4 hour window.... the saga continues

Day 1
11:52 am : I am almost 1 hour into the 4 hour window for the cable guy. It's actually the VoIP guy/gal from the cable company but that makes the 4 hour window no less annoying.

I think I might begin to apply 4 hour windows to things on my work calendar. The meeting will be held sometime between 11 am and 3pm- just hang out & wait. Could you imagine?

I totally expect a phone call at 2:57 to reschedule. Yet, I am not out having bloody mary's with DHP or lunch with InfoChef because I am here waiting in the dreaded 4 hour window.

1:08 pm: Past the half way point of the 4 hour window. Still no cable guy.

2:35 pm: Cable guy has come. He said he actually stopped by at 9am - when I was at the grocery- BEFORE THE 4 HOUR WINDOW. As if the 4 hour window is not annoying enough- now you expect a 4 hour window before the 4 hour window???

Everything is half broken as I should learn to expect. I am now tethered to the modem as the wireless router is unhappy.

Oh, and they gave us the wrong phone #. We have someone elses # who ported it from Qwest. They can't start to fix that until the workorder is closed at the end of the day. I am sure who ever's number we have is just as thrilled as I am.

Day 2
8:05 am: Wireless LAN is back up due to Jeepboy's excellent mac address cloning skills. Encryption is also restored so no more poaching for the neighbors.

Still no phone number and I have already had to use the F word with a customer service agent before breakfast but we downloaded comics from comedy central motherload on all computers while talking on new VOIP & had no cut outs so the pain may payoff in the long run... and I still haven't given those evil bastards at Qwest a dime.

Apparently I need rejuvenation & pampering- per our guest commenter- so I best get on that.

Day 3
7:47 am: It appears that only loser customer service agents work on the weekend. Both women who I spoke to - as there is no option for VOIP on the touch tone menu, it requires a manual transfer to get to the correct team- were human. And the VOIP rep today was actually able to read the account history & provide useful information. Now that said- still no phone # or anything crazy like that but I do feel hopeful again. Today they were also able to schedule a call back when the work is complete- something no one over the weekend was able to do.

Day 4
10:20 am: No call back as expected so Three transfers, 32 minutes on the phone/26 of those minutes on hold.... "Ma'am, it appears the problem is with our internal systems routing procedure. It will be Thursday (aka, Day 6 of the 4 hour window) before the phone number is updated. I have credited your account $5 to offset the delay."

Note: Overall, even though I still don't have an inbound phone number, this experience is still better than Qwest and Vonage.

Day 5
2:10 pm: Still no phone number but outbound calls are a smashing success.

Day 6
4:30 pm: Calling phone number from home phone welcomes me to a voicemail set up. Calling phone number from cell phone tells me it is still not connected. I tried to be patient and boy did that backfire as the customer service agent I got this late in the afternoon is clearly back in the sub contracted call center in a low security prison. 4:38 pm: The ticket has now been escalated and will be resolved in the next 21 hours. Oh, and here is something fun & new, the new number now appears on caller ID but can still not accept inbound calls.

6:45pm: And the window closes... we have a functioning phone.