Fust, really?

I bought a vacuum cleaner and this was my response to their email:

"Dear Fust,

I have received the vacuum cleaner I bought from you, and was delivered the next day, not in the morning like it was said but in the afternoon and I could follow the delivery online. Since then I have received two emails, asking me to give a "Bewertung", a review on my purchase. I have used it once, and cannot with any good conscience give 1 star or 5 stars. If I give 1 star, you are gonna do what? Blame some poorly paid worker? And if I give 5 stars, and the machine stops working just after the warranty time is up, I'm gonna feel like a fool.

The one time I used my new appliance it worked fine, but if you get back to me in 10 years I will be able to give you a reasonable review. I look forward to that."

Their answer: "We regret that your shipment was not delivered as requested. The logistic processes are planned very precisely and of course we also hope for a delivery as punctual as possible, but unfortunately, for planning reasons, but also for natural reasons, there may be a delay.

The evaluation serves to improve us. So we ask you to be so honest and critical so that we can improve in the best possible way.

We are looking forward to your review and wish you a nice day."

Oh dear, is it a real person who has copy-pasted or a robot? Your guess is as good as mine.

Prepping

Scary times, this is. And I'm not a prepping person, even though I experienced losing all my frozen food some years ago when my food center stopped working in the middle of the hot summer. But it was just to go to the shop and buy food every day, and that was it.

Strangely enough we have a bunker in our house, apparently it was a rule when the house was built. But I can tell you one thing, if I were to bring my two cats and share it with six adults and three children, with one toilet and two mattresses, and all this on 12 square meters, I would rather meet the enemy face to face.

Not making fun of the situation, all sane people are on the right side of this "war", if there is a right side in any war. Let's just hope it's over soon, and we can all live in peace, which I'm sure 99.9% of all of us want.

New modem installed!

Had a sleep-in this morning but as soon as I switched on my beloved very old telephone (without internet connection) it rang. First I didn't hear anything since the coffee machine was doing its grinding noise, and I also had two cats swirling around my legs waiting impatiently for their breakfast. Yes, we have our routines.

First step was to connect the phone to electricity, since it has a battery time equal to...well...my patience with technology.

Second step was to realize it was the person from the internet provider who called and asked how it went with the new modem. Ha, I hadn't unpacked it and the old one was disconnected. Disaster! I need my morning coffee and a cig while reading up on news and stuff on the net. I'm afraid I was a bit rude to her.

So we agreed she would call back in 15 minutes. She called back in about 3 hours, hmmm. But in the meantime I connected the new modem all by myself, tap on shoulder. Both computers connected without much problem, but the tiny little new telephone didn't cooperate. Tiny telephone, and no thick fingers, but a password as long as my arm, switching between capital letters, numbers and whatsit. But after almost having thrown out the telephone from the window (not really, I'm too cheap for that) I managed to get it right.

Then she called back again from the provider, asking if I wanted to switch to glass fiber, that thing I didn't know about before but now had found and sent the number through. The thing is, that if things work, why change it? I was told that they needed to send some gadget, but free of charge, and then I would have to do the installation again. This is when I halted and after she checked how much bandwidth I have with the current new modem, we agreed on that it's fine and more than enough for my usage. I also apologized for my rudeness this morning.

The last thing that I needed to do was to send back the 5-year-old modem (I so wonder what they are gonna use it for?), so I packed it up together with all the cabling, adapters and what-have-you in the carton box in which they sent the new one in, complete with tape around in, address and something called a "RMA-No" (Return of Modem Ancient?) and went to the post office. I was surprised to learn it only cost 7 francs. I was expecting to see some of the rebate I negotiated vanish into thin air, but for a new modem and apparently better connection, I was happy to pay.

All is well that ends well.

Modem or router?

 Yesterday my internet provider called me, saying that my current service would no longer be available. Apparently I have 10 of something now, and in the future they will offer me 50 of the same something. I don't know why, since everything is working now, but hey, if they want to give me something better who am I to refuse?

But of course there was a catch. Three more francs per month. But being as I am, I asked very politely if it wasn't worth something (something for something?) that I have been a loyal customer for 13 years always paying my bills on time. After having conferred with her manager, I not only get two months free service (which amounts to almost three years with the same price) but also a free modem/router (am I supposed to know the difference?) if I return the old one.

At the ungodly time of 8.30 am this morning the modem/router was delivered. I was rudely woken up, had to go down to the entrance and sign for it, with my hair on end and in sleeping gear. Charming!

I was also asked if I have glass fiber installed. I do remember the street outside being dug up some five-six years ago for this purpose, but I had no clue if it was "installed" in my apartment. Having asked the other three in the house, they were all as clueless as me. It was only when I talked to one who previously lived in the house I realized that I do. We all do. Have glass fiber. It's some little gadget on the electricity switch board with a number on.

I love new technique, I use it daily, but I don't want to know why and how it works. It just should! So the next big challenge is to install the new modem/router when it's activated, which they said in a letter would be in five days. Stay tuned!

Scary voice

While neighbours are away I look after their apartments. Taking in the mail, watering plants and making sure nobody broke in during the night. Yesterday I noticed that the timer on the lamp the neighbour currently away on holiday and who usually has on during the evening wasn't working, and I realized that their cleaning person had unplugged the timer during the day.

I switched on the lamp, but having a very short fuse when it comes to technical things, I didn't manage to re-set the timer. It was dark in the corner where the lamp stood and I couldn't see the tiny, little, almost invisible arrow that pointed to the time, so I left it overnight.

Early this morning I went back, bringing a torch and without any problems I managed to set the clock and plugged the lamp back in. Then I heard a voice!

First I was confused, not being able to locate where the voice came from. I knew it wasn't from my apartment, but was it from any of the other two? Nope, walking towards the sound I realized it was from their bedroom. They keep that door closed, but I opened it hesitantly and found...a radio! Jeez, I guess they have it on as a wake-up call.

Heart attack avoided!

Cat sand

Ok, time to blog again. It's been a while, but hey, never too late to make a comeback!

I am old fashioned. Yes, it is time to admit it. I like being able to pay with cash, I like talking to people in real life, I like to communicate seeing the other person, I like to know that the person behind the counter, the desk or similar is a person who looks me in the eye.

Unfortunately, that is the way we are moving away from. Nowadays, everything is digital. When I walk to my nearby store to buy food I see people walking on the street looking at the telephone, if they are not driving one of those e-bike monsters or whatever they are called. Nobody looks around, and nobody realizes that we live at the most trafficked road with 56,000 vehicles per day. Haha, miss it and you'll be as flat as a pancake.

Despite what I said, once a year I buy cat sand online. I am against buying things online but sorry, I cannot carry 14 kg bags of sand and I don't have a car. Yesterday I was rudely awaken at 9.30 (yeah ok, don't judge me, I was in bed at 4), and I started my day with carrying 140 kg of cat sand into my basement. I don't understand why they are putting two bags of sand into one carton, 28 kg. The bags are already in plastic with a handle. But at least this time they delivered all five cartons at the same time. Last time it was delivered over three days, one carton here, one carton there. Logistics, people, logistics!

So yes, I'm sorry I pollute the environment by buying cat sand once a year, but considering all the weekly packages I bring into our house for the neighbours every week I figure I'm pretty good after all saving the environment for all of you who have been inconsiderate enough to bring more children into the world.

Now, I have read about all the hate that people get online, and in my previous 10 years of blogging I only got one hate-comment. Gimme more if you're so inclined, and I'll answer.