Streamyx : Please, Your Customers Are Not Dumb!

There the lightning came and my sister's Streamyx (Malaysia's largest broadband service provider) modem got blasted as well. I consulted her on the next steps she should generally take. Her "casualties" were not high, only the modem that needed to be changed. She bought a new modem, but the settings were not in place for Streamyx access. I called the Streamyx technical assistance at 1300-88-9515:

Operator: Hi good afternoon, this is XXXX (censored for privacy purposes) how can I assist you?
Me: Hi Good afternoon! My modem got blasted by lightning few days ago, and I changed the modem to a new one. But what happened is that I couldn't log in to the Internet with the new modem.
Operator: Is the adaptor plugged in to the computer?
Me: Yup!
Operator: Is the light blinking?
Me: The three lights are on. None of the lights are blinking in such a way that it is "connecting". One light is blinking as it is receiving information data. It shows that it is "connected" to your server as per normal.
Operator: Is the light of the LAN card on?
Me: Yes. That shows no problem with the network card. (Of coz the light on LAN card is on! If not one of the modem's light will be off.)
Operator: Ok turn off your computer. Plug out the LAN card and plug it in again.
Me: You mean I should open up my computer casing, unplug and plug in the card again?
Operator: Yes!
Me: (For goodness sake I have inform you that everything is in order for my hardwares, I think this is a pretty dumb thing to do) Ok thank you very much!
Operator: You're welcomed! Is there any problem that you need assistance?
Me: No. (Hell NO!)

Although I felt it would not work, but I trusted him for once. My sister was looking at what I am doing, I was like a professional. Eventually, he failed. I called again for assistance, hoping an angel would give me a hand. This time it was a Malay girl, instead of guy.

Operator: Hi, my name is XXXX how can I help you?
Me: Me: Hi Good afternoon! My modem got blasted by lightning few days ago, and I changed the modem to a new one. But what happened is that I couldn't log in to the Internet with the new modem.
Operator: Is the adaptor plugged in to the computer?
Me: Yup! The three lights are on. None of the lights are blinking in such a way that it is "connecting". One light is blinking as it is receiving information data. It shows that it is "connected" to your server as per normal.
Operator: Does your phone sounds noisy?
Me: No. (If the phone is noisy that means bad connection or signal interruption) The phone is OK.
Operator: Do you use splitter?
Me: Yes. (Splitter is a device that splits the phone line into two individual lines - for the broadband modem line and the telephone line) Why?
Operator: Ok try using a single line that connects from the main source to your modem. Turn off your modem and turn it on again.
Me: Why? (testing her credibility)
Operator: Because two lines will cause interference, bla bla bla bla (she was talking alien language, which I couldn't understand - my ignorance, my fault)
Me: Ok. Thank you!!! (So both technical experts wants me to put down the phone anyway)

So I put down the phone and I did as what was advised, although I thought this action is even much dumber than the first guy. Since there is no sign of signal inteference from my phone line, there should be no problem with the physical line! My sister was looking at my professionalism. Eventually, it failed once again. Therefore my sister asked me to call a guy that came over last time to install the Streamyx broadband to come to my house personally. I called and I explained my problem the same way again, he asked for RM30. My sister let him come the next day's morning.

There he came in the morning in punctual manner and performed some simple clicking tricks on the Streamyx admin webserver. His service lasted for less than 10 minutes, never touched any hardwares, never tought nobody anything, the Internet worked and my sister gave him RM30 as consultation fees as promised.

How a RM30 can save alot of dumb actions to be performed. Yet again, I was trully mesmerized, so as my sister...........