Astounding double standards

I have been a little on the grumpy side this week, and it’s not because I’ll be 40 (and therefore officially old) next week. It’s actually because, I have gone six straight days without Wi-Fi at my house.

There are few things as frustrating as interruption of a service you pay for. Be it water, electricity, or in this case internet connectivity. So much of what we do requires the internet. Just daily life things like watching TV. Or calling friends and family outside the country. Worse still, work meetings and business prospects are increasingly dependent on this

I have been reliably informed by my service provider that the issue at hand pertains to the very necessary road network upgrade that is currently underway in the capital city. I have long made peace with the fact that the disruptions in terms of traffic are necessary and that the end most definitely justifies the means.

What I was not told, and could not have expected is that these upgrades would impact my internet service provider. At various points I have been so frustrated that my anger has threatened to boil over. Luckily, this has only resulted in one social media rant, prior to this one.

On the topic of ranting, someone asked me what the point of my ranting was. He pointed out that I was only frustrating myself, and that wisdom was rather to accept my fate and be positively surprised once the situation drew to its natural conclusion.

I was beside myself as I listened to what I figured to be a defeatist attitude. I argued that, the service providers in country traded on this very defeatism. It’s almost like “ah, don’t worry about them, they know how it is”.

Yet, that’s seldom the case when the shoe is on the other foot and it’s time for payments. Another service provider dismissed the urgency of my needs coming a day or two later to assist me. When I in turn paid him a couple of days late, he had called me umpteen times and made all sorts of threats.

The double standards were astounding but actually to be expected. A few weeks ago, I spoke about rights that go with responsibilities and then last week I spoke about fixing the social contract we have with one another as well as the authorities, and all of that has culminated in my experience of not having a service I pay for.

You will excuse this rant, as the matter is obviously still quite sore, and in time I’ll calm down and realize that my service provider was caught as unawares as I am, but the wound is still fresh now.

As an aside and as I conclude, I see a lot of people on social media constantly berating local small scale suppliers and businesses. And that’s fair, because if you suggest you’re a professional outfit then you should behave accordingly, but those standards are somehow relaxed for the big outlets who actually (should) have the capacity to deliver professionally.

It’s beyond belief what an easy ride corporates and big entities are given here. I wish that could change and that at the very least we could hold them to the same high standards.

I rest.