Charter done right

When my internet connection goes soft, there’s a series of steps I take to determine where the problem is:

1) Close and reopen Safari. Usually does the trick.

2) Reboot the Mac. Yes even Mac users should reboot occasionally.

3) Repair Permissions. PC users, never mind. You can’t do this.

4) Restart the wireless router. Unplug, count to 30, replug.

5) SMS someone and ask them to try the same URL. To see if it might be the website’s problem.

At this point, I’ve usually determined the problem is not on MY end, so I find something analog to occupy my time. Calling the cable company has never proven to be an effective move because they have an automated system that tells me to do all the things I’ve already done. (And even I feel stupid cursing at a robot).

This time, I tried one new step – using my BlackBerry, I sent a Tweet “Is anyone on #Charter having issues in #SLO County – Arroyo especially?”

Within minutes, I got a Tweet from @Umatter2chtr letting me know Charter had a router problem and that engineers were already working on it.

Amazing

That one little Tweet from a tech at Charter’s service center in Missouri, let me know they were working to restore the outage. Case closed. Once I knew someone was “on it” I went about my day knowing they would fix it as fast as they possibly could.

If you’ve been wondering about the usefulness of Twitter – this proves it for me. Today Charter (and Twitter) got BIG GOLD STARS in my grade book.