Moanin' Old Git part 3

No letter this time - I have written to complain but the letter would bore you.

Tiscali are my Internet provider in my new house. Our broadband provision started on the 19th January and ceased on the 13th February. I didn't ask for it to end, it just stopped working without warning.

So I rang Technical Support to find out why it wasn't working (after running all the usual diagnostics on my software and hardware, of course). They told me that the reason my Internet wasn't working was because it had been cancelled. "Why?" I asked. "You will have to speak to Billing to find out", they replied.

Billing were able to tell me that there was a note on the account to say "Internet cancelled as requested on the 13th February". It seems as though the previous tenant (who had left on the 6th January) had made this request. When I asked what we could do to rectify the situation, I was told to speak to Cancellations. Cancellations would not be open again until Monday morning.

On Monday morning, I spoke to Cancellations, who told me that the cancellation request was irreversible. I pointed out that I hadn't even made the request. It doesn't matter, it is still cancelled and we cannot re-establish your service as it takes 10-15 days to remove tags from your phone line, which must be done before we can re-connect.

I never yell at people on phone lines. I used to do customer service work, and know that it is not fair on the person on the other end, and only makes them more determined that you won't get what you are yelling for (or maybe that was just me). I did raise my voice in a very controlled way though, because this is a breach of Data Protection principles - someone else who does not have authority over my account has made a request which has been imposed without my knowledge. However, after half-heartedly offering one month free after my service has been re-established, he just said "There is nothing more I can do".

Then I asked if I am paying for my non-existent Internet service. "You will have to speak to Billing", I was told. Luckily, this time I got through to someone who was actually willing to help, was sympathetic and willing to take ownership of the problem. She agreed that it was ridiculous that the two accounts had been allowed to overlap, but also explained why I would still have to wait for the tags to be removed from the phone line before we could get Internet re-established. I pointed out to her (as I had done to everyone else) that both I and my other half need Internet at home as we both do some work from home, and she therefore not only suggested writing in to complain, but gave me the name of the Senior Complaints Officer!

So I have no Internet at home for at least two more weeks, which is a real bummer, as both Nicola and I are trying to write websites to use for work purposes (I can't really do that from the office, it would not look professional at all). Again, I suppose it is a case of watch this space, their response had better be good...