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Well the bits needed for the broadband hookup haven't arrived yet, which is frustrating as there's now quite a backlog of things to be posted here sat on the Mac at home: A text/photography piece called Green, short articles on Djuna Barnes' novel Nightwood, and on MDMA, some new photos, and some reflections on recent personal writing practice. It's annoying especially because the landline was connected quite early on Tuesday and santiago then sat around until 1 waiting for the courier. Ok, danced around listening to Mansun while waiting for the courier. The hope now is that either someone else will be in the house and able to sign for the stuff today or tomorrow, or that it can be delivered or picked up on Saturday. Here's hoping. It'd be good to get everything done by Saturday evening and then have leisure to start playing with santiago's sister sites over the next couple of weeks.
update 18 may 07
Unfortunately due to HDNL being so fucking unhelpful about delivery (which is their business so you'd think they'd try and get it right) it's now going to be Monday at the earliest before santiago's online from home. Just for fun, and because I'm feeling malicious, here's a list of their shotcomings:
The first actually isn't their fault, BT didn't say when on Tuesday this week they were likely to deliver, so the assumption was they might broadly coincide with the engineer doing the phone line somewhere between 8 am and 1 pm. They also apparently didn't give HDNL santiago's number so they could either check that someone was likely to be there or say when they expected to arrive.
They either didn't leave a card after the first attempted delivery or they failed to put a name on it so somone else in the 7-flat house picked it up. There was no name on the second attempted delivery card received yesterday.
Their call-centre was taking between 7-21 minutes to answer calls, luckily there was enough time today in work to get through. Had there not been it's doubtful if santiago's battery or credit on his mobile would have held out - it's a premium line.
The only options offered when someone finally answered were: to attempt to redeliver, though they only hold the parcel to Wednesday next week; to collect the parcel from their nearest depot on the fringes of Bolton, a long journey at an expense that can't currently be afforded; or if they fail to deliver to ask BT to try and have the parcel delivered to another address (ie santiago's work).
None of those options are much use. Take redelivery, by chance santiago happens to have Monday off work, but has a clinical psychologist appointment in the morning and a dental appointment in the afternoon. Since HDNL are "all day delivery", which means they can't even fucking say if they're likely to deliver am or pm, it's hit and miss whether there'll be anyone there to sign for the parcel. The only way round would be to take leave that isn't available at short notice and lose a whole day to waiting. Oh, and they don't deliver on Saturday, though you can ring the call centre.
As for collection at the depot, the time taken to get to the train, to travel to Bolton, to get from the station to the depot, and then to go back home would mean taking a half day and paying for the train, and possibly also a taxi ride.
In all probability they'll try to deliver at the same time as one of the appointments, necessitating a call to BT to get the parcel delivered to work, which could be the end of next week or later. For some people this might well be out of the question. And on a quick search it looks like a lot of people don't like HDNL, go check it.
update 18 may 07
Unfortunately due to HDNL being so fucking unhelpful about delivery (which is their business so you'd think they'd try and get it right) it's now going to be Monday at the earliest before santiago's online from home. Just for fun, and because I'm feeling malicious, here's a list of their shotcomings:
The first actually isn't their fault, BT didn't say when on Tuesday this week they were likely to deliver, so the assumption was they might broadly coincide with the engineer doing the phone line somewhere between 8 am and 1 pm. They also apparently didn't give HDNL santiago's number so they could either check that someone was likely to be there or say when they expected to arrive.
They either didn't leave a card after the first attempted delivery or they failed to put a name on it so somone else in the 7-flat house picked it up. There was no name on the second attempted delivery card received yesterday.
Their call-centre was taking between 7-21 minutes to answer calls, luckily there was enough time today in work to get through. Had there not been it's doubtful if santiago's battery or credit on his mobile would have held out - it's a premium line.
The only options offered when someone finally answered were: to attempt to redeliver, though they only hold the parcel to Wednesday next week; to collect the parcel from their nearest depot on the fringes of Bolton, a long journey at an expense that can't currently be afforded; or if they fail to deliver to ask BT to try and have the parcel delivered to another address (ie santiago's work).
None of those options are much use. Take redelivery, by chance santiago happens to have Monday off work, but has a clinical psychologist appointment in the morning and a dental appointment in the afternoon. Since HDNL are "all day delivery", which means they can't even fucking say if they're likely to deliver am or pm, it's hit and miss whether there'll be anyone there to sign for the parcel. The only way round would be to take leave that isn't available at short notice and lose a whole day to waiting. Oh, and they don't deliver on Saturday, though you can ring the call centre.
As for collection at the depot, the time taken to get to the train, to travel to Bolton, to get from the station to the depot, and then to go back home would mean taking a half day and paying for the train, and possibly also a taxi ride.
In all probability they'll try to deliver at the same time as one of the appointments, necessitating a call to BT to get the parcel delivered to work, which could be the end of next week or later. For some people this might well be out of the question. And on a quick search it looks like a lot of people don't like HDNL, go check it.
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