I'm finally back online!!!

Whee! I've finally got Net access in the house! The compound we live in is wired for First Media which is a cable tv-cum-net provider, so we picked that. We've got something like 60+ channels on their cable tv package and some of the channels are really weird.

Tell you... took us a week to get this Net working. *sigh* Our cable tv has been up and running since last week during Visit 1 of the Clown Technicians. They told me then that something was wrong with my net registration and promptly disappeared with the modem, promising to return another day. Later, I got a call from their office asking for the modem serial number. I said I didn't have it as they'd taken it with them. The office was surprised as apparently, Clown Technicians were supposed to wait for further orders from office instead of taking off. And I'm supposed to know that???

Another group of Clown Technicians turned up 2 days later and the first thing they did was to ask me for power cables. I showed them what I had and they looked sadly at it. "Not long enough, ma'am. Got longer one?" I got pissed, "NO. Why don't you have any cables? You're the technician, not me. Why would I keep cables around for technicians???" I wasn't feeling too confident at this moment and my fears were realised when they came to me after about 1hr of fiddling with my PC and the transmission pole and said things weren't working. Again. Need to take modem back, ma'am. Need to check with office.

By this time, I was getting seriously annoyed. When phone calls to the South Jakarta rep went ignored, I blew my top. Imagine my fury when Dear Hubby's PA told me that he called her and said he was "too ashamed" to pick up my call as he couldn't promise me when things could be ready. Said PA was furious and had some rather choice words for him... good thing too because my command of Indon does not extend to nasty words.

I guess it worked because they turned up today right on time as promised and this pair of technicians they sent could actually get things up and running. So far, so good... everything's running pretty quickly.

What I learnt from this experience:
1. It's very hard to get things done quickly here. We moved into this house in early Aug and I'd been running around in circles trying to get Net set up. Today is Sept 19, so it took me 1 1/2 months to get this done.
2. Try and get a local to help you. Even though I speak Malay, I still faced a language barrier. Besides, I don't know how to scold effectively in Malay. :))
3. Keep calling and chasing them. Do not believe them when they say that they will get back to you because they won't. Be persistent and be nasty if you have to.

If you're interested in their services, check out www.firstmedia.com for details.