Tinternet was working fine this afternoon. I went out for 2 hours, came back, and its dead, no IP address nothing.
Did the usual, reset the modem, restarted the PC, even tried booting to XP to make sure it wasnt another vista wobbly, and still nothing so I ring NTL/Virgin...
25 mins of being-told-about-the-freeness-of-the-call later, the ringing phone must have awoken the woman on the other end, so I apologised for waking her and that my tinternet had gone off, and could she check that there wasnt any faults in my area....
She comes back 5 mins later after the snooze had gone off, and said that there were no faults in my area, and that the problem must lie with my broadband...eh? Umm, yes, thats why I'm ringing.
So, she says that I must ring the 0906 number, and I said that I didnt want to because of the £15 per hour charge, and she said that if the problem is at NTL/Virgin's end, they will credit me for the calls...fair enough I thought.
So, I ring India on 0906, and a bloke answers right away, and straight away, I know this is going to be difficult because not only does he have a really broad Indian accent, he also has what appears to be a stammer, and his phone line had a warbling effect...great!
He couldnt understand me, and I couldnt understand him, which is nothing new for NTL/Virgin support, but this time, it was costing me £15 per hour for the pleasure.
6 minutes had passed before we established what my postcode was, and after that, the next hurdle was my password, giving a total of 8 mins of doing nothing.
He got me to restart the modem, and then the computer, which takes a while, and then do the usual routine with ipconfig and then tracert, which took another 15 mins.
He then went off to check on my area for faults. I think he must have done this literally, as it took him another 6 minutes, and he came back and told me that there was indeed a problem in my area, and that my internet will be back on after 12 midnight.
I asked about the call charges being refunded, and he said no, they dont do that, but they do apologise for the inconvenience and wish that I have a nice day.
So, over £7 extra on my bill for absolutely nothing, and ironically, the tinternet came back on just after I got off the phone. So much for it coming back on after midnight, or maybe that was midnight in India?


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