Sparkplugs

I have decided that Qwest and Covad are not telecommunications companies, but telemiscommunication companies.

So yesterday, Covad finally finished their work on my line (after a week!) to try and get the DSL back up, but we found that there's still a problem on Qwest's side. Today, Qwest was supposed to do their work, but may not have the parts they need. Then I hear they can get the part in question.

So this morning, they apparently started work, discovered they didn't have the right part after all, and my phone -- like, dial-tone phone -- was dead for a little while until the Speakeasy folks caught on and harassed Qwest to put at least my normal voice line together again.

I would like to note that in the more than a week since my DSL unexpectedly went dead, Speakeasy has responded to every request or note within fifteen minutes. Covad and Qwest both blamed the other for it. Over the course of one day, they did actually finally do work, replacing the splitter card and all sorts of other stuff, but it didn't fix it. Then there was about a week before Covad actually provided any updates other than "it'll be back up in four hours" (given repeatedly for several days). And now Qwest has not only managed to delay things, but to temporarily shut off the one telecommunication service I /did/ have.

It's like watching the Three Stooges run a phone company.