Habeamus Internet!
After we returned to China late Wednesday afternoon, wondering what ever happened to Tuesday, we knew that we had to try to get our Internet turned back on at the apartment. Just before we left for the US in June our landlord sent me a text message asking why we had not paid our Internet bill yet. Since we never receive the Internet bill, it's always a mystery to us when we need to pay it.
One constant, though, ever since we moved into this apartment in late 2010, was that if we wanted to change or even pay for service, our landlord had to be present in the China Unicom office with us. Why? We've never been entirely clear on that, but that is how it has been.
Friday afternoon, without our landlord, the kids and I went to the Unicom office and stood in line for not more than an hour to be told that no, I could not pay the bill unless our landlord was there. The woman helping me at Unicom offered to call my landlord right then and give her these instructions herself.
This morning the kids and I were back at the Unicom office, in line again, but this time with our landlord for company. After more than ninety minutes it was our turn. Within ten minutes our bill was paid through the summer. This came a bit of a surprise in that in previous years in this apartment we have paid a full year in advance for Internet service. How this year suddenly became a month-by-month plan I have no idea.
For reasons that were not obvious to me, though, I still have to return tomorrow to pay some other part of the bill. I think it is for August, and I think that part of the bill was not ready today. I think.
One big problem was that our landlord cannot come back into Changping tomorrow. Unicom had a ready solution for this. At a special desk (meaning not where we queued to pay), a Unicom customer service person made a photocopy of our landlord's national ID card and on that same sheet our landlord wrote out what basically amounted to a permission slip authorizing me to pay the bill on my own. I did not get to keep this; the customer service woman placed it inside a clear plastic folder, telling me to seek her out when I returned.
For now, the Internet is back on. That was a surprise this evening as usually any interruption we've had in service takes days to resolve. Not that we are complaining, mind you. But we definitely missed having that ability to connect.
One constant, though, ever since we moved into this apartment in late 2010, was that if we wanted to change or even pay for service, our landlord had to be present in the China Unicom office with us. Why? We've never been entirely clear on that, but that is how it has been.
Friday afternoon, without our landlord, the kids and I went to the Unicom office and stood in line for not more than an hour to be told that no, I could not pay the bill unless our landlord was there. The woman helping me at Unicom offered to call my landlord right then and give her these instructions herself.
This morning the kids and I were back at the Unicom office, in line again, but this time with our landlord for company. After more than ninety minutes it was our turn. Within ten minutes our bill was paid through the summer. This came a bit of a surprise in that in previous years in this apartment we have paid a full year in advance for Internet service. How this year suddenly became a month-by-month plan I have no idea.
For reasons that were not obvious to me, though, I still have to return tomorrow to pay some other part of the bill. I think it is for August, and I think that part of the bill was not ready today. I think.
One big problem was that our landlord cannot come back into Changping tomorrow. Unicom had a ready solution for this. At a special desk (meaning not where we queued to pay), a Unicom customer service person made a photocopy of our landlord's national ID card and on that same sheet our landlord wrote out what basically amounted to a permission slip authorizing me to pay the bill on my own. I did not get to keep this; the customer service woman placed it inside a clear plastic folder, telling me to seek her out when I returned.
For now, the Internet is back on. That was a surprise this evening as usually any interruption we've had in service takes days to resolve. Not that we are complaining, mind you. But we definitely missed having that ability to connect.
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