ATT and wireless -- tech support sucks!

There's not too many things in life I hate worse than having to call any computer tech support! Today was one of those days. I have ATT/DSL. All was fine till I left the house to go mail in my reason for not being able to serve on Jury Duty (ah, yes, another woe, but not worth a whole blog) - and when I got back, I had no internet connection. I hit the reset on the modem, and that didn't work. I called them, and the recording said, "Did you unplug modem and restart?"

Well, no, I didn't. So, I hung up and did that. But I still didn't have a connection. So, I called back. Apparently hitting the reset erased my password; and the guy walked me through setting a new one. All is fine -- so far.

Then he has me turn on my laptop, which I might mention has not been turned on for quite some time - months - but it had connection when I used it last. But I agreed a good idea to check it. Good thing, because there was no connection.

He had me do several things; then had me delete the connection, let it create a new one; didn't work. An error message came up, something about the ISP wasn't compatible. Then the phone went dead. I suppose he hung up! They make it a big deal to get your phone number so they can call you back - but he didn't call me back.

So, I called them back, started over. "Let me connect you to the wireless tech support." GEEZ! Okay.

Then we go through the same things again, answering the same basic questions about modem and operating system and all that . She does the same stuff the first guy had me to do - properties, look at this, look at that -- then delete the connection; let it create a new connection, etc. Got to the same place - three or four times. Each time she would say, "Can you hold while I check your account?" Sure, I'll wait. Then she'd come back to do the same thing we did before.

Then she's quiet - then asks me, "You are having trouble getting the wireless to work on your laptop; is that right?" YES!!! Damn!!

I tried to tell her about the message, the ISP wasn't compatible; but she pretty much ignored me and said bla bla bla about ATT supporting Internet connection and I could connect; apparently it was something wrong with my laptop; and did I want her to connect me to the Connect Tech Support? I said there's nothing wrong with my laptop, and I thought that's who she was!! Yes, connect me.

Well, getting connected to that department, the recording alerts me that it is fee-based and to have a credit card handy. OH, NO YOU DON'T! So, I hung up; got out my ethernet cable and hard wired it, and it connected just fine.

Once again, I got the message about the ISP not being compatible; but when I tried to click on the error for more info, it went away. By this time I had wasted well over 2 hours, maybe even three, of stress and rising blood pressure; so I gave it up. I know I'll have to call them back and go through the whole thing -- again! But it won't be today!

There's no reason in this world that so much time and mental energy should be expended on something that should be so minor!