What a crazy start to 2014

This New Year started in a completely different way from how I'd pictured. 

Days had been spent in the office during our shutdown period, tidying out, filing, doing expenses and all things admin with a view to hitting the ground running in 2014. Alas, it was not to be. While people nursed their hangovers from New Year's Eve or were first through the doors for the sales, our office broadband and land lines disappeared in a puff of smoke, just like Aladdin's genie, but without the three wishes.

And so it started. Three weeks later, umpteen calls to the provider, several engineer visits, hair turning grey and many lattes drunk in local internet cafes and at borrowed desks from helpful business contacts, normal service resumed. Which meant another backlog to deal with and evenings and weekends spent catching up.

They say you don't miss something until it's gone and boy, did we miss broadband. Living and working in a semi-rural location, mobile signals are at best intermittent and at worst non-existent. Land lines are essentials taken for granted. Lack of telephone connection takes us back to days of yore when women wore crinolines and waited to get the vote. Of course, mobile signals came back as soon as I drove somewhere urban and broadband was readily available at the cost of a short walk or drive but that's hardly the point - if I'm late in paying, the supplier would be down on me like a ton of bricks. So why are we expected to accept poor service for the money we're paying?

Lack of broadband in my office left me feeling stranded. No internet banking, no emails, no ability to work in my normal streamlined way. Taking my laptop to cafes was all well and good but their broadband wasn't secure and I couldn't have confidential calls on my mobile, in the middle of a pack of yummy mummies with screaming babies, grumpy grans or earwigging execs.

My goodness, how we have become dependent upon the internet. I am a frequent flyer in the world of online shopping - in fact, my air miles would take me round the world and back. I'm so used to being tied to the office that I (almost) had to force myself into stores and shops again. 

However the situation forced me to remember that there is a world outside the office and I enjoyed the luxury of allowing myself half an hour here and there to take a walk or simply wander round the shops, remembering the joy in actually touching goods and delighting myself in better choices in-store than online. Getting out and about gave me some respite from constantly working and a breath of fresh air as well as a break, so I went back to the office somewhat refreshed. Only the irritation and frustration of the situation still irked me.

The inefficiency shown on behalf of the broadband and phone provider made me angry. Each person told me something different. That was, when I finally got through automated systems and actually spoke to a human being. Call centres abroad told me ridiculous solutions to the initial problem that would have meant buying whole new phone systems, which I knew we didn't need. As usual, the bigger the conglomerate, the worse the service is. 

The good news is that it did all come to an end, or so I thought. My business survived. My clients, on the whole, are a wonderful bunch who showed empathy and understanding. My team supported me and the business. All was relatively well with the world ... until today, when we were supposed to be having new super fast broadband laid on. Suffice it to say that despite having written confirmation that an engineer was due to call today (which meant staying in all afternoon especially), as well as a reminder text yesterday, no-one turned up. When I finally got through to somewhere over the other side of the globe, it turns out the order was never placed and we have to start all over again.

Dreadful customer service? For sure. Bad PR? Absolutely. The funny thing is that at the end of the call today, I was asked to complete a customer service survey. Strangely enough, they received 'Very poor' on every count. 

Are you surprised?!!