SALT LAKE CITY — For most people, a big chunk of daily life hinges on reliable internet. So, when a Salt Lake City woman’s internet connection went down, and she couldn’t get a straight answer as to when it would be back up, she decided to Get Gephardt.
“This is not even pulling up anything,” Sally Neilson-Berg said of her home internet connection. “Just keeps saying, ‘looking for networks.’”
Neilson-Berg’s internet has been down for more than a week. Her calls to her internet service provider, Google Fiber, starts out as promising, with an automated message telling her, “We already have a team out in the field working on this.”
But she gets that same message each time she calls. Added to that frustration, the promised date that her connection will be restored keeps getting pushed back.
Neilsen-Berg says it’s impacting both her and her tenant’s ability to work.
“Anytime I call customer service, there’s never any update about what is going on or about any actual work that is happening,” she said. “It just leaves us pretty lost.”
Neilson-Berg pointing to the Google Fiber router outside her home. (KSL TV)
Unable to get a clear answer from Google Fiber when, if ever, her internet would return, she decided it was time to contact the KSL Investigators.
KSL Investigator Matt Gephardt contacted Google Fiber on Neilson-Berg’s behalf and touched base with someone in their corporate offices.
A spokesperson wrote back, saying: “Customers deserve internet service they don’t have to think about, so we take any disruption very seriously.”
About an hour later, Neilson-Berg said a real-life person from Google Fiber showed up, investigated, and determined it was the simplest fix ever. Her router needed to be reset after some work that had been done in the neighborhood.
They unplugged it and plugged it back in, and Neilson-Berg’s home internet is back online.
She said she’s “flabbergasted” by the simplicity of the fix and wonders why Google just didn’t tell her that during her numerous calls.
“This could have been such a swift resolve!” Neilson-Berg said.
Tyler Fields is your internet guru, delving into the latest trends, developments, and issues shaping the online world. With a focus on internet culture, cybersecurity, and emerging technologies, Tyler keeps readers informed about the dynamic landscape of the internet and its impact on our digital lives.
