ISPs (aka Internet Suckitude Purveyors)

In 1998 I got my first desktop computer. We went with the local cable company (which has a monopoly in our fair city) as our Internet Service Provider.

Keep in mind that my husband is a computer engineer and works for one of the largest computer companies in the world, and that I knew less than nothing about computers and that new-fangled email.

The company then was Bresnan, so our email was at bresnanlink.net. Then the company got sold to Charter (without a doubt the WORST ISP on the planet) and some stupid idiot who didn't know that Minnesota's postal abbreviation is MN made the domain name here at chartermi dot com. Ummm? That's Michigan. Fail. Then we got an upgraded service to enable Rob to log in to work from home. Extra security, extra charges, extra inconvenience. And a new domain name, at magnaspeed dot net. Keep in mind that is 3 emails and we were still with the same company. And there were a couple of other changes, too. Frustrating.

After we moved back from California (where we had Comcast for cable and internet and I LOVED them. People on the west coast rail about Comcast so it says a lot that I thought they were a huge improvement from the assholes that I deal with at Charter Communications). Please click on that link so that they can see how much I hate them. And let me say that when I call their customer service and get the little survey at the end of my call, I always click the option indicating I would not recommend their service to anyone. And they hang up on me. Because, apparently, providing great customer service is asking people if they would recommend your service, not asking WHY they would not and then doing something about it. Again, what idiots. But I digress. After we moved back from California (and yes, I know I left that dangling up there at the beginning but I thought you might have forgotten. I did. LOL). After we moved back from California we switched to Qwest.

They have been ok. No love for the email because it was through Hotmail and, honestly, a company that big should have its own email setup, right? But whatever. It worked, it was fine, and I use my own personal domain name for primary email anyway.

Until the FORCED MIGRATION from Qwest. First, they sent a POSTCARD to tell us that a change was coming. No indication of when or how, but they informed us of an internet change VIA SNAIL MAIL. WTF? And yes, they called it a forced migration. Because those of us who are change averse (hello, my desktop runs on Windows XP and I am married to a computer engineer with 2 extended family members who work for Microsoft) are going to be mellowed by the word FORCED.

So I migrated. Under duress. And their system? Oh my. The interface is AWFUL. Ugly. News links are all from tabloid news shows, nothing reputable. It's slow. It's cumbersome. I have to log in to the mail provider then log in to the email. Aw. FUL. Then? Multiple calls to their technicians, one of whom told me I was an idiot, basically. And yes, I did hang up on him. How did you know? And then I tattled on Chad to his co worker who helped me in online chat.

In the past couple of weeks I have spent close to 10 hours on this switch. I have talked to multiple customer service people and it seems they have had a tsunami of people needing help. Shocking. Poorly planned, poorly designed, and poorly implemented. Whooda thunk?

So I decided to forward my email to Gmail. Except they won't let me do that. Yep. I pay them for a service and they set conditions, like, We do not like those guys at Gmail and we won't play nice with them. The end. Grrr. Fortunately I have the aforementioned personal domain name. So Qwest forwards to it, and it routes to Gmail. A bonus is that Gmail (unlike Qwest mail) will allow me to use that email as my Reply to address as well.

Honestly. Qwest, I would have canceled my service the other day but after spending 2 hours or more on configuring my personal domain and my Gmail to circumvent your stupid system, I'm staying. For now. But do your employees a favor, all you suits ... start actually thinking of the customer and your employees before doing something like this again. I feel sorry for the people who work for you.

Oh, except for Chad. He can suck it.