FRUSTRATIONS.
Oct. 13th, 2004 09:49 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dragonlady7So, I forgot to renew my domain name, because I got rid of the email address it would have used to tell me it was expiring. Why didn't I change my email address with them? Because the domain registrar's website is so piss-poor that it takes nearly a minute for any page to load, including their index page. how they're not out of business I don't know. I didn't buy my domain from them: they bought the company I bought my domain from.
Anyhow. So. It takes nearly a minute for each page to load. I realize my domain is expired, so I go there, and it takes a minute for the page to load, and then another full minute for the login to load, and then a full minute to process the login, and load the page that's my account home. I click on 'renew', and it takes a full minute to load the list of domains I own.
There's nothing on the list. The list is empty. I can't renew.
So I click "register". That takes another full minute to load. (Have you been counting minutes? I don't mean 'just a minute', I mean 60 seconds, I mean long enough for boiling sugar to solidify, I mean one-third of the time it takes to prepare ramen noodles, I mean A FUCKING LONG TIME FOR A PAGE TO TAKE TO LOAD.)
It is the helpful "i've never seen you before and am selling you on the concept" screen, and my only option is to enter my name and see what happens. After another full minute, it cheerfully informs me that there is a domain available for that name.
It's not my domain. It's another, lame domain.
Not what I was looking for. That's three minutes out of my life, not counting the time I spent doing other things while I waited for the pages to load-- re-organized my nail polish collection, read a novel, taught myself pottery-making. So, I hit "back", and it took another full minute...
In short, I e-mailed them and submitted a support request, and they had the balls to tell me that the support request hadn't been sent, and show me instead the relevant FAQ question.
"Does that answer your question?" they cheekily asked.
NO, I clicked forcefully.
This morning I tried again and I can't even log in. They haven't responded to me, either to my email or my support request. (They're in the UK. It's not like it's early in the morning there. If they're going to answer me, they'll answer me before noonish my time.)
Worryingly, the page saying the support request had finally been sent also said "shortly you will receive an email with your case number", and I never did. Does that mean this isn't working? Fabulous.
I also tried to reread the FAQ to see if it's possible that in the heat of my fury last night I did something wrong.
You can't get to that section of the FAQ by browsing. The visible FAQ is all about setting up an account. I searched extensively for "renewals", remembering that clearly as the title of the question they'd referred me to (it is), and it didn't come up. YOU CAN'T BROWSE THE ENTIRE FAQ. THE ONLY WAY TO GET TO THAT PART OF IT IS TO SUBMIT A SUPPORT REQUEST AND BE DENIED. Yes, that is customer service right there.
So I submitted a second customer support request, outlining precisely why I couldn't do what the FAQ had told me, and additionally explained to them that there was NO WAY that I, a reasonably experienced Internet user, could find to actually GET to that FAQ without submitting a support request, and that struck me as almost as bad as having a site that DOESN'T FUCKING LOAD. Not that I said that in those words. I tried to be at least businesslike if not polite.
So we'll see if they answer me.
If they don't I suppose it's not a huge deal. I'll have to figure out how to go with another registrar. I don't know anything about that, and had hoped to avoid having to learn, but I guess I'll have to.
Dave has to renew his domain as well, since he's given out that email address to everyone he knows, but he doesn't seem to have tried so far, and is mostly just annoyed when I ask him about it, or more properly tell him what's going on and ask him if he has any idea what I should do. He does, but the idea consists of me figuring it out. I guess he doesn't care so strongly about being able to be contacted. (I should know that, as when his cellphone died he didn't tell his mother for three months, and it was I who finally gave her my number as a contact number, so that she could get in touch with him at all, with the result that when Dave's father died suddenly, she was actually able to contact him by calling my phone, instead of spending all night wondering why his phone number wasn't working. So yes, he doesn't really care deeply whether people can contact him. So, in short, this is a situation he really doesn't think of as urgently as i do.)
So I am deeply annoyed about that.
And my second frustration of the morning:
Was awakened circa 7:30ish by Dave coming and getting in my bed for a snuggle. Very cute. Very nice. "Hm," I thought, poking my head out from under the covers. "It's cold in here."
Eventually I got up, leaving Dave triumphant possessor of my entire bed (warmer than his, now), and puttered into the living room to look at the thermostat.
"64", it said, giving the current temperature. Interesting. I looked at the indicator that said what temperature the thermostat was set to maintain. "67," it said.
So, by that logic, the heat ought to be on, in order to transform the 64 into the 67. Right?
Well?
I double-checked the program that was set to run. "7:30: 67," it assured me.
OK. It's 64. It should be 67. One of these is greater than the other. WHY ISN'T THE HEAT ON?
So I went through all the programs, checking them. Great, great, sure, fine. I set it to "RUN".
It didn't. The heat remained off.
After another fifteen minutes of toggling, switching, poking, I gave up. Obviously, the thermostat a) knew the temperature, and b) knew it was set to be at a different temperature. Why it wasn't doing this, i didn't know. Perhaps the furnace was malfunctioning.
So i went down into the basement.
The furnace was running.
I felt the duct coming out of the furnace. It was warm.
??
I came upstairs. The heat was on.
So God only knows what finally made the thing work. It's not just that I gave up, because I'd actually given up once before and walked away, before deciding I was too fuggin cold and had to go make it work. I don't know, and if it happens again I will be none the wiser than I was this time.
