1455 Telecom Italia

Aaaaaaaagghh!

I'll try and make this succinct. I am a voice over artist and I work via a clever box of tricks with studios all over the world down an ISDN line. ISDN is what I need, not ADSL. I moved to Italy six weeks ago, after planning this move with my family for six months. I sent many emails to the property mangement company who arranged our villa rental stating, and restating, that it was very important that I had ISDN installed before I arrived as I would need it for work. No problem they said.
A month before we arrived she told me that Telecom Italia had been and it was installed. We arrived and I looked around for the ISDN box. It wasn't there. I speak virtually no Italian and our landlord speaks no English. "Where is the ISDN? " I asked. She looked blank. "internet" I said. "Oh" she said , and handed me an Alice ADSL modem in a box and gestured that she would call Telecom Italia " for installation". "But I don't want ADSL" I started, and then my voice trailed off as I realised that this was going to be too complicated. The next day I called the property company and they promised to call Telecom Italia. 24 hours later I was told that ISDN was now ordered but the order couldn't be processed until the ADSL order had been cancelled. "How long?" I said. "About a week" they said. A week passed. "What's going on" I said. "We'll call again" they said.
Nobody got back to me, so I got another friend to call Telecom Italia for me. "Telecom Italia say that your order for ADSL was an error as ADSL is not available in your village, but it's OK because they will come and install satellite ADSL (apparently it's quite common for them to send out ADSL modems to addresses that can't receive ADSL) "I don't want satellite ADSL, I want ISDN" " Can you call them back and cancel the satellite ADSL and ask what's happened to the ISDN order?" Twenty fours later my friend reports that the ISDN had to be reordered as they had no record of it being ordered in the first place. "How long" I asked. "About a week", my friend replies. Ten nail biting days later my landlord arrives and tells me with the help of a dictionary that "the ISDN comes tomorrow - or monday - don't go out". I didn't go out. They didn't arrive. On tuesday Telecom Italia phone to say they'll be coming "domani". They don't come. In fact it takes five more "domanis" and 3 further weeks for them to arrive. I am down about 3 thousand Euros in lost work. Yesterday, Telecom Italia call and an engineer tells me in broken english that he will be arriving "domani". "Per que?" I say. "To install your video phone".....

Category
Cost of living - Utility Services

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed, 09/28/2005 - 04:01

we had phone line at house...old owner wanted to keep phone number...so all we needed was new number.....took 2 months..... :eek:

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed, 09/28/2005 - 04:49

Oh My God - what a nightmare. My (Italian) friend from Rome was so fed up waiting for her internet connection to be sorted out. Many unkept appointments etc. that she found out the director's name and went to the head office in Rome. There she was told "you can't come in here - it is not open to the public." However, she managed to barge her way in and jumped into the lift as the doors were closing. She asked someone in the lift. "where is the office of Mr so and so?" She then walked through his door, up to his desk and told him it had to be sorted out. It was.
Your job sounds really interesting. Are you back at work now? Is everything sorted out?
Linda

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed, 09/28/2005 - 08:09

[QUOTE=ferginitaly]
Your job sounds really interesting. Are you back at work now? Is everything sorted out?
Linda[/QUOTE]

Yes and, touch wood, there have been no problems (so far). I rely completely on ISDN and internet technology for my living. It is, I suppose, an interesting job although it means that I don't get out much in the day and it is very solitary. I used to look at a brick wall from the window in my studio in Brighton now I look at acres of vines and olive trees. I'm definitely glad we came.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed, 09/28/2005 - 09:52

this sounds all too familiar I am afraid. I work from Sicily and I had a nightmare trying to get services set up (and I didn't have the language problem). In case anyone is wondering do not try the Alice ADSL service with the additional phone numbers (Alice Mia with Voice over IP) - in my case it was an absolute disaster and the technician himself admitted that most people have problems with it because it is really still experimental technology that shouldn't really be sold!

still good news that you are now all set - enjoy your view!

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 09/30/2005 - 02:10

[QUOTE=alex and lyn]what have you 'voiced over' anything we would know ?[/QUOTE]

Very nice of you to ask. I have a website here that'll tell you if you're interested:

[URL]http://www.voice-overs.cc[/URL]

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 09/30/2005 - 04:19

hi Marcus... very impressive :) as the italians would say "complimenti"