tags: shocking news, Expat Life, wireless internet
Image: FunToosh.
Shocking news, everybody!
No seriously, I have some shocking news for you: I FINALLY have internet access from my beautiful flat (otherwise known as the peregrine's nest, since it is perched on the 13th -- top -- floor of the building overlooking the city and is inhabited by two peregrinating humans).
It only took a few weeks' wait (while I was here), before the router was installed (a process that took an engineer a mere 20 minutes to accomplish), and then it took another four days, two dozen phone calls, two scientists (one of them very pissed off -- I'll leave it to you to decide which one, ahem) and two T-Mobile technicians before it was possible to actually log on to our internet service late last night. I would have announced this to you last night, but I wanted to be sure it wasn't a dream that I would awaken from in the morning. Fortunately, it is not.
Why did it take so long? It seems we were given the wrong password! Or something that required the use of the Sooper Seekrit Technical Support Telephone Number late on Saturday night and some tweeking of their corporate computers which then allowed them to reset our password.
Yay, T-Mobile! It's great to see that they are as incompetent in Germany as they are in the States. It would be sad if they were holding out on us Americans.
So now I have my work cut out for me: I have weeks of email, blog comments and blog entries to read, lots and LOTS of writing to do, plus I have to get to work judging some of this years' submissions to OpenLab since I was honored by being made a judge for that.
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Yeaaay! You are back with us for real!
I hope things are going well for you in your new home with your new love.
It's interesting that the support in the t-mobile shops is so good - friendly and willing to help (the guy who finally sorted us out came back to the flatapartment after he had finished work to sort the connection out for us), whereas the help over the phone was (generally) awful. In all my calls, nobody was able or prepared to just talk me through setting the connection up. The best call went something like this (with one of the speakers barely speaking German);
Me: Hello. Do you speak English?
Them: No.
Me: Oh. Can I talk to someone who can speak English?
Them: Yes. Call this number: 01805 345345.
Me: That's the number I've just called.
Them: Yes. You should call it again.
Evidently even they treat it as a pot luck.
Devorah, I had to laugh over the the exchange of "That's the number I called" & "Yes, you should call it again" Well, you got through it and it's a really amusing tale to tell *afterward*. My very best wishes to you (andthe parrots, of course) in your new surroundings.
Cheers,
Rob
Bob, sounds like some of the tech support calls I have had here as well. It can be especially bad for those of us who use Macs. More often than not, I get some guy who knows only Windoze. Thankfully, when it comes to internet connections, I am pretty good at troubleshooting them myself.
BTW, what kind of connection do you guys have? How fast and how much does it cost there? Just curious. I keep reading about how much better broadband connections are in northern Europe and Scandinavia than they generally are here in the US.
Grrl, I'm very glad that you finally have your home internet link working. Time to have an ongoing series of posts and pictures about your parrots.
It's great that your life is going well.
Jeff - The connection is 25Mb, and costs about â¬50 per month. Elisa offer a cheaper service in Finland, IIRC, the same speed for about â¬35.
Tziporah - photos will be fun: focusing of the camera has to be done manually. Elektra, at least, will keep still.