Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Seeing Red

I have been on vacation for three days now. I have been having a nice time but have had one issue that caused a ton of strain yesterday . The Internet at the hotel went down and no one seemed to want to do anything about it. I woke up at my usual 3-4 in the morning and no Internet. I was beside myself as that is part of my morning ritual. I thought it was my computer and tried different networks and to no avail did I receive any transmission. I tried another device my itouch. It is fail proof when it comes to a connection. Panic struck me at that point. What was I going to do while my partner slept like a normal person for a couple more hours. I thought about it awhile and listened to music on my itouch but my mind still lingered to the thought of my usual stops on the computer. I wanted to check my e-mail which generally has the usual junk mail and crap in it. I wanted to see what was making headline news and of course who won the Grammies and more fluff news . Their is also facebook and who scored what on farmville and the status updates that are so urgent. I also check my bank account everyday also like it is going to mysterious change. It really isn't important the content it is that I rely on this ritual every morning to start my day .It threw a wrench into my morning. I also learned how addicted I was to the internet. It literally gave me anxiety not to be able to surf the web.
I called down to the lobby at five in the morning . The woman plead stupidity about how wireless works and said I would have to wait till seven until someone that knew more than her could do something about it. I wasn't happy but I could then surf the web or I thought. I almost wanted to tell her I would fix it for her as it probably just needed the connection reseted. I was getting a strong signal but nothing else. I waited and nothing happened at 7, 7:30 and 8. So I thought I would walk down to the lobby with my itouch and maybe grab some stale breakfast fare they serve at all of these places. They said they gave a free newspaper also. I sat in the lobby trying to get a connection trying to be proactive seeing if it was just the wing I was staying in but I already knew it wasn't trying every connection in this place. I went up to the front desk and logged another complaint. The woman behind the desk told me her Internet connection worked. I said I didn't care mine didn't and I wanted it fixed. I said a hardwired connection isn't the same as a wireless connection. I was getting frustrated at this point as I would think that someone would know something about a wireless network that worked here if they are going to offer it. It is a rather large hotel. She also told me no one else complained about not having internet. I told her she was wrong I called at 5 and have waited patiently for this problem to resolve. She told me she would call the maintenance man. I never heard back from her and still an hour later it was down. At this point I'm wasting my day waiting for a connection and I'm getting frantic for my fix. This time I walk down to the lobby with my laptop to show them it isn't my computer and to show them nothing is working. I march down three flights of stairs pissed more than ever that my request is being ignored and basically treating me like I don't matter. I tell the woman again the internet doesn't work and she said well she get another woman. This woman she got me was just plan ass rude and said it worked . I continued to hold my composure and said well it doesn't work for me and I don't care if anyone else is complaining as I'm complaining right now for the third time and I want it took care of. She acted like I was the idiot . She then really pissed me off by telling me to call a 1800 number. I said I wasn't going to call a 1800 number as it was there problem and it better get fixed ASAP or I was checking out and finding somewhere else. I also told her I should of listened to the complaints on travel sights about the wireless complaints they have and the various other complaints about dealing with rude staff. Also , I would be making one of those complaints also via every travel sight . She finally dialed the 1-800 number and put me on the phone with who ever handles their internet. It was the typical help desk crap to see if it wasn't user error and then he had me type in address to see if it worked then. Nope no page would come up. Like I didn't already know that. Hmm, they might have a problem. I was told they would reset their connection. Amazing , they had a problem when I told them for hours they had a problem. It was fixed in 5 minutes after that . I was as red as a beet by this point and about to blow. I was also shaking with anger as I was nice but really by all these hours really have had it. Walking back to the room I told myself I didn't handle that to shabby and more like a normal person. I didn't do anything rash like check out for having hours of head-ache. I didn't tell the front desk they where morons even though I could feel it on the tip of my tongue. I was assertive and to the point and it felt nice that I handled the situation proper as I don't always. I can handle anger from loved ones better than with strangers and service people. I generally give service people two chances before I never go back or blow the hell up for them not getting it right. I really didn't feel like packing up anyways and trying to find another hotel without booking it through the computer.
I managed to have residual andreline pumping and it took me about a hour to calm down and finally get ready for the day around noon. I wasted so much time over a internet connection and I really seen that I'm truly addicted to my computer. If the future shop would of been open at 5 in the morning I would of ended up buying a netbook or an internet stick to not be subjected to a shotty internet connection. I travel but not like I used to. I really can't justify that expense at the moment.
I'm just glad it is working now and I will probably not stay here again as I don't like and can't stand rude customer service. I'm very much used to the customer is always right even when they aren't. Plus, I hate the three flights of stairs and no elevator. It is hell tugging a heavy suitcase up three flights of stairs. I think I did though burn a lot of calories doing that though and worked my knees pretty good for skiing.

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