Eric D. Schabell: No Internet from Abel

Thursday, March 20, 2008

No Internet from Abel

It has been a long time since I have had a chance to post anything, but I am about to tell you why... I have moved into a new house this month, which should not have had much effect with regards to my Internet access.

As you can imagine I started the Internet migration by selecting a new provider months ahead of the move and signed at the end of 2007. I received a letter dated Jan 2008 that the move would be competed on 5 March 2008. Great!

Later I received two more letter both stating that I have been assigned some user id and password, that the connection would be there in March, and basically that everything is in order. I am happy, all seems to be going well.

Then reality sets in, with the move taking place on the first of March, the telephone line being setup on 3 March, but on 5 March I have no Internet... uh oh...

A mail to the support address of Abel takes 5 days for a reply, but at 50 cents a minute for the support telephone line I am a bit hesitant to call for this. After a simple reply that they were working on it, I decided to call the support line. The date was 10 March, I was on hold for 20 minutes before hanging up. I am not sure if the line is full as you only have a voice saying everyone is busy, please wait. I try later in the afternoon and get the technical support after about 3 minutes of waiting; the problem is being worked on (the neighborhood telephone box is full says the KPN telephone company) and they will call me back today about it with an update.

After four days and no reply from Abel, my wife calls them at their local office number, same song and dance. I am again to be called, they are working on it.

Again, nothing...

Again, 3 days later....

I call them and hear that they can't deliver on the promised Internet, connection not possible, will refund your money, have a nice day. So. There you go...

It is 18 March and I am forced to try another provider. They say it will take 4-5 weeks to setup Internet. As you can imagine this might be a bit of a problem for me to post anything at all for some time. Wish me luck. :-(