So on a kind of "spur of the moment" thing last weekend I decided to install & register for BT Communicator... just cuz it's fun and geeky and a way of avoiding having to buy a new phone once I move. It all seemed very simple and quick - a few clicks, enter a few details and hey presto, you can make calls from your PC! And free calls for the first month too!
Or so I thought. For when I tried to log on I got an error message. Password not recognized or sth. So tried to reset my password. And got an error message. "Cannot recognize your username, please try again later or ring our helpdesk". So I tried again the next day. And got the same error message. So I rang their helpdesk. At the national rate of course (hey at least it wasn't premium rate!).
And spoke to a cute and helpful guy who explained that there was sth dodgy with my login name (which is a Yahoo one and not BT) and the easiest thing to do would be to register a new one. To which of course I said that was out of the question cuz I'd used this ID for years and the whole point was being able to chat and phone at the same time etc. This he totally understood (thank God) and said he'd try to get in touch with Yahoo which, he assured me, wasn't easy. He'd ring me back. I told him I worked until 6pm so could he ring me in the evenings. He said sure, he'd put that on the ticket.
Then a few days later I got back after work to an answerphone message from helpful guy saying "hi tried to get in touch, will call again later".. which of course he didn't. Today I got home & Ally told me he'd tried to ring again - again during my working hours. So I rang them back... of course got through to different guy who put me on hold until 1st guy was off the phone.
1st guy told me - thankfully - he'd sorted the issues with my ID (well he hadn't sorted them but they had been related to such-and-such and that was now sorted) so it should work... except it didn't. However he did recognize the error message I was getting and was - oh miracle of miracles - able to actually solve the problem. Well, the one with my account.
So after some huffing and puffing I managed to reset my password. However it was still not letting me log on. Which - so I was told - could be related to my WinXP Firewall (even tho it is disabled) so we put that on custom settings... and also to my (BT!!!) router firewall (even tho it is disabled!!!!) so we tweaked that and added various port ranges.. and there is also a known conflict with my router's firmware, so I have to upgrade that (which is always scary business, if it goes wrong then poof - the end) and it could be random spyware (I said I don't have spyware cuz I am a careful user, but I would run AdAware anyway) or it could be my virus agent - even tho I've uninstalled it cuz it annoys the hell out of me (sorry Tobias). So I have about 10 things to try and then ring them again if it still doesn't work.
DAMNIT ALL I WANTED WAS SOME INSTANT FUN AFTER A QUICK PAINLESS 5MIN REGISTRATION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr I hate computers PS Oh and I've been on hold to BT for 50mins now. 
(this is unrelated. ordering broadband. well not ordering it after all cuz is not possible, but inquiring about it anyway)
Oh god that's shit, sorry to hear that. And ironic that you have to be on hold to *BT* for 50mins!! Of course they'd put you on hold! They're a bloody phone bill company!!
Posted by: Woods on Mon January 24, 2005 at 21:47LOL. It was one hour in the end. Twats.
Posted by: Clarissa on Tue January 25, 2005 at 18:58Note to self
http://www.etymonline.com/
thx