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Bedouins in the desert hate the phone company.

Discussion in 'Fred's House of Pancakes' started by Godiva, Jan 4, 2009.

  1. Godiva

    Godiva AmeriKan Citizen

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    I thoroughly enjoyed watching "The President's Analyst" recently on TV. Catch it if you can.

    It sparked another attempt at getting my old demarc replaced with an up to date network interface box. Mine probably dated from 1949, when the house was remodeled. There was no modular jack to test the line. And when there was a really bad storm I sometimes ended up with static on the line because it wasn't very weatherproof.

    I tried to get it replaced last year after I found out I didn't have a new box. My phone was out for over a week and I eventually found that ATT was digging up the street fixing a problem in their line underground. Not my fault. But I had no service. And without a new box I wouldn't be able to test my line to see if it was my fault or theirs. They wanted me to pay them to install the box...that would belong to them. I told them no way.

    Bought a box on eBay.

    Then couldn't figure out how to install it.

    Watched the President's Analyst last weekend and decided to try again. Same story. $55.00 for the first 15 min. then a different rate for each min. after that until it reached $125.00. And the guy couldn't tell me the average time it takes to put one in. So I started calling electricians. (I'll need some other work done so give me a chance to find a good, dependable, honest guy.)

    The second guy I called said the phone company should do it for free. I related my attempts. He said he would call them because he needs to know if they updated their policy. Said he'd call me back. I figured..yeah, right... but gave him my number anyway. Well, he did call me back. Said that I could probably get the box installed for free if I had a new "drop line" put in as that is their responsibility. And if it dates back to 1949 I probably need one.

    Well, I got an automated call from ATT that they would be out today (Sunday) between 8 am and 5 pm. He must have put a work order in for me. What a guy!

    They came out, put in the new line. And I managed to get them to put in my new box (they didn't have one and no tools either) using my drill, bits, etc. They stripped back the house wires, wired it all up and tested the line. Works good as new. And for free! (It better be. If ATT give me any grief I am so chewing a supervisor's a$$.)

    But I had to chuckle thinking back to that line from "The President's Analyst". The Russian and American spies (Severn Darden and Godfrey Cambridge) are discussing universals. And Darden says that he's noticed everyone hates the phone company. Even Bedouins in the desert hate the phone company.

    They guys were great. They're outsourced contractors. But the phone company itself? It sucks. Their phone tree is insane. It gave me an endless loop of putting in my phone number and what dept I wanted, round and round. I couldn't get a person on the line unless I went to a dept I didn't want and got tranferred. Insane.

    No wonder more and more people are giving up land lines in favor of cell phones.

    I can't wait until the iPhone can operate with a different carrier than ATT.
     
  2. Rae Vynn

    Rae Vynn Artist In Residence

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    The phone trees are put together that way on purpose. It is a tool called dissuasion. Back when I did telephone technical support, one of the calls I received was from a guy that worked for a large telecommunications company, who was in charge of that exact thing... designing the phone tree (IVR) to discourage people from getting through to a live person.
    I hate our phone company, too. They also are our DSL provider, and I do miss our cable broadband... though I really do have a hard time paying twice as much for it.
     
  3. dogfriend

    dogfriend Human - Animal Hybrid

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    Don't get me started on AT&T/SBC/PacBell. We haven't had a landline in years because they pissed me off so bad when I tried to get DSL installed several years ago. Even the cable company has better service than they do.
     
  4. jayman

    jayman Senior Member

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    If that had been me, I would have gone monkeys*** on them

    When I still had the house in Tuxedo, the MTS guy was sent over to connect the outdoor NID to my house 66 punch down block, once the house was finished

    I was watching this character like a hawk, and I'm pretty sure he was afraid of me too. So he's at my breaker box, as I had the punch down block next to the breaker box, along with the cable tv drop

    He reaches into his tool belt, pulls out a pair of needle nose pliers, and attempts to use the pliers to "punch" the wires from the NID into my block! So I screamed at the guy

    "HOLY S*** what the f*** are you doing!!??"

    Turns out he "forgot" his punch down tool, and wanted to use the needle nose pliers. OMG! Yeah, like that won't bugger up the pins

    So I glared at the little guy, got my punch down tool, fitted a 66 blade, and did it myself. Growled at the guy, and he scampered up the stairs pretty quick

    I suppose it could have been worse. He could have tried to use a screwdriver ...
     
  5. KK6PD

    KK6PD _ . _ . / _ _ . _

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    You all seem to have forgotten the classic phone company policy....

    WE DON'T CARE, WE DON'T HAVE TO, WERE THE PHONE COMPANY!!!

    It was funny back when SNL coined it in the 70's,,, and Dammit it still is!!!

    73 de Pat KK6PD
     
  6. JimN

    JimN Let the games begin!

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    I believe that was Lily Tomlin as Ernestine the Operator on Laugh-In in the 60's. "One ringy-dingy. Two ringy-dingies..."

    In any event, some things are just timeless & universal.
     
  7. Godiva

    Godiva AmeriKan Citizen

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    The only problem being, that now they have to. They have competition.

    More and more people are giving up their landlines for cellphones. Cellphones that are NOT with the local phone company. And they hopped on the internet and TV bandwagons too late; people were already with other companies. And those companies were more reliable and had shorter waiting lists.

    I have cable TV and high speed internet through Cox cable. Yes, the price seems to always go up, but the service is reliable and competitive with everyone else. The only thing I'm not happy about is the geographic monopoly. Cox is only offered in my area. Time Warner is only offered in my parents' neighborhood. Unless you get a dish, which neither of us will do.

    I've kept my landline in case of blackouts. It is much more likely in my area than others because of the ancient infrastructure that is not being upgraded. (Or is last on the upgrade list.)

    It still pi$$es me off I have to pay them a monthly fee NOT to publish my telephone number. Why should I pay to be unlisted? It doesn't cost them anything NOT to print or release my number.

    "Even Bedouins in the desert hate the phone company." - The President's Analyst.
     
  8. Spectra

    Spectra Amphi-Prius

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    Altho not quite Bedouins, in July, '96 I found that the Israeli Arabs who were helping out on our archeological dig in the Negev desert were positively in LUV with their cell phones.

    I hadn't even gotten a cell phone yet, and I explained their phone-fixation to myself by suggesting that since cables, whether above or below ground were likely to be subject to bombing -- the air-borne phone communications were Just The Thing for such territories.......

    ........ as we surely see today.
     
  9. jayman

    jayman Senior Member

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    The risk of system failure due to deliberate act - eg sabotage - is only transfered to the cellular base station transceiver. Knock out the bst, knock out cell phone coverage for that area

    Most bst's link with microwave hops, although more are linking with dedicated fiber optics. If you know what you're doing, it's fairly straightforward to jam a standard 10 GHz microwave system