Tuesday 31 March 2009

Moved

So, we moved house yesterday, and about an hour ago I managed to extract the configuration information for ADSL from Telefonickers. The previous tenant had very kindly put the phone and ADSL into my name, but couldn't give me the required info, because Telefonickers never actually tell punters that. It's hard-wired into the routers they supply, but I prefer to use my own device. It's prettier, and doesn't have a phone-company logo on it. I'm a bit narked with JazzTel, though. They persuaded me to switch to them as my ISP about six months ago. I had no complaints. The service was what it said on the box and it was signicantly cheaper than Telefonickers. But it turns out they don't cover my new bit of Madrid, so I'm back where I started. Ho hum. It's funny how helpless I feel when I cannot get on line. It was only about 30 hours, and I had a quick fix in the Internet café up the road yesterday evening, but I felt completely lost.

Anyway: packing, moving and unpacking was the usual exhausting nightmare. We'd hired three men with a van, but it soon became apparent that they would have to make two trips. The boss man wanted twice as much money as originally quoted, but I manged to beat him down a bit.

We still have far too much stuff than you can sensibly fit into a modest-sized Madrid apartment, but we do have a trastero (storage room) in the basement. We have, of course, filled it already.

6 comments:

nzm said...

Yay - you did it!

We had a brilliant experience with Telefonica. After reading all the bad reports on Spain forums, we were holding our breaths.

Jen ordered our connection online on a Wednesday. At 9:30pm on Friday night, we got a call from a technician, to say that that he would be at the apartment the next day (Saturday) between 11am and 2pm.

He turned up at 11:30am and 15 mins later, it was on!

After so many bad experiences in Dubai with Etisalat, being ripped off in Melbourne for a 2mb line and having lived a living hell trying to connect with UMTS in Germany, we're loving our reliable 10mb Telefonica Barcelona connection!

Jayne said...

Mabruk! You moved with no bloodshed, altho I bet there were a coupla choice swear words eh keefie? :-)

Smashing to chat to you t'other day & to actually see you :-) I wonder if Itisatwat will hunt me down......LOL

Grumpy Goat said...

Odd, isn't it, how professional movers always underestimate the volume of your kit to be shifted? After agreeing a fixed price, it's out with the violins and some sob story about how the actual work is more.

The worst case I experienced involved air-freight from Doha to Sharjah. The stuff to be moved was all piled up in the sitting room, it was measured, and a price agreed. Then when it was delivered I was required (on pain of some burly guys wif tattoos and calloused knuckles) to pay 250% of the original price. Apparently my stuff all swelled up in transit.

Well done for beating your own charlatan down a bit.

* said...

Congrats and hope you are both well and having a wonderful time.
The weather must be glorious.

Jayne said...

Er.........you've been tagged keefie (sorry)

Macthomson said...

This makes me think urgently about seeking new premises. Twenty-five square metres and a Murphy bed in Munich is getting close to its 'sell by' date! Abu Dhabi's two rooms was a palace in comparison!