I took the afternoon off to meet the phone repair/install/technician (I don't know what they call themselves) and of course, they're still not here. Granted, they still have 19 minutes before the window is up, but it's hard to be patient when I don't know what's going on.
I switched over to AT&T's Uverse service this spring and got the internet and digital phone service. $30 per month for phone (including unlimited long distance) is not a bad deal, but when I finally switched to my cell phone for all of my long distance, it just seemed silly to being paying extra for that. I called to cancel my home phone entirely, but I allowed them to talk me into going back to the non-frills analog service. I don't really need two telephones (home and mobile), but I guess I haven't gotten quite used to the idea of not having a landline at all. After all, if I can't find my portable phone, I can just use another extension, but if I can't find my cell phone, I'm out of luck.
Anyway, in order to go from the Uverse digital phone to the landline, they have to port the number back and do some rewiring--everything runs through the modem right now. I don't have a dial tone, so they must have done something, but until they rewire at the telephone interface outside they're not finished.
5:00 p.m.: Still waiting. But, hey, they said there's a technician assigned! And they gave me a number to call if I don't hear something by 6:00.
6:00 p.m.: Still no technician and the local number they gave answers with a recording stating that the office is closed. Wow, I'm so glad I took the afternoon off to be here for this. The customer service representative tells me that "they're running late" and I'm "next on the list." Whatever. He got a bit sarcastic when I suggested that contacting customers to tell them the tech is running late might be a good thing.
6:30 p.m.: The technician called and said he couldn't be here until after dark, but could I meet him here in the morning? Uh, no. Geez, what a production. I think he finally figured out what work he's supposed to be doing for me now and he's going to try again tomorrow evening because I refused to miss any more work.
At least I brought work home with me, because otherwise I'd be steaming by now instead of just irritated.
7:20 p.m.: Hooray! It's working now. I have a dial tone without knocking out my internet connection. The technician asked someone else to do this job for him and he was finished about 10 minutes later. And he gave me advice about how to fix my sliding glass door so it actually slides again.
