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Panera Bread is well known for one thing to every ‘net addicted, technophisticated blogger geek. Free Wifi.
So what happens when you get a nice corner table? You fire up your laptop, plugin every accessory from a blackberry and usb optical mouse to a keydrive and iPod… Only to realize something is very wrong.
You look up and around and realize you’re the only laptoid there. Unless the world has come to an end or another Star Wars movie is being released, this cannot be real.
But it is.
And magically, your laptop alerts you to a wireless connection that has limited connectivity. Limited. Who likes the word limited? No one.
A few minutes of trying led a Panera Bread Baker-Barista over to say, half laughing, that their WiFi wasn’t working and hadn’t been for days.
Fail.
So I did what anyone else would do. Shut down the laptop. Unplugged every accessory I just plugged in and wrapped up every cable. Thankfully I never ordered a thing.
And I drove across the street to Borders. The Borders in North Attleboro Massachusetts. Where I’m blogging this. With an Asiago Sourdough Pretzel and a Seattle’s Best Iced Vanilla Soy Latte in hand. And I PAID for my WiFi. So, eff you Panera. Borders, enjoy the free link love, no condoms applied.
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{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Your life is so hard. :)
I don’t like Lisa making light of this situation. It has happened to me before and it is absolutely INFURIATING. I really hate it when store employees “address” problems like this so un-professionally.
[goes and sits in the corner]
Sorry, David.
I go to the Panera in EG and I have never had a problem with their connectivity, but as we should all expect every place is different. Maybe I’ll start going to the Panera in Cranston because across the street is a Borders. This way if all Paneras are losing wifi reliability I can just hope over to Borders like Eric.