Phase one of operation 'back on the net' is in place, I have a phone line!!
There was a little bit of a hitch, I was supposed to be connected on Wednesday, wednesday night at eight o'clock I was informed ( after a two hour wait on the phone good job it was a freephone number ) it can take up to ten to be turned on, hmmm, all they were doing was flicking a switch. Thursday nothing, called them again, (only an hour and ten minutes this time ) yes it should have been on yesterday and they would ensure it was today, friday morning still nothing, called them again, only 35 minutes this time, getting better, turns out it was a fault on the line, which they checked while I was on the phone, and got it sorted straight away, by the time I got home from the exam my phone was on. During the course of the day they had kept me updated by text and let me know when it was fixed too, also they left me a card at the house to say if there were any problems to call them and apologising for the inconvenience. The card was hand written which showed that extra little bit of consideration.

Now thats customer service

Phase two will begin on monday, so fingers crossed I will be back doing the morning posts within a couple of weeks.

And now for a hopefully relaxing weekend, or not as the case may be

Everything is relative so they tell me, one thing is always relative to another,so does that mean that all the bull and crazy stuff I have had to put up with over the past year or two or three, oh hell, forever! is relative to all the good things that I supposedly should have had in the same abundance?

I dont measure good by bad, which is probably the best way as they never measure the same, in fact I dont really measure good and bad at all, shit happens it is a fact of life, and good things happen too, sometimes through your own hard work, sometimes it comes as a surprise, remember the good and get over the bad, and you will find a happy medium of sorts. And forget all this relative stuff, after all if something good happens you dont want to be sat there thinking oh goodness now I will have a bad, enjoy, thats what life is for, living

Now am I ready for my exam, not by a long way, with having to move and sort and on top of that having a trapped nerve in my back, it has made revision very hard, but I will find out tomorrow how ready I am. I look at it this way, if I fail, then I resit, if I pass, even a low pass then I concentrate on the next lot, simple, well kind of, it is a good philosphy and serves me well in most things. There is always a way of doing things and if at first you dont succeed and all that stuff.

Right got to go and get some more revising done, roll on Saturday

When I moved I traded my lovely view from the study window for room for Molly to play, a small sacrifice to see her so much happier. And I still have the beautiful view on the way to work or walking in to town.

This morning for instance while walking down here to get them out of bed I watched the sun rising, spreading her ribbons of pink and making the clouds blush with her heavenly kisses. Layers of pink and grey rose up from the horizon until the whole skyline was just a blaze of pinks and reds and oranges. A beautiful sunrise always makes me smile and gives a good start to the day.

In other news, my phone is to be connected on Wednesday And then I can talk to Sky about broadand, well actually I have already talked to them, my phone has to have been activated five days before they can put me on. The reason I have gone with sky is because in my area you have three choices, BT, Sky or Virgin (Shudder) As my dispute with Virgin does not look like being sorted any time soon I could be waiting a long time for services from them being transferred to here.

Now I could have gone back to aOL, but that would have meant BT phone, sky TV and AOL broadband making the cost just a tad too high. With Sky though their customer service is along the lines of Virgin at least I have someone close who does know about it and can sort it out.

So hopefully I will be online in the next few weeks, and then the morning posts can commence again and I shall be able to visit all my dear friends and maybe even get to comment

Right thats it got to go now, catch you later with more updates.

Well it is a while since I did one of these, a morning post

Goooooooood Morning Blogland, it is monday and I am at this moment supposed to be revising, with full use of my sons computer

My house is beginning to look a little more like a house and not a rubbish dump, or a bring and buy sale The daughter-in-law came up yesterday and helped me to move the last of the main items of furniture in to their respective places, just a few more things to move now and thats done.

My new vacum should be arriving today so I will be able to clean the carpets, and it looks like things are doing ok. Miss Molly is settling down nicely and loves being able to potter about outside when I am at home. The cheeky cat from down the road has decided she likes to tease Molly and lies on the wall just out of reach, doesnt hiss or raise its fur, just lies there gazing at her nonchalantly like the Queen of Sheba Course Molly thinks it is all great fun, it is a wonder she doesnt take off the way she wags that tail.

No news yet on the internet but hopefully something will happen soon.

Meanwhile have a great day, I will be around on and off

Just a quick update while I am getting the son and wife out of bed.
I have moved, but it has been a nighmare,talk about a comedy of errors

Still apart from falling down the celler steps and knocking myself sick, trapping my fingers, banging my head ( after the celler steps one) knocking shins and taking a piece out of my ankle I have come through more or less intact

My removal team, ahem, were pretty good after a fashion, leaving every single item of furniture in the living room for me to place in its respective rooms, breaking my computer desk, and amongst missing items is, one phone charger, one DVD player, two plants, one large sweeping brush, one dustpan set, and one small chair that has been with me since forever. The DVD player and plants should be with me today, either that or money will be exchanging hands.

I know one thing, I am never going to allow my landlord to persuade me to move in that manner again, two days notice because the Chech couple had been given notice from their landlord (They are the ones that have my old house) They have been knocking on my door since tuesday night asking me when I was moving, Three times on Wednesday and four times on Thursday, which was the day that I moved. The entire family were stood outside while the landlord and his little band moved my stuff, and when I say entire I mean entire, in laws and brothers and cousins and sisters and a trillion kids

It was like something out of a comic book, still I am in my house now and though Miss Molly is not entirely happy, she did like being able to wander about outside while I sorted the kitchen out yesterday, she is fretting and not eating properly, she will settle down when the house looks like a house and not a rubbish dump, I hope.

And now on to the internet, I have a sky dish on the outside of the house, so it is entirely possible that I will end up with sky, then again I also have a BT phone line, I shall be making arrangements this coming week for all that to happen, so with luck and perseverance I will hopefully have internet by the end of the month.

