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The Good: car is booked in for a service today, so I had to drop it into the garage for 8.30. This is not good for my poor abused little credit card, but it meant I got a 2 hour lie in. Bliss!

The Bad: FavouriteUncle!Jim, who works with me, drove to the garage behind me and brought me into work. (No courtesy car required from garage, thank goodness!) As FavouriteUncle!Jim is fairly computer savvy, I asked him about last night's internet problems. (Still no lights on the router this morning, btw) So FavouriteUncle!Jim listens and basically tells me what I knew, which is that the router is effed and I'm going to need a new one.

The Deeply, Deeply Stupid: I ring the Crowd of Incompetant Effing Shysters this morning, get talking to a very nice chap and explain the situation. He agrees that the router is effed, and tells me that as I've had this one since 2007 and the warranty only lasts for 1 year, I have to buy a new one. (THE HELL #1???)

So he tells me I can go to PC World, and names different brands of routers. And I ask, if I get my own router, configure it (or get FavouriteUncle!Jim to do same...) and it still doesn't work, what do I do then? The answer: "We don'ts upport third party routers." (THE HELL #2?????)

I then ask, if I order one from you, how long will it take before I have it. He says TWO WEEKS. (THE HELL #3?!?!?!?!) I think I deafened the guy with my disbelieving shriek. Apparently they don't keep any in stock.

At this point, I told the guy I was going to speak to Dad, whose name is on the account, and see what he wants to do. Went and ranted at FavoutiteUncle!Jim instead, whose opinion is that this is ridiculous - they're supposed to provide all the hardware so you can use the service (indeed, it says in the T&C that all equipment remains their property) so they should provide a replacement router. So he's going to come over this evening and take a look at it for me (and if needs be ring the Incompetant Crowd of Effing Shysters tomorrow pretending to be my dad to argue the case for me!!!)

I am so mad right now I think there's steam coming out my ears!

I think it's definitely time to look at alternate service providers....

No wonder Ireland is rapidly going down the tubes....

There was a 2 page article in yesterday's Irish Daily Mail, about a family of eight (dad, mum, 6 kids) living down in Limerick who are getting €3800 a month in state benefits and say that it's not enough for them to live on. (For those of you in the UK, that's £3,221.81 per month, and for those in the US it's $5,473.88 at today's exchange rates).

Highlights from the article:

The tears fall down Danielle Harte's face as she sits opposite her 50in Plasma TV screen. 'Sometimes I think I was put on this earth to suffer,' she says, her husband Ger nodding quietly in agreement.

To most it might seem as if Ger, 33, and Danielle, 31, have done a pretty good job. After all, they and their six children live in an eight-bedroom, €440,000 detached house in picturesque Ardnacrusha, Co. Clare. Not bad for a couple living entirely on welfare.

Danielle has never worked outside the home. Ger gave up his €420-a-week job in a cash and carry more than four years ago, because he figured he'd get more money in welfare benefits. He was right. Every month they take home approximately €3,800, courtesy of the taxpayer.

'We get €480 a week in dole for the eight of us; about €800 a month in rent allowance, and then child benefit of €1,144. That's what we have to live on,' Danielle complains.

Ger adds: 'I was offered a job but if I took it we wouldn't get the rent allowance, so it's not worth my while.

Even in the boom times, Danielle and Ger didn't work and they admit there is no incentive to get a job.

Bolded bits are obviously mine; the article also states that they have 4 large plasma tv's in the house, plus two laptops and two cars. In addition, they were housed in a suite in Jury's Hotel in Limerick for 3 months at one point because no suitable accomadation was available.
Entitlement much????

I think it's sickening that someone can basically give up a job to live off the state and take home more in a month than people (ie me and most of my friends) who are putting in 39 hour weeks and counting ourselves lucky to actually still have a job. This guy even says that he's been offered work, but it's not worth his while taking in as he and his family are better off claiming benefits.

What kind of example does this set to his kids???

And what kind of government sets up a system where this can happen??

Completely, utterly batshit insane.

Get into work, and as I'm parking the car I see my General Manager walking in. (He's here this morning for a meeting, hopefully not to fire me.....)

Then I get into the office, and see my CM (contracts manager) going into the kitchen, full carton of milk in hand.

That's odd, thinks I, there was half a carton there yesterday evening.

So I goes into the kitchen to make my morning cup of tea, and lo and behold, there is the half carton of milk on the kitchen counter.

I look at CM. "Was that left out all night?"

CM takes life in hands and confirms yes it was.

I just looked at him, and he told me to take a deep breath and count to ten.

I did. Then exploded.

Seriously, how hard is it to put the milk back in the effing fridge????? IT'S RIGHT BESIDE THEM!!!!!

Today can only get better right????

Posted via LiveJournal.app.

So, once more, the internet is being SLLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW.

Slow enough that I got throughly browned off with it, busted out the shiny shiny iPhone and rang the customer service department. (You know you have problems when you have the number for your broadband provider's customer service line stored in the contacts list of your mobile phone).

So I spent 25 MINUTES on hold. 25 minutes listening to dead air and a recorded voice thanking me for holding and telling me that my business was important to them. Just as I was about to hang up and start composing a nastygram, the line clicked and on came a customer service rep.

He listened to what the peoblem was, put me back on hold for another 5 minutes, then came back and told me he was going to change around some of the settings to see if the problem could be fixed, but if not he'd get someone else in the office to contact me tomorrow.

And that, as they say, was that.

I am LIVID. My mum (who, as any of you who actually know her know does not suffer fools gladly and takes no BS from anyone) told me she doesn't know why we're still with this crowd. My succinct answer was "Neither do I - oh wait, I do!! They're the only game in town and they have us by the goolies!!" (Mum, as you can imagine, was not impressed by this assessment).

Have just run another speedtest, it's coming in at 0.64mb/s download, 0.37 mb/s upload. The connection we're paying for is 3mbs down, 1mbs up. (So basically, yer man did eff all, which I knew was going to happen - these guys are masters at saying what you want to hear so they'll get you off the phone.) I foresee another call to them tomorrow afternoon.....

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The Good, The Bad and The Deeply Deeply Stupid....

Ranting......

Today has started so well.....

Rantng dead ahead....

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September 2019

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