Internet Fixed

Well, Tuesday morning, the electrician showed up just as I knew he would. Only, I didn't know he was going to show up at 7:45am! Let's just say...this is very early in the morning for India...if a service person says that they will come to your house in the morning that means between 9:30am and 1pm. I was out of bed but hadn't showered yet and still had my PJs on. Oh well, at the time, getting my internet fixed was a little more important to me than worrying about what I looked like.

Well the electrician looked at everything and after a long telephone conversation with I'm guessing our landlord told me that everything was hooked up correctly. He said that he would go get the people from the internet company. Well, sure enough, he was back with them around noon (I was actually showered and dressed), and they determined that besides the power cord being broken that the actual modem itself was broken. They told me that they would come back on Wednesday morning with a new modem box. That's all fine and dandy...and appreciated by me...I understand that sometimes things are defective and break. However, I didn't appreciate the part about them questioning me about dropping the box (never happened), about why I unplugged the cord (sorry, didn't know that a cord could never be unplugged), and so on. The part of this that really irritates me is that I found out that the internet company is charging our landlord for a new modem. OK, this really irks me BIG time...the modem only works for a day and a half and then breaks, but yet a new modem will cost. I guess they have never heard of a product being defective?????

Well on Wednesday morning, I got up bright and early to make sure I was showered and out of my PJs. Well 1pm came and no one had shown up, so I gave up hope that they were actually going to bring my new modem. I really needed to go to the grocery store as Wednesday night a colleague of my husband's was coming in to stay with us for a few days, and I figured I ought to buy some food since our food shipment won't be coming for a few more days. Well, I decide to go to the store, but as I'm walking out the door, our driver and the electrician are walking up to the house and tell me that the internet people will be coming in 30 minutes to 1 hour. Fine, I say...I'll go to the store after they come. Well, 3 1/2 hours later...at 4:30pm, the internet people finally show up. I guess technically...it was morning somewhere!

Anyway, this time there were once again 4 people to change the modem box. Two from the internet company, the electrician, plus our driver. I'm not exactly sure why our driver needed to come in...the only thing I can figure out is that the electrician was probably telling him all about our problems all afternoon and that he wanted to see for himself what was going on. Anyway, I find it a little strange that our new modem is a different brand than the old one. I asked the internet people if it was a better one...I got a response that went something like "sorry madam, this is not America, this is India," which I took to mean that products in the U.S. are better than products here (true for the most part). I made the comment then that everything in America is either made in China or made in India. Then they proceeded to tell me that my new modem was made in China. However, there is a lot of truth that even though the stuff here in India (also the same in China) was made here (or made in China) that in fact the quality of products really is not the same as the quality of made in China/India products available in the U.S. It almost makes me wonder if the rejects are the ones that are left behind to be sold in the country they were produced in.

Anyway, internet is working again (for now). Steve's colleague got to our house at midnight last night. Today I went to a cooking demonstration...of course, the chef made everything look really simple to make. Ha!

Stay tuned for a post on the mowing of our yard...with photos!