Just to add another tale of woe to the whole apartment saga, I really have to say that I hate Singtel. I’ve already switched my ADSL to Qala but Singtel still provide the phone line. They couldn’t do an evening appointment, which is fair enough, so I had to wait for a week for a Saturday appointment. Around the same time the gas company were over and were really cheerful about everything. The Singtel guy didn’t speak, just wandered in and then asks where I want the sockets. So I explained to him how fucked the wiring was, apologised for it (it’s not my fault but I still felt bad for him) and then pointed to where I wanted sockets. I wanted three, two were there already and working. The third was just replacing the socket that had been ripped off the wall. Alas, there were multiple phone lines coming in and so he had to do some work to merge the wiring.
This part took him about 30 – 40 minutes, during which I tried to offer him a drink, a mat for the floor where he was working and any sort of help he needed (moving furniture out of the way etc.). Everything was rebuffed gruffly and with a dirty look. One of, how dare you speak to me. Sorry, I am truly fucking sorry for trying to be hospitable. Irish culture is such that someone coming to do work in your home will have a cup of tea and usually a snack or a sandwich. It’s considered basic manners. While he was working he was on the phone to someone else and was cheery, laughing and conversing away so it’s not as if he’s just a quiet person. After about an hour he declares that he is finished, but the ADSL isn’t working (no signal, apparently). He tells me he will report it and Singtel will be in touch later that day (it’s about midday at this point) but I should give them a call if I don’t hear anything.
By 4:30pm I hadn’t heard anything so I decided to ring the installation help line. I started to explain the problem (… can make calls but ADSL isn’t available …) but the call taker just interrupted me and asked for the number, after getting it he puts me on hold without saying anything. Three or four minutes later when he gets back to me he asks if I’ve checked the points. What a load of bollox, try listening the next time. So I asked him “do you want to listen to what the problem is now?”. Explained again that voice calls were fine, just no ADSL and I wanted to know what the plan was. So he just tells me; “problem on the Singtel side we’ll call you”. Then I get a call on my mobile, the one which had the dodgy microphone (bugger, forgot about that), from the technician that had been over in the morning. Funnily he assumes that because he can’t hear me I can’t hear him, so I get to hear him speaking to someone else in the background. It’s funny because he’s explaining where I’m from to the other person with “ughh ang moh ah”.
Generally the expression ‘ang moh’ is amusing but when it is enunciated with the contempt expressed by this fellow you get fucked off. It Finally got sorted on Monday afternoon.