Breaking down the truth and adventures of what its really like to live in Panama City, Panama.
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Getting Internet Service at my Apartment - A Test of Patience
I decide to have internet installed at my apartment from the company "Cable Onda". I go down to their office in the mall, sign up and pay my deposit. The employee informs me that in about a week or so, the installers will call me to confirm a installation time.
Two weeks go by and no word from Cable Onda. Since I don't speak Spanish (well), we gave them my girlfriends cell phone number. They finally call her, and TELL her that they are coming at 1pm on Friday. She tells them that we at work during that time, so it must be 4pm or later. To be very clear, she confirms TWO times that the appt is indeed on Friday at 4pm.
Friday comes and while I'm at work, they call me for some reason and say they are coming at 1pm. I put one of my Spanish speaking friends on the phone to tell them my appt is at 4 PM and that this has already been set over 2 different phone calls to them.
Luckily, the installers show up at my house at 4pm and begin to work. They are setting up my internet using English directions that they don't understand. Now I'm sure I wasn't their first customer ever...so why are they installing internet service when they know they can't read the directions??? Long story short, the installation is not completing, so I have to read the directions and figure out whats wrong. It turns out that they don't realize that clicking "Save Changes" is necessary to complete the process. We finally get it working. No more worries right? Wrong!
What they don't tell you is that once your internet is setup, its only allowed to connect to ONE COMPUTER!!!!!!! Well we connect it to my girlfriends computer first and of course it now won't work on my computer. Well 5 phone calls later and a hour plus of waiting on the phone, we finally realize that we can get around this problem by buying a wireless router. After doing so, the internet begins working on my computer.
Note: If you are going to call customer service, have a friend call who speaks Spanish. When I called customer service and asked for the English option, I waited on the phone for 45 minutes and got hung up on twice.
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Foolio.. this is a sign that you need to learn spanish ASAP and stop depending on other people.. lol..
ReplyDeletechekc out "Mi Vida Loca" on the BBC website.. it's spanihs from Spain, but its a start, and it's interactive..
I'm getting used this kinda stuff now, so its not a big deal anymore. I DO need to learn Spanish. I'm working on that...
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