Someday I'll Start

I haven't started training with Beacon yet, but I've gotten to know two of the Tech Support guys, one by phone and one by email.

The first computer they sent me didn't have ports for the keyboard and mouse. After much emailing back and forth, the main Tech Support guy, Jarrod, apologized and said he should have sent me a USB keyboard and mouse instead of the OS2 ones he did send. So he sent me the USB keyboard and mouse via FedEx overnight. When they arrived, I plugged them in and started up the computer, but got an error message that Windows did not start successfully. It went downhill from there. I couldn't connect with the company's network. Jarrod called me on the phone and we tried various things. Finally he decided that the computer was beyond help and they would have to send me another one. Of course this was on Friday (November 9) afternoon, so they couldn't send it until Monday morning. He also told me that he would be gone the following week and Bill would help me. (This was an already-scheduled, already-planned vacation; no, I didn't drive him away.)

I got the new computer Tuesday afternoon and at least it started up successfully, but I still couldn't connect with the network. So much of Wednesday and Thursday was spent emailing back and forth with Bill trying different things, but I'm still not connected.

So I'll start again Monday morning with Jarrod.

Everyone has been very apologetic -- the recruiter, the HR person, and my boss, who assured me that, "It seems like getting connected is the hardest part, but once we get that ironed out, there are very few tech problems for remotes. Promise!"