Moving Day - Tech Time
Still alive, but up to my armpits in boxes. We move today into a smaller flat in the city. What we have done remains to be seen, but as you can see from the fact that I am posting this, some things actually seem to be working well.
Telekom, for example, arrived pretty much in the middle of the 8 am to 1 pm window they gave me. That might not seem like much, but the last time I moved Telekom showed up 10 minutes before I did, and was seen leaving as I arrived 5 minutes before that window. It was then another three weeks before we could reach a mutual agreement, and the shocker back then was that that was unnecessary since all they needed to do was re-configure at the central office. Three weeks offline ... worse than withdraw from heroin. Lesson learned.
So today I was a half-hour early, and like so many things in Germany, if you are on time, there will be no urgency. That's a clumsy way of saying that the only time things here actually run on time is when you are thirty seconds or more behind schedule. So, half an hour early, and the gods smiled on me by delivering the technician three hours later. Just as well, because he really had to do some wiring today since this is a new building.
Better still, we plug it all in and it all works. I even dare to plug in the router while he is still here ... he had been ready to run out the door, but I guess in a moment of pride in his work he hung around a few minutes later to see if the internet actually works. It does. This is the first good OOBE (out of box experience) I have had with Telekom in three moves and more than a few years. This is too easy!
The cynic in me can't wait to see the first invoice so I can see if the promised savings also arrive. I kept the 6MB DSL option with ISDN, but the package deal was for roughly EUR 54 per month versus what had been nearly 90 with the same configuration on my older contract. I had considered changing tarifs a couple times in the past year, but with Telekom it is usually safer to keep a working system as is and suffer the costs in silence. The move finally pushed me to throw the dice.
I've been in Germany too long to expect things to go without a hitch. This has been too easy!
Telekom, for example, arrived pretty much in the middle of the 8 am to 1 pm window they gave me. That might not seem like much, but the last time I moved Telekom showed up 10 minutes before I did, and was seen leaving as I arrived 5 minutes before that window. It was then another three weeks before we could reach a mutual agreement, and the shocker back then was that that was unnecessary since all they needed to do was re-configure at the central office. Three weeks offline ... worse than withdraw from heroin. Lesson learned.
So today I was a half-hour early, and like so many things in Germany, if you are on time, there will be no urgency. That's a clumsy way of saying that the only time things here actually run on time is when you are thirty seconds or more behind schedule. So, half an hour early, and the gods smiled on me by delivering the technician three hours later. Just as well, because he really had to do some wiring today since this is a new building.
Better still, we plug it all in and it all works. I even dare to plug in the router while he is still here ... he had been ready to run out the door, but I guess in a moment of pride in his work he hung around a few minutes later to see if the internet actually works. It does. This is the first good OOBE (out of box experience) I have had with Telekom in three moves and more than a few years. This is too easy!
The cynic in me can't wait to see the first invoice so I can see if the promised savings also arrive. I kept the 6MB DSL option with ISDN, but the package deal was for roughly EUR 54 per month versus what had been nearly 90 with the same configuration on my older contract. I had considered changing tarifs a couple times in the past year, but with Telekom it is usually safer to keep a working system as is and suffer the costs in silence. The move finally pushed me to throw the dice.
I've been in Germany too long to expect things to go without a hitch. This has been too easy!
posted by Mike B at 3/15/2007 11:19:00 AM
2 Comments:
Three weeks offline in your own home, I can't even imagine.
Hope you get to catch a miniriot or two in the "big" city.
I nearly dies when I had to go 10 days with no Internet. I even succumbed and used a dial-up service for a few days. Ugh!
When do we see pictures of the new flat?
Post a Comment
<< Home