Thanks, CenturyLink
Jun. 5th, 2023 10:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
offcntrWe discovered, the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend, that our phone line was out. The DSL/internet still worked, but there was no dial tone on the land line. Not a huge problem, as we both have cells, but still, it'd be nice to have the service we're paying for. I went through online chat hell trying to get a service call, finally had one scheduled for the following Friday... which they promptly cancelled on Sunday when I didn't answer their confirmation text fast enough. So back online Monday, finally get the service call rescheduled.
Come Friday, Baylee comes by, confirms we're not getting dial tone to the kitchen jack, eventually determines that two of the conductors in the line are broken (possibly by the siding guys, but not sure), but there are still two good wires in the line, so she switches the signal over, tests it with her pigtail and now there's a dial tone. I plug in my phone, which admittedly, we bought back in 2000, and it doesn't work. She say's i'll need to get a new phone, packs up her tools and rides off into the afternoon sunlight.
I bike down to BiMart, drop $49.99 on a new phone (I wanted cordless with answering machine, like the old one), bring it home, plug it in, and still get no dial tone. In addition, Denise tells me she now doesn't have internet on her tablet.
So this time, I don't bother with chat, I call CenturyLink, wade through the unhelpful choices in their phone menu (Whaddya mean, "Is it phone or internet?" What if it's both?) and finally connect with a human being. He confirms that their test says there's a problem with the internet, thinks it may have to do with the switched conductors, but doesn't know why the phone. He does promise to push us to the head of the cue, which I take with a massive grain of salt, as it took a full week the first time. But he's true to his word, and I get a text scheduling for the next day.
The next day is Market, of course, so I give them Denise's cell number and she stays home. So of course, they text me with updates...
Baylee arrives a little late, but not by much, and with back-up. Her supervisor walks her through what went wrong--apparently, modern phones only use the center two (broken) conductors, she had to wire in an adaptor? Don't know how they fixed the internet, but Denise confirmed all was working by about 3 pm.
Still haven't decided whether to return the phone. The old one is pretty grody, kitchen grease and a broken antenna cover. We'll probably send it off to NextStep.
Come Friday, Baylee comes by, confirms we're not getting dial tone to the kitchen jack, eventually determines that two of the conductors in the line are broken (possibly by the siding guys, but not sure), but there are still two good wires in the line, so she switches the signal over, tests it with her pigtail and now there's a dial tone. I plug in my phone, which admittedly, we bought back in 2000, and it doesn't work. She say's i'll need to get a new phone, packs up her tools and rides off into the afternoon sunlight.
I bike down to BiMart, drop $49.99 on a new phone (I wanted cordless with answering machine, like the old one), bring it home, plug it in, and still get no dial tone. In addition, Denise tells me she now doesn't have internet on her tablet.
So this time, I don't bother with chat, I call CenturyLink, wade through the unhelpful choices in their phone menu (Whaddya mean, "Is it phone or internet?" What if it's both?) and finally connect with a human being. He confirms that their test says there's a problem with the internet, thinks it may have to do with the switched conductors, but doesn't know why the phone. He does promise to push us to the head of the cue, which I take with a massive grain of salt, as it took a full week the first time. But he's true to his word, and I get a text scheduling for the next day.
The next day is Market, of course, so I give them Denise's cell number and she stays home. So of course, they text me with updates...
Baylee arrives a little late, but not by much, and with back-up. Her supervisor walks her through what went wrong--apparently, modern phones only use the center two (broken) conductors, she had to wire in an adaptor? Don't know how they fixed the internet, but Denise confirmed all was working by about 3 pm.
Still haven't decided whether to return the phone. The old one is pretty grody, kitchen grease and a broken antenna cover. We'll probably send it off to NextStep.