Solving problems with money

Back online since yesterday at about 5pm, thanks of course to a new adsl modem. Who says all problems cannot be solved with money? Here is one that was solved with money. My money, All RM45 of it. That's the cost of the new adsl modem.

At first, I went to the one and only computer shop on the first floor of the AEON Seberang Perai City shopping mall. You cannot miss it because it's just two shoplots away from the entrance to the Jaya Jusco. However you SHOULD give it a miss, unless you don't have time to shop around anywhere else on the mainland.

For one thing, the prices there are generally steeper than other computer shops that I know on the mainland. I know that people would usually say that since they were already at the shopping mall, they might as well buy from the shops there. But do you shop at the spur of the moment? Very few people do that nowadays. They would have considered choices and prices and head to the shop that offered the best deals. If you are one of such folks, then this computer shop at the AEON Seberang Perai City should be struck off your list because of their pricier-than-normal price tags.

Another thing is that despite the size of the outlet, the stock level is very low. There was only one unit of the adsl modem on the shelf so if you really wanted to buy it, there wasn't much choice but to pick that one up. I asked one of the staff for network cables. She didn't understand me and had to refer to someone else who told her and she then told me that they weren't carrying cables.

And I've also to mention that inflexibility. Of course, I was desperate for a new adsl modem. So of course, I had to pick up the last one on the shelf. Cost was RM49, which I was willing to pay, but by credit card. But the cashier refused to accept my card, saying that they only accepted card payments if the amount was at least RM50. Come on, there was only a RM1 difference between the modem's price of RM49 and their policy of RM50. I believe they could have used their discretion and accepted my payment. No amount of persuasion could change them. They were adamant. I too can be stubborn. I refused to buy from them and told them straight off that instead of closing a sale, they had lost one customer. And all for RM1.

So where did that leave me? Why, PC Depot near the Pacific Megamall, of course! I didn't mind going there from the AEON Seberang Perai City because I knew that the guys at PC Depot could be rather helpful. I went into the shop, spoke to one one of the staff there, quickly got what I wanted - and there were so many in stock - made my payment of RM45 by credit card without questions, and breezed out of the shop within 10 minutes. A satisfied customer, having saved RM4 some more...

At home, the installation process went smoothly enough; I just followed the step-by-step instructions once I placed the installation disk into the desktop. Almost idiot-proof. No hiccups encountered. Finished everything at 5pm and started getting back online.

At 6.20pm, received a call from TMNet asking whether my connectivity problem had been resolved. I said yes. End of conversation. Didn't want to say much to them. But as I'm typing this, I'm just wondering how much their technicians had been doing at that end in the 24 hours since I reported the fault to them. Okay, so this was basically an equipment failure on my part instead of a line problem on their part but I really, really wondered what they were doing. Perhaps nothing more than to monitor the traffic on my telephone line, I suppose, and when they saw traffic back as normal, decided to give me a call to confirm it.

As an afterthought, my suspicion that they could have been monitoring my Internet activity might be correct because just a few seconds before I received the call from them, I noticed that my connectivity was momentarily lost and then it came back on again. Maybe they were just removing their equipment from my line...