October 25, 2007
Incommunicado
I can’t think of many things that are worse for business than being unable to communicate. I discovered late Sunday that my phone line was dead. On Monday morning I called my service provider and stepped into that nightmarish scenario, the automated answering system. You know how it works. A not unpleasant voice asks you for information, then asks you to reply by selecting a number for the most correct answer. This particular call, which would have taken a minute or two if a human had responded, sucked about twenty minutes out of my morning. I found myself wondering if I would need a diet patch to help me stave off starvation while I waited. After providing my phone number I answered a few questions. Yes, I was calling from a different number. No, there was no service on the line I was reporting. Yes, I checked to see that the phone was plugged in before I called them. Each response from me brought a new question. This took a while as the phone bot selected phrases to make up sentences, with long pauses between each phrase: “Please provide …………… another number where you can be reached.” After I had supplied all of the basic info I got: “Please wait while we ………………………… check your phone line. This may take …………………………… up to two minutes.” It took about that long. The voice then came back and advised me that: “A repair of your line has been requested. Please expect this ………………………….. repair to be completed by ………………………………………. Wednesday afternoon at four p.m.” Now, first of all, I had called their business service center. How acceptable is it to advise a business that they might have to wait three days to have basic phone service? Secondly, since they had just run a line check and then scheduled service, it stands to reason that the line check had revealed a problem with my line, right?
The waiting began. The only good thing about the problem is that my phone would ring and caller ID would tell me who was calling, though I got dead air when I tried to answer. A friend advised me that calls were going straight to voice mail, so I was able to return client calls and I don’t think I’ve lost any business. Yesterday afternoon I got a call on my cell phone from a service tech, advising me that he was at my gate. After I got the boys secured (the beagle is a runner) I let him into the yard and showed him where my service panel is located. It’s on the front of my house, under an overhang. When I had my deck built I called the phone company and aked them if I needed to have the box moved, since it would now be under the deck. They said no. Their field tech took one look a the location and told me he couldn’t inspect the box because safety concerns preclude them from going under structures. Hah! Wimps! Crawling under houses is a routine part of what I do and I’m not exactly a spring chicken. Company rules, insurance requirements, risks - yeah, I get it. You won’t be providing me with service until I hire someone else to move the box. Yes, I’ll let you inside so you can check from there. No, the dogs won’t be able to get to you (wuss!) Yes, you can keep your shoes on (we take our shoes off at the door in Hawaii unless permission is given to keep them on.) We tramped back to my office where I had to unplug my fax machine and move it away from the wall so the tech could access the phone jack that hides behind it. He unplugged my phone and plugged in his **and**got**a**dial**tone! Thus we discovered that I’d gone three days without a phone because the phone itself was bad, not the service connection. I would have had a new phone on the line Monday if their bot had not told me I needed line service.
Ask me how happy I am with my phone service today. Go ahead. I dare you.
Clip art licensed from the Clip Art Gallery on DiscoverySchool.com
[tags]business, business services, phone service, stupidity[/tags]
Posted by skeet @ 9:05 am • Business
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October 25th, 2007 at 11:14 am, Whim Says:
I’m glad it got worked out.
October 25th, 2007 at 11:11 pm, skeet Says:
Mahalo, Whim. I ended up buying TWO phones today - a new office phone and a new cell. I’ll probably blog them tomorrow because, well … because that’s what I do.