Mauritius Telecom “Tech” who did not see the network port

31 December 2010, ~17hrs…

Mauritius Telecom’s “technician” calls to tell me that there’s no network card on the laptop.

Surprised, I asked him to double check and he confirmed that there-was-no-network-cable-port on the brand new laptop. I told him to install the ADSL modem using the USB cable instead. To this request, he told me that he tried too, but the operating system could not locate the modem while being connected through USB. I insisted that he should try again.

Let me now give you more details.

Some of you might remember, I recently purchased a laptop for a relative, who then applied for a 3GB ADSL connection. A few days afterwards, i.e. on the 31st December 2010, a MT technician went to their place for the installation and configuration of the modem.

Note : Mauritius Telecom charges Rs1000 for this installation done during normal working hours.

As you have probably guessed, the “technician” was surely in a hurry to reach home on this last day of 2010, without being able to connect the laptop to internet.

Being the one who understands these geek things in the family, I was the one who was again called there to fix things. When I reached there, the relative told me that the laptop should probably be returned to the seller since the Mauritius Telecom’s “technician” said that it was not a good one. The relative also showed me a piece of paper, on which were written the following :

The professional’s advice :

The technician told them

• about the “missing” LAN card and
• additionally, he gave them some piece of advice, freely : Change the current Windows 7 to either Windows XP (SP2/3) or Windows Vista or
• Uninstall some apps due to high performance in task manager.

I still can’t understand the last 2 points and the connection with the modem.

[yashvinblogsfan]

Missing LAN

Was he blind? Or perhaps he doesn’t know where a LAN cable should be connected?

As you can see, the LAN port is there. Some miracle? I should perhaps believe in god in that case.

Connectivity issues

I connected the LAN cable, went through the installation process and configured the Beetle modem (220BXZ). No connectivity. Tried the same thing with the USB cable, nothing. And yes, the Windows 7 did recognize the USB modem when I was there. To make sure that the problem was not with the laptop, I connected a second laptop running Windows XP. Same problem.

Windows complained about some problems with the router :

I checked the lights on the modem :

Power, ADSL : Lighting steadily

Data : Off

LAN : Blinking Green and sometimes Red.

Calling 8900#2

I phoned the Orange Customer Care, listened to their waiting tune for some 5 minutes. After several additional calls and requests to reset/test the telephone line, the people out there discovered that there was an issue with the synchronization of the modem.

They told me that there are going to log a complaint and a team will come to check it after a few days. As promised, 2-3 days later (i.e. today), Mauritius Telecom technician(s) went there and the problem was solved.

During the day, I called back the Customer Care to complain about the SUPER-Technician who (1) not only charged an installation fee of Rs1000, but (2) he also found out that the laptop has no network card, (3) was unable to connect the modem using USB, (4) advised to downgrade the operating system or uninstall programs, (5) noticed high performance in the task manager of a 1-2 weeks old laptop which has the strict basic and bundled software installed.

The customer care agent was unable to attend to my requests. She said that she tried her best but she could not redirect me to the proper person with whom I could eventually write an official complaint against the “technician” and also, discuss to cut off that “installation fee” that was totally useless.

She lastly advised me to report the problem to some guys who will probably phone at the relative’s home to inquire if they are really connected. Some kind of follow up. Never got that call.

I will not end this matter here. This technician surely needs some $#%@!

Before ending, can you please share my facebook fan page around on your Facebook profile? Use the button below or click here 🙂