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From: Aidan Kehoe <kehoea@parhasard.net>
Newsgroups: alt.usage.english,sci.lang
Subject: Re: We value your privacy
Date: Fri, 28 Jun 2024 08:28:53 +0100
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 Ar an seachtú lá is fiche de mí Meitheamh, scríobh Athel Cornish-Bowden: 

 > [...] Our dishwasher has a problem that I think may be minor, but anyway
 > should be covered by the extended guarantee (7 years). It's no longer
 > possible to phone the specific shop for after-sales service (not without
 > knowing a secret phone number, anyway). So you have to phone a number that
 > applies to the whole of France. That takes you to someone in Africa who
 > knows nothing about the model or the Marseilles shop. He didn't seem to
 > understand our French (or that of our concierge, who is a native French
 > speaker, and also tried to talk to him). His own French wasn't at all good
 > either. For that reason I don't think he was in Morocco or Tunisia, but
 > somewhere further south.

Our home broadband was cut off a couple of weeks ago; it’s under our landlord’s
name with Vodafone, and he never set up a direct debit or anything of the sort,
so it was in arrears. The phone customer service experience was horrendous,
just nothing joined-up (we’ve nothing better in English to render German
»konsequent« in this meaning), they didn’t seem to be making any notes of
previous phone calls, despite my repeatedly being added as an authorised
contact they refused to discuss the connection with me, throwing money at the
problem made no difference. The English comprehension was fine, but the whole
experience was a more severe example of the sort of obstructionist aversion to
doing the job they are paid for that I have dealt with in doctor colleagues
from that general part of the world.

My other half was tolerating the lack of internet and phone poorly (we have no
mobile phone reception so hotspotting from a mobile does not work) and her mood
noticeably lifted when we got Starlink working yesterday evening.

An advantage to being Polish or Hungarian at this point; not practical to
outsource phone support to the third world. It’s unusual to have lack of
widespread comprehension of one’s language be a relative advantage in one’s
quality of life, I can’t quickly think of another instance of this.

-- 
‘As I sat looking up at the Guinness ad, I could never figure out /
How your man stayed up on the surfboard after fourteen pints of stout’
(C. Moore)