Sunday, January 10, 2010

No end of problems

I had confirmation from the Etisalat sales representative in HO that my area was not subject to Fibre and that the existing, working DSL connection in my new house would be utilised. At the time I had enquired whether I should buy a wireless modem to cover me for delays since Etisalat is notorious for slow internet connectivity but I was advised that the connection would only take a couple of days.

It was obviously my mistake for believing anything that anyone at Etisalat says!

Without telling me, my connection transfer was cancelled because of a fibre plan. I only found out that it was cancelled when I complained about the delay. All that time the DSL circuit was working except I could not Logon to it. Ridiculously I was told I would have to go back to the office and reapply to try to get on the DSL! Eventually, a further week later after pestering the help desk twice a day I was given access to the account.  Well, it started letting the router log in anyway. But two weeks later it was cut off!  When I called technical support I had to wait two days for a technician to look at the job only to find out the that technician then went to Khalifa City A instead of Abu Dhabi. It took a further week of complaints to get it restarted. It was a problem with the wiring on the street although at first the technician tried to pass it off as a problem with the modem cable, which it patently wasn't.
 Returning from a trip between Xmas and  New Year I found the DSL was cut off yet again! I am not sure how long it had been off since we were away. Of course I was straight on the phone to customer support. I waited around the house for 2 days to let the technician inside. But nobody came. When I complained again  at the end of the mandatory two working days period, I was told the problem had been fixed and closed! No one had contacted me, no one had visited, and the DSL was still not working!  Then when I spoke to the customer service that afternoon I was told that the technicians only work until 3pm! How ridiculous! I called three times that afternoon, demanding to talk to the complaints department to complain about the customer service.

Eventually the next morning two technicians arrived, checked the modem and cable again, and then fixed a problem on the street. I would not let them leave until I could confirm that I have a working connection.

Next I tried to get compensation for all the downtime. Of course there has to be a hitch with that too... They only take such requests by fax - that old antiquated technology which of course I don't have! Email and phone are not acceptable. Of course I could visit head office - I was told helpfully. Grrrrrr.