Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Gut Instinct


Okay, I relented. My family was concerned about not having internet. I was considering the campaign of the usb modem for wireless broadband. That option was about to run out.  I tried to call the Madinat Zayed outlet that I had been to, to see if they actually had any of the units and the status of my application. Got no reply. So I ventured over to the headoffice.  Things seemed to go reasonably well. I found a car park a short walk away. The surveyor looked at the site map I had and seemed to be able to determine the location to his satisfaction. The queue for the transfer was not too long and I was soon being dealt with. It was confirmed that I couldn’t keep the number but I got offered a pretty good one as an alternative. He was also convinced that it should only take 3~4 day and therefore I didn’t need to put the services on hold and go for the wireless alternative. My area was not in the process of upgrading to fibre optic cable and that meant there should be no delays.   So I have to confess that Etisalat HO had worked out contrary to my expectations. But what was my reason for not wanting to go there? I found that out again quickly when a returned to my car to find that someone had smashed the wing mirror off. Bing, I didn’t want to go near the place because of the parking!!! The repair of this is another story in itself but it only needs to be noted here that it cost just on 1,000drh.  I would have been better off getting the usb modem from an outlet, it would have been cheaper… Lesson, next time stick to gut instincts.

Friday, November 6, 2009

The not-so online services.


Time to take on the behemoth. With an impending move, I am now faced with the transfer of my landline and internet services. Oh no, this means dealing with Etisalat. First off, they tell me I can’t transfer my existing landline number so I’ll have to get a new one. That is a shame as not only is it a good number it is also only really used by family in New Zealand and Japan so changing it is rather inconvenient. Secondly, I can’t organise the transfer over the phone or online. I have to visit one of their offices. So once I get a site plan of the house location I ventured into Madinet Zayed mall to an Etisalat outlet to do the business. I refuse to go to the head office as there is never any parking and always interminable delays there. However, the outlet refuses to take my forms saying they are not allowed to process them since two weeks ago. What do they do all day if they don’t process applications I wonder? They tell me I have to go to the main office. I tell them that I refuse to go there and that if they can’t do it then they had better just cancel both services. I don’t really need the landline and there are other ways of getting the internet. Ah, but they can’t cancel either, I have to go to the main office! I complain, and bully them, and they relinquish, and take the paper work. Probably a mistake as they may just throw it away… How would I know?
Talking to some colleagues I find that one who has just moved is still without internet services 3 weeks later and I begin to wonder how long this process might take for me. Actually I can probably make do with my work connectivity but the girls are on the internet for homework and social networking a lot. They will suffer the most. Unfortunately I sold my mobile broadband router some time ago. I began to think maybe I should go back on one of those wireless units to cover the outage. Actually Etisalat is just at the end of a campaign that would give me a month’s free connection for the price of the usb modem 499drh, and the option of cancelling or downgrading at the end of that month. If I didn’t have to pay for my landline and broadband for the month it wouldn’t be such a steep price.
It is always good to shop around so I thought I’d check out the competition – Du. Du have a usb modem for 399drh with a half price rate for 6 months. That sounds goods but it doesn’t say if it includes the first month (half of 360 = 180). Probably would have to pay that ½ rate for the first month which takes it up to 579. Thought I’d better check that out. My daughter has a Du phone so I hopped on that and called 155 to check the details. Three times I called and waited over 10 minutes each time and still failed to get through to someone! That doesn’t bode well for getting assistance with setting up notoriously flaky modems. Maybe I won’t be switching to Du for my internet. I fired off a complaint to their website about their lousy phone service for good measure.
Okay, that means back to Etisalat, so I got on the phone to 101 to find out what the deal is with getting the services put on hold for a month while waiting for the transfer to take place. Well what do you know, can’t do that without going into the office. I politely informed them that they were a phone and internet company, why then could they not offer these services electronically like the rest of the world. I suggested that he make a note of my request and past it to a supervisor. They always say that the calls may be monitored for quality service and training reasons so I figure you might as well give them something to listen in on! So next I called 101 again to talk to the broadband services, would they put the service on hold? Well, yes, but again I would have to go to the office to do so, and there would be a 60drh fee! This customer service representative also got a lecture about how a telco should be providing services online…