Internet Woes

I have been without Internet since last night and I was less than impressed.  The router just packed in and we couldn't get connected at all.  It took 4 calls to the Orange 'help centre' and each call was more annoying that the last.  They all had me doing the same things: resetting the router, typing codes and passwords, re-resetting the router... and nothing worked.  Then they told me last night that there was 'routine maintenance' going on and my internet would be off until 9am this morning.  But, whaddya know, I woke up today and still no internet.  So I called again (and again) and went through the same stupid rigmarole, and then the new person told me that the 'maintenance' would be fixed by this afternoon or this evening, but I should call back tomorrow to check.  Needless to say, I was not impressed.

I went out for lunch with my granny and tried again when I came home. Still no connection!  So I called for the fourth time and refused to do all their stupid tricks and fixes and  this time the person went away to do a line check and rang me back.  Then the wired connection started working, for no reason that I could see, and ten minutes later the WIFI kicked in, too.

So, it cost me about 2 hours on the phone, all in, and who know how much money on their help-line.  I don't understand why I couldn't have been told straight away if there really were problems in our area, but I don't think there really were.  I mean, could they really have an entire area cut off from their internet connection for 24 hours, and if that were the case surely the call-centre staff would know about it because they'd be inundated with calls - I wouldn't have been the only one phoning up to complain.  Also, 'maintenance works' is a bit of a general term and no-one could tell me exactly what was being worked on and after I was told last night that it'd be fixed by the morning, how come I was then told today that it might be off for another 24 hours??

I think 'maintenance works' must just be what they say when they don't know how to fix your router, and they hope that it'll sort itself out if you leave it for a few hours.

This isn't the first time our Orange Livebox has packed in and left us connection-less - we're changing our service provider soon and the sooner the better, is all I can say!  If anyone's thinking of starting their home internet and WIFI, I would not recommend Orange!!

OK.  Rant over.  Now, with the whole internet in front me I'll go and find something to watch on youtube.

Peace out.