I
guess I’m spoiled. When technology goes wrong, I want it fixed…and I want it
fixed NOW. I don’t want to wait
while someone at the end of a 1-800 line guides mein trouble-shooting.

For
instance, about a year ago we couldn’t get a dial tone at the Sanderson Museum.
So I called our big name phone service provider on my cell phone to get some “service.”

“Ma’am,
are you calling from the phone in question,” he asked. I felt a little like he
had just asked me who was buried in Grant’s Tomb.

“No,”
I answered, “Like I said, it doesn’t work. I’m calling from my cell phone.”

“OK,
ma’am let’s do a little trouble shooting,” came the voice. “Outside your
building, you need to locate your junction box –the one with the thick wires
running to it. I need you to open the box with a screw driver where you’ll see
some wires running to…..”

“Wait,”
I stopped him, as I stood outside the museum, “It’s outside the third floor
attic.”

“Can
you get a ladder,” he asked.

But,
the next day they sent a truck and the trouble was found about one-half mile south
on Route 1.

Then,
last month we lost Internet connection on our home computers.

I
hate the feeling of being isolated from the entire world and I wanted it fixed NOW.

I
checked every connection to our router, checked that all the lights were green,
rebooted, stuck the end of a paper clip in the re-set button…everything. The router
was fine, but we had no Internet connection.

So I
called our big name Internet provider.

“Hi
there, I’m Tony,” came the voice. “May I call you Sally?”

I gave
him the history of the problems and the steps I had taken to connect to the net.

“OK
Sally, let’s do a little trouble shooting,” he said. “Take a look at the back
of your router. What green lights are on?”

“I
already did this,” I reminded him.

But we went through the whole process again. Tony even tried, with
no success to remotely “ping” my computer. Something I would not have let
him do if we had not been on a first name basis.

I
finally said with a hint of desperation in my voice, “Can you please just send someone over?”

Then
he says, “We can’t authorize a technician to come out until we’ve sent you a
new router.”

“But
there’s nothing wrong with my router,” I said.

So a
few days later the new router arrives in a box at our front door.

I
unplug the little clips connecting the yellow and black cords on the old one,
unscrew the big white cable and hook up the new one, place the router installer
in the CD drive and follow all the instructions.

“You
have no Internet connection,” my screen tells me – Duhhhh…. I KNOW!

So
we called our provider again, they agreed to send out a tech and finally after
four days, we were once again connected and all was right with the world.

And
now as I write this blog, these same technicians are on strike. According to
the press, “…business has been declining for a decade as customers have
disconnected their home phones in favor of cellphone and Internet services.”

I just
found that a bit bizarre.

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