BT is a pain...with a capital P!

We've been having problems with our home hub (broadband connection) since Saturday evening. I spent most of Sunday morning speaking to various foreigners who tried to help and by the time I'd finished everything appeared to be working fine. However, yesterday, the connection went off again, so last night Craig spent the best part of an hour on the phone...again...trying to get them to sort it out. They decided that the hub is screwed but we would have to pay for a new one. That stupid black box is less than 6 months old so should still be under warranty! There was no way I was going to pay for a new one. Craig could connect to the internet using the ethernet cable, so he looked up various other providers and we were going to go for a Sky package but we needed a MAC code from BT. So...another 50 minutes on hold just to be told that he would have to ring another number. Another 45 mins on hold - luckily a free phone number but the battery was going flat on the phone. Finally he got to speak to another foreigner and asked for the MAC code. The guy wanted to know why we were leaving BT. Craig told him cos the broadband service was crap and we'd been told we would have to pay for another hub. This guy said he'd send us one out free as we'd only had the other one since the end of October and it was still under warranty. Craig told him that we'd try it and if the broadband service was still crap then we would be ringing again for the MAC code and definitely changing providers.

I've managed to get online - sans cable - this morning, but I have no idea how long that's going to last. Ooooo, and it's blowing a gale outside.

On the Kate front...she rang me up yesterday, late afternoon, to let me know that Vikki (I got told the correct spelling) has been ringing her again. Kate had rang the police while Vikki was on the phone and put her on loud-speaker so they could hear what she was saying, but maybe Vikki knew she was on loud-speaker because she suddenly got all polite. However, while Kate was talking to me, her phone rang again and Laura answered it for her and put it on loudspeaker for me to hear. It was some guy, claiming to be Vikki's brother, hurling abuse at Kate and asking her why she keeps ringing his sister. Kate doesn't even have Vikki's phone number (Vikki always rings from a withheld number so how could she?) and she tried telling him that but he was just mouthing off and swearing at her. Kate hung up on him in the end. I told her to ring the police again. The officer who visited her yesterday was finished for the day, but the one she spoke to last night said he would email his colleague and get him to ring her today. I wish this would get sorted out.