We had a pretty good weekend. Got the boats out of the water and celebrated Bob Smith’s birthday. I hope that was not the highlight of my week.
Before I arrived at work Monday morning, Janet texted me to tell me the internet was down. I asked if she had reset all the equipment. She assured me she had.
Last week we switched our phones to Shentel and upgraded our internet service. I have had Shentel internet in my office for some time. I got it a number of years ago to serve as a back up to my primary service. We recently discovered that while we were paying, an arm and a leg, for Segra’s service, Shentel was the only internet active in our building.
I researched the costs and quality factors for some time and finally made the switch. Last week Shentel made the change over. On Friday we had to call them when we discovered our fax machine wasn’t functioning. It took both the copier guy and Shentel’s service tech, but they finally got it fixed.
On Monday, press day, no internet is a major major problem. I followed up the trouble call that Janet placed when I got to work. They told me that due to the holiday, (what holiday? Oh wait, it’s Columbus Day) they only had one technician working in the area. They promised to call their dispatcher and explain to them how urgent the matter was. I gave the lady my cell phone number and ask that she let me know as soon as they could when he would be here.
Two hours passed and I heard nothing, so I called back. Again, I emphasized how important having internet service was to our business. I added that I changed all my services to them last week and had already placed the second service call… did I make a mistake?
The lady put me on hold for about 5 minutes before returning to the line and assuring me my call had been elevated in priority and I should see a repairman today by 4:00 p.m. That’s our deadline, so as I write this column I really don’t know if you will be reading this on your regular schedule or a day late. No one has showed up nor have they called me. I plan to call our printer and see if I can arrange to meet one of their employees and deliver the pages personally if need be.
If you sent material late in the week that did not get in the paper, I sincerely apologize. This time it wasn’t our fault.
My small staff is resourceful. They made trips to places where we normally get last minute items. We had columns forwarded to our phones and then typed them manually, etc. Needless to say, it’s been a rough first day of the week. I can only hope it gets better….