Ch ch ch changes

Plugging in...

Change is inevitable. The computer industry thrives on it. Seasons, hairstyles, cars and tastes change. But changing Internet, phone and cable services, well, they can be problematic for some. Don't trust the snappy commercials and flashy brochures. There is always more to it than they say, write and sometimes know.

A recent client canceled high speed internet from Comcast due to financial contraints. The client's light usage of a computer for email led her to choose a dial up service instead, for less money each month. Sensible. But the dial up service wouldn't work, no way, no how. Turns out, if one chooses to use digital voice phone service, the cable modem used for the digital phone, doesn't allow for the use of a computer based modem to dial out and connect to a another internet service provider.

In English: it can't be done. The tones going through the modem don't translate properly so the dial tone technically doesn't exist for the modem to dial out. Comcast's tech support said the client could use THEIR dial up service, but not the one she had chosen and already signed up with.

This should have been easy. A simple switch to save money ended up costing the client for the Tutor's services to figure out what was wrong. The client resigned herself to going back to Comcast's internet service, at their lowest and slowest price point, still double what she would have paid for the other dial up service.

When the client called to cancel the account for the unusable dial up service, they tried to talk her into keeping their security software and they grilled her endlessly as to why she was canceling the account. The Tutor had to take over the conversation to make the cancellation happen while holding another phone on the other ear, getting Comcast to re-instate the canceled internet account. It was a frustrating experience. Did I mention the client just had her 90th birthday??

ALWAYS REMEMBER: before calling for help - is it plugged in, have any changes been recently made, and is it turned on?

Unplugged