Okay,we're back

No thanks to Telus

Most people don't know that I live in a semi-remote area of BC. And in doing so, I have given up some of the things that people in more populated areas such as Vancouver, Victoria, Prince George or other urban centers take for granted.
One thing has been Television. I haven't missed it. Another is Newspapers on a daily basis. I haven't missed that either.

Until this year I have been getting my water from a cistern. Rainwater. And it actually tastes better than any I ever consumed in the city or the burbs. I also use an outhouse and have wood heat.

But recently (in May) I was given the greatest gift I could think of in my (early) retirement. A Daughter.
I have another family which is all grown up and in raising them I went wrong somewhere. Two of the three grown children have gone horribly astray. I tried everything I could think of to prevent what I saw happening short of locking them up, to no avail.
So now I have been given another chance. And in doing so I found that some profound changes must occur in my daily workings. One of those changes is to increase my living space . But as winter approaches construction has stalled and we have had to move into other digs for the next 6 months. Did I mention that the area where I live is as high as the top of Grouse Mountain? And being away from the heat generated by the city we get considerably more snow. Three to five feet every year.

Another of those things is cabled internet such as Shaw or Rogers. Very fast. We don't have cable out here. We do have Wireless, but on a fixed income the cost is prohibitive. So my only option available to keep in touch with what is going on in the outside world is the internet. Through Telus. Or in other words using the phone line. The dreaded dial-up.

And I blame Telus for the incompetence in not having the phone at the new digs set up in a timely manner.

You must understand that living in a remote area you can't just call them up and have the phone put in today. Even if all they do is throw a switch. So while they were setting up the new line somebody screwed up.
A line was connected but this phone wasn't. Apparently the lines were crossed and it kept going to somebody elses answering machine. Which I found out later was a line that was apparently left open while they tried to chase the guy down for non-payment of his bill. Guess they were trying to pad the bill.
So the bride stays home all day the day the phone was to be set up. Nothing. I phoned from the construction site and from the in-laws. Kept going into this guys voice mail. Then when I get home the bride informs me that a Telus bucket truck (the one they use to repair overhead problems instead of the old fashioned way of getting exercise by climbing the pole) pulls into the driveway. The bride sees them and motions them to come to the door. She's feeding a four month old child and won't leave her. They sit there for a couple of minutes smiling while she is motioning them to come to the door. When all of a sudden they start the truck and pull out of the driveway. Gone.

So we phone the Telus Customer Service line to find out what is going on. They bucket truck it seems are not the ones who throw the switch. And I assume they don't have, or are not allowed to have any contact with the customer. All this after waiting a week for the phone to be set up. We were told that they only come to this area ONCE a week on Thursday. Okay, but we still don't have a phone that they indicated we would have that day and we have a baby that has Medical appointments. Sorry, but the next available day is in one week on Thursday.

Now I would probably have accepted this and not have written about it if it were not for one small discrepancy. I have found out they are scheduled for this area TWICE a week. Tuesdays and Thursdays. So in the largest communications company in Canada they are NOT COMMUNICATING neither with their customers nor with themselves.

Their are other things wrong here, none of which alters the nature of the complaint, but I will go into them with Telus and the CRTC. I am involving the CRTC because if they are notified then Telus will have to acknowledge the complaint. Even if they deny any wrongdoing.

I'm quite sure that if I had had a lack of communication like this in my working days, my career would have been shortened considerably. But being a little more laid back after 4 years of retirement I don't want someones job. What I do want is for the Communications company to communicate.