AOL Saga - part the nth

Ok, so it was the usual AOL Help failure situation today.

I went to log on this morning and there was no connection to the internet via my router. So I went through the routine of closing everything down, unplugging everything - even blowing on the leads - and then starting up again. Result? Nada!

So, as this is a fairly regular recurrence, I've got a stash of AOL help pages offering differing options to reboot the router; reset my AOL connection; restore factory settings; purge my PC of demons etc - the usual kind of stuff. I tried tham all. resyukt? Still an ominous red light on the router, and no connection to the world.

This called for desperate measures......a call to AOL Technical support.

The first guy was Irish - after 10 minutes of getting to the point I'd already reached myself....the phone call cut off. Now, I didn't break the connection....so who did?

So, it was on to call number 2. This time I hit an Indian call centre and got 'Keith' - why the hell don't these guys just use their own names - you're fooling no-one peeps!

Keith had a strong acent, which didn't help matters, and also seemed to fail to grasp the fact that I'd already done everything he suggested. After about 20 minutes, and complete failure to reset the router, the phone mysteriously went dead again. Hmmmm.

So, one final call. By this time, I was convinced that the fault lay with the line, not the pc or router. So, after hanging on for another five minutes listening to dodgy Pink Floyd, I got through to an Irish guy again. I poured out my tale of frustration - and he let me ramble on - only to tell me that my call had been wrongly routed to billing.....and that he'd have to transfer me to one of his technical support colleagues.

After five minutes hanging on, I gave up in disgust and went out to a client.

Funny enough, I switched on the machine when I returned a couple of hours later - it worked perfectly first time, seemingly desopite, rather than inspite of any AOL intervention.

Weird!