ATT makes me cry

It's like banging your head against a wall, without the benefit of results.
This morning I was happily surfing away, not a care in the world. When I stopped for lunch, so did my dsl service. It never came back though. Apparently an automated computer cancelled the order for my dsl (which was working) because it was never "fulfilled". Bottom line, whoever hooked us up didn't finish their paperwork. I won't even go into the fix they came up with because it's a convoluted Rube Goldberg scheme involving a new phone jack, some kind of phone line independent dsl account and several hours of my time setting up the computer (twice!!) just to switch the line back to the original phone line next week. It's all to allow the system to pass the "glitch" like so much day old sauer kraut. Or I can wait until next week, get a new phone number, hook the dsl up to that and switch back. It took 3 hours on hold and the rest of my cell phone minutes for the month to figure this out. I COULD HAVE BUILT MY OWN FUCKING PHONE SYSTEM IN THE AMOUNT OF TIME IT TOOK THEM TO SORT OUT WHAT AMOUNTS TO A CLERICAL ERROR!!! I'm trembling with rage.

butterscotch pudding

There is a place on the westside, in the building where I used to live, called Clementine. The food there is pretty good if a little overpriced and it's been a big hit in that neighborhood since its doors opened several years ago. It's too far for me to frequent now and it's too crowded with westside "ladies who lunch" and CAA agents to be really enjoyable anymore. But, whenever I'm in that area I always try to stop by to see if they have any of their butterscotch pudding because it's the only thing I've ever found worth that kind of trouble. They don't always have it and it's hard to tell when they will, it doesn't seem to be a seasonal item but who knows. It will blow your mind. When God sat down on the 2nd day to create the pudding family, this is the stuff he came up with. It's molasses-y and sweet and a really strange shade of almost gray,,juuuuuuguuguggghhhhhhhh.

Anyway, here's the point. I went over there today to drop some stationery I had shot off at Sugar Paper (I shot most of their website, if you want to see what I've been doing) and popped my head in for a bite with the kiddo and to pick up some pudding (and apple turnovers, almost as good as the pudding and still the best turnovers we've found). Brought it home for J and had some after dinner. Of course, the best thing about having a kid is feeding him stuff and seeing the reaction so it was time to have his first taste of butterscotch pudding. He's sitting on the floor chewing on something and I give him a tiny taste. He stares at the floor for a second while he contemplates the brown sugary goodness melting on his tongue. Looks up at J with the biggest smile and spins around on the floor like he's on a sit-and-spin. It was the best reaction I've seen to a food product yet. Then of course he wanted more and it only took a second to realize I'd made a huge mistake, and right before bed time.

rejoice

we're back amongst the living. So to speak. After much trouble and complaint we've finally been re-wired. So we can sit back and get fat while watching youtube and eating potato chips.

Thank god.

Further dispatches: cross your fingers, we may be in business

So after a long week and a half we may actually get our dsl turned on. I won't go into details again but after another two days of lies, half-truths, transfers, promised calls never received, and not one single explanation or answer, we finally got a number to call where I got in touch with someone who could help. It was a corporate number that took us through another endless tree but ended with a woman who had answers, called back when she said (actually before she said she would if you can believe it) and got results. She says we'll be online by tonight at 8 and if not she gave us her direct line to call back. So there it is, cross your fingers we finally found the one person who works at ATT who can follow through on her promises.

Dispatches from the Library or: ATT has the worst service EVER!

The move went fine. Everything is in and so far nothing has broken. The neighborhood is nice and we've met some neighbors. The problem is ATT can't for the life of them seem to figure out what's going on with our DSL. I've never had worse service from a company which, presumably, wants me to send them a check each month in my life. I've been sent from one department to another and back again. I've been told I'd be called back and never was. I've been given different stories as to why we're not hooked up yet (despite all of their assurances that last Monday would not be a problem). I've spent hours on hold. All to find out there is a box somewhere without room for the plug they need. So I have to wait until Friday (they say, and nothing they've said so far has even resembled the truth) before I have my DSL. Will they reimburse me for my tuition if I fail a class? Probably not. Are they apologetic? Only as apologetic as a high school kid with a crappy job in a call center can be. What can you do? You can't get mad at them, they're just there to field calls and hope that the department they send you to can answer your questions. Change providers? I don't think anyone else can get me hooked up by Friday and if they could changing our emails and updating everything else sounds more tedious than what it's worth. It's not like my monthly bill going missing is going to put a dent in the buckets of money they rake in each month. Nobody will be fired over our leaving. They've got you over a barrel and they know it. It's so frustrating.
One woman tried to sell me cellular service after keeping me on hold for an hour to tell me the "escalation team" would call me back in 8 hours (which they didn't). Right, because you're doing such a bang up job helping me out now, I'll take on the additional headache of getting cell service that sucks. And what's an "escalation team"? It sounds like something NATO peacekeepers do when the blue helmets aren't having the proper effect on the local warlords.