A Bump On the Bahn

Four or five years from now, you will wonder when somebody called up to get technical support how they just used the phone to try and describe what was going on with their PC. ~Bill Gates

The caveman makes another mark on the wall with his hand axe. He has been doing so to keep track of the days passed since he applied for Streamyx.

“One, two, three… nine, twelve, ten, fourteen…” Wait, or is it thirteen? The caveman isn’t sure because he has never counted beyond ten. Man, it seems like an eternity!

He goes out of his cave and peers into the horizon. A silhouette is slowly crawling in his direction of his humble abode. Could it be… Yes! It is! The caveman’s modem has arrived! A woolly mammoth? No wonder it takes so long! However, the anticipation and excitement have doused his impatience; he is dancing his favourite war dance.

* * * * *

It has been a long wait, but who cares! It’s finally here! Man, I just realised that my dialup account is only left with a meagre RM 10 credit one month after my last top up. So, I had to play the disappearing act from the blogosphere. I should have reported in straight away after activating the Streamyx account but I couldn’t blog without guilt due to the exams. I guess, that’s a helluva reasonable excuse for being MIA! So don’t send me to the martial court, please.

The installation should be a breeze: connecting the cables, the splitter, the adapter… But, I couldn’t establish a connection because of some error 769! Bah! So I called technical support and asked for help. Ah Beng* guided me through a series of steps before coming to the conclusion that the modem must be faulty.

“If you get error 769, that means there’s some problem with your modem,” said Ah Beng. Oh, great! “You need to bring it to TM Point and get it checked,” he added.

Shucks! This was so frustrating but never mind, there’s a TM Point nearby.

* * * * *

The caveman rides on his mouse deer to the nearest TM Point, carrying along his club. He’s eager for some serious ass-kicking…

* * * * *

Ahmad: No, no, no! We don’t have the facility to test the modem here!
Me: What? Ah Beng from technical support asked me to bring it here and get it checked!
Ahmad: (Frowns) Anyway, just to satisfy you…

I followed him to a public computer free for use by TM customers. Ahmad connected the supposedly faulty modem and dialled a connection.

“Voila!” Ahmad grinned as if he had successfully executed a David Copperfield magic trick. There was a short pause and I wondered if he was expecting an applause.

Ahmad: See? There’s nothing wrong with your modem.
Me: But I got error message 769!
Ahmad: (In an as-a-matter-of-fact tone) That’s because you haven’t activated the account!
Me: But Ah Beng said it’s a hardware problem!
Ahmad: Apparently, he’s wrong.
Me: But… Ah, whatever! I’ll activate my account and try again.

When I got home, I gave Tan Sri, the tech guru, a call. He agreed that I try again after activation, which was exactly what I did. Siti* was on the line this time. I mentioned to her my ordeal anyway and was briefed through a series of steps. Oh my God! It happened to be a problem with the settings, which was rectified with a simple click! Heck! Talk about my rushing here and there and making all those phone calls.

Ah! Stupid me for simply changing the connection settings. Stupid Ah Beng for being such an Ah Beng. Stupid Ahmad for being so thick-skinned and so proud of his stupid diagnosis. Thank you, Siti, for helping me out!

*All names mentioned are fictitious – to protect privacy(?) – no, because I don’t know their names.