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My Internet Saga (or the Absence Thereof)

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My Internet Saga (or the Absence Thereof)

Postby John 'twosheds' McDonald » Fri Apr 08, 2016 8:01 pm

For my landline (phone and internet) and with free calls within Italy and to the UK I was paying Telecom Italia EUR62 per month. For my cell phone which also had free calls within Italy I was paying a further EUR30 so EUR92 in total per month.

Then, unsolicited, I received a marketing call from Fastweb who said I could have all of the same facilities for EUR30 per month. Talk about a 'no brainer...'

So, on 4th March, Telecom Italia cut my line and the process of transitioning to Fastweb commenced.

What a farce!! After eleven days waiting for Fastweb I still had no phone, no internet, rien, nada, nil, niente, nowt...

Then a friend told me about a Telecom Italia offer for new customers (this offer not available to existing Telecom Italia customers). Everything that I had previously had for EUR29 per month.

So immediately in contact with Telecom Italia (as I was now considered as a new customer) to get the ball rolling, followed by a call to Fastweb to say 'thanks but no thanks'.

Now you might imagine that re-connecting a previously supplied line would be little more than changing some settings somewhere on a computer
routing system plus switching on the service. I mean it might not actually work quite like that but one would imagine a fairly streamlined and simple process in this day and age...or was I being too naive?

Answer is a resounding 'Yes'. Too naive by far. Telecom Italia finally had me back up and running yesterday, 7th April, just one day less that five weeks after they disconnected my service.

FOR: I am now back in the connected world and paying two thirds less than I was paying previously (EUR29 compared to EUR92 per month)
AGAINST: Solely the amount of time it took to make what would conceptually appear to be a simple change.

One of my Italian friends simply said "...you are in Italy now...".

I can't help wondering if this saga is peculiar to Italy or if similar situations are just as common in other so called 'developed countries'.
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Re: My Internet Saga (or the Absence Thereof)

Postby Chuck Engels » Fri Apr 08, 2016 8:48 pm

We all missed your smiling face John, glad you are back :)
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Re: My Internet Saga (or the Absence Thereof)

Postby Dave McElderry » Fri Apr 08, 2016 9:04 pm

That's some story John. Almost worse than dealing with Time Warner Cable. :fg:
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Re: My Internet Saga (or the Absence Thereof)

Postby Steve Grisetti » Sat Apr 09, 2016 8:45 am

"You are in Italy now." I love it!

We had an exchange student from Italy staying with us once who told a story she said might not translate but it's hilarious in Italy. Maybe in this context you'll appreciate the humor.

An Italian man dies and when he meets St. Peter he's told he has two choices: Northern Italian hell or southern Italian hell.
"What's northern Italian hell?" he asks.
St. Peter says, "Well, in northern Italian hell, every morning you get up at 6 o'clock and spend all day in a hot cave, up to your waist in manure, shoveling manure from one place to another using a tablespoon."
"Ouch," says the man. "So what's southern Italian hell like?"
"Well," says St. Peter, "In southern Italian hell, every morning you get up at 6 o'clock and spend all day in a hot cave, up to your waist in manure, shoveling manure from one place to another using a tablespoon."
"So, what's the difference?" asks the man.
"Well," says St. Peter, "In southern Italian hell, sometimes the alarm clock doesn't go off in the morning or the guy in charge forgets the spoons..."
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Re: My Internet Saga (or the Absence Thereof)

Postby sidd finch » Sat Apr 09, 2016 9:01 am

Glad to hear you got things squared away John. This is how I imagine you escapades.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_43Y28R7wg[/youtube]

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Re: My Internet Saga (or the Absence Thereof)

Postby Dave McElderry » Sat Apr 09, 2016 9:05 am

Oh my. ROTFL. :hyst:
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Re: My Internet Saga (or the Absence Thereof)

Postby TreeTopsRanch » Sat Apr 09, 2016 11:20 am

John, will your phone rate increase in a couple of months like the teaser rates here in the US?
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Re: My Internet Saga (or the Absence Thereof)

Postby Peru » Sat Apr 09, 2016 12:47 pm

My wife was on the phone with one of the companies our business purchases from (let's just say it is one of the largest companies worldwide) and had to wait on hold for 45 minutes. "Sorry, all lines are busy." Then she heard a click and was disconnected. She did that twice.

When it happened again, she called a completely different division and told her story to them asking for help. After being transferred a half dozen times, two hours later she was able to speak to the person she had originally tried to call.

This is a company that our business has been using for over forty years. And all that she wanted to do was to pay an invoice. :pull:
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Re: My Internet Saga (or the Absence Thereof)

Postby momoffduty » Sat Apr 09, 2016 3:46 pm

Oh, the red tape of business purgatory. Glad to see you back John. Here I thought you were enjoying sitting on one of your many terraces at your Sicilian estate watching the clouds go by.
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Re: My Internet Saga (or the Absence Thereof)

Postby John 'twosheds' McDonald » Sun Apr 10, 2016 12:29 am

momoffduty wrote:...Here I thought you were enjoying sitting on one of your many terraces at your Sicilian estate watching the clouds go by.

Clouds? What clouds? :hyst:
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Re: My Internet Saga (or the Absence Thereof)

Postby John 'twosheds' McDonald » Sun Apr 10, 2016 12:32 am

TreeTopsRanch wrote:John, will your phone rate increase in a couple of months like the teaser rates here in the US?

No. It is fixed for twelve months then it increases from €29 to €38 which is still better than the €92 that I was paying.

But after twelve months I can always get the best deal if I repeat the saga... :no:
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Re: My Internet Saga (or the Absence Thereof)

Postby sidd finch » Mon Apr 11, 2016 4:53 pm

Image

:)
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Re: My Internet Saga (or the Absence Thereof)

Postby _Paz_ » Wed Apr 13, 2016 8:04 am

"In southern Italian hell, sometimes the alarm clock doesn't go off in the morning or the guy in charge forgets the spoons..."


I think I'll have what she's having!

Glad to see you back, John. How are the sheds holding up under all that sun?
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Re: My Internet Saga (or the Absence Thereof)

Postby John 'twosheds' McDonald » Thu Apr 14, 2016 12:43 am

The sheds are still on holiday in the UK I am sorry to say. They decided that they were designed for cool, wet weather rather than hot, dry summers.
But I fear that I may be seeing more of the sheds quite soon.

Whilst I have greatly enjoyed these last three years here in Sicily my head says that a return to the UK is the rational decision.

The primary reason is the impact of high, confiscatory Italian income taxes on my pension where direct taxes in Italy are about two and a half times greater than in the UK. That is quite a difference and, quite frankly, I prefer to spend my own money than give it to someone else to spend for me.

So at the end of this summer I will most likely be reluctantly returning to Cheshire in the UK.
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Re: My Internet Saga (or the Absence Thereof)

Postby momoffduty » Thu Apr 14, 2016 9:35 am

Sorry you have to move from the beautiful scenery. I can understand the tax situation. Maybe Mexico?
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