Let’s not be too hard on ourselves
The more we keep comparing ourselves to other countries, particularly the developed world, the more we believe we are being too hard on ourselves, especially in this digital age.
We are learning the ropes, though late it might seem, the journey of one thousand steps, it is said, starts with one.
Our mentality should be that we will get there and that is why my verdict is not to be too hard on ourselves by comparing apples to oranges.
Let us keep going and accept each day as it comes to strive to do better than the day before.
At 10 a.m., Eastern time on Wednesday, far away in America, I had just settled down to go online to browse through the day’s news and see if any headline back home was news enough to develop as my article for my Saturday column.
Internet failure
As I switched on my tablet, I realised the internet was not connecting.
What was going on? Faulty tablet or internet failure?
I asked myself.
At first, I panicked thinking my device had been hacked in a world, of unpredictability.
I did everything to get my internet connection light up but alas, it was not to be.
In my desperation, I turned on my laptop to see if the internet connection there would work.
There was no internet there either.
I turned on my phone to check but again there was no internet.
My frustration was turning into anger.
I had used the internet up until 9.30 a.m. when I decided to go and have breakfast.
What could have happened between then and when I got back to my desk?
Not wanting to look stupid, I went back to have another try.
Something was definitely wrong. At this point, I decided to seek help.
External problem
I soon learnt that the problem was more than I thought. It was not misbehaviour from any of my devices.
The problem was external, out of our reach and more of a general problem, occurring in the entire area.
Nearby communities, however, had internet as the public library sought to confirm.
We were told that the internet would come on at 1 p.m. It was past 1 p.m. but there was no internet connection.
The latest information was that the internet would come back on at 10 p.m.
I resumed writing later in the evening and kept on till 10 p.m.
It was gone past 10 p.m. and the internet service was still not back on.
At last, the internet came back on after 36 hours.
I had to pinch myself to confirm that this internet failure was happening in mighty America.
At a time when many people still work from home, how could this have happened?
Surprisingly, I also learnt that hot spots on personal phones were also affected since almost every subscriber was trying to use their hot spots; thus, slowing down access.
Ghana
Back home in Ghana, I would have been on the neck of my service provider.
I would have called their customer service line and “given it to them”.
Normally, they would not promise to sort out time within 24 hours no matter how hard one presses them.
They will inform the customer that an engineer will be on their case in five working days.
Woe to you, if your fault occurs on a Friday.
Five working days means a whole week without internet.
How does one get along in the world of the internet?
That is when I would have taken the phone to try and get answers from my relationship manager.
I would have threatened to move my account to another service provider for competent service.
Now, I am bowing my head down in shame for having been so hard in the past on my internet provider in Ghana.
I am now learning to be patient in cases like that because something like internet failure happens even in mighty America and one must accept it.
Internet failure is never deliberate, neither is it due to incompetence of the service provided.
Even in the county of all possibilities as applies in the West, internet failure in this day and age happens if one accepts that nothing is foolproof.
What is important is the quality of the customer service that comes with the service being sought.
When frustration sets in at a time of network failure, what one expects is speed to action and empathy.
Respect for the customer at the end of the day is key.
In a similar vein, customers should be patient with service providers for the failures and sometimes poor performance of their services.
There definitely must be genuine reasons and when they promise to deal with it, we should have confidence that they will. It is a two-way affair.
Let us appreciate our providers and not be too hard on them because even providers in countries one looks up to have problems with their services.
It has been a wait of a good 36 hours to get an internet link and indeed, connection with the rest of the world.
Writer’s E-mail: vickywirekoandoh@yahoo.com