Yesterday, I received a text from Spectrum informing me that they would be upgrading their network all night. I was then woken by a text from Spectrum this morning, informing me that the upgrade had been completed, and I could now access an even better Spectrum Internet experience. And then the internet went out. It came back on sometime during the late morning, but it was intermittent for the rest of the day.

I feel like the internet has been around long enough that whatever causes it to cut in and out should have been remedied by now. It still seems to be treated like a fickle luxury rather than a vital public utility. I would think, with so much money changing hands on the web, businesses would be incentivized to ensure everyone has access to fast and reliable internet.

Coincidentally, I had scheduled an appointment to have fiber optic internet installed this afternoon. I made the appointment at the beginning of last week for between 1 and 5 p.m. today. I immediately received two emails confirming my appointment, and then never heard anything from anyone about it until a crew of about six men showed up at 4:51 p.m. to install my new internet.

Apparently, communication is no longer part of communications. Neither, it would seem, is customer service. These men could not have cared less about my house. They had a job to do, and if they destroyed everything in my house to get it done, so be it. I went into the backyard to open the side gate for them, and when I came back into the house, they had let themselves in and were moving the credenza I use as an entertainment center. My amp sits on top, and it’s covered with lots of very fragile tchotchkes as well as my NAS. Plus, it has a broken leg!

I walked in and saw them moving it with my NAS powered up on top of it, and I freaked. Who does that? Who just comes into someone’s house and starts moving shit? So, needless to say, I was underwhelmed by their customer service skills. This better be some damn good internet.