Studio8 - Uniting the Arts

Here's a piece I wrote the other day. The situation has since been resolved but today, my phone line is out again. I thought I'd post it as a companion piece to LR's "One Ringie Dingie" Poet's Eye.
http://www.studioeight.tv/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=3341

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Incommunicato

OK, so I have 2 phone lines. One phone line is for the telephone, of course. The other phone line is for a dial-up connection for my computer.

We have one computer on a cable connection but haven't yet purchased a router so the second computer is still on dial-up.

Both of my phone lines are necessary. I must keep the phone line open for calls, especially because I have an elderly mother and a teenage daughter (well, she's 12 going on 15.)

On Friday, the dial tone on my dial-up line disappeared. Nothing. No dial tone. So, in order to go online, which is necessary since most of my work is done online, I needed to switch the line connections and use the telephone line to dial up. When online, nobody can call my house. My mother became frantic because she couldn't get through. I got emails from work people and family, all baffled about why the phone just rang and rang without a person or voice mail message picking up.

I called the phone company Friday. I reported that I had no dial tone on my line and asked them to come and repair it. They said I would have to wait until Tuesday, May 3rd for repair. That's today. What could I do but accept the wait? I contacted my work, my sister, and my mother, assuring them that I would have my phone repaired on Tuesday, telling them they would be able to get through today.

An hour and a half ao, I signed offline so I could use the phone and call the repair people to find out when exactly they were coming out. They had originally told me it would be some time between 8AM and 6PM. It was 1:30PM and I thought, perhaps, they could be more specific as to when I could expect a technician to arrive.

Here's a transcript of my phone conversation.

Me - Hi. I have a repair scheduled today for a telephone # which has no dial tone. If I give you the number, could you tell me when they might be here?

Phone Co. - Sure. What's the number and what is your name and address?

Me - The number is 222-222-2222. My name is Doreen Peri and my address is 222 2nd Avenue.

Phone Co. - Yes ma'am. We had your repair request in the system. But they tried to call you at 12:06PM and there was no answer, so we cancelled the order.

Me - What? You cancelled my repair order?

Phone Co. - Yes.

Me- But you couldn't get through to me on the phone line because the phone has no dial tone.

Phone Co. - The technician called your alternate number.

Me - OK, well the situation, which I explained to them on the telephone when I requested repair, is that I use one line for computer dial-up and the other line for a telephone. I also told them I work on the computer and if they tried to call the alternate number, they would not get through because I would be using the line for internet access. They were aware of this. This should have been on my repair ticket.

Phone Co. - They tried to call you but you didn't answer, so your repair has been cancelled.

Me - Yes, I heard you say that. You will have to reschedule it. I was guaranteed repair for today and I have been without this phone line for 4 days.

Phone Co. - I'm sorry, ma'am, but I cannot guarantee repair today. I can submit another repair request but cannot guarantee when they will be there.

Me - Umm... well, you already DID guarantee repair for today and I'm holding you to it. Please send a technician out today.

Phone Co. - I'm terribly sorry, ma'am, but I cannot guarantee that.

Me - Call the dispatcher. It's that easy. Tell them they shouldn't have cancelled my scheduled work. Someone who called after I did can wait. You guaranteed service today.

Phone Co . - I'm sorry, ma'am. I cannot guarantee that.

Me- This is getting ridiculous. Let me speak with your supervisor.

Phone Co. - Certainly. Hold please.

••••••••••••

Supervisor - Hi, this is Thelma. I am Ms. Phone Co.'s supervisor.

Me - Hi. Thank you for taking my call. [Then I proceeded to tell her the situation just as I did to the initial representative I spoke with].

Supervisor - I'm sorry, ma'am but I cannot guarantee service today. Your service was cancelled because you did not answer your phone.

Me - You already guaranteed service today. Please make sure you delete my alternate phone number from the request. There is no alternate phone number where they will be able to reach me since I will need that line to get online since I work online. Please send out a technician today as you guaranteed you would. You should not have cancelled my work request.

Supervisor - In order to get service, there must be a way we can reach you by telephone.

Me - You can't reach me by telephone because the phone line doesn't have a dial tone.

Supervisor - That's why we cancelled the service call because we couldn't reach you by telephone.

Me - Let me talk to your supervisor.

Supervisor- He's not in.

Me - Let me have his name and phone number.

Supervisor - His name is Mr. Jones. But I cannot give out his phone number.

Me - Let me have his email address.

Supervisor - I'm sorry, ma'am, I cannot give out that information.

Me - OK. Let me get this straight. You have a supervisor by the name of Mr. Jones who cannot be reached by phone or email address because you are not allowed to give that information out. You cancelled my service request which guaranteed service today on a line which has no dial tone because you couldn't reach me by telephone. You can reschedule without any guarantee for date of service. Is that correct?

Supervisor - Yes, ma'am.

Me - I thought I understood you correctly. OK. Read me back my service request.

Supervisor - It says here that you have no dial-tone but we were unable to reach you by telephone so your service was cancelled. A new ticket has been put in for service and an alternate phone number to reach you is 222-222-2221.

Me - Please remove the alternate number. There will be no way to reach me by telephone on that number while I am working. I need that number to dial up to get online.

Supervisor - I cannot remove the alternate number. We cannot schedule a repair without an alternate phone number to reach you.

Me - Which is why you cancelled my service, correct? Because you couldn't reach me by telephone?

Supervisor - Yes, that is correct, ma'am. Is there anything else I can do for you today?

Me - Yes. Send out a repair person!

So what will you do now????
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grilling Forum

Something similiar to this happened to me awhile back. I paid for the land line when I lived with my mother because it was mainly me who was in need of the internet and at the time, she had so many bills to pay (daycare, grocery, rent, cell phone, etc) that I went ahead and paid. I got home from school that day in need of the internet for research on a term paper. I'd specifically come straight home after my last class so that I could eat and study without being thrown out of the library for leaving crumbs. When tried to get online, was told by computer had no connection. Naturally, I checked the jack, and the outlet to the computer for looseness, everything seemed in order. Tried again, using a different (slower) download number, thinking maybe the high connection was screwing with my computer. Again, was told by computer had no connection. Decided to call phone company so that they could check the line. All went down as described in LRod's piece, (only they were playing the Beach Boys), and when I finally did get a representative, her response was "We're sorry ma'am, your connection was terminated b/c you did not pay the bill and blah blah de-fuckin-blah". Was positive had sent payment off two days prior, in fact had reciept from currency exchange where paid. Apparently, by no fault of my own, they "recieved payment a day late, and it takes a day to process and blah blah de-fuckin-blah" Was infuriated, said could fax them copy of receipt to show lateness of payment was currency exchange's fault, not self's. Idiotic representative would not comply and kept trying to explain to me that "you have to get the payment in on the agreed service date or else it will not be processed in time and blah blah de-fuckin-blah". Told her several times about self's punctuality with payment, and that self could prove this, but idiotic representative would not comply. "Service will be restored when paymet has been fully processesed... assess a fee of thirty dollars... wait period of three days and blah blah de-fuckin-switched-phone-companies-the-next-day"

--k