Maybe I'm just being paranoid....but really, AT&T?!

As you may recall from my last post; things have been falling apart around here at an alarming rate.  In fact, Man-Child has just informed me that, in addition to everything else, that his iPod has died.  Which is, actually kind of amazing.  After he'd accidentally crushed it with a set of weights a few years ago and it miraculously survived, despite being severely dented, I figured it was indestructible.

Despite Hubby's distress over the state of the lawn - due to the incapacitated lawn mower - my biggest issue has been with the intermittent internet issues.

After replacing the phone jack, moving the router to another phone jack, replacing the ethernet cable and still having issues, I was convinced that the issue was the router.  I mean, honestly, what else could it be?  Particularly since the first guy I had talked to said that this issue was something in the house...and guess what? The router is inside the house!

So yesterday, I bit the bullet and called AT&T to order a new router.  And, once again, went through phone tree hell in order to speak to a human.  In all honesty, I actually went through phone tree hell TWICE, since the first time the said human hung up on me before I could even speak.

As you might imagine, I was NOT a happy camper.  But, to my credit, I did remain civil to the person who eventually picked up.  Although, the person in the cubicle next to me can probably attest to the fact that I most certainly was not civil throughout the automated part of the process that you must endure to get to the said human, which may have resulted in the automated system telling me that it didn't understand my response...more than once or twice.

*ahem*

Can someone explain to me why in God's name you have to enter your phone number no less than four times throughout the process?  This, for some reason, really pissed me off puzzled me.

At any rate, I finally got to speak to a human.  And, bless her, she seemed really nice.  She placed my order for the new $100 router - with next day delivery - immediately.  And as she was clicking the "order" button she said, "You know....it might not be your router but *insert tech talk here.*  Since you aren't at home right now, I can call you back tonight and we can try that."

I said, "Okay, let's do that.  Cancel the router and we'll see what happens."  And she said,

"Oh, it's too late, it's already ordered.  But, if we fix the problem tonight you can return the router at no charge and keep your ten year old router....if you trust it."  (Okay, that last part was implied....but still.)

I was like, fine - whatever.  She asked for the best number to call me at 7:00 pm last night - so I gave her my cell.  Now, at this point, AT&T has my home phone, my work phone and my cell phone.  This is an important detail to remember.

So I finished up the day and went home to wait for the call.  And while I was waiting, I played around on the internet - with nary a problem.  Not ONE glitch - despite the fact that for the last two weeks or so this thing was glitching out every five minutes - it was smooth sailing.

As you might have surmised, I never received a phone call either.

Until I got to work this morning and discovered that she HAD called....my work number.  AND kindly said she would call back (she never did) AND left a number for me to leave a message for her.  A number that didn't work.  Of course.

So this evening, when I came home, I grilled Man-Child about the internet today.  Apparently, it's been perfectly behaved all day.  Not one glitch.  Since I've been home it's been fine.

So here's the dilemma - and where my paranoia kicks in - was this all a plot from AT&T to get me to upgrade my ancient router?  Should I return the $100 brand spanking new one?  Or should I not trust the fact that we've had smooth sailing since the order was placed?  Was my ancient router even the problem?  Or did someone at AT&T go through the records and say, "Well, THIS customer has had her router for over ten years.  We need to do something about that!"

After the dealings I've had with AT&T in the past, coupled with the article I just read about (that, of course, I cannot find now - note to self: start emailing interesting links to yourself - but just Google "AT&T bad customer service" and see what pops up) makes me seriously think that when we move, I'm going to fire AT&T.

And, as I prepare to hit "publish," it should be noted that yes, indeed, we still haven't had an issue - even though it's still the old router.  Hmmmm......