Wednesday, November 15, 2006

Long time, no blog--SABOTAGE!

I don't know if this hit the newspapers, but the phone cable which provides our internet lines was sabotaged yesterday afternoon.

Yesterday I got back early from work, since the 11th and 12th grades were both on school trips. Early means before 5pm. As is my routine, I quickly turned on the computer to see what's new. It went on fine, but a second later, suddenly there was no internet access. I kept getting "error" reports.

I called up my service provider, netvision, and after doing all the checks and adjustments he requested, I was told that the problem was with Bezek, Israel's phone company, so he gave me a number to call. I called.

I called Bezek and for the longest time listened to their recording about their super-fantastic service that could solve all my problems, and the recordings went on and on and on and on. Periodically I pressed whatever buttons they said and they continued to praise themselves, once or twice a notice came on warning that there was an extraordinary amount of people waiting to avail themselves on their super-fantastic service, so maybe it would be a good idea to call again in an hour, but I had other plans for an hour from then.

Eventually, someone got on and told me that I had pressed the wrong number and she'd try to connect me to the right one, which she actually did. And I waited some more. I took the cordless phone and ate half my dinner while waiting. I had it on speaker, in order to free both hands. I was hungry!

Finally someone got on and after my proving that it was Bezek where the problem originated, he told me that I was the problem and I had to uninstall and reinstall the program... which I did, and then... it still didn't work.

Then... he suddenly announced that apparently there was a problem in my area, and I should try again in a few hours, and if there's trouble I should check with netvision again.

So... I finished supper and went to my meeting and got back and tried to get online, and... it still didn't work. So I started all the calls again and was told that there still was a problem in the area. So I went to sleep.

Bright and early in the morning before the sun was shining or even trying to peek through the rain clouds, I was up. OK, I was up extra early, since Wednesday is pool day. Did you guess it? Still no internet, so I called netvision and Bezek again. At Bezek I complained that it had already been 12 hours and the Bezek guy said that it was only since 7 yesterday, so I told him that I was apparently the first to call, since I'd been trying to get it fixed since just after 5pm. And it was already after 5am.

My complaint was the first, which doesn't give me a month's free service or any other prize.

When I asked how much longer, I was told that cable was stolen and it wouldn't fixed until about 10am. But I was going to the pool.

So I did some computer work which didn't need internet. I went over two disks with pictures to choose what to have printed. Then I went to the pool with a friend. We had a ride to Jerusalem and then took a cab. Another woman waiting for the bus to the pool joined us in the cab. When we got out we were surprised to find a bunch of the "regulars" standing in the parking lot. The pool is closed today for repairs!

I kid you not. It was just one of those days, but we took it well, refusing to get upset. Nobody died; nobody's sick or injured. So our plans were changed.

And now I'm home and blogging, and I have 148 messages (including spam) waiting for me on yahoo and another 80 or so on netvision, (including spam.) But as long as I'm healthy....

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

I hate it when the internet is down - I know it is a complete luxury but I miss it. And the pool was closed too?

Batya said...

yes
peculiar coincidence
so instead of exercising, we ended up going to a coffee shop for coffee and a shared pastry;
yes, we're bad girls

Sarah Likes Green said...

oy shame... at least it's all working again!

Batya said...

B"H

YajB (The Woolley MomMyth) said...

Berzerk so suxx. BTW - you have to call 199 and request credit for the time the service was down...because they won't do it automatically.

Batya said...

thanks for the idea
never thought of it

marallyn ben moshe said...

oy...i hate that...oy...glad you are back up and running...shabbat shalom...oy

Anonymous said...

it aint better here in the golden country same thing

Batya said...

mbm, thanks, good to be back

noch, it's good to know that it's the same all over