Customer Service - Turning Tuscan: A Step-by-Step Guide to Going Native - page 104

plaints. It's just a different paradigm, albeit one which widely informs the practice of cus-
tomer service in Italy.
***
After moving here and beginning to organize ourselves and our work, the lack of high-
speed internet access posed a major challenge. In California we had enjoyed the conveni-
ence of multiple phone lines and high-speed cable modems many years earlier. Now we
found ourselves having to share a 28.8 Kb dial-up modem, a creature that became extinct
in America back in the 80s.
“Pam, could you get off the computer. I need to make a call.”
We couldn't even be online and on the phone at the same time. And there were two of us.
It reminded me of the Greek myth of the three Fates, those ancient old ladies who had only
one eye between them that they passed back and forth amongst themselves as need arose.
Our cell phones helped to alleviate the congestion, but they were a costly work-around.
Meanwhile our internet connection remained painfully slow. We'd wait a minute for a
single page to refresh; it was like watching paint dry. Whenever someone emailed us a di-
gital photo of their kids, we could go shopping in the next town and find the photo still
downloading when we got back.
OnedayIsawanadforasatelliteservicethatTelecomItaliawasoffering.Itsoundedgreat.
Fast speeds for downloads, basic monthly service rates for €9.95, €14.95, or €19.95 de-
pending on the plan you wanted to sign up for, plus a modest extra charge for information
that you uploaded and sent off. I called to confirm the details of the offer, and I told them
to sign me up!
A few weeks later, the post office dropped off a modem at my door. There was no satellite
dish, no cabling and nothing by way of instructions, so I assumed that I must have missed
the installer and that he would be back in a day or two. After a week I called Telecom Italia
to ask what was holding things up. The clerk looked up my order and told me that I had
never called to request installation of the satellite dish; I had merely subscribed. Did I want
to schedule an installation? Yes, please. That will be an additional 100 Euro, and it will be
about three weeks before we can get anyone to come out your way.
During the period that my modem and I awaited the arrival of the installer, I chanced upon
an Italian consumer website called Ciao . It featured consumer reviews of all sorts of things
including technology products and services. I poked around a bit and eventually found a