Suspended animation

You may have noticed I haven't posted any blogs this week. Well the reason for this is that on Tuesday BT suspended our broadband service because my dad hadn't paid the bill. I knew times were hard, but not that hard.

Anyway it turns out that my dad HAD paid the bill, except instead of writing £194.92 on the cheque he'd written £174.92, so it was £20 short. For this they had suspended our broadband service. When I left for school yesterday morning he'd just started trying to explain this to somebody in India on the phone, which is apparently where most people who work for BT now live. When I got back at half three he was still on the phone, having by then driven himself mental by talking to half the population of India. He'd paid the £20, but it was going to take them four hours to reconnect our broadband. He said this wasn't good enough, and asked to speak to somebody who could do something about it, who told him it would take eight hours. The next person told him it would take 24 hours, and by the time I got home (roughly five hours after he'd started) the man he was speaking to was saying it would be 48 hours, but if he could do it over the internet it could be done straight away. My dad pointed out that if your broadband's been cut off you can't use the internet to get it reconnected. The man said he was 'customer facing' not 'service facing' so it was the best he could do. If he could do any better he reassured my dad that he would, and in my dad's position he'd be a bit pissed off as well (or words to that effect) but it was how the system worked, ie. it didn't.

Then my dad had a big bust up with the man in India, and asked for his name so he could report him. The man said his name was Rufus. My dad was a bit sceptical about this, and said Rufus what? Rufus, just Rufus, the man said. What, so I ring BT and say I'm complaining about the customer service I've had from Rufus in India? Yes, the man said, they'll know who I am. Now, given that the population of India is millions of billions, OK, not all of them can be employed in BT call centres, and there can't be many guys called Rufus in India, but it's still a bit presumptuous isn't it? Hello, BT? Is Rufus there? Yeah, Rufus in India, that's the one. He is? No, I'll hold..

So anyway, after 5 hours my dad finally got cut off, he reckons because Rufus put the phone down on him having been confounded by the precision tool of his remorseless logic, but probably because it was night time in India, and having got his £20 out of my dad Rufus decided it was time to go home, where he probably spends every night working on his PhD in quantum physics.
The broadband came back on at about 11 this morning. Result. My dad was still going round like a dog with two dicks when I got home this afternoon. Thanks Rufus of India.