So a while back everyone seemed to enjoy the piece I wrote about my stove and kitchen counter tops… well, I have another one for you about the installation of my internet and cable.
Now, those of you who are Foreign Service will know that internet is the most important thing to have up and running when you get to a new post and I know this has been the subject of numerous post on SchutzHappens… but seriously, it’s impossible to overstate the importance of internet. It’s essentially your life blood and connection to the outside world… and for the first month (and a couple days) I was in Pakistan, I didn’t have it.
Now, the first obstacle in getting internet is learning to navigate the local market. The Embassy does not provide personal internet so you have to figure out your options and enter into a contract with a local provider. And figuring out how to do this can be tricky and for some reason other Americans, who have already done the research, don’t seem interested in doing anything except point you in vague directions… I’m not sure why, but this has been the case at two of my postings. But, if there is one thing us government folks are good at… it’s reinventing the wheel.
Anyway, when I finally figured out what my options were in Pakistan and who I needed to talk too I had already lost a week of precious communication time with my family. And well… the guy at the provider in charge of diplomatic accounts didn’t seem to care about making a sale either. Whenever I called him, and he actually answered, he refused to talk to me and would rattle off an email address, his personal email address that I could never jot down correctly because of his frantic speaking pace and he would hang up on me after rattling it off. The first time I called I didn’t believe he was legit, but everyone assured me I had called the correct guy.
On my FIFTH call I finally had to tell him to stop talking and say, “If you are really going to refuse to talk to me on the phone, then you need to SLOW DOWN and give me your email letter by letter.” Which he did… for the first three letters and then he would revert back to the same unintelligible speed. But my persistence paid off and I FINALLY made email contact… and a week later he responded.
After two weeks of not being able to Skype with my family, Mr. Q, the internet provider diplomatic account rep, had finally sent me a contract to sign, which I did, and returned. Mr. Q confirmed the receipt of my contract a few days later and told me someone would be in touch to schedule the installation. Vague!
Another week passed… and Mr. Q was no longer answering my email or his phone. ZERO communication. And whenever I contacted the main customer service center and they found out I was a diplomat, they would tell me to contact Mr. Q.
Another week passed (and if you’re counting we’re now up to a month) and I couldn’t take it anymore. If Mr. Q had such terrible communication and customer service skills I figured this deficit wasn’t limited to customers alone, but also the folks he works with… so on the Friday of my fourth week I called customer service with a new strategy: “Yes, I’ve already talked to Mr. Q, he said the installation was supposed to be yesterday, but no one showed up.”
Okay… I know. I totally lied. I have mixed feelings about it. On one side I don’t feel bad because I don’t think Mr. Q would have ever helped me set up the installation. But, on the other side, the guys at the provider’s customer service hotline are AWESOME! Honestly, they can help with anything from billing to technical assistance… they have really bailed me out a number of times… so I kind of feel bad about lying to them. But just a little.
Anyway, the guys at customer service said they would look into it and call me back. 30 minutes later I received a phone call… there was an installer at my house ready to work. Seriously.
Now, of course, I was at MY work. I had no way of letting this guy in, but a local friend was available to help me out, thank God… because the installation took six days over the course of three weeks. Yeah… that’s right. six days… three weeks. And honestly, I don’t think I wanted anything too fancy. I wanted cable run to three rooms and internet run to two (I’m not greedy, I’m in a multiunit house and my goal was to wire the whole house at once).
And for the sake of the story, I’ll break the rooms down for you:
Room 1: Internet and Cable
Room 2: Cable Only
Room 3: Internet and Cable
When I got home that Friday night I was so excited! INTERNET!
But I had nothing. According to my buddy, the installer only had time to run the wires to my house and needed to come back the following week to batch the house into the grid at the street. Okay… I guess that makes sense. Although, when my brother-in-law worked for Dish Network he could wire an entire house from start to finish by himself in one day… but okay, we’re not in the States, and I’ll go with the flow… for another weekend of no connectivity.
However, I got curious and decided to check out the installers work. Which I found very shocking and so simplistic that I still can’t imagine it taking longer than an hour or two.
