that's awful! It really sends your InJustice-O-meter soaring! Poor you.

wth? I'm amazed whenever ISPs or cell phone service providers act like this, because Dog knows there are about a million other services trying to get your business. In Greece, back in the bad old days, it used to just be the state telecom, and we had to put up with their bullshit, whatever they wanted to dish out... like insisting that users buy the worst, most expensive modems ever if they wanted internet - because someone connected had bought up all the stock of some crappy French modem maker and got the exclusive contract. So we had to pay like four times the price of a regular, decent modem if we wanted a line at all. Hooooooboy that used to steam me. Oh, and if you had to go to their office to deal with a problem, there would be 25 people sitting around drinking coffee and nobody would help you. And if you called the phone company, they didn't answer the phone. 100% Serious. Serioso.

But these days, wheeeee! Everybody has to be decent and polite and offer reasonable service (and even inticing little freebies and bargains). Viva la competition!

it's insane. I've been their customer for about 8 years the last time I sought support was when I first joined and I had a new fangled modem that couldn't be configured by mac osx at that time. Then the support tech came to my place no charge to help.

Now they won't even give me a phone number or email to get support - I am communicating via an online web form.

*stabby*
Come over to my place, you can use my Internets and Ro can babysit Riot.

Hang on... they make you communicate via an online form for problems with your internet connection? That's a special kind of fucked up.

...the last thread to the real world...

That's exactly how I feel about my Internet connection too. When I am traveling and unplugged for extended periods I feel like a powered-down cyborg, or one of those lost ants when you start fucking with an anthive.

Customs Official: When did you last visit the US?
Me: You want dates? I am afraid that information is unavailable when I am disconnected from the Internet.

Sometimes it scares me a bit how much I rely on that tenuous link to the world, you know? I've just come back from our annual family holiday, camping on the beachfront, where the service provider (if you can put Telstra and service in the same sentence without gagging) for the 3G modem on my notebook has absolutely no coverage and the service provider for my iPhone has almost no coverage. I was able to keep on top of my work e-mail via iPhone until someone at work sent me a massive video file, clogging my mailbox completely and making it impossible to send or receive mail or open my mailbox. Things were so borked that I couldn't even delete the video, so now I have god knows how many unread e-mails that will take me all morning to deal with.

I wonder if I would be better off not being able to do these things while away from the office, but it kind of ruins a holiday knowing that there is a mountain of minutiae waiting for me when I get back, so I prefer to deal with it by spending a few minutes a day when on holiday dealing with what I can so I can hit the ground running when I return.

Having the only form of communication being a Web form seems to be quite common for technology-based companies. You would think they would know better, wouldn't you?

I'm connected again, kind of. Looking forward to switching on Monday though!