Saturday, December 22, 2007

When Internet Connection Fails

More than 2 two weeks ago, we started experiencing trouble going online during evenings, the time we use the internet the most. So we called up the 24-hour service hotline and learned that internet connections in a wide area which we are part of are under some maintenance work and that we should get back soonest. Days passed and there was still NO INTERNET. For someone who did not learn to go to WiFi spots to gain internet access, this is quite debilitating! For days [to weeks] they kept promising that it should be normal within the day and I kept hoping that it would be so. But after missing important announcements in the e-group of one of my classes; after the very cumbersome routine of going to a cafe, buying the internet card to be able to post a blog as well as check e-mails, I decided I wanted to leave being diplomatic to my spouse and go ballistic in complaining. When I called early Saturday, the Customer Service Rep told me that their system reflects that the service had been restored as of the previous day and that he would just schedule a visit of their technical team to my house. I said I wanted it to be on that day but he quickly replied that the earliest would be the next day, a Sunday. Out of frustration, I ranted about their poor and inefficient service and inquired about what they would do with my subscription fee. As I have been practically deprived of my connection for 2 weeks, I thought I should get a rebate of at least half of my monthly fee. The CSR said that he would make the report to convey my request. Sunday (today!) came and the technical team arrived, did some tweeking in our line right outside my gate and my server went ONLINE. When asked what went wrong, the guy replied that they mistakenly put a filter in my line 2 weeks ago. The team which supposedly did "noise-tracking" as part of their maintenance work mistook our connection as a tap, so we were filtered. They filtered us!

Wait a minute . . . . what really happened here? They "disconnected" my service. Without cause. How terrible.

When power interruption occurs, despite the inconvenience, we do not ask for rebate because we do not get charged continuously for an intermittent or inexistent service. I also know for a fact that the electric company may not just terminate your connection, not even for non-payment of the monthly utility bill. But what did my internet service provider do to me? They filtered me. What was that? They cut me off for 18 days! Hmmm, they should pro-rate my subscription fee.

- Marichelle B. Recio

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