ARGH FOAM KILL KILL KILL

[linguafranca.livejournal.com]

(x-posted)

So Billy Bob calls me because he's having trouble with his DSL connection. The only light that's on on his modem is the power light. I check to make sure everything's cool on our end, and tell him we have to call the telephone company (who supplies the DSL line), because the lack of lighting on his modem indicates a problem on their end. So I put him on hold and called TelCo. The wait in the queue was 50 minutes, so I got back on his line and told him I'd call him when I got ahold of someone.

An hour and 20 minutes later I get a rep on the phone. I call the customer back while TelCo Rep checks some stuff. I bring Billy Bob on the line and introduced the two. TelCo Rep asks Billy Bob a couple of questions and puts us on hold for a few mintues. TelCo Rep gets back on the line. Finally, after an HOUR AND A HALF, I get to find out what the hell is wrong with Billy Bob's line.

Billy Bob was deactivated due to lack of payment to TelCo. D'oh.

Comments

hehehe

[jedisamui.livejournal.com]

Don't ya just hate it when that happens? And of course, someone is going to say...."did you ever thing to ask the guy if he had dial tone on the line or if he knew if there were any problems with the phone line?" and you know....I would have to say, that would have slipped my mind too. Of course, the stoopid redneck fuck would never have volunteered that info even if his life depended on it.

Re: hehehe

[skajeanne.livejournal.com]

Better yet, "I Have to Pay for it? I already bought the modem! What do you mean I didn't pay?" I love that one

Re: hehehe

[tjernobyl.livejournal.com]

And they're not necessarily completely linked. When I had phone+DSL through MTS, they kept cutting us off for nonpayment (never mind the amount in question had been payed off months before then, but they couldn't figure out how to let the database know that). At one point they shut off DSL, and left the phone on, so we used dialup. At one point, they shut the phone off (dead air, no dialtone) but left DSL on. It all depends on how they handle such things, I guess..

[ximinez]

...Wait a second. How did he call?

(Yeah, yeah, cell phone...)

[linguafranca.livejournal.com]

Yeah, cell phone/second line. This one he used just for DSL.

[nix.livejournal.com]

haha. That hold time sounds like you where calling my office.. If it was Verizon then it was. :P

[linguafranca.livejournal.com]

Yes, it was Verizon! I feel for you. They suck.

[nix.livejournal.com]

Yeah we lost 60 people on november 21st. thats about half the people we have in the office answering phones!

[linguafranca.livejournal.com]

Holy crap! Was this due to cost-cutting or what?

[nix.livejournal.com]

yeah, but it was a voluntary lay off. They offered early retirement packages for older people. (since the company wants to move away from dial tone focus to broad band focus) and they want to get rid of the dead wait. They also just offered a severence package for people who've been with the company for under 17 years. A lot of my friends left with a 20k check. A lot of my other friends ended up leaving cuz they didn't want to get stuck working in the office when half the people where gone!

[linguafranca.livejournal.com]

Wow, sounds good to me. But now we have to wait 50 to 90 minutes to talk to anyone! That has to really suck for those of you who were left behind. No downtime at all. Ugh.