So my modem crapped out on me. I went on Tuesday to buy a new one (before the Radiohead presale), and found out that London Drugs doesn’t sell ADSL modems at all anymore. WHAT?! They have some wireless package for $150, no thanks. I had called tech support, and he said you have to buy a new modem.
I go home, beg my neighbours to let me use their wireless, they are sweet and let me, surf the Telus site where I can find absolutely NO MENTION of where or how to buy another modem.
I look online, I look at Canadian and US stores, I can’t find a same-brand replacement for less than $80…more than that, I can’t find one to ship to Canada, and I can’t find one in stock in Canada. (Huh? I was surprised, myself.)
So I order this other brand one, which is supposed to comply with all the relevant standards. Astonishingly, it arrives in less than 24 hours, and I take it home and plug it in, and it functions as far as Telus. I call Telus. A lady tells me that Telus doesn’t support other branded modems, only modems specifically made for Telus work on Telus. I say you know I looked online and there are plenty of people out there with other-branded, not bought from Telus, modems on their DSL lines. (Nobody with the brand I bought, mind you.) I couldn’t make it go though. I mean it worked to where I could communicate with the modem setup site at a specific IP, so I know it worked. So I ask the lady what do I need to get, and she says well you have to call Customer Care, they can sell me this other kind of modem. So I rail a little bit because I am not a fucking n00b and I could not anywhere on their website find a place to buy another freaking modem, and I’ve wasted HOURS of my life, and gas driving around, and why the hell should it be this hard? and it’s not this lady’s fault or anything, I just ask her why it has had to take me these phone calls and hours of surfing to find out what I need to know. And I say fine, I’ll waste another hour on the phone with Customer Care tomorrow.
So I go to the website to find the Customer Care number. I call the closest thing I can find, and get stuck in Voice Mail Lady Hell, and end up in the same place where you get tech support, and I don’t want tech support, they can’t support me. I look on the website for retail locations…and whoa, their website shunts me to the mobility site. I’m not looking for a goddam cell phone here.
A couple more clicks and…I’m on the Shaw site, and I’ve signed up for cable internet and cable home phone because I simply cannot be arsed any more, I’m too fucking tired.
I have a couple promos, I won’t be any cash out of pocket, and for a couple of months will be somewhat to a fair bit cheaper, and then it will still work out 5 or 10 bucks cheaper than I have been paying. The only problem/tedium I have is I have to change a mess of contact emails. Which I’m probably changing to goddam gmail anyway. Long-distance calls to my main distractor will be 3 cents a minute cheaper, and my internet might be a little faster.
But as of two weeks from now I will have entirely divested myself of Telus services. I am just too tired of doing so much of the work myself. That’s supposedly what I am paying them for. And why a leading telecom and internet service provider can’t hire someone capable of creating a useful site architecture…? I mean I surf a lot, and I can usually find my way through websites to access what I’m looking for. What do the people who are worse at it than I am doing?
Tomorrow: Shannon’s baby shower! Holy cow! and some work, too, I have some time to make up.