Thursday morning, I opened my email to find a message from Optus saying they can't install the cable service. Their message says:
Unfortunately, we are unable to book this order as the new address is not Optus Cable Serviceable.Again, I panicked. I called and the agent confirmed the same thing. Said there is nothing they can do to help at this point. I prayed that Telstra will not disappoint. That night, I went down with fever. I don't know if it's because of stress - but I won't be surprise if it was.
We already have a customer connected at <my address>.
Friday morning, I woke up still sick so I took leave from work. Line activation was supposed to happen between 8am and 12noon. I will not be informed, I just have to plug in the modem and internet will be up. The problem though, is that there's still no sign of the modem. It was supposed to be delivered on the 6th (2 days prior) so I called again to follow up. The Telstra agent I spoke to said there is an update on my order. On the 6th, an engineer went and found that there is no available port on the exchange so my order will not proceed. Because of this, the modem hasn't been sent yet. My order is put on the waiting list and I was advised to look for another provider in the meantime. I was furious. They've known about it for 2 whole days and no one even had the audacity to give me a call and tell me that I'm waiting for nothing.
Quickly, I phoned Optus, Dodo, and TPG to check if they can help. The circumstances have changed a little in that I now have a working phone line, but just no slot in Telstra's exchange. I hoped they will have their own exchanges and there will be a least 1 slot available in them. Optus and Dodo still can't help, but TPG has something to offer. They have what they call an "off net" plan which uses the Telstra phone line and connect it to TPG's infrastructure. The plan can go UP TO 8mbps and has 200gb data. Wow! 200GB at 8mbps! How rad! *sarcasm*. But I had no choice so I took it. Order was processed right away and my credit card charged with the 1st month fee. Sadly, there is still no definite date. They said they still need to do an actual line check before they can proceed.
In another act of desperation, I wrote a letter to all my neighbors asking if they're willing to share their internet service. I offered to pay the full monthly fee every month. I guess Ethan was also becoming desperate because he helped me draft the letter (contributing his own words), and inserted the copies in the mailboxes himself.
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| Dear neighbour... |
I tried calling Telstra to no available. The call-back feature they boast about before no longer works. It says "This request is already being processed" and wont initiate a call back. I worry that if I call just any agent, I'd get into the same mess all over again. Strangely, after a few minutes, I received a message from StarTrack telling me that I have a consignment request from Telstra - I presume the modem.
I finally got hold of Telstra after several tries and confirmed that the internet is active and the modem is on the way. But they couldn't give me an ETA and told me to call StarTrack instead. I called but StarTrack said they don't have the parcel yet. What they have is an advanced request which means Telstra still has the item. Oh how fun this is!
Meanwhile, I received a bunch of emails from TPG telling me that my order is progressing. They've given me an account name and password, my own IP address and DNS servers to use, and a whole bunch of stuff to get my account going. I quickly called regretfully informing them that I will not proceed with my order. The 200gb allowance was a last ditch effort and I reckon it wouldn't last 5 days with my kids. The conversation took more than 20mins, just me trying to convince them not to penalise me because it is still an order and has not materialised into an actual service yet. We ended up with my request getting raised to their review team. I'm still waiting for the status.
As for Telstra. The day ended with the modem still out of sight. My mobile data is already close to running out so I was desperate to get internet running. I went to gumtree and looked for anyone selling a modem nearby. I got hold of one but he couldn't meet up till the following day. I didn't want to wait. I told the guy to call me as soon as he gets home, regardless of time, and I will pick up his device.
Remember, I was terribly sick. I had flu and my fever was very high. Lani gave me codiene and within an hour I was more alive than I ever was. The guy called an 1am and I quickly drove to Westmead to meet him. Got back home around 1:30am and spent the next 5 hours getting the house internet-connected.
Connection to Telstra was quick and easy. I just had to plug in the modem, put in my Testra ID, and that was it. The problem I faced was that the signal doesn't reach our bedroom upstairs. There are ethernet ports on both lounge and bedroom walls so I thought I'd add another router as an access point. The issue with that is the ethernet ports are already used for the phone line. I need it to accommodate both phone and data lines. That meant I had to drill the panels out of the wall at 3am. I had to crimp cables and punch them into the ethernet port at 3:30. I had to access the cable distribution point to properly wire the 4-pair ethernet cable at 4 am. And I had to run up and down the house to test what I was doing. I don't understand why builders will use ethernet cables and ethernet ports and wire it in a non-ethernet way. Oh well, I don't care. All I care about was that this Codiene is kick-ass!
I completed my project at 6am and finally felt the need to sleep.
I'm still not sure what TPG is going to charge me with for cancelling. And I still have no idea when the Telstra modem will arrive. Those can wait tomorrow. But for now, I'm satisfied.
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| Modem bought at 1am. |
