We're the Phone Company-We don't care, we don't have to....

[Doc Moose]

Phones at the office were getting real bad reception, very static prone, low volume.  In previous weeks, we noticed some phone trucks working down the road and then right outside the office.  We weren't getting responses to our messages left on peoples answering machines and voicemail.  A client confirmed that a message left at his house answering machine was all garbled and unintelligible.
Finally, we called the local phone company office and asked if they would check the line.  The woman on the other end said that there was a problem and that they would check it out.
She then called back and stated that there was indeed a problem and that it was NOT on their end, so it must be OUR problem.  We said, okay, send some one out to check it out.  She almost belligerantly stated that it would be at OUR expense.  We said, fine, we NEED IT FIXED! 
A repair guy called and said he was finishing up another job in town and that he would be out to see what the problem was with our service.

Fifteen minutes later, he called back and said that the problem had been fixed downtown at the phone company office.....


Gotta love the phone company service. 

[Lyn-Del]

I'm sure they'll bill you anyway.

[sugerbear]

dontcha know,.........it's ALWAYS your(our) fault.

[Don07tncav]

The county repaired a bridge down the road from our house about a year ago. The gas and water people took care of their lines and the phone company didn't. Of course the phone lines were ripped out so we had no service for several days. When we called it in, ATT blamed us.   

ATT came out after five days and "fixed" the lines by splicing them together and hanging them from a stick shoved in the ground. Every time the road gets bushhogged the phone lines get cut. We were without service seven more times for up to a week. Every time we called it in, we got blamed. (Don't get me started about ATT dialup internet service.  )

ATT has fixed the lines all seven times but guess where the phone lines are still....

Yep, hanging from a stick stuck in the ground. Since no other phone services are out here in the sticks, we went to cellular phones and wireless internet with another company.

[ibsrp]

Last weekend my internet was down (ATT). I called early that morning and they said someone would be out between 1:00 and 5:00 pm. Well I had choir practice at church that morning and when I got home the guy had called to see if he could come early and had left a message on my answering machine.

He the called at 1:00 on the dot and by 1:15 he was there. He went from box to box trying to locate the problem and finally found it up the street. (bad card of some kind)

To make a long story short; the guy was very nice and we ended up talking for a good 30 minuets after he got it working.

It just depends on who you're dealing with. Just a couple of months earlier I had an appointment with Knowlogy to have their service installed with a two hour window for arrival. They showed up an hour late and I was on the way out the driveway for a motorcycle ride (I had taken a day of vacation to meet them and figured I wouldn't waste the whole day). Well I figured if they showed up an hour late to install my service, how long would it take them to fix it if it went out.

I told them to hit the road and kept the ATT.

[shortleg]

   I worked for the phone co for 35 years and even we were told there is
never a troube in the central office.
   Now after 35 years I found that to be one of the biggest lies
 ever. That and the one about respect in the AM.
           Shortleg[Dave]

[Black Dog]

Ma Bell has been signin' my checks for the past 31 years, and I hear ya Doc 

This ain't yer fathers phone company anymore    Just a buncha 'Bean Counters' now...

One RingyDingy	powered by Aeva

Black Dog

[Charlie]

This is gonna be a lonng thread!  

Since Reagan deregulated the system back in the 80's, I have heard horror story after horror story from other people, but I didn't have a problem until last December.  When it happened, I was furious.

My father in law was at home, on his death bed.  He had cancer and my wife was trying to do the Hospice thing by staying there and administering his medications (don't ever try this, it becomes way more than any untrained person should handle, especially if you are administering to a loved one).  We lived 50 miles away.  I tried to call her and the phone was busy.  I kept trying all day and evening and got the same response.  Finally, I decided something was wrong and drove down there.  It turned out there was something wrong with the phones, so I pulled out my cell phone to call the company.  No service for my phone in that area, so I got in the car and drove for 15 miles to get in a service area.  I called the phone company and they said they would send someone out.  I explained the emergency to get this done very quickly because I may need to call in a doctor for my ailing father in law.  I went back to the house and low and behold, there was a service man already working on the line in the street!  I was pumped.

About a half hour later, I look out and the guy is gone.  I figured he had it fixed and tried to make a call.  The line was still dead, so I waited an hour assuming he had to go get some part.  He never came back, so I got in the car, drove the 15 miles, and called them back.  They said the serviceman checked the line and there wasn't a problem in their line.  It must be in the line going to the house, which was someone elses line.  I drove back to the house and found out who owned the line.  I then drove the 15 miles to a service area and called that company.  They said they didn't do the repairs themselves and guess who they contract the work to.... the same company that made the original check of the system.  They put in a work order to have the line to the house checked.  I drove back to the house and waited for the service man to show up.  Two hours and no service man, so I again drove the 15 miles and called the company that was supposed to come out.  They said they needed a work order number to check on it.  I told them I do not have one, AGAIN EXPLAINED THE DIRE SITUATION WE WERE IN, and asked if they could check to see if they had one for the address we were at.  She said she couldn't so I asked for her supervisor.  I went through the whole rigamaroll again with him.  After at least 10 minutes of run-around, and my blood pressure rising to a very serious level, the supervisor decided he did have a method of checking.  Lo and behold, he said the serviceman was on his way.  I thanked him and hung up the phone.  By the time I got back, the guy was there and was running a new line from the house to the street.  It turned out, someone had done some work near the street months earlier and knicked the underground line.  It slowly corroded until it wouldn't work anymore.

