Online once again

We finally have internet access in our house. I felt strangely deprived not having the internet at my fingertips. We had to go to coffee shops to use the free wi-fi, and then I felt pressure to purchase something each time.

We signed up for the service about 10 days ago, and they came out to the house 4 days ago to hook it up. I thought it would be like Comcast where they supply you with everything to get set up right then and there. But no. We found out we needed a filter and ADSL router. We couldn't purchase from the installation guy. We had to go to the store and buy it separately. So that took another day. Then the following day some random contractor rang the doorbell and said, "We are here to hook up your service!" Was this some sort of scam? Jeff told them, "No, it was hooked up yesterday and working fine." He then went over to check the line and it had been disconnected by the contractors.

He had to tell the contractors that they had actually disconnected our service, and they must connect it again. So they did. Then they presented a bill to Jeff. OK, this was really looking like a scam now. We paid the bill from the other guy the previous day, the "official" guy from the internet company. So Jeff refused to pay this new guy. There was a lot of confusion and calling of the office, and finally the contractor apologized and was embarrassed. Now this didn't seem like a scam, because he acted really apologetic. He left.

And now we couldn't get the router to work. I thought it was a broken router. I took it back to the computer store to return it. The guy tested it out and it worked perfectly at the store. He said, "Ah, it is the circuit. You have to get it fixed by the internet company. Since you are foreign, they will come out next day to fix it."

OK, if it is an advantage to be foreign, I will take it.

I called the internet company, using my perfect, American-accented English. They came out the next day.

We are finally online.