Telephone Blues
Sep. 22nd, 2013 10:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
davidschrothLast Wednesday, at 1930, ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
mizzlaurajean's father tried to call us. As we were eating dinner at the time, we didn't answer the call. As far as we know, that was the last caller that didn't receive a busy signal when they called our land line.
I've never felt any desire to rid ourselves of the land line, and that lack of desire only strengthened in the aftermath of the storm that left us without power for three days. While our other telephone service was spotty or non-existent, the plain old telephone hooked up to the POTS continued to work. I'm now experiencing a 180 degree change of attitude.
I called CenturyLink on Thursday, and they said they'd send someone out on Friday between 0830 and 2000. If they decided the problem was inside the house, they'd charge us a minimum of $95 to determine the cause of the problem. They also a my cell phone number, so they could call me if they needed access to the house. So, Friday, I left work early, with the idea that someone would be home the entire time. Around 1930, after seeing no one from CenturyLink, I called back, where the automated system cheerfully informed me that the service person had been by, determined the problem was inside the house, and closed the ticket.
I was not pleased.
I waded through the thicket of choices again, finally reaching a human being, and complained. They scheduled someone to come out Saturday, same ground rules (except now it was going to cost me $85 rather than $95). Once again, they had my cellphone number, and someone was home all day. Once again, no sign of anyone from CenturyLink.
This timemizzlaurajean called. She was informed that no ticket had been created when I called on Friday (thus demonstrating the wisdom of having her call rather than having me call). Once again, someone was scheduled to come out between 0830 and 1900. This time, they had mizzlaurajean's cellphone number rather than my cellphone number.
And they actually used it! They called, hung up before she answered the call, and left no message on her voice mail. They did show up and leave a notice on the front door, explaining that they'd been there, the problem was inside the house, and please call back to reschedule.
mizzlaurajean spent entirely too much time on hold with no satisfaction.
We're still without telephone service on our land line. And our DSL service (which comes over the same line) has been spotty - it works, but it cuts out randomly for random lengths of time.
I'm forced to conclude that there's no real good reason to keep the land line while a) it doesn't work, and b) CenturyLink shows no inclination to identify (let alone fix) the problem.
Curious note: even though there's been a strong current of "the problem is inside the house", one of the support peoplemizzlaurajean spoke to said something that indicate that the problem is more widespread than just Harriet Manor.
mizzlaurajean's father tried to call us. As we were eating dinner at the time, we didn't answer the call. As far as we know, that was the last caller that didn't receive a busy signal when they called our land line.I've never felt any desire to rid ourselves of the land line, and that lack of desire only strengthened in the aftermath of the storm that left us without power for three days. While our other telephone service was spotty or non-existent, the plain old telephone hooked up to the POTS continued to work. I'm now experiencing a 180 degree change of attitude.
I called CenturyLink on Thursday, and they said they'd send someone out on Friday between 0830 and 2000. If they decided the problem was inside the house, they'd charge us a minimum of $95 to determine the cause of the problem. They also a my cell phone number, so they could call me if they needed access to the house. So, Friday, I left work early, with the idea that someone would be home the entire time. Around 1930, after seeing no one from CenturyLink, I called back, where the automated system cheerfully informed me that the service person had been by, determined the problem was inside the house, and closed the ticket.
I was not pleased.
I waded through the thicket of choices again, finally reaching a human being, and complained. They scheduled someone to come out Saturday, same ground rules (except now it was going to cost me $85 rather than $95). Once again, they had my cellphone number, and someone was home all day. Once again, no sign of anyone from CenturyLink.
This time
mizzlaurajean called. She was informed that no ticket had been created when I called on Friday (thus demonstrating the wisdom of having her call rather than having me call). Once again, someone was scheduled to come out between 0830 and 1900. This time, they had mizzlaurajean's cellphone number rather than my cellphone number.And they actually used it! They called, hung up before she answered the call, and left no message on her voice mail. They did show up and leave a notice on the front door, explaining that they'd been there, the problem was inside the house, and please call back to reschedule.
mizzlaurajean spent entirely too much time on hold with no satisfaction. We're still without telephone service on our land line. And our DSL service (which comes over the same line) has been spotty - it works, but it cuts out randomly for random lengths of time.
I'm forced to conclude that there's no real good reason to keep the land line while a) it doesn't work, and b) CenturyLink shows no inclination to identify (let alone fix) the problem.
Curious note: even though there's been a strong current of "the problem is inside the house", one of the support people
mizzlaurajean spoke to said something that indicate that the problem is more widespread than just Harriet Manor.
