My search for faster and faster Internet download speed continues. Needless to say I’m getting very weary after all this geek effort.
Some of my friends, of course, took the easy route and purchased the expensive, small satellite dish for Wifi into their homes. Others have bypassed the speed issue and lashed out on a “pirate” TV dish, piggy backing on the Army service in Gibraltar. But the non- geeks amongst us have soldiered on through numerous telephone calls with MEO, gradually getting faster wifi by a process of attrition.
Some neighbours however, gave up the speed challenge months ago. They were apparently prepared to struggle nightly watching multiple blackouts with the old ADSL connection and Filmon. Others thought they had got the solution when they bought the Android box to mitigate the overdose of Filmon and drop the SKY subscription. They, unfortunately, still suffer regular fixed screen displays.
Using the data from the multitude of available internet speed test web sites, (www.speedtest.net, www.ookla...) etc, I finally got MEO to agree that they sold BITS and not BYTES. I thought this was the secret to future success but it proved to be a false hope. My download speeds still hovered around 500 KBYTES, early in the morning, and less than 100 after four in the afternoon.
Tenacity became my middle name, boring another, I would have a better internet service. I pursued my goal relentlessly. My telephone conversations with the provider got longer and longer. For example, over the last month, calls to that overworked 16200 number, have averaged 45 minutes. My last one actually timed out at 1 HOUR and 34 minutes. I was amazed. Apparently I do have the patience to conduct a 94 minute telephone conversation.
Actually I feel really sorry for those poor call centre folk who have to put up with the likes of me. OK, they bring a lot of the problems on themselves. Sure they are bored, sure they don’t want to be there and yes they are under specific orders on what to say and what not to say, but…..
After I told one such operator that she had said “Thank you for waiting” 15 times and that she should occasionally try something else. She replied simply ” We have orders sir.” Poor lass.
So I don’t expect a reply, any time soon, to my two major inquiries / suggestions for improvement of their services, namely. Installing a new substation for the 300 odd houses around here and/or better still connecting the site to the fibre optic network that runs along the N125.
However I have made some progress recently. All my efforts and phone line usage resulted in a bargain deal for their new MEO mobile, 4 G MIFI router, with mention of a “ate 20 mega Bytes of download speed.” The set-up of my new toy proved a little troublesome and resulted in yet another phone call, this time to the technical department to assist me with the set-up of this new mobile router to my laptop. Ultimately after numerous failed attempts, the young technician gave up, and said. “Sir I think you had better go to the local MEO shop and get the box changed.”
Well I’ve just been there this morning and I am pleased to report that my visit was very successful. My laptop was connected to the delivered box in less than five minutes. When I inquired how the young lady had managed to fix the problem so quickly. She replied, “I have removed the PIN from the chip.”
“Why don’t the technicians in the call centre know about this? Why is it not included in the set-up instructions?” I inquired.
“I don’t know,” she replied.
“Are you going to tell head Office, the technicians about this, and get them to change the set up instructions.”
“No, of course not, then I wouldn’t have any satisfied customers.”
I held my calm, smiled, and left the shop a wiser man.
HIB