Essentially, on the first day, the installer ran a master internet/cable line to Room 1, where I found the junction box and modem behind the TV.
Now, in The States, we’re used to installers creating junction outlets in the walls so we can connect wires of any length we want into the wall junction and go about our merry happy lives… but as I inspected the work behind the TV I noticed something strange in the wall… a hole that had been puttied closed… with wires coming through it. No connector… just ends of various wires.
I also notices the absence of the internet router needed to send the signal to the rest of the house… but I did notice an Ethernet wire connected to the modem exiting through the same puttied hole I described before.
Outside, I traced this wire to the exterior of Room 2, where I found another puttied hole… and inside THAT room, I found the router hanging on the wall. And if you are keeping score, Room 2 was supposed to get cable, not internet, and Room 3 had nothing.
Installation Day 2 (Four days later): When I came home that Tuesday we had been patched to the grid and I had Cable in Room 1 and Internet in Room 2. I was told that the installer would be back the next day to complete the work.
Installation Day 3 (Two days later): The installer ran a cable line from Room 1 to Room 2. So, I now had Cable in Room 1, Internet and Cable in Room 2, and still nothing in Room 3. Mildly annoyed, I took it upon myself to move the internet router from Room 2 to Room 1… so now, we’re two thirds complete.
Installation Day 4 (A week later): The installer never came back. My buddy who had been helping me out called the installer directly (they had been coordinating the install directly with each other) but the installer said the third room wasn’t on his list so I would have to contact customer service again to get the work authorized… which I did and on the installers fourth visit he ran an Ethernet cable from Room 1 to Room 3. (Thank God I moved the router, because it would have been difficult to move it once the other Ethernet wire was puttied into place.
Installation Day 5 (Two days later): The installer ran a cable wire from Room 1 to Room 3.
Installation Day 6 (Two days later): The installer connected both Ethernet and cable in Room 3.
Done! And it all works perfectly! And if you think I was exaggerating… here an interior picture of Room 1. I would love to share more pictures, like of all the wires strung around the exterior of the house or the absurdity of the junction box at the street… but I’m tiring to keep a low profile over here, so I’m going to bypass exterior shots.
Now, those of you who are Foreign Service will know that internet is the most important thing to have up and running when you get to a new post and I know this has been the subject of numerous post on SchutzHappens… but seriously, it’s impossible to overstate the importance of internet. It’s essentially your life blood and connection to the outside world… and for the first month (and a couple days) I was in Pakistan, I didn’t have it.
Now, the first obstacle in getting internet is learning to navigate the local market. The Embassy does not provide personal internet so you have to figure out your options and enter into a contract with a local provider. And figuring out how to do this can be tricky and for some reason other Americans, who have already done the research, don’t seem interested in doing anything except point you in vague directions… I’m not sure why, but this has been the case at two of my postings. But, if there is one thing us government folks are good at… it’s reinventing the wheel.
Anyway, when I finally figured out what my options were in Pakistan and who I needed to talk too I had already lost a week of precious communication time with my family. And well… the guy at the provider in charge of diplomatic accounts didn’t seem to care about making a sale either. Whenever I called him, and he actually answered, he refused to talk to me and would rattle off an email address, his personal email address that I could never jot down correctly because of his frantic speaking pace and he would hang up on me after rattling it off. The first time I called I didn’t believe he was legit, but everyone assured me I had called the correct guy.
On my FIFTH call I finally had to tell him to stop talking and say, “If you are really going to refuse to talk to me on the phone, then you need to SLOW DOWN and give me your email letter by letter.” Which he did… for the first three letters and then he would revert back to the same unintelligible speed. But my persistence paid off and I FINALLY made email contact… and a week later he responded.
After two weeks of not being able to Skype with my family, Mr. Q, the internet provider diplomatic account rep, had finally sent me a contract to sign, which I did, and returned. Mr. Q confirmed the receipt of my contract a few days later and told me someone would be in touch to schedule the installation. Vague!
Another week passed… and Mr. Q was no longer answering my email or his phone. ZERO communication. And whenever I contacted the main customer service center and they found out I was a diplomat, they would tell me to contact Mr. Q.
