After a week being away from the warm glow of the Internet (the horror!), my better half and I were in the Aruba Airport, 2 hours before our takeoff, and ready to fire up our laptop. To log onto the Wi-Fi Internet at the airport, we had to purchase Wi-Fi time from Wi-Fi Aruba, the local internet provider. Seeing as how we had a few hours to catch up on e-mail, news, and other connected activities, we went ahead and bought a $10 pass for 24 hours of use, else we would have paid $5/hr.
The internet connection worked beautifully for the first hour we used it in one spot in the airport. We then shut down and relocated to the gate. We opened up the laptop again, and... Wi-Fi Aruba wanted our password to log on. What password you ask? The one that was e-mailed to us. Well, here's a dumb question... how were we supposed to access the password if we couldn't get onto the Internet? I suppose the assumption is that one would sign up for the service, immediately check for an e-mail message from Wi-Fi Aruba, write it down, and then have it handy to access at any time. That's quite ridiculous.
I went on Wi-Fi Aruba's site, the only one accessible from the airport without being signed-in to their service, and tried to call the company's support phone number posted, but my cell phone would not allow the call to go through, nor would my wife's. I sent an e-mail to the company to request them to refund our money because we didn't get what we paid for... 24 hours of internet service. We never heard back from them.
So you're probably asking yourself-- is $10 really worth all this aggravation? Just let it go, right? Well, it'd be nice to get a refund or even an apology from the poorly managed Wi-Fi Aruba, but it's really more of a warning to all of my loyal reader(s) out there... buyer beware! And to share a lesson--good customer service still goes a long way.
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It's still that way. I'm at the Marriott Ocean Club where there's a cable broadband connection that's so slow it's not suitable for children. But I have a 5 bar WiFiAruba signal, so decided to buy in. Although the WiFe Aruba website says there's time available on various increments, that's not the case. The nearest seller is the Holiday Inn giftshop, which only stocks 1 day access cards ($10). To buy more, the gift shop suggests you go to the Setar office at the Playa del Linda, but when you get there, it's just a telephone kiosk, with no human or office. It's a circle jerk at best, consistent with the help found in most shops here. They know full well what the process is, but don't volunteer it. Fortunately, the restaurants are getting it, and waitstaff service has been great!
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