I have been writing a lot lately about the problems of being “plugged-in” 24 hours a day and the toll it takes on your body.
It is just one of the myriad issues shaking the news industry to its core.
The truth is I’ve pretty much given up on the idea of being able to “get away” from the technology I swim in every day.
I blog, I tweet, I post on Facebook. I’m Linked-in.
Social media doesn’t take the weekends off either. I usually spend some time early on Saturday and Sunday mornings fixing up and arranging this website, DelcoTimes.com.
Sleep is another thing I’ve pretty much given up on, or at least the notion of sleeping in.
All of this made what happened to me on Sunday even more jolting.
I got “unplugged” courtesy of Verizon. They had a service outage, so I spent the first day in as long as I can remember without Internet access.
But that’s only half the story.
I got up early as usual and realized when I fired up the laptop that I could not connect to the Internet.
That’s when I made my first mistake. I called Verizon. Not a good idea.
After being led through the normal maize of automated replies, I eventually was passed along to a real, live person.
He indicated to me that he did not have a record of a service outage. Then he suggested we try to work through the problem. I knew right then and there I should have hung up the phone.
Unfortunately, I did not. An hour and a half later, after powering down the modem several times, and unplugging and re-plugging various lines, he indicated to me he didn’t think he was going to be able to resolve my problem.
He passed me along to another tech, apparently one at a higher level. After an hour and a half of frustration, as the first tech walked me through a series of diagnostic tests, ‘pinging’ this and changing log-ons and passwords, this gentleman informed me that there was in fact a service outage affecting our area.
As many of you have read in this blog, I have sworn off swearing for Lent. So much for that promise.
It felt like the top of my head was going to explode. I tried to remain calm as I informed this gentleman of what had transpired in the previous hour and a half.
One thing I must say. All the Verizon people were very pleasant, all apologized for the outage, and all seemed genuinely interested in helping me solve the problem.
After the second tech informed me of the service outage, I asked him if he had any indication how long it was expected to be out. He could not tell me. I could feel the bile building in my throat. He was just about to get off the line, when I blurted out, “Wait.” I wanted to talk to the first tech about resetting all the things I had just changed on our setup.
He said he would transfer me back.
You know what happened next. Click-click, then a dial tone. I went into my best Mount Vesuvius act again.
I called back, worked my way through the automated dialogs and finally was patched through to another tech. He said he saw on the records that I had just reported a problem. Progress, I’m thinking to myself. I asked if he could put me through to the gentleman I had been talking to so I could at least try to get my computer setup back to where it was before I performed my “geek” surgery on it.
No, he calmly said. There’s no way to get back to the same tech you were talking to.
I hung up the phone, trudged up the stairs and informed my better half that we did not have Internet access.
The first thing she said was, “You didn’t do anything with the modem, did you?
The rest of the day is pretty much a blur. I got some yard work done. My wife and I still aren’t talking to each other.
As far as I know, our Verizon service is still down.
So I managed to get “unplugged.” I don't recommend it.
Thanks, Verizon.
It is just one of the myriad issues shaking the news industry to its core.
The truth is I’ve pretty much given up on the idea of being able to “get away” from the technology I swim in every day.
I blog, I tweet, I post on Facebook. I’m Linked-in.
Social media doesn’t take the weekends off either. I usually spend some time early on Saturday and Sunday mornings fixing up and arranging this website, DelcoTimes.com.
Sleep is another thing I’ve pretty much given up on, or at least the notion of sleeping in.
All of this made what happened to me on Sunday even more jolting.
I got “unplugged” courtesy of Verizon. They had a service outage, so I spent the first day in as long as I can remember without Internet access.
But that’s only half the story.
I got up early as usual and realized when I fired up the laptop that I could not connect to the Internet.
That’s when I made my first mistake. I called Verizon. Not a good idea.
After being led through the normal maize of automated replies, I eventually was passed along to a real, live person.
He indicated to me that he did not have a record of a service outage. Then he suggested we try to work through the problem. I knew right then and there I should have hung up the phone.
Unfortunately, I did not. An hour and a half later, after powering down the modem several times, and unplugging and re-plugging various lines, he indicated to me he didn’t think he was going to be able to resolve my problem.
He passed me along to another tech, apparently one at a higher level. After an hour and a half of frustration, as the first tech walked me through a series of diagnostic tests, ‘pinging’ this and changing log-ons and passwords, this gentleman informed me that there was in fact a service outage affecting our area.
As many of you have read in this blog, I have sworn off swearing for Lent. So much for that promise.
It felt like the top of my head was going to explode. I tried to remain calm as I informed this gentleman of what had transpired in the previous hour and a half.
One thing I must say. All the Verizon people were very pleasant, all apologized for the outage, and all seemed genuinely interested in helping me solve the problem.
After the second tech informed me of the service outage, I asked him if he had any indication how long it was expected to be out. He could not tell me. I could feel the bile building in my throat. He was just about to get off the line, when I blurted out, “Wait.” I wanted to talk to the first tech about resetting all the things I had just changed on our setup.
He said he would transfer me back.
You know what happened next. Click-click, then a dial tone. I went into my best Mount Vesuvius act again.
I called back, worked my way through the automated dialogs and finally was patched through to another tech. He said he saw on the records that I had just reported a problem. Progress, I’m thinking to myself. I asked if he could put me through to the gentleman I had been talking to so I could at least try to get my computer setup back to where it was before I performed my “geek” surgery on it.
No, he calmly said. There’s no way to get back to the same tech you were talking to.
I hung up the phone, trudged up the stairs and informed my better half that we did not have Internet access.
The first thing she said was, “You didn’t do anything with the modem, did you?
The rest of the day is pretty much a blur. I got some yard work done. My wife and I still aren’t talking to each other.
As far as I know, our Verizon service is still down.
So I managed to get “unplugged.” I don't recommend it.
Thanks, Verizon.
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