OK AT&T.
So now do you or don’t you need to get inside the house?
I’m sitting here writing another blog entry when the phone rings. It takes a moment for me to realize it’s the house line ringing.
That’s the line that’s been down.
And apparently is no longer.
So I guess they don’t need to come in at all?
Am I still going to have to sit around tomorrow and wait for a tech that will never arrive, but now for a different reason?
If all this time it was an outside problem, why wasn’t that known until now? Why was I ever told they had to come into the house? Why wasn’t it discovered on Saturday the first time around?
I’m truly mystified.
And as a result, I’m now going to have to spend time on the phone with AT&T to see what’s going on. Which, is more of my time wasted due to AT&T.
Why did I get a call saying they wouldn’t finish the work, but apparently they did finish the work? Am I going to get a call here shortly to explain that yes in fact things are fixed? Or is AT&T going to continue to fail at communicating the state of the repair to me?
*sigh*
Yeah again I know, #FirstWorldProblem. It’s still annoying to my first-world-self.
Updated: Oh this is rich. It does seem the home line is working (at least for now). So I check the “CallNotes”.
There’s a call from Wednesday morning at 9:00 AM from AT&T to confirm my Thursday afternoon appointment.
So they call the broken line to confirm someone will be coming to repair the broken line.
*headdesk*
Even when I gave them an alternate number, which didn’t receive any call (tho who knows, maybe the call didn’t go through since I was in the deep country… tho lots of SMS was sent and received just fine), they still call the broken line instead of the number I gave them to reach me on.
Yes AT&T, your repair process is broken. You fail at communication.
Updated Again: No word from AT&T on what’s going on… the line is working, but the work order is still open from what I can see on the AT&T website. So I called in to see if maybe they have any additional information.
Nope.
The lady on the phone (Vanessa?) was very kind and understanding. She did what she could. Tried to expedite things. Anything within her power to try to get this managed.
And it sounds like no, they won’t have to come into the house. And that no, I don’t have to stick around.
But who knows. The work order is still open, so likely more work has to be done. Just a question of my level of involvement. She entered in a bunch of notes that should go right to the tech. So it’s my hope that I can still go donate blood in the morning (I just will do a walk-in), and just see if they’ll call. They’re telling me to not wait and that yes someone will call if needed. So, let’s see if that winds up being something they don’t fail (again) at.
I did find it telling that one of the closing statements she made was “Thank you for not leaving us”.
Stuff From Hsoi 
Do you have time warner cable out there? I have been on their VOIP phone stuff for years and it has been cheap and reliable for me.
Funny you should mention it. I have avoided VOIP, especially TWC’s VOIP, because yes I have TWC cable and Roadrunner service. But the Internet service has been less than reliable (less so than AT&T, at least in terms of the actual network service… not customer service, that’s different) and so I haven’t wanted to go there. It’s not horrible, but it can go up and down, even if it just for 30 seconds, that can be problematic when you’re in a conference call.
But some things have changed, and I’m certainly going to be doing the math again to consider the switch. I’m tired of this crap.
When you sleep with dogs, you shouldn’t complain about fleas.
I hate to sound like Lucien here, but AT&T’s outright contempt for their customers is the stuff of legends.
Vote with your wallet.
Thing is, AT&T has never been this horrible. But truly this is unreal.
I just had the TW Signature Home service installed today and it comes with VOIP and their “Wideband” internet service that claims 50 down and 5 up which should mean no hiccups for VOIP. Thus far it seems to be running well and the VOIP box is a Cisco unit so it’s prob not a total piece.
Yeah, that wideband only happens if in fact you can get it. Last time a TWC tech was here he told me some things about it and it’s basically not fully deployed around Austin, all sorts of issues… they started selling it before it was actually ready. It’s a huge mess. So hopefully you actually have it and it’s working.
I’m still not sure what I’m going to do (haven’t had time to look into it), but I am thinking either VOIP (tho it could even be something like Google Voice) or going 100% mobile with an unlimited plan.
Our TV is DirectTv, it costs actually less for the tier we have (BBC for Top Gear and Dr. Who) than our land based CATV would- AND we have TV when the cable is out.
I can’t suggest you go with WildBlue (the satellite Broadband) because of the FAP issues we had with them, but maybe some kind of wireless broadband might work.
Since you don’t live in a cellphone dead zone like we do- why bother with a landline at all?
BTW- I’m still p1ssed at SBC (who ATT bought out) for charging me $35 because I complained that whenever it rained- we lost the phone. They came out on a sunny day and got a good signal. We called when ATT took over and the problem was in the box 1/2 mile away because of a long-term leak.
Still won’t go back to ATT’s landline.
There’s no way Hsoi could live with Wild Blue’s latency. You’re looking at 500ms ping times, minimum; due to the trip to the satellite and back. My in-laws in BFE have Wild Blue. It is better than dial-up but worse than anything else. Expensive too.
My in-laws live in the country and have this. And yeah, there’s no way I could do it given my job needs.
As an aside, I’m pretty sure it was SBC that bought AT&T; then changed their name to the nationally know AT&T.
So, that’s why you still get SBC’s standard poop on a stick customer servicel.
I needed a landline in the past for our home alarm system. But about a year ago we went cellular with that, so there was less of a need for a true landline. About the only reason now we need one is because of the kids; they don’t (and won’t) have their own mobile phones any time soon, but they still need a way to communicate to/from the world at large. But even if I went 100% mobile, I’d then get a mobile as the “house phone”.