Internet - finally
Actually, Internet access chez Zumsteg came only five days late. It was the process:
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When Gilles first arranged with SFR (the provider), access was going to start May 24.
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Then I got a text saying I would have access sometime between May 24 and May 27.
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Then I got a letter saying my Internet access would start sometime in the next three weeks.
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Then I got a text saying that it would start sometime between 5/26 and 5/29.
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Then I got a text saying that they had to delay my access, they were working on it, and I could follow their progress on a website. Of course, I needed access to get to the website that would show their progress on getting me access…
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Gilles checked the website the very next morning, and it showed that the connection had been activated. I fussed around a bit with the router here at the house, and, sure enough, it worked.
Access here is via the phone lines, so it’s not so fast as my access at home (in fact, it’s about one-quarter as fast), but it’s plenty fast for what I need here; I’m not going to be streaming any movies. And it includes a bunch of TV channels, and a land-line that has unlimited international calling. Cost is about \$45 per month. So, all in all, a pretty good deal. Finally.
(After the trip) Gilles had an encounter with French Customer Service trying to return the cable modem to the provider, SFR. We had picked this up at a small home appliances store in Montigny that had some arrangement with SFR. WHen the time came to return it, Gilles and I packed it up and took it to a local SFR retail office. Nope, no good. We had to call an SFR number and they would send us postage labels to return it. I left the country so Gilles got to do that. He got the labels, packaged the whole thing up and was not a little surprised when it was returned to his house a week or so later. He learned, after several phone calls, that it has to be returned to the same store from which we picked it up. So, after a 25-minute drive to the store, he was able to get it off his hands.
One last glitch: I had a 100€ deposit on that modem, and eventually a 100€ check arrived. Now, do you have any idea how hard it is to deposit a Euro check into an American bank account? You’re right: darn near impossible. Our credit union - where we check - took it and, sent it to Wells Fargo, who returned it because the check was made out to “John Zumsteg…John Zumsteg…John Zumsteg” and they wanted it signed exactly like that. So I signed my name three times in a row and gave it back. Honestly, I suspect the credit union never got that thing cashed, but they deposited the amount in our account anyway. Gotta love French Customer Service.