Advance Australia Backwards

Have you noticed something? Go on, take a close look - yes, that's it - I haven't made any new posts for the last few days.

Would you like to know why?

Because my ISP was down from early Friday afternoon to late Sunday afternoon - and they didn't even seem to know about it!

I do realise that for Australian customer service or Australian technical support departments to actually provide service or support is considered Un-Australian, but I would have thought some information would have flowed through to those who in between using the workplace to conduct their social and personal affairs, are in theory, there to help the bloody consumer.

I was disconnected early Friday afternoon and try as I might, I could not connect. I tried altering settings and configurations but to no avail. In desperation I phoned my ISP's technical support line late Friday night. They told me I had a faulty modem or faulty phone line. I told them the phone line is brand new and the modem is working fine. I was then told it must be my settings. I assured them it was not. I asked them to check if there any issues with their service. No, there wasn't.

During Saturday I repeatedly tested my modem. Not only did it pass four different tests, I was also able to use it to connect to my mobile phone and send faxes. I also asked two other people to try connecting to the dial-in number from their PCs - all of us received, Error Message 678 - "The remote computer did not respond." Dialling the number from a land line only resulted in dead silence.

After several attempts to get through to technical support, I finally spoke to an operator after spending nearly an hour listening to messages telling me how marvellous my ISP is.

Again I told them there was an issue with their dial-in number and informed him of the actions I had taken to try to identify the source of the problem.

After telling him of the error message, I was told "Oh that means your modem is at fault."

I replied that my modem is fine but their dial-number is stuffed - go away and check. Five minutes later, he returned and told me there had been a number of other calls from the Sydney area similar to mine and that he would pass it on to the "network guys." This is nearly 30 hours after I first informed them they had problem

By midday Sunday, I was still not able to connect. I phoned again. This time the technical support operator was totally unaware of any problem with the Sydney dial-in number. I told him there should be a report on the issue following my call the previous evening.

"OK, I will go and check. I will be away at least five minutes."

Five minutes! The fault report should have been immediately accessible - especially nearly 48 hours after it was first bought to their attention.

How on earth can an ISP not be aware of technical difficulties affecting a city of four million people?

I can tell you in four words - The Great Australian Shirkforce.

Why don't I use broadband? You really do not want to go there - trust me!