Who can beat this service?

Hi again, here a little example of how things can run here on this little island in the middle of the Mediterranean... 

So, we got a home, then we need a phone line and an internet connection. We cannot hide the fact that coming from a country where contacting any telecommunication service is at least the beginning of a two months long nightmare, we were quite worried about the solution of our problem. 

We started a little research, interviewed a few about their experiences with their providers and we decided to jump into the waves and apply for a contract with GO, the former national telephone company which has gone private a few years ago.

On the afternoon of Sept. 17 we drive to the GO shop in Birkirkara. A very nice, modern boutique, all white counters and walls, bustling with at least 15 young sales persons in full swing with about 10 other customers. After a few minutes we are serviced by a charming young man in a white polo t-shirt with a small elegant orange GO logo embroidered into it. All we need to do is to give him our Italian ID Card number and the address where we live. In less than 5 minutes he opens our new account and redirect us to his colleagues at the internet counter. There two young women at the speed of light process our request for a 8Mb adsl connection, give us a complimentary modem and send us home with the promise that we should be up and running within 10 working days.

Now, used to the abyssal waiting times and the absolute mendacity of telecom service personnel in our country, we knew that this could not be true. We are requesting a totally new line, new wires connecting the house from the central, a new number, AND adsl connection all at once. These young people must be joking. They cannot just smile and send me home saying that within 10 days I'll be sending emails and writing blogs to our friends!

We have nothing else to do but hope and wait. Ten days are going to be very long. More hours spent in a loud internet café sharing a chair with a teenager interpreting a 2008 version of James Dean on Second Life is not a nice perspective for your future, no matter how short that future may be...

Sept. 18, 2 pm. The cellphone rings:  ”Mr. M? hello this is so-and-so from GO, I would like to ask if it is OK for a technician to come at 3 pm tomorrow to set up the new phone line at your address.“  I can't believe my ears! Here we are, less than 24 hours after we have stepped out of the shop some charming young lady is asking me permission for a technician to come and install my phone?! Is this a joke? Permission? A real human at the phone is asking me to authorize another human to set up my new phone line less than 48 hours after my request? It can't be true. Nevertheless, I compose myself and reply that I will be very happy to meet the person at the requested time.

Sept. 19, 3 pm. With the precision of a Swiss watchmaker, a 45 year old human sporting the same outfit of the young man at the shop rings at our door. I show him around the house, explain where the sockets should be installed and stress the fact that the owner requested the cable to enter the house in a specific way, avoiding damages to the walls etc. This is itself means at least to double the amount of work required. In Italy the guy would look at you, say ”hmm“ and would start drilling a hole into the nearest wall so to put your socket on the other side, no matter if that is in a bedroom, a kitchen, a bathroom or whatever.

Unfortunately, we didn't take any pictures documenting the next two and half hours. The man went out, calmly picked up a 6 meters ladder and started looking around the house. He then called another guy for support, then they went up on the roof, then down next door, then to the next one again. Finally there they are: jumping with cables on the roofs and terraces from two buildings over to our terrace, crawling up and down into air-shafts to reach the second and then the first floor.

At 5.45 the phone is working on both floors of the house. We test the adsl, but then it's not functioning. The guy is getting worried, we only have 1 hour and 15 minutes to solve the problem before the weekend. By now, he knows that we work with internet and that other two days with the teenager maniac on Second Life would have brought me to a serious nervous breakdown. He's a family man and he knows the importance of parental sanity. He knows that Delfina needs her daddy. 

”It is an administrative problem, Sir. You should drive down to the shop where you made the contract and talk with them. Only they can solve the problem, we are OK from the technical point. You only have about an hour before the weekend, can you go now?“

”I don't have a car anymore. I just returned it to the rental place.“ I cry.

”Yes. But look, I know this is important for you. I'll drive you there. Let's go.“

Sincerely, I am absolutely certain that when the Archangel Gabriel appeared announcing that she would bring the Saviour to the world, the Holy Mary was far less surprised than I was after hearing the words ”I'll drive you there. Let's go.“

We are there in a flash. He leaves me in front of the shop and he even apologize for not having the time to help me explaining the problem! He has another call to attend and he's already late.

At the shop the charming young man realizes that he was a little too self indulgent and that probably while thinking about his next girlfriend, he actually had made an administrative error which made impossible to open the adsl on my line. He deeply apologizes, gives me a complimentary extra adsl filter and promise that next morning, Saturday, the whole thing would be solved.

Now I have to return home. Got to take a bus or a cab and I'm in unchartered territory on a foreign island in the Mediterranean Sea. I head toward the nearest bus stop when my cellphone rings.

”Where are you, Sir?“ The heavenly voice of Gabriel announces to me again... ”I've just finished the job on that call and if you are still near the shop I could drive you back home.“  

Now, during our lives we have all met some guy from the telephone company, Most of the times they are even nice persons trying to balance a stressful, badly paid job with the anger of terribly treated customers. Some of them have grown a certain rudeness which protects them from the more violent attacks, some others are more the in-a-hurry type, who leaves even before you realize they have been in your home. In any case, I mean, in any case you wouldn't think of them as the Archangel Gabriel, would you? Well, he was, I swear. And he did come to the bus stop and did drove me home!

The next morning, on Sept. 20 - believe it or not - the heavenly being called again checking if the guy at the shop had kept his promise. Hearing that we were still out of connectivity, he asked to wait a few minutes that he would call back the central. 

A few seconds passed and then Gabriel announced again: ”You have a connection, Sir. Have a nice weekend!“ 

The three little green lights on the modem led up and they have been on since. The time was 11.45, much less than 72 hours after our original request of a phone line.

Now, can you beat this kind of service?