The Saga Continues

I called FranceTeleCom last Tuesday to get a more exact time for the arrival of the technician. The woman informed me that a technician had shown up at my place the previous Friday, the 5th, but that I wasn't there to receive him. Bien sur! I was at work on the 5th, the appt. was for the 6th (the woman at the store wrote it down for me). I can't stay home all the time in case they decide to change the date. So, we set up a new appt. for Friday the 12th sometime after 1 pm. When I returned to my place I found a note from FTC that they had been there at 9 that morning, while I was at work. I can see that giving them my schedule helped a lot.
I waited around Friday and had just about given up hope when the technician arrived (5:30 pm). He spent 2 hrs working but to no avail. He needed a key to get in somewhere and would have to call the real estate agency to get it. He would have to return another day, but couldn't say when. Monday arrived and with it came a bill for my phone service, according to them established the 23rd of October. Needless to say I went straight to the office in town and was first in line when it opened. On entering the store I was directed to a phone in the back to call the technicians, even though I doubted that was what I needed to do. I was intercepted by a guy who had helped me out before. He told me to head to his desk and he'd help me in a minute. He agreed that I should not have to pay the bill, considering I was still without service, and so he filed a complaint on my part. Because it will take 4-6 wks for it to be processed he recommended that I pay the bill and my account can always be credited later. He also said he'd send another fax to the technicians to hopefully get them moving more quickly. I returned home slightly disappointed (I was hoping for a more immediate result) but was glad that something was being done. Not an hour later, another technician arrived, key in hand, and after 1/2 an hour...success! I now have phone service! Now I just have to wait and see about that bill...