{"id":2691,"date":"2002-05-16T13:50:43","date_gmt":"2002-05-16T18:50:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/?p=2691"},"modified":"2002-05-16T13:50:43","modified_gmt":"2002-05-16T18:50:43","slug":"those_who_forge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2002\/05\/16\/those_who_forge.html","title":{"rendered":"Those who forget the past …"},"content":{"rendered":"

Way back in September, we went through a long, tortured process with Qwest<\/s> Qworst in a vain attempt to get DSL at our house. Our Baby Bell insisted DSL was, in fact, available to us when we approached them directly to provision it (oddly enough, they had rejected it when we tried to go through a third party, but I rightly guessed they’d be much more enthusiastic if we tried to go directly to them). So they said, “Sure, it will work great from your house,” and they started the service and sent us the hardware and spent many tech support hours as we tried to figure out why the hardware didn’t detect a DSL signal and then spent many field service hours over a few days as wiring technicians came to our house and tested the lines and ran an alternate line to the house from the phone box in the backyard and tried and tested and toned and finally …<\/p>\n

… reported back that the signal was far too weak, and that the order should never have been processed and that, in fact, somebody had had to override the “this won’t work” flag in the ordering system <\/i>to get the order processed.<\/p>\n

Margie called up Qworst and got them to throw us a bone <\/a>on our billing. And, a few months later, after a couple of further phone calls, they sent more service folks out to get rid of the phone line left draped across our back yard.<\/p>\n

Flash forward to the present …<\/i><\/p>\n

My phone at the office rings. It’s Margie. Pleasant conversation ensues. Then she says, “Guess who’s playing in the backyard?”<\/p>\n

Is this a trick question? “Katherine?”<\/p>\n

“No, she’s down for a nap.” Silence. “I’ll give you a hint. They’re at the back of the lot, playing with the box.”<\/p>\n

I flash on an image of Jake and Dizzy worrying a big cardboard box to pieces in the back yard. Before I can ask why the dogs are visiting, Margie says, “It’s US Qworst. They’re installing DSL next door. And guess what — <sarcasm>they’re having problems<\/i><\/sarcasm>.”<\/p>\n

Now, I’d like to think that Qworst is simply so inept and incompetent in their record-keeping that nobody flagged our phone segment as too staticky or far from the CO or whatever for DSL to be provisioned through it, even after the September debacle.<\/p>\n

Margie is less charitible. She thinks they simply stand to make money off a few months of service and (since it’s only by serious haranguing that you can get them to refund the money already paid for service that never worked — and even then, they’ve made some bucks off the float).<\/p>\n

And it occurs to me that the field techs they sent out for us (and, presumably, again) were not actual Qworst techs, but from a contractor of Qworst’s. And if Qworst only has to pay when the problem is resolved ….<\/p>\n

Margie calls that fraud.<\/p>\n

Well. One way or the other, we’ll have to have a chat with the neighbors.<\/p>\n

And who knows. Maybe they’ve solved the problem, and DSL can be provisioned to our house, too.<\/p>\n

And maybe CEOs of Qworst, Micro$oft, and VeriSign <\/a>will all hire me to solve their customer relations difficulties.<\/p>\n

Guess which is most likely to happen first.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Way back in September, we went through a long, tortured process with Qwest Qworst in a vain attempt to get DSL at our house. Our Baby Bell insisted DSL was,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2691","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hi-tech"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":11961,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2007\/12\/22\/earning_my_technical_chop.html","url_meta":{"origin":2691,"position":0},"title":"Earning my technical chops","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 22-Dec-07 9:59am","format":false,"excerpt":"One of the challenges of our trips to Faerie is that I get to put on my Technical Wizard hat -- a bit faded, crumpled, and moth-eaten -- and show...","rel":"","context":"In "My Computer"","block_context":{"text":"My Computer","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/my-computer"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":636,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2001\/09\/10\/margie_rocks.html","url_meta":{"origin":2691,"position":1},"title":"Margie rocks","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 10-Sep-01 10:33am","format":false,"excerpt":"Margie is, even as I write, on the phone once again with the dimbulbs from Qwest, expressing her dismay with their dismal activities during our recent attempts to get DSL...","rel":"","context":"In "Hi-Tech"","block_context":{"text":"Hi-Tech","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/hi-tech"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8332,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2005\/12\/14\/operator_weve_b.html","url_meta":{"origin":2691,"position":2},"title":"Operator, we’ve been cut off!","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 14-Dec-05 7:27am","format":false,"excerpt":"Got back to the hotel last night to discover that the broadband in my room was not working. Since the DSL signal light was not lighting on the modem, and...","rel":"","context":"In "Travel"","block_context":{"text":"Travel","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/travel"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2741,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2002\/09\/27\/teases.html","url_meta":{"origin":2691,"position":3},"title":"Teases","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 27-Sep-02 3:39pm","format":false,"excerpt":"We suffer at our house from a severe lack of broadband. DSL (via Qworst) is not available to the house. Cable modem service (via AT&T) is not available to the...","rel":"","context":"In "Hi-Tech"","block_context":{"text":"Hi-Tech","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/hi-tech"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4938,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2003\/12\/01\/rrg_argh.html","url_meta":{"origin":2691,"position":4},"title":"Rrg. Argh.","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 1-Dec-03 6:48pm","format":false,"excerpt":"My folks got their DSL in over the weekend. Before we got our broadband. *SIGH*...","rel":"","context":"In "My Computer"","block_context":{"text":"My Computer","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/my-computer"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4949,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2003\/11\/29\/yet_more_signs.html","url_meta":{"origin":2691,"position":5},"title":"Yet more Signs of the Apocalypse","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 29-Nov-03 9:29pm","format":false,"excerpt":"My folks have ordered DSL. (It's fortunate my own cable broadband order is due to be installed next Thursday, or else I'd be quite cross.) Margie now has an Amazon...","rel":"","context":"In "My Computer"","block_context":{"text":"My Computer","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/my-computer"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2691","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2691"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2691\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2691"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2691"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}