A DSL Story
Once upon a time there was a smart, spunky little upstart service provider called Cadvision. For whatever reason, Cadvision felt the need to grow up, get out of town for awhile and and sow some oats. Cadvision started dating a young buck From across the state line named PSInet. A few months went by. Some were happy months, some weren't. As it turned out, PSInet was a deadbeat and ended up leaving town, rent due and without any forwarding address. Poor Cadvision. Things were looking a bit glum. Enter the deep pocketed telecommunications tycoon, Telus. Telus came in and assumed PSInet's position at the single's bar. Poor Cadvision was in no position to do much more than smile and nod.
And so the story begins.
09 June 2002
So, I was mistakenly under the assumption that when I renewed my ADSL contract for another year back in March, I would actually be receiving a another full year of similar, if not the same, service. Cadvision, the company with whom I had signed an agreement with, was purchased by a larger Telco late in 2001. Things had been going along swimmingly, without nary a hint of the problems generally associated with the absorption of a smaller company into a larger one. I should have known better, seeing as I have lived through two such corporate integration debacles in the past.
This weekend I received an email from Telus telling me that my current Cadvision ADSL service will be discontinued within the next 20 days, and will be replaced "with my consent" with an equivalent Telus DSL package. "With my consent" means that if don't like the equivalent package, I'm on my own and I forfeit the remaining credit in my account. The account that I just renewed and prepaid a year's worth of service into.
02 July 2002
I wandered down to the Cadvision customer service center this afternoon in order to drop off my modem. When I arrived, I was greeted by a locked door and a hastily posted memo on the glass saying that "this office is now closed." No forwarding address. No explanation. I shouldn't have been surprised my this turn of events, but I was bit taken aback. After all, it was someone at Cadvision who insisted that I return my modem before the cancellation order could be processed. How am I to return my modem if there is nowhere to return it?
Fortunately, a kind member of the building maintenance staff sensed my confusion and directed me to the elevator. Apparently Cadvision still occupies business offices on the 18th floor of the building. At least as of this afternoon they do. A matronly receptionist took my bubble-wrapped modem, scrawled my name and account information onto a Post-it note, and then slid the whole package into some unseen compartment beside her desk. "Is that it?" I asked, incredulously staring at the receptionist. "Yep. They'll take care of it..." she replied, waving her hand vaguely toward the hallway over my shoulder.
I think that this visit merits a follow up call tomorrow.
03 July 2002
Something inside my head figured it would be a reasonable idea to follow up with Cadvision regarding my modem return and the status of my account, Yes, they received my modem. Yes, the account cancellation was being processed. It appeared, at least from the outside, that things were moving a darn sight more rapidly than before and I took this as a good sign. That was until I noticed that I could no longer access any of my sites that were being hosted on the server connected to the DSL. Damn, I said to myself. Damn.
Several scenarios ran through my mind at this point. Cadvision could have accidentally disabled my online account in its entirety. That would have been par for the course, but after logging into my account through the web-based administration tools, this didn't seem to be the case. What else could have happened? Maybe they discovered that I still had an active connection, even after returning my modem, and shut down my access. That shouldn't have happened because I requested that the customer service person double check that I would still have access to my account (at a bare minimum, access to dialup anyway) when I confirmed delivery of my modem back to Cadvision.
This tale is still only just setting warmed up. More hijinks to come...| Return Home |
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