Re: We value your privacy

Le 28/06/2024 à 08:28, Aidan Kehoe a écrit :

 Our home broadband was cut off a couple of weeks ago; it’s under our landlord’s
name with Vodafone, and he never set up a direct debit or anything of the sort,
so it was in arrears. The phone customer service experience was horrendous,
just nothing joined-up (we’ve nothing better in English to render German
»konsequent« in this meaning), they didn’t seem to be making any notes of
previous phone calls, despite my repeatedly being added as an authorised
contact they refused to discuss the connection with me, throwing money at the
problem made no difference. The English comprehension was fine, but the whole
experience was a more severe example of the sort of obstructionist aversion to
doing the job they are paid for that I have dealt with in doctor colleagues
from that general part of the world.
 My other half was tolerating the lack of internet and phone poorly (we have no
mobile phone reception so hotspotting from a mobile does not work) and her mood
noticeably lifted when we got Starlink working yesterday evening.
 An advantage to being Polish or Hungarian at this point; not practical to
outsource phone support to the third world. It’s unusual to have lack of
widespread comprehension of one’s language be a relative advantage in one’s
quality of life, I can’t quickly think of another instance of this.

I'm glad you've found a solution.
We often stay in French gîtes, where the Internet is a lottery. Fibre has now been laid to most of them, but they are not always connected to it. If the owners are close by, the wi-fi is often piggy-backed off theirs, and can be erratic. Mobile coverage is often weak, but if the not-spot is not too notty, moving the phone about, e.g. parking it outside on a windowsill, can allow hot-spotting. And, of course, since we're roaming, the phones have a choice of at least three French networks (Orange, SFR, and Bouygues - but not Free, I think).