Sometimes it is just plain fun to be connected to some other part of the world to get tech support. The other day my Internet connection stopped working at my home. I tried to fix it but finally, unable, gave in and called the help line.
At first I tried going through the on-line tutorial, but that involves unplugging everything. I recently turned off my home phone’s land line and only have my cell phone now. The reason I was able to do this was because my phone company gave me a signal booster which fixed spotty reception at home. BUT the signal booster runs through the Internet. Which means that unplugging everything also unplugs my phone, which means I can no longer hear the tutorial.
ARGH!!!
After not getting through the tutorial, I plugged all my equipment back in, and, still not getting an internet connection, called tech support back. And when it came time to start going through the process of “for INTERNET support, press 1 now…” routine, I asked for a live helper.
“Hello, this is---FRED!” a cheery voice, greeted me, sounding nothing like anyone I know whose name is Fred, but more like someone who might be called Faisal or Sayed, or something from India.
“May I ask your name please, Miss?” Fred chirped.
“Laurey,” I said.
“Ah, yes, Miss Laurey,” he said, “how is it that I may help you today?”
I explained about the internet connection and about losing my phone when I unplugged everything and that maybe he could talk me through the process, let me write down the sequence, and help me figure out what to do if I was not successful. And what I should do when I got disconnected, as I was sure would happen.
“Sure Miss Laurey! I can help you!” (He did speak in exclamation points!)
And sure enough, Fred got me all organized, got through to me to identify which of my gear is the router and which is the booster and which is the modem and instructed me in how to go about shutting things down, in a specific order, and then how to start them back up, initiating each new instruction with “Okay now Miss Laurey, please do this for me…” which became, over time, “Miz Laurey” and then slurred into “Misslaurey” and before I knew it I was hoping that the fix might not be too easy because Fred had me grinning and plunging in like a confident tech jock!
And yes, Fred got me working again, the e-mails and inane Facebook notes and puzzles and silly notes flowing once more. Turns out that in my own pre phone call attempts, I had only unplugged three pieces of equipment, instead of unplugging FOUR. Fred, wherever he was, just giggled along with me as I related overlooking that piece of equipment.
“Oh Misslaurey, don’t worry, you can call us any time! That’s why we’re here Misslaurey. So happy to help you Misslaurey.”
I have to say, I think I really DO understand what I need to do the next time my system fails, but I’m not sure I’ll try it on my own. I might just call tech support again and, if I’m lucky, I might just stumble into Fred again.
Misslaurey is still smiling. Thanks, “Fred.”
