Monday, August 27, 2007

Only peace, no more panic.

Saturday morning.
After breakfast the Apple MacBook Pro computer and the Datastorm Satellite System were switched on.
Still no access to the Internet.
For three days now…

It seemed that the intervention on Friday of the sweet and helpful friend in La Paz did not have positive result.
That the problem was beyond her reach to solve.
Knowing she did her best the conclusion was to go personally to La Paz on Monday to try to settle the matter.

While writing on the Apple MacBook Pro computer and having left the Datastorm Satellite System on, suddenly the magical thing happened.
From one moment to the other access to the Internet was possible again.
There was a re-connection.
The pelicans and seagulls on the beach looked up in surprise for the screams of joy and happiness coming out of the Fuso Szulc.

One of the many e-mails received was from the sweet and helpful friend in La Paz.
She wrote:

"I was talking to this nice Indian voice on the 1-800 number of the Billing Office at Motosat.
He said your card could not be used for the last 2 months.
That's why they disconnected you.
Now the Indian voice charged your card for July & August USD159.98 and will charge you in Sept. USD79.99, the normal rate.
He said you will be connected again in the next 4 to 20 hours.
Because it was a nice and helpful Indian voice he will connect you as soon as possible and also because it made him sorry to know that you are in the middle of nowhere when there is a hurricane season etc etc."

Everybody can be sure that the hundreds of fervent and loyal blog readers believe that the sweet and helpful friend in La Paz did a fabulous job and that we are all extremely thankful to her.

The credit card involved has the option to see on-line what is going on with it.
This was checked right away and the fact is that everything is fine with this credit card.
In fact, it is a debit card: it covers the payments made with a deposit on the card.
Over the last 3 months the deposit has been more than generous and all kinds of payments were made seamlessly.
The question now is why Motosat was unable to get their money.
For 14 months it went well and then suddenly it became impossible.

Another question is why Motosat doesn’t inform the customer that they have a problem getting their money.
They try and when after 3 months it is still failure they simply switch the customer off.

Later, in a SKYPE phone conversation, the sweet and helpful friend from La Paz told that on the phone the employee of Motosat tried to use the credit card in question again and the payments went through without a problem.

Motosat doesn’t have a website where a customer can log in and check the account.
It might be a good idea to call Motosat next visit to La Paz and ask an explanation.
And maybe change monthly payments into a single annual payment.
Which comes with a 5 % discount…

Reflecting on this saga with Motosat it is realised what an incredible experience it has been.
The incredibility is in the timing.
On Wednesday Motosat blocked the access to the Internet and on Thursday the friend came from La Paz who managed to solve the problem the next day.
That is a rather magical event.
Like perfect planning.

To have been blocked from access to the Internet was an annoying experience.
But to see the closer union grow with the sweet and helpful friend is of a highly appreciated beauty.









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2 comments:

Kathy said...

Jim (Pendelton?) the CEO of Motosat posts on the DAtastorm users forum; I'm pretty sure you know of it as you're on the map. I believe that Bill Adams has also offered a fix for the constant TX18 errors (running reg installer). I keep a good eye on that website just to keep ontop of issues that may crop up and what the fixes might be.

Anonymous said...

Lesson Number One:

Take care of business (Yeah. You know, bills, bank deposits, all that financial stuff)

Lesson Number Two:

Reward that helper who rode to your sorry ass's rescue. You can figure that out.