DIANE NAKAMURA RETURNS TO SHARE HER EMAIL TROUBLES

Hello, my friends! I’m back! While I was taking a break from writing, I realized how valuable email is. And how lost you can be without it. When Telus email transferred to Google, I thought my world had come to an end. Everybody I talked to said they had no problem with the transition.

I spent weeks on the phone with Telus technical support. Don’t ask me what steps I took to make the switch. I don’t remember what I did. I felt like I fell into a deep dark hole.

The first time I called, I remember being on the phone with Telus for over an hour, after waiting for an hour to talk to somebody. The technician placed me on hold many times. After the fifth or sixth time, I was placed on hold, an automated message came on to say, “Telus is now closed. Please call again later” and I was cut off. Seriously?

The next day, I tried to fix the problem myself. I typed in my password but it kept on getting rejected. Then after a few tries, I was locked out and told to try again in a few hours. I waited a few hours, and tried again and was locked out. I spent the whole day and most of the evening trying to retrieve my email with no success. What the heck? I wanted to pull my hair out.

The second time I called for help, my call was transferred to an agent with a very thick accent. I couldn’t understand him at all. There was also a lot of background noise on the other end of the phone. I did pick up that he was working from home and he apologized for all of the noise. I don’t know how many times I said “pardon me?” or “could you repeat that please?”.

Finally, I think he said “I will change your password.” I’m not sure if I heard the password correctly but I tried it and it didn’t work. I asked him to repeat the password, I tried it, then I was locked out - again. I broke down in tears. Then we got cut off. Or maybe the guy hung up on me because I was so annoying.

I spent a week in sheer anxiety. I couldn’t bring myself to pick up the phone or get on the computer. When I finally got back on the computer, I used a different route. Nope. I was informed I had “one last step” to go and that the directions were sent to my email. Really? What email?

This level of frustration can send anyone over the top. For a brain-injured person like me, its immobilizing. In a previous article I talked about perseveration - when a thought or thoughts get stuck in your head and you can’t get rid of it. I perseverated for weeks about not having an email. I’m telling you this was very painful.

So I spent another two or three weeks in Limbo Land, petrified to get on the phone with Telus or on the computer. Finally, I decided enough was enough and I called my computer wizard friend Teresa. Why didn’t I think of Teresa before? She very quickly identified there were two problems and advised me to connect with Telus, tell them what the issues were and take it from there.

I have eternal gratitude to a wonderful Telus technician who got my email up and running again. I must have told him a dozen times I loved him. And thanks to Teresa for identifying the issues that made it easier for the technician to assess and rectify the problem.

Lesson learned. Perseverating is a huge waste of time!

In the future, instead of freaking out, I will take a step back, breathe and calmly plot my course of action.