I'm overdue for a post, I know

It's been a while since my last update. I think I prefer posting with pictures, but whatever. Internet Crutches, be gone!

So let's see - back in February I signed on with Telus (local telephone monopoly) for their high speed DSL service. I was actually very happy with the local cable service, but was bribed with the first three months free, as well as a free ipod for signing into a contract. I had my reservations, but free is free, right?

As luck would have it, I signed on the absolute last day possible for the promo. This practically guaranteed that my account would be set up with problems. As a tester, I really have to stop living my life like a test case. Anyway, the day came to switch over from cable to DSL (it was almost two weeks later - no need to set it up until my paid cable service ran out, right?) and things started to go wrong. A quick call to tech support had me up and running within 24 hours I think. It's hard to remember details that far back. At any rate, I remember that was the first time I had to call for help, only to discover that the problems were NOT on my end but had to do with how the account was set up.

Pretty soon, all was well. Internet was up and running, things were all happy and good - service was comparable to the cable internet we just left, at least speed wise. We did lose all our email from the old ISP account but that was early in the game and I was willing to let that slide.

Then an odd thing started to happen - my free ipod wasn't arriving. MULTIPLE calls, with several transfers between departments were required to sort out this problem. (One department, the Loyalty and Retention dept made me wonder what sort of company requires a dept with such a stated purpose.) They eventually assured me that the ipod would now ship, but it could still be a few weeks for arrival.

Then the bill came in. Somehow, in the mess they created, they neglected to give me my free months of internet service. By now I was pretty steamed but when I called the customer service rep was competent, polite and actually helpful. Or at least, that's the impression I got at that time - I guess the proof will be in the next phone bill.

Oh, and yes the ipod finally arrived. I picked it up yesterday.