Experiencing It Myself!

I am so stressed right now. Have just lived through an example of Doctorow's 'enshittification'; maybe I should say, am living through it, because it's not been resolved yet.

My home computer system, phone line, internet, wireless, all worked great. And then it seems that the router, which is 9 years old, started to create problems. Basically whenever anyone calls on our phone line the internet link gets turned off. It turns back on, a minute or so after the call has started. During the phone call, the phone line emits horrible scratchy noises and whines. I've tested everything and I could be wrong, I suppose, but the problems I'm having indicate needing a new router, at least according to all the advice I've read on the 'net. Heck, most 'phone' companies suggest replacing the router every two to five years. 9 years is almost twice the longest lifetime they recommend!

So, yesterday, I spent 2 hours on the phone, on my web browser in chat, trying to talk to a human at the phone company to get a new router. This should NOT be hard. It should be easy to send out a new router; after all I've paid (wait for it)... $1,600+ over the 9 years of my router's life to the phone company because, unbeknownst to me, I was 'leasing' the router. Ohh the things we discover when deep diving into bills and weird fees.

Anyway, I was never able to talk to a human. The robot answering the phone told me to say 'request representative' to talk to a human. I did that over and over again, on like the 5 phone calls I made trying to talk to a human. That never happened. Finally, via the online robochat, I was given an appointment to have a 'team' come out to my house to check on the problem their system had detected on my line. Great, great. But I wanted to talk to a human to make sure the 'team' brings a new router because that's what's needed. Finally, after a ton of 'interaction' with robochat, I was handed off to a human, I think. She (female name) didn't know how to the help me, even though my question was simple, 'Is the team going to bring a new router?'. So she handed me off to another human, this one male with a name which indicated he lived in India or Indonesia (which is ok, I guess), and he was able to answer my question. Yes, they will bring a new router, just in case.

2 hours. Many computers and robo-humans. A simple question. Their website is full of stuff about getting a new router but, one can't do it. One can't get a human, or a robot, to send one out. I dunno what they expect if people can't do that. I don't think they care. After all, this is America! Most of us only have one choice in phone/internet providers. That provider might change depending upon our location, but we are locked in. Our local PUD built the high speed internet lines around this county, and a public/community owned utility should be running all of this. That's how it should be. And that utility should have an office someone can walk into, if needed. And they should have phone help lines staffed by humans!

Ok, that's enough complaining. here's the open thread! What's up, whatcha doing? Reading? Thinking? Listening to? Remember, everything is interesting if you dive deep enough, so tell us about where you're diving!