Monday, August 31, 2020

12 Days of No Wifi

What do you do if you do not have wifi subscription at home, and your wifi modem does not work after a thunderstorm?    Not a good experience at all, especially if your cell phone plan is first 3GB up to 4G LTE speed then 2G, even though it is unlimited data.  You don't know when the wifi will be restored and so you don't dare to use too much internet.  You can't watch videos with 2G!

It happened to us.  Thunderstorm on the 10 July 2020 and then no wifi until the 22 July 2020.

After the thunderstorm on the 10 July 2020, I reported to an Agent that my wifi modem was dead.  The Agent trouble-shooted and confirmed that my wifi modem was dead because no light came on when I plugged it into another electrical outlet.  A ticket was issued and I collected a replacement wifi modem from their store that same afternoon.  This was our 3rd modem.

We had the 1st modem since September 2015.  It was a Ubee model and it survived all the thunderstorms.  We changed it because an Agent told us the system called for a modem upgrade.  I had called the Agent complaining about the internet connection fluctuations.  Another possible reason was the increase in the usage of internet at home during this COVID-19 pandemic time.

The 2nd modem, that were recommended to us was a Panoramic wifi gateway.  It was very disappointing that this new Panoramic wifi was not as tough as the 1st Ubee modem.  The 1st Ubee had served us for 5 years!

And now this 3rd modem was also a Panoramic modem.  I would be mad if this modem need to be replaced, due some kind of technical flaws.  I guess we cannot take any thing for granted.  We will see how good this new professed to be good reliable equipment.

So back to the thunderstorm.

The 3rd modem lighted up when connected to the original electrical outlet, signifying the modem was working.  However there was no wifi signal.

So I contacted an Agent.  A work ticket was issued for a technician to come out to our home on the 12 July 2020 between 10 am - 12 pm.

12 July 2020.  The technician came.  He said he changed some cable or wire in the cable box on the outside wall.  He also found out that their communication equipment, on the utility pole, need to be attended to.  It had to be dealt by a field technician.  He was a home technician.  He issued a work ticket.

13 July 2020.  Contacted an Agent who said the case now rest in the hands of the Operations Field.

14 July and 17 July 2020.  Texted Agents.  Both said the target fix date was 19 July 2020.

19 July 2020.  No technician appeared.  Texted an Agent who reported there was no work ticket on file!  We had no idea why there was no information of the fix date of 19 July 2020 in the system as well.  We had no idea what was going on.  It was a frustrating moment.

20 July 2020.  I decided to let Mike take over.  He called the office and spoke to a representative, who generated a work ticket for a technician to come tomorrow, 21 July 2020.

21 July 2020.  A technician came, who insisted, as part of the diagnostic procedure, to come into the house to check the wifi modem, the internet and whatever.  We told him for the past days, all the Agents that we contacted had already troubleshooted remotely and we already knew that the wifi modem was not receiving signal.  We told him that the 1st technician who came on the 12 July 2020 didn't insist to come in because of the COVID-19 and that he could check from the outside.

So this 20 July 2020 technician came in and then he went outside.  I must have missed seeing if he had checked the cable box on the outside wall but I did saw him climbing a ladder at the utility pole.  Next thing we knew, he called Michael on the phone and said he couldn't solve the problem.  What a technician!  Don't even have the courtesy of reporting, to us face to face, what he found was the problem.

After the technician left, Mike called the office and spoke to someone, supposedly a Field Operations Supervisor, who generated a work ticket for another technician to come out tomorrow (22 July 2020) between 10 am - 12 pm.

22 July 2020.  Finally, an Operations Field Technician came.  Even though we were discouraged initially when he said he couldn't promise that he could restore the internet connection, I appreciate him for his humbleness.  Right then, we didn't know if the situation called for more than just fixing the box on the utility pole.  Anyway, this young sweet technician rang our front door, about half an hour later, happily announced that he had changed some wire in the box, and got back the phone and internet signal.

Some wires in the telecommunication box on the utility pole was replaced.  It was already diagnosed, on the 1st day of service by the Home Technician, that the box needed to be attended to.  Yet it took the Company 10 days to get to the right people to get the job done.  Very disappointing process.

That telecommunications box was struck by the thunderstorm on the 10 July 2020.  The neighbors whose source of internet signal derived from this box were affected as well.  I wondered if they were more patient than I was.

Anyway, I am glad the wifi modem is running now.  I am happy I can watch movies again.

I forgot to add that the Company is good.  They gave credit to my account for the 12 days of no internet and phone services.

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