't there for the work order! UGH!!!! Did I not say the night before that I wasn't going to be home? Jesus....

SO...being more pissed off at lack of customer service I called AGAIN on my break to get this stupid problem fixed. The operator once again apologized(as if that made me feel any better) and reset the work order for today. FINALLY someone showed up at 9am this morning. I so wanted to ask the young man to give me a manager's direct number so I could bitch and gripe. The lack of customer service and proper communication really pissed me off to the nth degree. The real kicker was that is was nothing but a bad modem that had to be replaced. The service worker that had come to do the job was in and out in 45 minutes. This could have been resolved Wednesday morning when I FIRST called!!!! Geeze....what a pisser of an experience. But this experience also led me to another thought.

What ever did we do without computers? Oh yeah, we wrote letters, licked a stamp and mailed it off. We walked the neighborhood and chatted with our neighbors. We went to the pharmacy to drop off our prescriptions and drank a Coke while we waited for our medicine. If you're really from the old school you got an ice cream soda or a sundae. We listened to radio shows and gathered family & friends together to play music and share food. If we wanted to know something we went to the library. Encyclopedia's were a main staple in classrooms and even in some households. We played board games, cards, horseshoes and croquet. We went to church and had picnics in the yard. Have I left anything out? It seems everything we do depends so much on computers and that immediate satisfaction. Yes, computers have been a wonderful thing but sometimes finding an old-fashioned pharmacy that still serves cold soda pops and a long letter in the mail is fine by me. You can't find that sort of nostalgia on the net. elizinashe