Sunday 15 November 2009

Loyalty doesn't pay

One of the reasons for the lack of posts is my horrible internet connection at home. For some reason, I'm always plagued with connectivity problems. It followed me from my parent's farm to my new home.

The problem started creeping in about two months ago. The connection was unstable. We had to reboot the router constantly to get connected. I called Pacnet (the internet service provider) and they blamed it on the phone line. The Singtel technicians came to check on the line and declared it was fine. I thought the router was faulty and got a new one. Still the problem persisted.

On Saturday, the longest we could stay connected was 3 minutes. YK was at a point of tearing his hair out. He had two projects to complete and I had a bunch of emails to send out.

"What kind of internet service is this?" He grumbled. "None of my friends have any problem using Starhub. By the way, no one has ever heard of PacNet!"

I tried to defend the service provider. It was one of the first ISPs in Singapore. I remember way back in the early 1990s, we were the early adopters of the internet, I had to bring the entire CPU to their office at Science Park so that their engineers could configure our system.

Despite the emergence of better technologies and competition, I have stayed loyal to Pacnet. My son probably suspects that I'm reluctant to change because I'm getting a special deal when in all honesty, I'm paying a premium to use their broadband service.

Last weekend, I decided to stop harrassing the technicians at PacNet. I walked into Starhub and signed up for their cable modem service which promises speed and stability. It only costs me $52 a month compared to the $200 I am currently paying!

Today, I wrote to PacNet to terminate my contract. As much as I would like to stay loyal to them, I just have to move with the times.

I think it's time I look at my mobile phone plan as well. Again, I have stayed with Singtel all my life and have never been tempted by attractive promotions offered by the competition.

When it comes to IT and telecommunications, we must constantly change to keep up.

2 comments:

Nick Phillips (15/03/1967 - 04/11/2022) said...

At least you got yours solved. I'm still in the midst of working mine out. I'm waiting for their technicians to come over and install an outdoor CPE unit seeing as how the indoor one doesn't work too well.

I'm also the loyal kind of person but sometimes we just have to move along with the times ...

Blur Ting said...

Nick - I can empathise with a fellow sufferer. Troubleshooting is one of the biggest time wasters!

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