I couldn't believe the thoughtlessness of the people on the other end, knowing a man's life was in the balance and we had no way of contacting anyone.

[Doc Moose]

A lot of times it just depends whether the person you talk to gives a d@mn about things.

Overall, I can't complain about our service (except those pesky yellow pages people that will promise everything and then you got to double check everything they promise!)   

[Lyn-Del]

Overall, I can't complain about our service (except those pesky yellow pages people that will promise everything and then you got to double check everything they promise!)

Double checking isn't enough.  Some years ago, a locksmith friend got pretty much put out of business when the SWBell Yellow Pages listed him under Dog Kennels instead of Locksmiths.  They did, however, refund what he'd paid for the ad ...... but since even his line listing was there, it eliminated any new business other than referrals.  Many of his previous customers went elsewhere, thinking he must have gotten out of the business.

He double checked the ad proofs before they came out, they were fine.

It took him years to recover

[stormrider]

Back in 83 I opened a bicycle shop on Montgomery Hwy in Dothan. In 84 I moved it to Westgate Parkway in Dothan. The yellow page ad salesman came by the new shop and we made the changes to the ad. When the book came out they still had me at the old address. No telling how many sales I lost and they still billed me for the ad. I refused to pay and they would turn the phone off saying the number was correct. I finally, after this happening several times got them to quit billing me for the wrong ad. Course, I had to get red faced with the to stop.

[shortleg]

  I think if we look at the history of this it all started with a suit brought by a guy named
Mc Gowen that ran MCI. He wanted equal access to the network and for people
to be able to supply their own phones.
  When I started in 1968 the phone company had what was called End To End respnsability.
  It was possiable to send one person to a location and get your phone or line fixed.
 Bussiness phone lines help pay the cost of home phone lines. That was the reason that
  at the time our home phone lines were so cheap.
   Now we have to look at this in a couple of ways. Was Judge Green right in opion
 brakeup Ma Bell. Well yes and no. It is now more expensive, but it brought about
 more innovations by all the companys.
    So guys is this proggress? Maybe.
                       Shortleg[Dave]
     

[Charlie]

 I think if we look at the history of this it all started with a suit brought by a guy named
Mc Gowen that ran MCI. He wanted equal access to the network and for people
to be able to supply their own phones.
  When I started in 1968 the phone company had what was called End To End respnsability.
  It was possiable to send one person to a location and get your phone or line fixed.
 Bussiness phone lines help pay the cost of home phone lines. That was the reason that
  at the time our home phone lines were so cheap.
   Now we have to look at this in a couple of ways. Was Judge Green right in opion
 brakeup Ma Bell. Well yes and no. It is now more expensive, but it brought about
 more innovations by all the companys.
    So guys is this proggress? Maybe.
                       Shortleg[Dave]
      

One persons progress is another person's problem.  I do think they could have left the "End to End" responsibility clause in the process, if they wanted to.  It's just that the phone companies don't want to work together for the common good of phone service.  Anything they can do to injure each others reputation is fine with them, at the customers expense, I might add.

[Lyn-Del]

Back before the breakup, we had a hurricane down here (big surprise, huh?).  The only damage I suffered was that the phone wires were jerked loose at the house.  The phone company scheduled an appointment time to come out and repair the lines.  About 10 years later I sold the house -- they still hadn't shown up.  Of course, by then, it "wasn't their problem" and it had been fixed by someone else.

[alph]

I use to install security systems that were monitored over the phone lines so we would hook up and test the lines and make sure everything worked correctly.

One house we did was a 1/4 mile from the main road, middle of no where, an average guy’s secluded hunting shack on a dead end road in the woods. 

The system was installed in January so there was a little snow on the ground.  By October of that year we had replace the system twice due to lightning strikes over the summer months.  The repair guys would check everything, and we knew the voltage was coming in though the phone lines but it WAS properly grounded.  It wasn’t until I took a walk around the house and noticed that I tripped on a wire lying on the ground.  I picked it up, and noticed it was the phone line!  The phone guys buried the wire two feet from the house then left it lay above ground all the way out to the pedestal, a full 1/4 mile away!  Long story short, the phone company didn’t want to pay for the two security systems ‘cause they said the lines were properly grounded and they were not responsible for lightning strikes.  Now, had the wires been properly buried or elevated, they wouldn’t have been picking up electricity as the lightning strikes hit the nearby trees!  They later settled out of court.

[Valker]

 
  It was possible to send one person to a location and get your phone or line fixed.
 Business phone lines help pay the cost of home phone lines. That was the reason that
  at the time our home phone lines were so cheap.
    It is now more expensive, but it brought about
 more innovations by all the companys.
    So guys is this proggress? Maybe.
                       Shortleg[Dave]

I have to question this. I remember the time when my mother, who died in 1999, ended up paying nearly $1000 for her phone over nearly 30 years because the phone company back then only 'rented' the phones to the customers. I also remember $12 10 minute long distance phone calls to Grandma who lived 100 miles away. This in the days of less than $2/hour wages.