Out of the loop (got a computer connectivity question)

[89 MJ]

2 minutes ago, Eagle said:

My euphoria at having my Internet back was short-lived. I awoke this morning to find ... NO Internet (again). I'm back on the cellular WiFi hotspot. This cable company is the worst of the worst, but the state has given them a monopoly on service in my town.

 

They can't tell me when service might be restored.

 

Not a happy camper.

 

So do you still get to pay for your lack of WiFi?

[Eagle]

5 hours ago, 89 MJ said:

So do you still get to pay for your lack of WiFi?

 

Probably.

 

I was promised a credit the last time I was out for a week, and I'm still waiting to see it. When I called in this morning, I was again promised that a credit will appear on my next invoice. I will be extremely surprised if that happens.

[Eagle]

More from the "You can't make this [___] up" department:

 

Back in August, when they put in this "temporary" repair, they managed to cut the phone line while diddling with the cable. The crew that was supposed to make the permanent repair within three weeks never came (of course).

 

There was another outage in October, which got fixed. Then there was an outage on November 24 that didn't get fixed until November 30. And it went out again on December 1, less than 24 hours later.

 

It turns out the temporary fix was to just drape a line on the ground along two neighbors' properties to the street behind my house. The neighbors didn't like that ... so they disconnected it. Apparently the "technician" who came on Monday just reconnected it, but he didn't tell me what the problem was. And the next day, the neighbors just disconnected it again.

 

So today a guy came and ran a new cable from the street in front of the house to the house. He didn't put it up on the poles, he just left it on the ground, but it should work (until it doesn't). And HE somehow managed to cut the phone line again. This time I caught it while he was here and he fixed it, but YIKES! This cable company is the worst of the worst.

 

[jdog]

Wow bout all I can say, this sounds like a giant cable company that doesn't care one bit

[Pete M]

what the heck, man! 

 

sooooo, when are you moving out of state? 

[Eagle]

On 12/6/2020 at 9:37 AM, Pete M said:

what the heck, man! 

 

sooooo, when are you moving out of state? 

 

I'm working on the out of state move. I'm watching for jobs in "free" states. Earlier this year I applied for a job with the VA hospital in Fort Harrison, Montana. I made it to the interview round (telephonic) and I thought the interview went well, but I didn't get the job so I guess somebody else did better. (Or, as I suspect, they looked at the fact that I'm a Vietnam veteran, figured out my age, and cut me out based on my age. That's illegal, of course, but there's no way I could ever prove it.)

 

Fast forward to this week, and the same job showed up again on Indeed.com and USA Jobs. So I have re-applied. I wonder if I'll even make the interview round this time.

 

On the computer front, while my cable Internet was out I was using a Verizon mobile WiFi hotspot. Until it suddenly died, and decided it didn't want to talk to the Internet any more. Verizon sent a replacement -- same problem. They sent a second replacement -- still the same problem. Both replacements were refurbished, so this week they sent me a new unit, which is a different brand -- the old ones were Elipsis Jetpacks, this newest one is an Orbic. It arrived late Thursday evening. I have it charged up, but it came with a new SIM so I have to call a special number to have that SIM assigned to my account and activated. I didn't get around to doing that yesterday or today, so I'll have to do it on Sunday (if that number works on Sundays).

 

In the meanwhile, my actual cell phone works okay as a mobile WiFi hotspot, it's only the dedicated devices that are acting up. Figure that one out if you can. Multiple tech support people at Verizon haven't been able to figure it out.