Broadband - when will I ever get it?

My activist life was brought to an abrupt end recently as I battled to get some service out of a large corporation, with which I had contracted to get broadband connection to the internet. I was emotionally exhausted and amazed at how poorly my problem was dealt with.

Is it smart to get a call centre in another country to deal with technical difficulties? Could there possibly be cultural and language difficulties, which impede clear dialogue on technical matters?

It took them seven days to send me a replacement modem. This worked exactly the same as the first modem. I was a promised a call from a local technician within six hours. It did not happen. The following day, Saturday, I was promised at about 9am that someone would call me that day, before 4pm. It did not happen.

This morning I received a call after leaving home and I arranged to call them back around 12:30pm. Finally I was able to speak to two Australian technical staff. This went very well and easily. It was confirmed that the problem was with the copper line between my wall socket and the local telephone exchange. It had taken the corporation about three hours short of nine days to correctly diagnose the nature of the problem, even though all the necessary information had been available to them on the first service call I made.

Now I have been told that the line will be checked some time between about 1pm today, when I last spoke to them, and 8pm on Wednesday 19 May. Three days and seven hours!

I have identified three courses of action I can take if this does not get resolved soon. Keep you posted...