My conversation with AT&T
Thursday, May 24, 2012
There is no cell service in my location. We went to the AT&T store to see what the deal was and it turns out that the two closest towers to my house are out. Ok fine, we can get a 3G MicroCell. It uses my own internet to generate a cell signal in my house so I get 5 bars all day long...GREAT!
So to make things kinda fast here, I'm currently on my 2nd MicroCell, and every night I come home and spend 2 hours on the phone with AT&T until my phone finally connects to the MicroCell and I'm a happy camper.
Two nights ago was just down right funny.
The lady on the end of the line was CONVINCED that since I had Mac computers, I was blocking ports and that's why it was not working.
But at the beginning of the call I told her, the device was not connected to my computer, it was connected to my network...in fact, it was connected OUTSIDE my router (where firewalls could live and THAT'S what blocks ports) so there was no way this thing was being blocked.
She asked again "but you have a Mac on your network, right?"
"Yes"
"That's your problem, Mac's have built in firewalls that block ports necessary for the MicroCell"
I was flabber gasted, I had just told her it was connected outside of any computers or routers. I started to tell her again the configuration of my setup, incase she had forgotten, but she interrupted me to tell me all about how Mac's block ports. She assured me that she had the same issue on her home system. At this point I was over trying to get this thing fixed with her. I asked her if she had any advanced router settings that I could setup myself. She tried to email me links but they never reached my inbox. So I asked her to just tell me the links and I could type them in.
She told me the links which sounded REAL fucking fishy (http://www.att.com/3gmicrocellconnections/) which of course returned a page not found.
"Oh I'm getting a 404 not found error"
"You are on the Mac right?"
"Yes"
Alright guys. There is a huge difference between a web browser like FIREFOX and a whole operating system like Mac OSX. But ok lady...let's dance.
"I have Firefox on the system, let me open it up in that"
"Ok good, see Safari, and Chrome loop back to the built in firewall, so they can't access our sites"
GOD DAMN IT, REALLY?! Your PUBLIC websites, you set them up to not be accessible by a Mac? This can't be true. Also, ok let's accept that Safari and Chrome for Mac have some weird technology that routes them through a firewall....why the hell would Firefox NOT have that? Better question...why would Chrome for Windows NOT have the firewall re-route software and the Mac version have it?
*Sigh*
This lady was really starting to piss me off. I just wanted to get the documents and get off the phone. Turns out she was mailing some email address completely different than what I had just told her. She finally mailed me the documents and I was released from this web of lies.
It's ok to say "I don't know" or "we don't support this" but to make up weird ass lies, this is why people don't understand computers, because the people who are supposed to help make up silly stuff and pass it along as the truth.
So the guy the night before was super patient and friendly and got it working. The dumb lady the next night was no help at all and I acutally got it connected myself after I got of the phone with her, and the next night (Last night) I learned that I just need new hardware. They gave me a busted MicroCell.
So this will make 3 trips to the AT&T store and I still have no faith I will ever get this thing running.
So text me if you actually want to get a hold of me...my phone isn't really ringing 100% of the time these days.
1 comments:
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
The problem here is an ignorance that runs rampant, not just in the tech world. "Someone trained me to do this job, and I can do everything I was trained, therefore I can do everything this job. Which means I'm right, you're wrong."
I mean, knowing the differences between an OS and a browser though? How did you not ask to talk to someone else?