Incompetence

I barely had the patience to deal with my students the last few months of school. I have zero patience for dealing with people who are paid to do a job and can't do it right.

Here's the setting: my mother has paid for cable Internet, but didn't have a modem. Conveniently, I brought a cable modem and wireless router with me. I went to hook them up last Thursday and discovered the incoming cable didn't work. I called the company, which assured me a repair technician would arrive between the hours of 9 and 11 a.m. this morning. I was told to be sure there was somebody at home to meet the technician.

Meanwhile my mother and I have organized the possessions I brought with me and boxed them to go to the storage facility I hope to rent. This morning we loaded our two vehicles and waited for the tech to arrive so that we could then put the boxes in storage since she has the day off today and we have plans for the 4th.

We patiently waited for the tech while we rested.

And waited...

And waited.

After 11:00 I called the company. After being repeatedly routed to the wrong person and waiting over 5 minutes to speak to a human, I was accusingly told they didn't come because nobody answered the phone when they called us!!!

My reply: That's because we were using the dial-up Internet because the cable was down and nobody told me you would be calling!

How hard would it have been for the scheduler I spoke to on Thursday to check the phone number and inform me that I needed to keep the line free because the tech wouldn't come if he couldn't first contact us and confirm we were home?! We do not pay people to be incompetent!!

The person I spoke to today said they would try to "squeeze" us in today (after leaving me on hold for ten minutes, she told me that the moment they can't reach the tech in the field). I was also told that if a tech "doesn't show up by about 7 or 8 p.m. tonight," then we should "call to reschedule."

Meanwhile my mother can't do some emergency work she needs to at home because she has to use the dialup program on her laptop that should allow her to access her company's network isn't working for some reason, and her office is closed for repairs this weekend.

And we're both driving ourselves crazy not being able to be on the Internet at the same time.

We were counting down the hours to a supposed repair today.

I know there are worse problems, but... Grrrrr... Like I said, we don't pay people to be incompetent.