Normal Service is Resumed

A series of problems have conspired to keep me from writing the blog for almost two weeks. The first was lack of internet access courtesy of AOL, but more of that later. We had a very stressful few days before we finally got back online, but then I was ill. I don't know exactly what was wrong, no doubt the doctor would say it was a 'virus' but whatever it was I felt absolutely dreadful and I spent several days in bed. I am feeling better but I hope nobody else gets it because it really wiped me out.

On a Thursday morning two weeks ago our internet connection failed at about 8am. It seemed that no internet signal was reaching the router but our telephone was working perfectly, so I wondered if there was a problem with our cables. I popped out to buy new cables but when I tried them there was still no signal, I even tried a different router but still there was nothing. I got the line checked and there was nothing wrong with the line, so there was no alternative we had to ring AOL. Robbie rang them first, but he had to give up on the call after half an hour because the man would not deviate from his script and was no help whatsoever. I hate having to talk to call centres in foreign countries at the best of times, but AOL have taken poor service to an all time low. 


Anyway after over two hours of being passed from one unhelpful person to the next totally useless person I was reduced to tears of frustration. Not one of them spoke good enough English to understand me and I had extreme difficulty understanding them. To make matters worse they kept putting me on hold and playing dreadful music down the phone. My blood pressure must have been off the scale! They couldn't solve my problem, they didn't even seem to care about it. At one point they told Robbie that they could not check our internet signal because their equipment was broken and they had no idea when it would be working again! I told them that I had suffered enough and I wanted to leave AOL - NOW!! They treated me with total contempt and disconnected my call, but after calling back and queueing for an eternity they finally gave us the mac code needed to transfer to another provider.


We now have a better and faster internet service at less than half the price charged by AOL and as an added bonus  their call centre staff speak and understand English! So normal service has been resumed and I will be able to bring the blog up to date.

Total Frustration 05.09.2007

We arrived home yesterday afternoon to find that the internet wasn't working. On closer inspection I found that our telephone was not working and my heart sank. I have had dealings with BT many times before as their service in our area seems to be very temperamental. I had to deal with the automated faults - system, press this number, press another number, stand on one leg, tell us how to contact you, tell us again, now press another button and key in all that information again just to waste a bit more of your time while you are calling from a mobile. Having done all that I was invited to transfer my calls to another number and yes, you guessed they wanted the same information all over again! Finally the dratted machine gave me the option to speak to a live human being, I pressed yet more buttons and waited, only to be told by the machine that they were very busy and if I gave them my contact number - again, I would be called back within 45 minutes. I kept my phone with me (even when I went to the bathroom) and 19 hours later I am still waiting for the elusive call back!

Much later in the evening Robbie managed to have a protracted conversation with a live human being, unfortunately she appeared to be in India, she couldn't understand what he was saying and eventually told him that she couldn't give him any information about the fault except that there was a fault - very helpful! How hard would it be to provide a real person based in UK who can speak and understand English in the way that we do?

Trust Not Restored 20.04.07

Robbie has managed to restore my old AOL and recover most of the lost email, but he hasn't yet restored my trust in him. Last night I didn't feel he was taking the situation seriously enough, and this morning he expected me to be back to normal because most of my mail has been restored - I wasn't! I tried to explain that it felt like a violation and when that fell upon deaf ears I explained I was more upset by him interfering with my email than if I had caught him trying on my underwear. That caught his attention and with a big grin he announced that it fitted perfectly and made him look really good. That has to be a matter of dispute! Sorry Richard, what a thought for a Friday morning, you can read on safely without any more disturbing images being conjured up. I am still feeling upset with Robbie, but at least I have my nice English voice back on AOL and my spell check works in English again. That American accent drove me mad, but I guess it could have been worse it could have had a French accent!

I have had to confiscate one of Robbie's ties. I have always hated it anyway, but wit the local elections looming people would think he was canvassing for votes. Does anyone remember Roger Red Hat from the old school reading scheme, well we almost had Robbie Red Tie!

Keep Your Distance 19.04.07

It proved fortunate for Robbie that he had gone to Leeds today, it was just about far enough from me to keep him safe (but I gave him a real ear bashing!). Before you start to feel sorry for him let me explain what he has done. I mentioned in my previous post that he had updated my version of AOL, what I didn't know at that time was that he had somehow corrupted the program leaving me unable to switch off the American voice and unable to switch off the American spelling,that was quite bad enough but there was even worse to come. I was devastated to find that he had deleted all my stored email including lots of family history stuff a well as financial details, passwords and loads more. It was such a big loss and it will be impossible to replace all the information - no wonder his ears were burning!

Tiredness Can Kill 19.04.07

It was yet another early start for Robbie and yet another trip to Leeds. He claims he has an important meeting, but he was unable to hide his enthusiasm for the journey. As usual I was bombarded with information including detailed timing of his journey, points of interest on route and the impending demise of the HST. All very interesting I'm sure, but at 5.30am the only thing on my mind is sleep and Robbie seems incapable of picking up on my pleas for him to shut up. Maybe he likes to live dangerously, but we all know that 'tiredness can kill' and this tired woman may just be driven to murder if he doesn't learn to button it! I think a court would take pity on me, if I told them about Robbie's trait of providing a running commentary as he get's dressed. Imagine the scene, just back from the shower 'Homer' Burgess stands over by the wardrobe stark naked choosing a shirt - he speaks to each one explaining why he has not chosen it! When the shirt has been selected he turns to his extensive tie collection and runs through the same process. By this time I am feeling positively murderous and I am forced to leave my warm bed to seek sanctuary in the bathroom with the relative sanity of Radio 4.

On the subject of living dangerously, I almost died of shock last night. I had gone to bed leaving Robbie playing with his computer. The next thing I knew I was jolted awake and there was a figure looming over me. My heart pounded and in my sleepy confusion I was really scared until I realized that it was Robbie. Apparently he was trying to wake me up gently to tell me about an online shop that he'd found which sells Dr Marten shoes - do I care!! To be fair he also wanted to tell me that he had loaded a new version of AOL on my laptop. I don't like being woken up, but I get really dangerous when people interfere with my computer. He claims it is faster, but I hate it, my version had a nice female English voice, this one has an irritating male American voice. I can't live with that, so tonight Mr B will be removing this version and reinstalling my old one!