Crappy SBC...

Last week I was supposed to switch over the SBC DSL service. Let's be serious... earthlink is charging me $60/month.. and SBC has a deal for $15/month. It should be a no brainer. When I ordered the service I told the clerk I didn't need HARDWARE, merely the SOFTWARE to make the change. They gave me a day that things would switch on. Got to that day, and still no software in the mailbox.

Turns out my order taker, checked NEEDS NOTHING as I didn't need any hardware. Three people later, some guy in India says they will send me the CD... but it will take about 10 days to get here.

So today "the CD you requested" arrives. Tech support sent me the DSL support CD. Nice, but I don't have any software to actually, like, need support for. And it wants things my DSL address. (which, since I haven't officially signed in or anything... I don't have).

Call the DSL support line again.

The cheerful little computer operator says I can order the CD online... but look through their website and "ask the question" in the search box.. and nothing comes up. Gee, these clowns are just SOOO FRIGGIN HELPFUL.

So I call their support AGAIN. This is time #4, I think. I go through the "talking to the computer BS"... and get queued for a real person.

This is 4:30. I finally speak to John. at 4:37. John is helpful. He says if I have the time we might be able to do this manually in real time. Wish I had known this earlier, but at the moment I don't have the time. He offers to send me the software CD, which... instead of the 10 days I've told in the past, he says I will have in 3 days by UPS ground. Things might be looking up.

Then again... we'll see what happens in 3 days.

(hears this voice in her head: you get what you pay for...)