Yesterday Nyel and I — sometimes separately and sometimes together — spent seven f***ing hours on the telephone trying to solve Cinderella’s broken heart. First we spoke with her Mother Ship; then with the Mother Ship’s Controller. That took three hours. They needed us to find out some information about our modem and its firewalls. That required several phone calls to CenturyLink who was the supplier of our Modem and our internet service. Need I say more? But… just in case you don’t realize… here in the greater downtown rural center of things, CenturyLink is the only show in town landline-wise , and for medical reasons – see below — we need the landline.
Proudly CenturyLink’s robotic voice told us how they are completely automated now but… if we needed to talk to a representative, just say “representative” at any time. I cannot even begin to tell you how many different responses that got us — including several complete hang-ups, a robotic question “I understand you want to speak with a representative” followed by several more minutes of automated voice and THEN a hang-up. ad-nauseum.
When we finally got a live CenturyLink voice and told her our problem, she asked a number of questions about our question — as in what exactly did we need to know about the firewalls (which we had already told her) and why did we need to know etc. etc. We answered each question to the best of our ability — several times. Finally, after more due deliberation, she said, “Your modem does not have any firewalls.” “Then why,” asked my ever-patient husband, “are the Roomba people asking us to find out about them?” Would you believe… another hang up!
At one point, I was on hold with my faithful cell phone, hearing over and over and yet again over, “Your call is very important to us.” After forty-four minutes and constant repeats of my call’s importance, they hung up. Apparently the call wasn’t THAT important.
Cinderella Stuck on her Home Base
We would cut our CenturyLink connection in a nano-second but Nyel’s daily CardioMems* report is sent each morning via our landline. CenturyLink is the only show in town. And that report, literally, is a lifeline for him. Need I tell you how very scary it is that said lifeline depends upon CenturyLink? I wonder if there are T Shirts that say Rural Lives Matter. Probably not. And, in case you are wondering, Cinderella’s problem has not yet been fixed. Actually… not even diagnosed as far as we can tell. But then, after 24 hours, our internet access is still intermittent so perhaps the Fairy Godmother hasn’t been able to wave her magic wand yet…
*A CardioMEMS device is implanted in Nyel’s pulmonary artery via a short, femoral vein access cath procedure. It measures changes in pulmonary artery pressure, which are a surrogate measure for fluid retention in the lungs due to worsening heart failure conditions.
For years I thought Century Link and ATT were one as they are both tied for the worst customer service. I am a spectrum customer and my outages have been very rare. But I’m not hard wired. Maybe Spectrums land line would work even though I believe it’s over the internet.
Funny you should say that, Bryan. I think of CenturyLinnk and AT&T as one, too, even though I know differently. To me, they are both “Ma Bell.” I have heard good things about Spectrum’s landline but, unfortunately they don’t come this far north on the Peninsula. No cable possibilities in Oysterville…
I feel your pain! Not for the internet problems (my Xfinity usually works fine), but for your Cinderella problems. My Cinderella (named Marvin) gave up the ghost one week after warranty was up. Roomba support was fairly helpful with ideas, but finally said we needed to send it to Chicago for a tuneup. They would be sending us a postage paid shipping container. Here starts the trouble. The company in Chicago tries to call to get details. They call on cell phone, but I don’t pick up unidentified calls. They leave no voice messages. Each week I keep contacting Roomba saying the Chicago company has not sent me my box. This goes on for a good 8 weeks. Finally I am told to expect a call on such and such a day at such and such a time. Perfect match. From that point, box arrived, I mailed it off (with the required $135 no matter what the problem), it was returned within 10 days, and we were off and running to success. Not a hitch since. I am telling you this just in case you have to send Cinderella off to Roomba Hospital. Can’t help with internet connection. Here in Clark County people are always growling about CenturyLink. Jane
Thanks for the information, Jane. Thankfully our Roomba is still under wasrranty and FINALLY we were able to get back in touch with them. The upshot is: they will supply us with a new Roomba BUT they are back-ordered so it will be two weeks to a month. Meanwhile, I have found that even though we can’t send Cinderella out on a cleaning job or use the map, I can carry her to a specific place and she cleans that room and goes to the next and the next until her battery needs to be recharged. Then she just sits there waiting to be placed back on her base. It’s a pain but certainly do-able for the interim. Meanwhile, I wonder if the manufacturers really have it all worked out or if, maybe, the robots are winning…