Whenever you think of ResNet, do you think of timely service, reliability and friendly customer service? These should be the first things in the mind of any business. However, ResNet isn?t a business and it shows.
To stop the spread of the Nimda virus that struck campus, ports were shut off that gave infected computers Internet access. The only means to have your port reopened was to disinfect your computer.
My port had been one of the ports to be shut off when the Nimda virus hit. When my roommate called to find out what happened, he got voice mail. I went to the ResNet desk in CLARC to find out myself.
Originally, an appointment was set up for the following day because ResNet was all booked that day. Then I saw my roommate?s name and number on the callback list they had devised. So I asked them to call him back to set up an appointment with him to look at what was wrong.
The student behind the desk told me to call my roommate and get him to call ResNet again, instead of calling my roommate.
Freshmen were warned that their ports would be turned off if they didn?t register their hardware addresses so both my roommate and I registered.
Shortly after our port was turned off for the first time, they turned our access off again. They did not have our hardware addresses in their database ? so once again we registered them and got our access returned.
The port was turned back on for almost a day ? then locked again. I headed back to the ResNet desk and explained my problem. After the student working at the desk went through the preliminary questions about registering our hardware addresses, he told me to disconnect both computers from the port and turn them off for an hour. The ResNet desk would be closed when I was supposed to return if this did not work.
Needless to say, disconnecting did not work and the following day and I trekked back to the ResNet desk. This time, I had my hardware address. A different student was at the desk and again I explained my problem.
He asked for my e-mail address and then checked to see if the number matched with the one that I had. There wasn?t even an address listed for my account. Finally, the third time I registered my hardware address, they actually put it in the database.
Before this, the students working at the ResNet desk treated me as if I knew nothing about computers and that they didn?t want to deal with my problem. They put off their responsibilities and avoided doing work at all costs.
This behavior is unacceptable of any organization. No one should have to deal with the laziness of the students at the ResNet desk not wanting to work for their paychecks.
Cupp can be reached at dcupp@campustimes.org.
