So early last week I had an issue with Internet access. It was Sunday, I was taking a break from writing, eating lunch and watching a YouTube video. Then, all of a sudden, the stream dies. My household Internet is gone. I go and check the router, and the broadband light is flashing red at me. So I try rebooting the router. No dice. I try re-seating the cables. Nothing.
So I call AT&T support and after telling me I can solve my problem on the web— as if— I go though a bunch more automated prompts before I get the archetypal Indian call center dude. He makes me reboot the router and reseat the cables again. Then he does diagnostics on his end for several minutes before coming back to me and asking if the light’s changed. It hasn’t. We go through more diagnostics.
Apparently there’s no sign of my router anywhere on AT&T’s network. Great. They’ll have to send a guy on Monday to look at the wiring in my house and check the router. So, no Internet for at least twenty-four hours. It also means I have to burn a vacation day at the day job because I can’t telecommute with no Internet, and I have to be home for when the AT&T guy decides to show up.
So, with my day going swimmingly, I decide to go outside and do some yardwork…
Then I see what happened to my Internet.
I have to call back and tell them to bring a bigger truck.
