Foreign Perspectives

After nearly two weeks of no ADSL, we’re finally back online, at least for the moment.

We’ve been calling France Telecom every day over that time and every day it’s a a different answer. At the start of the two weeks, the noise on the line was so bad that we couldn’t hear the guy on the fault reporting line so ended up having to call them from another phone.

Result? We’ve tested your line and it’s perfect. Emmm, we can’t hear anyone when they call as there’s so much noise on the line. No, it’s perfect.

Next day. Testing… yes, there’s a problem. We’ll send someone out. Two days later nobody and no working line so we call again. No, we’ve tested it: there’s nothing wrong. Several more attempts and we actually had someone come out. Ah, there was oxidation on the contacts, that’s why it wasn’t working.

Well, that sort-of fixed the phone. We can usually hear people now but still the ADSL wasn’t working. Called again. Yes, there’s a problem on the line: we’ll send someone out. Two days later, with nobody out: no, it’s your problem we’re charging you EUR 150 for someone to come out.

That guy actually did come out and announced that it was perfect. Still no ADSL though. Of course, the guy who came wasn’t from France Telecom so wouldn’t test the France Telecom modem for us. Thought I’d try changing the modem and cables and that worked, for a while (at a much higher speed than before) but ’tis still rather hit & miss and we can’t hear people when they call so I’m not sure how long we’ll be online this time.