Another week passed (and if you’re counting we’re now up to a month) and I couldn’t take it anymore. If Mr. Q had such terrible communication and customer service skills I figured this deficit wasn’t limited to customers alone, but also the folks he works with… so on the Friday of my fourth week I called customer service with a new strategy: “Yes, I’ve already talked to Mr. Q, he said the installation was supposed to be yesterday, but no one showed up.”
Okay… I know. I totally lied. I have mixed feelings about it. On one side I don’t feel bad because I don’t think Mr. Q would have ever helped me set up the installation. But, on the other side, the guys at the provider’s customer service hotline are AWESOME! Honestly, they can help with anything from billing to technical assistance… they have really bailed me out a number of times… so I kind of feel bad about lying to them. But just a little.
Anyway, the guys at customer service said they would look into it and call me back. 30 minutes later I received a phone call… there was an installer at my house ready to work. Seriously.
Now, of course, I was at MY work. I had no way of letting this guy in, but a local friend was available to help me out, thank God… because the installation took six days over the course of three weeks. Yeah… that’s right. six days… three weeks. And honestly, I don’t think I wanted anything too fancy. I wanted cable run to three rooms and internet run to two (I’m not greedy, I’m in a multiunit house and my goal was to wire the whole house at once).
And for the sake of the story, I’ll break the rooms down for you:
Room 1: Internet and Cable
Room 2: Cable Only
Room 3: Internet and Cable
When I got home that Friday night I was so excited! INTERNET!
But I had nothing. According to my buddy, the installer only had time to run the wires to my house and needed to come back the following week to batch the house into the grid at the street. Okay… I guess that makes sense. Although, when my brother-in-law worked for Dish Network he could wire an entire house from start to finish by himself in one day… but okay, we’re not in the States, and I’ll go with the flow… for another weekend of no connectivity.
However, I got curious and decided to check out the installers work. Which I found very shocking and so simplistic that I still can’t imagine it taking longer than an hour or two.
Essentially, on the first day, the installer ran a master internet/cable line to Room 1, where I found the junction box and modem behind the TV.
Now, in The States, we’re used to installers creating junction outlets in the walls so we can connect wires of any length we want into the wall junction and go about our merry happy lives… but as I inspected the work behind the TV I noticed something strange in the wall… a hole that had been puttied closed… with wires coming through it. No connector… just ends of various wires.
I also notices the absence of the internet router needed to send the signal to the rest of the house… but I did notice an Ethernet wire connected to the modem exiting through the same puttied hole I described before.
Outside, I traced this wire to the exterior of Room 2, where I found another puttied hole… and inside THAT room, I found the router hanging on the wall. And if you are keeping score, Room 2 was supposed to get cable, not internet, and Room 3 had nothing.
Installation Day 2 (Four days later): When I came home that Tuesday we had been patched to the grid and I had Cable in Room 1 and Internet in Room 2. I was told that the installer would be back the next day to complete the work.
Installation Day 3 (Two days later): The installer ran a cable line from Room 1 to Room 2. So, I now had Cable in Room 1, Internet and Cable in Room 2, and still nothing in Room 3. Mildly annoyed, I took it upon myself to move the internet router from Room 2 to Room 1… so now, we’re two thirds complete.
Installation Day 4 (A week later): The installer never came back. My buddy who had been helping me out called the installer directly (they had been coordinating the install directly with each other) but the installer said the third room wasn’t on his list so I would have to contact customer service again to get the work authorized… which I did and on the installers fourth visit he ran an Ethernet cable from Room 1 to Room 3. (Thank God I moved the router, because it would have been difficult to move it once the other Ethernet wire was puttied into place.
Installation Day 5 (Two days later): The installer ran a cable wire from Room 1 to Room 3.
Installation Day 6 (Two days later): The installer connected both Ethernet and cable in Room 3.
Done! And it all works perfectly! And if you think I was exaggerating… here an interior picture of Room 1. I would love to share more pictures, like of all the wires strung around the exterior of the house or the absurdity of the junction box at the street… but I’m tiring to keep a low profile over here, so I’m going to bypass exterior shots.
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