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canyonwalkerWhat a day. What a fucking day. With a busy day of work on my calendar I managed to carved out time this morning to visit the local T-Mobile store shortly after it opened at 10am. I went to exchange my home internet "gateway" after spending hours troubleshooting our broken Internet service with no fewer than five technicians yesterday. Their final diagnosis, after lots of repetitive "Turn if off and back on and see if it's working now" bullshit, was that my 5G modem was broken. But when I went to exchange it this morning, per their "It's so simple, we'll make sure everything's in the notes" promises, was that the store reps couldn't do anything for me because the service is in Hawk's name and she wasn't there. (She was at work.)
"Come back anytime today until 8pm," the friendly guy in the store promised.
It was frustrating, but Hawk and I planned to go back together when she got home from work.
When she got home from work we went straight out to the store together. We even boxed up and brought along the broken gateway, as the employee who wouldn't let me access the account at least warned me that we'd need to do an exchange. (The folks on the phone weren't aware of that need.)
"Welcome! Do you have an appointment?" the employee at the store this evening asked.
Oops, the daytime employee didn't advise us we'd need an appointment.
"Sorry, we can't help you at all today. Our appointment book is full," the evening employee continued. 😡
We reluctantly made an appointment for tomorrow at 7pm. By the time we get this thing replaced we'll have been without home Internet for 3 days. ...Make that at least 3 days, as I expect a significant chance it still won't work even if/when we get a replacement modem tomorrow night. We'll probably have to spend more hours on the phone with tech support, being asked to turn it off, turn it on, and try again. 🤬
Oh, and then came the kick while we were already down. Car trouble. Our car wouldn't start. Time to call AAA!
Thankfully our breakdown happened right in town, less than 2 miles from home, rather than 1000 miles away, ruining a vacation. A tow truck driver for AAA arrived within minutes. We had the car towed to a local mechanic. Though that did mean no scenic flat-bed tow truck ride through the mountains.
How much will this repair cost us? Thankfully it sounds like a relatively minor repair. It sounds like a starter motor. It might even be something as simple as a grounding wire on the motor. So it shouldn't be $thousands. And we had it towed to a local mechanic whom I trust to be scrupulous with the repair bill. The Nissan dealership I've gone to for the last two breakdown repairs I've felt replaced more parts than were strictly necessary to fatten the bills.
There's nothing else we can do tonight. I'll talk to the mechanic in the morning to start the repair process. That's going to be a minor pisser as I have another full day of work scheduled. Interruptions are going to make it suck. And yet-another day of tethering from my phone to use the Internet while working at home is going to suck. Being on hours of videoconferences each day really burns through the bandwidth!
Update: At least the car repair is cheap— and FAST!
"Come back anytime today until 8pm," the friendly guy in the store promised.
It was frustrating, but Hawk and I planned to go back together when she got home from work.
When she got home from work we went straight out to the store together. We even boxed up and brought along the broken gateway, as the employee who wouldn't let me access the account at least warned me that we'd need to do an exchange. (The folks on the phone weren't aware of that need.)
"Welcome! Do you have an appointment?" the employee at the store this evening asked.
Oops, the daytime employee didn't advise us we'd need an appointment.
"Sorry, we can't help you at all today. Our appointment book is full," the evening employee continued. 😡
We reluctantly made an appointment for tomorrow at 7pm. By the time we get this thing replaced we'll have been without home Internet for 3 days. ...Make that at least 3 days, as I expect a significant chance it still won't work even if/when we get a replacement modem tomorrow night. We'll probably have to spend more hours on the phone with tech support, being asked to turn it off, turn it on, and try again. 🤬
Oh, and then came the kick while we were already down. Car trouble. Our car wouldn't start. Time to call AAA!
Thankfully our breakdown happened right in town, less than 2 miles from home, rather than 1000 miles away, ruining a vacation. A tow truck driver for AAA arrived within minutes. We had the car towed to a local mechanic. Though that did mean no scenic flat-bed tow truck ride through the mountains.
How much will this repair cost us? Thankfully it sounds like a relatively minor repair. It sounds like a starter motor. It might even be something as simple as a grounding wire on the motor. So it shouldn't be $thousands. And we had it towed to a local mechanic whom I trust to be scrupulous with the repair bill. The Nissan dealership I've gone to for the last two breakdown repairs I've felt replaced more parts than were strictly necessary to fatten the bills.
There's nothing else we can do tonight. I'll talk to the mechanic in the morning to start the repair process. That's going to be a minor pisser as I have another full day of work scheduled. Interruptions are going to make it suck. And yet-another day of tethering from my phone to use the Internet while working at home is going to suck. Being on hours of videoconferences each day really burns through the bandwidth!
Update: At least the car repair is cheap— and FAST!