OK, time to go to work so have a great day and catch you all soon.

Except the answer that they have is of course only of benefit to them!

Lets go back to Tuesday, lunch time I get an hour I live five minutes from work so I go home, it's cheaper.

Just about to sit down to lunch and the phone goes, it is Virgin,they want to resolve my complaint, it has only taken them ten and a half weeks so far. I had a very interesting conversation with a gentleman, who I wont name, data protection issues. He sympathised with me, he agreed that to instruct me to use a different mail service to read my mails was ludicrous, he disagreed that they had broken the contract as I had three services and only one was at fault, hmmm, the main one mind. He told me that before they could do anything I had to pay what I owed them, as that was the only way they could sort it out, I pay them then they get an engineer out and refund me the difference. I had to go back to work by this time, having not had my lunch after all, so I said I would get back to him.

I then took my contract to a solicitor, who knows about these things, he said nope he is wrong, you signed up for the three services together which means if one is not supplied as it should be the contract is broken, it clearly states that they will provide all three services and they haven't.

I then spoke to an accounts manager who deals with things like payments and he told me " They can wipe any payment and resume services at anytime, any business can, they have over ride facilities on the system they have to have for disputes where they are in the wrong, he is just trying to get you to pay"

I then went back to the solicitor, they are in the wrong, he tells me, especially with the mailsthat you showed me, though you could try a compromise if you are willing.

So I am going to put the compromise to them today, and I will let you know the outcome.

And as for the Technical support team they tell me that I shouldn't have my Modem connected to a USB port, um, well there are only two ports on the modem, one for a phone connection, which I dont use as this is cable, and the other for an Ethernet cable which attaches to a USB port, how do they think I am going to connect it to the computer?

Somehow I think this is not going to be resolved easily!

Oh and I am moving today.

Its all go innit

Which I did, in fact I literally BOL when I read my latest communication from them, which was via email and not, as one may have expected an answer to the one I sent regarding my erm accounts case officer, oh no, this one was from the Technical support team, which given the events over the past months I didnt even know existed!

It went like this.

"Thanks for getting in touch with the Virgin Media support team.

I'm sorry about the issue you are having with your email, I also
apologise if the last email kyou received wasn't helpful nor address the
modem issue you experiance.

Our email service works via the amount of space your emails take up, not
by the amount of emails there is individually; no system works like
that.

We allow 30mb of storage space for your emails, if you send and receive
photos, files and documents with imagery this can fill quite fast.

However it is sufficiant for emails containing text.

From time to time you will need to delete emails from your account or
simply use outlook express to view emails and download them to your PC
that way your PC stores the emails thus freeing up space on your
mailbox."
#################
Now I dont know about you but I find the fact that they tell me to read my mails using a totally different mail supplier a bit worrying, why would I want to read my mails in one then have to download them into another? Where is the sense in that? They did give me explicit instructions on how to install Outlook, cool, I wonder just how many of their customers have to do that?

And as for my modem, they ask me three questions about it, now had they read the mails that were sent they would see that those questions were already answered.?

It has taken ten weeks to get this far, maybe they will tell me I should go out and get a sky modem to run my Virgin broadband off?

I am really starting to lose any patience I had with these people, especially as I have just received another letter asking me to pay my bill!! Well at least this one was a pretty red colour

Hope everyone is A OK,

Gooooood Morning Blogland

No I haven't got my net back, but I dont start work until ten so here I am at my sons after getting them out of bed to take the rug rats to school and thought I would do a morning post as I have not had the chance for a while.

Take a breath.

I have seen some lovely sunrises and sunsets over the past weeks, but I think last nights sky was one of the most breathtaking I have seen in a while, crisp clean air and the stars just sparkled, not a cloud in sight, and though the moon is waning she still managed to shine bright, I just stood gazing at the sky it was awesome, even Miss Molly thought I had lost it

The move is iminent, wel, sort of, the landlord is bringing someone to view the house I am in on monday and I get the keys to my other one, my exam is now only two weeks away and my revision is not going at all with everything else that is going on. Still I have only next week then I have a week off to revise and then the exam is at the end of that week.

Work is getting more and more frustrating, and with all the changes that are going on some of us are wondering where we will fit in, though I have been told that they want me to stay, that has not been backed up with a pay rise which is the main bone of contention. so I have no idea what is going to happen

But, all being well I will be at the Liverpool meet, though I am needing some more info, like um who else is going?

Right got to go and sort the tiddlies, have a great day, miss you all

As I eagerly await the much sought after reply from Virgin mediocre's media's customer concerns department* it was with eager anticipation that I ripped open the letter waiting on my doormat** at lunchtime.

I opened the letter, scanned the contents and burst into laughter, not, you will have guessed, the long awaited reply. No apparently I have been allocated a, and I quote 'Personal account manager' apparently this lady,is going to look after my account while it is in arrears and she says, again I quote "It would be great if you could give me a call to discuss your account, that way we can arrange a repayment schedule and I can make sure no further action is taken"

Erm, 'no further action' does that mean you are not going to address my concerns?

I was invited to either call, email or text said lady. I have emailed her expressing my concern that she has actually been appointed as my case is supposed to be with the customer concerns department. Expressing my perturbance at the fact that her appointment means either, A My account notes have not been updated with the various calls and letter etc
or
B: She hasn't actually read the notes on the account?

Both of these events give rise to concerns, especially as I have no intentions of paying for a service I am not receiving. Please by all means take it further, that way I can take you to court.

Do you think I might get a response?

In other news, I am no further on with the packing, revising or finding a new job, has the world stood still suddenly? Nope I am just having an episode of Help!!!

Hope everyone is fine and dandy

Footnote
*Please ignore the sarcasm
**I dont actually have a doormat