For the second time in two days, our DSL provider has incurred a major outage affecting about 100 of us. Yesterday we could not connect to the internet for six hours. Now this morning, the same problem happens again with preliminary prospects of another six to eight hours with no access to the internet. If this were some local phone company with one tech guy I could understand, but this is a big company which provides local telephone service to millions of customers.
If access to the internet were only a hobby, then two outages in two days would be a minor inconvenience, but if your livelihood is based upon being connected to the internet; it is whole different story. In our case, I use the internet to stay connected to this site and a few others and my wife uses it to run an online business. When there is not access to the internet there is no way to conduct her business.
What is up with so-called “customer service” anyway? Whatever happened to the old adage “the customer is always right”? Why is it anymore that if, as a customer, you have a complaint or a situation which causes hardship or danger you are treated like someone trying to rip off the company? I believe the “me first” mentality has fully crept into the everyday business realm.
We live in the country and our electricity is provided by a rural electrical cooperative. For years we enjoyed lower rates than those in the city and received a check each year of excess profits. Then last year the rates jumped dramatically for the first time in years due to the dramatic rise in energy prices. Our response was to move out of the second story of our home so as to not run the upstairs air conditioner and embark on a series of measures to make sure we used far less electricity than before. The result was we paid the same even after the huge increase due to decreased consumption.
Three months ago we were notified of another huge price increase that went into effect last month. We turned the thermostat further down during cold snaps and the A/C higher. We unplugged unused items and turned off more lights than we turned on. In January we had the thermostat set at 70 degrees and by March it was down to 64 degrees. There were some mighty cold mornings in this big house. The A/C is set at 80 degrees. There are going to be some mighty warm and muggy days in this place.
Yesterday we received the first bill with the new rate increases. We had cut our consumption almost in half from one year ago and our bill was $15 more. It is truly a pity that something like electricity has become something only the rich can afford.
Everywhere I go I see banks and hear commercials for lending companies touting their 4.25% interest rates on mortgages. Every time I look into refinancing our mortgage to tap into these incredible rates I am met with the same answer MOST people get—“oh we are sorry but you don’t qualify for that rate, but we could get you a 7% rate”. It is common knowledge that the lenders are so scared they are only giving these low interest loans to people how succeed in jumping through every possible hoop on earth.
I went into town yesterday to mail a bunch of packages. Once again I was reminded of the 2 cent increase in stamps going into effect on the 11th. Less service, but pay more seems to be the way everyone is dealing with the current economic downturn. Driving by the gas stations I saw the price for a gallon of gas had jumped 25 cents in one day. Hmmm, if every business in America raised their prices that much overnight, wouldn’t it pretty well destroy the country?
I have no leverage with the electric company, the Post Office, the mortgage company or gasoline stations. They are going to keep raising rates and prices to compensate for lack of demand for their services or market conditions. But, when it comes to a phone/DSL company being unable to keep a line up for 24 hours, my patience runs out. Besides, this is the same company that took almost a month to get service back for thousands of customers a little south of us last winter after an ice storm downed lines all over the place. Hey what do you know, the restored the service!
It is daily getting harder and harder to stay afloat in this country. The more one tries to conserve, cut back and be frugal, it does little good as others keep raising prices and rates at the same time. One step forward and two steps back seems to be the name of the game now days.