Sigh. All is suck. All is one giant bunch of suck, and I am TIRED of it.
I have many things to do today, as well, and should not be wasting time with any of this, but for the moment, must.
Anyhow. So. It takes nearly a minute for each page to load. I realize my domain is expired, so I go there, and it takes a minute for the page to load, and then another full minute for the login to load, and then a full minute to process the login, and load the page that's my account home. I click on 'renew', and it takes a full minute to load the list of domains I own.
There's nothing on the list. The list is empty. I can't renew.
So I click "register". That takes another full minute to load. (Have you been counting minutes? I don't mean 'just a minute', I mean 60 seconds, I mean long enough for boiling sugar to solidify, I mean one-third of the time it takes to prepare ramen noodles, I mean A FUCKING LONG TIME FOR A PAGE TO TAKE TO LOAD.)
It is the helpful "i've never seen you before and am selling you on the concept" screen, and my only option is to enter my name and see what happens. After another full minute, it cheerfully informs me that there is a domain available for that name.
It's not my domain. It's another, lame domain.
Not what I was looking for. That's three minutes out of my life, not counting the time I spent doing other things while I waited for the pages to load-- re-organized my nail polish collection, read a novel, taught myself pottery-making. So, I hit "back", and it took another full minute...
In short, I e-mailed them and submitted a support request, and they had the balls to tell me that the support request hadn't been sent, and show me instead the relevant FAQ question.
"Does that answer your question?" they cheekily asked.
NO, I clicked forcefully.
This morning I tried again and I can't even log in. They haven't responded to me, either to my email or my support request. (They're in the UK. It's not like it's early in the morning there. If they're going to answer me, they'll answer me before noonish my time.)
Worryingly, the page saying the support request had finally been sent also said "shortly you will receive an email with your case number", and I never did. Does that mean this isn't working? Fabulous.
I also tried to reread the FAQ to see if it's possible that in the heat of my fury last night I did something wrong.
You can't get to that section of the FAQ by browsing. The visible FAQ is all about setting up an account. I searched extensively for "renewals", remembering that clearly as the title of the question they'd referred me to (it is), and it didn't come up. YOU CAN'T BROWSE THE ENTIRE FAQ. THE ONLY WAY TO GET TO THAT PART OF IT IS TO SUBMIT A SUPPORT REQUEST AND BE DENIED. Yes, that is customer service right there.
So I submitted a second customer support request, outlining precisely why I couldn't do what the FAQ had told me, and additionally explained to them that there was NO WAY that I, a reasonably experienced Internet user, could find to actually GET to that FAQ without submitting a support request, and that struck me as almost as bad as having a site that DOESN'T FUCKING LOAD. Not that I said that in those words. I tried to be at least businesslike if not polite.
So we'll see if they answer me.
If they don't I suppose it's not a huge deal. I'll have to figure out how to go with another registrar. I don't know anything about that, and had hoped to avoid having to learn, but I guess I'll have to.
Dave has to renew his domain as well, since he's given out that email address to everyone he knows, but he doesn't seem to have tried so far, and is mostly just annoyed when I ask him about it, or more properly tell him what's going on and ask him if he has any idea what I should do. He does, but the idea consists of me figuring it out. I guess he doesn't care so strongly about being able to be contacted. (I should know that, as when his cellphone died he didn't tell his mother for three months, and it was I who finally gave her my number as a contact number, so that she could get in touch with him at all, with the result that when Dave's father died suddenly, she was actually able to contact him by calling my phone, instead of spending all night wondering why his phone number wasn't working. So yes, he doesn't really care deeply whether people can contact him. So, in short, this is a situation he really doesn't think of as urgently as i do.)
So I am deeply annoyed about that.
And my second frustration of the morning:
Was awakened circa 7:30ish by Dave coming and getting in my bed for a snuggle. Very cute. Very nice. "Hm," I thought, poking my head out from under the covers. "It's cold in here."
Eventually I got up, leaving Dave triumphant possessor of my entire bed (warmer than his, now), and puttered into the living room to look at the thermostat.
"64", it said, giving the current temperature. Interesting. I looked at the indicator that said what temperature the thermostat was set to maintain. "67," it said.
So, by that logic, the heat ought to be on, in order to transform the 64 into the 67. Right?
Well?
I double-checked the program that was set to run. "7:30: 67," it assured me.
OK. It's 64. It should be 67. One of these is greater than the other. WHY ISN'T THE HEAT ON?
So I went through all the programs, checking them. Great, great, sure, fine. I set it to "RUN".
It didn't. The heat remained off.
After another fifteen minutes of toggling, switching, poking, I gave up. Obviously, the thermostat a) knew the temperature, and b) knew it was set to be at a different temperature. Why it wasn't doing this, i didn't know. Perhaps the furnace was malfunctioning.
So i went down into the basement.
The furnace was running.
I felt the duct coming out of the furnace. It was warm.
??
I came upstairs. The heat was on.
So God only knows what finally made the thing work. It's not just that I gave up, because I'd actually given up once before and walked away, before deciding I was too fuggin cold and had to go make it work. I don't know, and if it happens again I will be none the wiser than I was this time.
Sigh. All is suck. All is one giant bunch of suck, and I am TIRED of it.
I have many things to do today, as well, and should not be wasting time with any of this, but for the moment, must.
